Progress and Photos

First off … I am not fishing for compliments, but I am sincerely grateful for everyone I have already received and might get today. Today I have a meeting and wanted to look my best, so I put on my most expensive red dress and glammed-up. The lady at the U-Scan at Walmart who sees me often said, "Wow, you look amazing today!" to which I responded, "Thank you! That's really nice to hear considering nobody noticed yet." Then I got a several upon entry to the office. With every compliment, my self-esteem grew

Compliments are very important to a woman's self-esteem, especially when she worked hard to look good that day. Never take a woman for granted, so if you see a woman today you know, compliment her. It's cheaper than a dozen roses and will make her feel like a millon bucks (though few women would deny roses, unless they're allergic, which I am not -- *WINK, WINK*). That being said, I decided that this was a good "picture" day. I've lost about 10 lbs. and I wanted to see if I could see progress. I think I can. This is me today (red dress):

And this is me 10 lbs ago (black):

Pictures help us know that we are on the right track. The give us focus and direction on where to go next and how hard we need to push oursleves. The photo of me in black is me 10 lbs. heavier, and the one in red is me today as mentioned above. It will be interestng to see myself in the same red dress 10 lbs. lighter than this.

You'll see it more in my face I think. But yeah, I look amazing today … but I will look even better in about 5-8 weeks. And again, thank you lady at Walmart, you made my morning.

-M.E. Gober

The Skinny on Artificial Sweeteners

So this morning I woke up at 3:45 a.m. with a horrible migraine-headache. I fear the monster is back, and then it occurred to me that this might be just junk-food/Coca-cola withdrawal. I realized this when I had a severe craving for Coca-cola and I thought to myself "NO, NO, NO! I don't drink that stuff anymore. No junk!"

Since I started my diet again I am having to tap into some strong will power. The kind that will drag my butt to the finish line kicking and screaming, but at least I will get there.

I think if you are going to do a diet successfully you can allow for no distractions, cheats or days of indulgence. Some programs recommend having a treat day, which is nice and all, but I find that giving in to one treat day leads to another and then another or you end up calling it a "treat" weekend. Even on my birthday there will be no treats! I will simply have to design my food day around healthy food that appears to be a treat. Possibly more fruit will be involved.

So this is my current no-no list:

• junk food

• fast food

• sweets

• sugar sodas and drinks

• artificial sweeteners that cause headaches

Artificial Sweeteners are just bad. Know that. If you have a sweet tooth like me, try to avoid artificial sweeteners like Acesulfame potassium, Aspartame, Neotame, Saccharin and most definitely Sucralose, because these migraine-headache makers. Novel sweeteners and natural sweeteners are your friend. I like Monks Fruit extract, because it has zero calories and I haven't had any bad side-effects (thus far), http://www.monkfruit.org/. I like to use Skinnygirl Monk Fruit Extract Liquid Sweetener http://www.skinnygirlsweeteners.com/shop/monk-fruit-liquid-sweetener/ to sweeten things. It's expensive, but I feel it's worth it. 

For more information on artificial sweeteners in general and other natural sweeteners like stevia and agave see the mark up here: http://www.mayoclinic.org/artificial-sweeteners/art-20046936

Skinny and I are going to be great friends again! I can feel it!

- M.E. Gober