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It’s happened to me three times in the last five days.  Yesterday, I was in Wegman’s shopping and saw a former student.  I was so happy to see him, as I had not in many years.  He was in getting some Super Bowl snacks, and I had a cart filled with yummy veggies, and we met up at the checkout.     “Mrs.  O!!   I hardly recognized you.”

Same Friday night, I was working at Walmart and I was across from a long time friend in the checkout line.  I called over to him, he looked around and went about his business.  The cashier asked, “Do you know Chris? She just called to you.”  I started walking over watching his puzzled expression. His response was the same.  “Chris, I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Now, you can tell me it’s the weight or the fact that I cut my hair, but there really is more to it.   It’s a funny thing about this miraculous plan of Dr. Jack’s, but for whatever reason, it changes how you look.  Your face changes.    I think it’s a total change, from the inside out.   The puffy eyes go, your skin clears up,  your whole face changes.

Read moreThe people who don’t recognize me….

Dr Jack:  Just smile. Don’t let them irritate you.   Smile, breathe, repeat…

I want to live as stress free as possible, because I know that lately, I just seem to have way too much of it and it really is hindering my quest to be as healthy as I possibly can. It’s slowing my weight loss and just aggravating everything.  It interrupts my sleep, and it drains.  Ughhhhhhhh….

Sadly, I think that I add in way too much of it myself, so becoming conscious of that has been important. Why do I care what anyone else thinks?  Why do I let what they think of me get to me?  Why does their stress become my stress? And who do I really hurt in the process?

Like all people I have some amount of stress that I can’t avoid. We all have it. Those stresses, I just keep trying to have a good plan and deal with.

Read moreSmile….Breathe….Repeat…

A friend told me recently, “You know, it’s great what you are doing, but I couldn’t do it.  It’s just so much easier to eat bad food. Bad food tastes better. After all, you aren’t dropping weight as fast so what’s the difference now?  Enjoy a little.  Life’s too short.”  I kept saying how wrong they were but they didn’t want to hear it.

Hmmmmmmmm……     Well…. there’s a lot packed in that statement.  Let’s start with no, I am not dropping weight as fast.  That happens when you get closer to normal people.  It also happens when all your puzzle pieces are not lined up correctly and mine aren’t….  A problem that I am attempting to fix, so wish me well.  Too much stress, not enough relaxing activities, not enough fun, too little sleep, all play a role here.  I have paid a big price for that and am working hard to make sure I never have to again.   But I am an ever evolving person, and so I am working on it,  it’s a process. Hard to escape stress.

Life is way too short, they weren’t wrong on that,  and there is no way I am taking it at less than the optimal health I deserve.  After all, I earned it the hard way.  I spent way too  many years feeling just awful, plagued and tortured with Hashimoto symptoms.  My head screamed, “GO,” while my body betrayed me.  Was that really living?   How much did I miss out on?  What didn’t I get to do?  How many things did I say no to because I just was exhausted and in pain?  All the timeeeeeeeee……That’s living??

Read moreIt’s easier to just eat poorly….

The other day, I was home in the evening and Dr. Jack was hosting a webinar and I registered to watch. I love Dr. Jack’s seminars and webinars. I sit and listen, feeling a new sense of purpose each time, sitting there thinking, “YES!! That’s why I am doing this!”    I took two and a half pages of notes. It was a super webinar!  He was rocking it!

Toward the end, he did the part where he talked about components of his program, and why each part was imperative to your success. The last one he mentioned was coaching.  I sat and smiled, and I have been thinking about that ever since.  Where would I be without that piece of this plan? What would have happened to me?  At the first sign of difficulty would I have given up thinking it was like the rest?  Would I have lost over a hundred pounds, lol…. never!  Would I be living a symptom free happy life?  No.

Read moreDr. Jack …. the coach..

Dr. Jack:  Time to focus on you!

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……. I read that message at least five hundred times in the last few days.

People think I am doing this whole plan sooo perfectly, but the truth is that it is all a learning experience.  And I am far from done learning.  A lifetime of doing things incorrectly takes a bit to relearn.

Anyway…..time to focus on you!  That’s the key to the whole thing…  a fact I have learned the hard way.

I keep reading it over and over. Thinking…..  and if I want to lay blame for not taking care of myself,  in all ways, I really don’t need to look any farther than the bathroom mirror and who I am staring at.  The circumstances aren’t my fault,  but how i handled it, definitely is my fault.

Read moreStress….

