Cannot Wait!!!

I am going to see Tony Robbins!!!!

In mid March I am going to spend 4 days at the Unleash the Power Within Conference/ workshop in New Jersey!

ANTHONY ROBBINS LIVE - New York Area : March 2009 Experience four of the most empowering, educational and entertaining days of your life. Learn how Unleash the Power Within will teach you to not only achieve your ultimate goals but create an extraordinary quality of life.

I cannot wait!! There will be around 2000 people. My friend did this and found it to be extremely empowering. I am working at building empowerment within and think this will be a push I can use. Check it out for yourself.... www.tonyrobbins.com

My favorite cleanse

I have done a cleanse before it was wonderful!!! I put my husband and older daughters on it and they experienced great results. My 14 yr old used to suffer from terrible allergies and asthma but after her cleanse her allergies are cut back by at least 85% and her asthma is completely cured!!!

This is my all time favorite cleanse. Everyone I have ever suggested take it raves about it as well. If you think you have done a colon cleanse but it was not that great...do yourself a favor and try this one.... www.cleansethatcolon.com

Getting all CLEAN inside

I just started this cleanse....

Organic Total Body Cleanse™
Organic ingredients, Vegetarian formula, Soy-free, gluten-free , 3-part formula
Organic Total Body Cleanse™ is a 14-day, 3-part organic internal cleansing program. Organic Total Body Cleanse blends only organic herbs and fiber to offer you a wholesome and effective cleanse with no extra ingredients to add stress to your body‡.

You can get it online here...

www.renewlife.com

I got it at my local health food store...

Mother Earth Natural Foods(315) 789-2714
440 Exchange St, Geneva, NY 14456

I will let ya know how this one goes.

The Big Plan!

My husband, Jody, and I have made a big plan....

This June he and I will mount our bikes, and looking much like this couple above, will head out from our home in New York and ride for 14 days (360 miles) to my friends house in Rhode Island. We are planning on doing about 40 miles each day and having a few days to rest in between. We'll be camping along the way. Jody has always wanted to do this in Europe. I have always wanted to do it in general. The other day I got to thinking thaat life is too darn short to wait for Europe so off we go!!!

Me today

Here I am today. This is January 31, 2009. I have been a vegetarian for 10 weeks and working out pretty darn regularly for 8 weeks. I feel great and am much stronger.

I am so happy to be a veg head. I am going through what I think is a stage of 'ick' ! Every form of meat is just disgusting to me!!! I have given up fish and shrimp now too. All I can say is 'ick'!

A couple of vegetarians I know went though this same thing. I am working out most every day and everything is getting much easier.

Rebounding Jan 30

Well here I am on Jan 30. Still rebounding!

Jeans

Here are my jeans today. The bigger pair I bought to go on a trip to RI in mid Oct.

The smaller jeans are a pair I am wearing now.

Check out the incredible shrinking bootay!

Never Eat...

Never Eat......

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Hydrogenated Oils

Mono sodium Glutamate -MSG

Aspartame

Palm Oil

Natural &/or Artificial Flavors

Make shopping easy by printing this list and keeping it in your wallet. When you first try to groceries without these 'things' in them you may quickly feel discouraged. Hang in there. All of the basic staples have a healthy option- you just have to read. Soon you will know which brands are safe and which have poison in them. When you feel stuck....go to the organic section of your grocery store. Whenever possible by organic!

Open your mind

I strongly recommend this book....

Natural Cures they dont want you to know about....by Kevin Trudeau.

("they" are the Food and Drug Administration)

You can get it cheap on Amazon or even free on www.paperbackswap.com

This book outraged me! It opened my mind to the poison that is in all processed foods and helped me understand what to never ever buy. Our family literally transformed out buying and eating habits after I read this book. We instantly began to be thinner and healthier.

McDonalds he he

Found this on the web and thought it was TOO funny....and true.

The "food" McDonalds sells is pure garbage!!!

If you haven't seen Super size me.....rent it. Its worth watching.

Did you know that the fries are literally a carcinogen?!?!

"Scientists find clue to french fries' link with carcinogen...their is a chemical reaction that causes french fries to build up high levels of a possible cancer-causing substance"

They are as bad a cigarettes yet they are the top 'vegetable' consumed by small children's in this country :( Plus, each burger contains the meat of something like 90 different factory farmed cows!

YUCK- YUCK- YUCK!!!

NASTY!!!

mmmm smooothy

While I have been enjoying endless veggies over here I have finding it difficult to get fruit in. I don't really like fruit. Too sweet for me. I found a way.....smoothy baby!

