Why do I share?

So I'm totally humbled & excited about the response to the revival of this blog. It's so amazing to be an encouragement to people. Sharing my story on Oxygen & other boards was not for me but to let someone out there know that they too can do what I've done. It does help me stay accountable though & really helped me through some tough times.

There were no magic pills (although I'd be lying if I said I didnt try), no magic diets (tried them all too) & no magic formula to what I've done to get where I am today.

Honestly, it's all about diet & exercise. In fact, it's about 90% what goes in your mouth that is most important. Now, I'll clarify that by saying I do not feel that you have to eat "clean" all the time. That makes for boredom & can lead to dangerous places if you start feeling deprived. I know because I've been there.

Anytime I felt that food was "bad" or "off-limits" bad things started to happen. Someday I'll talk more about my binge eating disorder (pretty sure most of you never knew about that) but ironically it started out of grief when Craig (my brother) died & was finally conquered when my Mom died. Anyway, more on that another time.

My biggest success was with Weight Watchers & I had the BEST leader ever. She's still around but not a local meetings that are convenient for me. She was as big a support as my friends & family. I will forever be grateful to have met her (Linda H.) & will someday show up at her meetings again.

My point of this is just to say that even though there are so many programs, diets, etc. out there just find what works best for you. Some of the healthiest programs (in my opinion) are Weight Watchers, Body for Life, South Beach Diet & the Abs Diet. All of those offer programs that do not require you to count calories. WW has the Core program that's basically "clean" eating but allows for treats.

So find what works for you & dont be led to follow anything that you could not follow for life!

And never ever let anyone tell you that you cannot do it. You can do anything you set your mind too!

It's not always going to be easy but the end result will be worth the hard work!