One of the very first things I learned from Dr. Jack scared the life out me.   The effects of Sugar….  that should be a kind of horror movie!  I remember sitting on the phone listening to him tell me these horrible things about sugar, it feeding candida in my body, it enflaming my cells so I was under nourished, it telling my brain we aren’t full, let’s have more!  I sat there stunned.

I had no idea. I really didn’t.  Did I have my head buried in the sand about sugar? Absolutely!  I had no idea how much it takes your body hostage, pretending it’s giving you energy but really robbing you of it.   Who knew an energy or healthy snack bar was doing that!  I had consumed tons of healthy options that actually were totally unhealthy.  I had no idea that it can effect everything that happens, no idea how addictive it is, and how absolutely awful it is for you.   You don’t need me to do the research.  Just start reading and looking at YouTube.  There are tons of reputable resources.

All I know is getting rid of its addictive hold sounds a lot easier than it is.   I never used to think I was all that much into sugar.  After all, I wasn’t a huge sweets fan, not like the sugar grinding in your teeth kind of person.  I like desserts as well as the next person, but less sweet things.  I had no clue that, YES, I was addicted. And like a lot of people, a Resse’s peanut butter cup was always a welcomed treat.  I used to sort out a bag of M & M’s enjoying them in color coded eating order.

Read moreSugar is screaming, “Eat more!”

It’s hard for me to believe, but on this same weekend last year, I wrote to Dr. Jack, telling him that I was thinking of writing a blog.   It was a conversation that started about writing a book.   I told him, “What do I know about writing a book? But what do you think about starting a blog?,”. He wrote me back, excited to tell me that was a great idea and he was forwarding me to his business partner Kathy Leckey.  I had not had any contact with her at that time, but we hit it off immediately.  She was so kind about my total lack of any idea how I could even do this.

She helped me to learn all about domain names, WordPress, setting up a blog, finding a host, and understanding a multitude of vocabulary I had never used nor understood.  I was like an deer in headlights.  I was scared to death, lol…..   what was I getting into?

It took a little time to get a few pages going, and then make the big brave step! “Tell me when you are ready to go public with this,” Dr Jack told me.   I jus kept thinking that I hoped I this was a good thing.

Read moreHappy Blogversary to me!!

It should be a mini series…. lol… and although I am laughing, it is a huge frustration.  I have experienced a few of them along the way and they are beyond frustrating. You are doing everything right, at least you think you are,  and that scale becomes your enemy.  You want to chuck it out the window.

And as tempting as it might be to grab Oreos, you don’t.  You have done far too much to go back.  After all, eating healthy, has totally eliminated all my symptoms.  Weight or not? Not losing that everrrrrrr again.  I don’t ever want to live with a single symptom again.

I am at that plateau place.  One of the many plateaus, and before,  I used to get really upset about it.  I would get on the scale and well up with tears.  I would jump off and beat on myself something awful.

Read moreThe plateaus…

Silly Sunday topic although, actually, I am completely serious…

Maybe I am the only one who will find it interesting….. my feet shrank!  No lie!!   A few years ago, I used to never wear boots and my friend, Mark, who is always so thoughtful bought me a pair of those expensive Merrel boots for Christmas. I didn’t have any warm boots and my feet were always frozen.   They are really nice, sturdy, will last for years,  and warm!  Great for snow blowing and trudging into work and I love them.   I always wore them with two pairs of socks.

If you are from Buffalo, you know we had a big quick snow happening here on Thursday.  I went out to clean out the driveway and thought, “Why are these boots so big?”   I am wearing two pair of socks and my feet are moving in them a lot.  Then I remembered that I thought it is strange  that I keep buying sneakers that are a size smaller.   Ohhhhhhhh…..My feet shrank!   Giggles! Seriously!   When I came in, I took off the boots and decided to change socks.  Then I noticed another weird things.  Bones in my feet!!  Like bones I didn’t know existed!  There is one behind my left big toe that just fascinates me when it moves. And veins!!  I can actually see the veins in my feet.

Read moreShrinking feet, popping muscles, moving bones….

You read the other parts.  Here are some things I do to stop the monster.  I have been fortunate this time around and successful but I have a ton of years of failure.  So don’t feel badly, it’s not just you.  If we made a list of people who failed put me at the top where I belong.

Just keep trying.  Failing only happens on the day you decide to give up.  Everything else is just one more day you succeeded! One day you did it! And one day after another?  You can do this!!!

Set yourself up for success!  Eat!!!!  Starving makes it ten times worse.  Easier to deal with when you are full than overly hungry. You can stop yourself better when there is something digesting in your tummy.

Read moreEmotional eating…. part 3….Strategies