4 Golden Rules

There's this show on TLC called "I Will Make You Thin." I never actually watched it, but I took note of the website. It's www.tlc.com/thin. The guy who hosts it is Paul McKenna, I think he's a motivational speaker of some sort. Anyway, he has 4 Golden Rules of weight loss that I think are just BRILLIANT and wanted to post here. They're helping me a lot. The link to this info can be found HERE.

Here are the rules in brief:
1. When you are hungry, eat.
2. Eat what you want, not what you think you should.
3. Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful. (This one has had an AMAZING effect on me)
4. When you are full, stop eating.

I know it's all so very simple, but I LOVE the simplicity of it. No gimmicks, just following your body's cues. This is something I'm trying really hard to retrain myself on, but his rules really do help. There's a lot more meat to the rules when you read them on his webpage.
Go give it a look. It's a big help. :)

The Sugar Thing

OK, Steve's having a hey day with this challenge, especially the sugar part. Sugar and I have an unhealthy relationship, thus the goal to cut it out completely - except for Sundays, of course.. we need a little time together here and there so I don't go nuts.
Anyway, anytime I pick anything up that has sugar as an ingredient, like bread for instance, he immediately asks me - usually with a smirk - if I can eat that. He then threatens to call Sandra. So, just for clarification sake if/when he does call you, Sandra, to "tell on me," no sugar means the obvious stuff: no candy, cakes, pies, brownies, cookies, ice cream, handfuls of sugar, etc. It's nearly impossible to not eat something with a sugar ingredient, but I'm trying to be mindful enough to not deliberately put sugar in my body. Got it? Hope we're all on the same page. :)
Conscious is clean and Steve has nothing to threat me with now. :)

Thanks!

Thanks for the welcome Julie. I only ask about counting inches because muscle weighs more than fat and I think I might fall into the same category as Sandra as far as scales. And I think my biggest hurdle is going to be my own mind. Hopefully by seeing a psychologist, I can get past this loooonnnggg trial of the ectopic pregnancy experience. I worked in a gym for 6 years and know a lot about losing weight and exercising, so post your questions and I'm sure someone can find the answer:) Also, my recipe blog has mainly healthy recipes. For Jason(hubby)'s birthday, I'm making a low sugar, low fat cake that is delicious.

By the way...Hi Kara! Do you remember me?

Welcome Myndie!

An old friend of mine from San Antonio saw our challenge on my blog and asked to join. So everyone welcome Myndie (Powell) Krause! Yea!
Myndie asked me if there was any way she could count inches instead of pounds. I was wondering what you guys thought about that. I wanted to make things like this a group decision since we're all in on it.

Victory!

I haven't been able to get any pounds to drop for, oh, forever. Well, I lost 5 pounds, baby! I stepped on the scale, expecting it to pass that marker that I HATE so much, and it didn't. I sat there for a minute, trying to focus on the numbers and was in absolute awe. FIVE POUNDS! Whoo Hoo!! I almost started jumping and screaming, but I was in my in-laws' bathroom and I don't think it would have gone over well.
I haven't had this kind of success in ages and I'm pretty positive that it was due to wiping all of my vices out of my lifestyle. Hope you guys are having the same successes!

points yesterday

Let me know if I added this right.....
I worked out for my 30 minutes and 20 minutes of toning plus an additional 50 minutes working out and 30 minutes stretching. I ate my 5 servings of f&v and I ate breakfast. I didn't drink soda, had at least 7 hours of sleep (although it was interrupted, but it is every night). I took my multivitamin, drank 73 ounces of water didn't eat after 7 and didn't have any sugar or fried foods. I only ate when I was hungry and didn't eat any sugar. I did read scriptures for 30 minutes. So, I earned 21 points yesterday. Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't want to be a cheater!

working out

Just out of curiousity, are we counting our "cardio" as our complete workout from warm up to cool down or just the cardio portion? I got an awesome workout in yesterday and it included about 30 minutes of stretching at the beginning and at the end. (About 15 minutes each) So, does that count toward my cardio or do I just not worry about points for that?

I'm so proud of myself for yesterdays workout! I was extremely exhausted because Joe was up until 4:30 in the morning working on the computer in our room so I got really poor sleep and then had to get up with the kids at 7:20 to get them to school. I went to workout and we ended up doing 2 full hours and we are training for a 5k and I have been sick for 2 weeks with a terrible chest something--I have been coughing and having shortness of breath--anyway, I ran for 5 full minutes without stopping!! (twice!) And then, last night my kids had swimming lessons at the fitness center so I decided to workout during the lesson, I ran/walked for 10 minutes and did the stair stepper for 10 minutes! My legs are sore! Woo-hoo!