My recipe:

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup of soy milk

1 big apple (everything but the core and stem)

1 nectarine

Dump in blender and pulverise.

Of course you can swap out the apples and oranges for anything you can think up. I like this combo....mmmm.

Mind, Body, Spirit

I am concerned that this blog would start to come off as a diet blog or even worse...a new years resolution blog because of all the talk of vegetables and dropping inches.

I thought I'd take a moment here to clarify my thinking. This is not either of the above. My 'body enlightenment' journey is not about loosing weight at all actually. I am loosing weight and getting 'in shape' but that's the side effect of what I am doing.

The body issue has been a life long issue for me. I started Weight Watchers at age 8 and it went from there....diet after diet. I beat myself up for about 25 yrs. At age 8 I would literally punch myself in the face and scream "you're fat!" "you're ugly!" "I hate you!" I thought I had to be thin to be lovable. Throughout my teens I starved myself for as much as 2 weeks at a time. Then I binged. In my 20s I added in some drinking with the binging. Even at my thinnest moments I thought I was disgusting. I was depressed for about 14 yrs. I fell into the trap of waiting for tomorrow to come to live......"when I am thin then I can...." These are just some of the 'highlights' of a long long list of self abuses. (all ancient history now)

At age 31 (7 yrs ago) I started Overeaters Anonymous. This was the beginning of my enlightenment though I didn't know it yet. It was with the help of a dedicated sponsor that I wrote and spoke my way to the realisation that this body issue was really a head issue. I stayed with OA for a full year and it really got my head going in the right direction. From there many changes took place....I began composting, gardening, MOVING, raising chickens, canning, etc etc etc. What does this have to do with my body??? Well- everything actually. It was a beginning of consciousness. I saw that my thinking was effecting every aspect of my life and with every little step I took another idea fell into place. With each idea came more knowledge and so on. With my hands in the dirt I found my way back to my Faith. (Since OA I have lost a little over 100 lbs.)

Now- here I am. My head is on pretty darn straight and I am living in alignment with my spiritual beliefs. But, I am still carrying the physical baggage from my old hurts. This stuff is not who I am and has absolutely nothing to do with me today. Hence, my 'body enlightenment' is me creating my body to match my mind and spirit. Yes, I will loose more weight but I have already shed the emotional weight that was holding me back--- the shrinking butt is just a perk ;)

Our bodies are sacred vessels that contain all our potential, all our futures so we must be mindful to nurture and nourish them. This is our spiritual practice that will help us to lead a full and active life.

Ok- here is the real me...today

Here I am a 19 days into by 'body enlightenment' extravaganza!

Not exactly scrawny but definitely perfect for now!

Anyway- I thought I had better put a picture up as a frame of reference for my rapidly shrinking buttocks.

Down 5 inches!

So- because I dont own a scale I have been keeping track of my waist measurement.

Since late October, I have lost 5 full inches around the middle! I am psyched. Since I have become a 'veg head' it is just soooooo easy to drop weight. I wish someone had mentioned that about 30 yrs ago! ;p

Here are some facts about the big ol belly.....

Women with a waist measurement of more than 35 inches or men with a waist measurement of more than 40 inches may have a higher disease risk than people with smaller waist measurements because of where their fat lies.

Shrinking shirts

Here are a couple of my shirts. I bought the larger of the two about 3 yrs ago. It fit just right back then. Actually, I bought 5 of these. One smaller of these two is the one I wore yesterday! A bit of a difference huh?!?!? With all the exercising I am doing this is bound to be just a passing size. :)

Yoga Time :)

Yoga Time for me ;)
Time to twist and shout ;)
When Vayda expressed an interest in Yoga last year, we got a box set of VHS tapes on Freecycle. We have a blast doing Yoga to Chinese tunes with Wai Lana. This is not your standard spandex barbie American Yoga. This is the real thing. Yoga done with focus and meditation.

I have thought that Yoga was a hard work out for a long time. But- now that Billy Black is kickin my wide but with Tae Bo Yoga is a regular blessing!

TaeBo

Here it is.....My newest thing. TaeBo!

Now, over the years I have every imaginable arobics tape. Then this last year Vayda got me into Yoga. I really like that. Vayda too is the one that started this TaeBo thing. She has wanted to try TaeBo for about a year. We kept Freecycling for a tape with no luck. Then the other day, Maya went on a play date and the mom, Donna, generously offered us a big box of tapes and DVDs. In there were 3 TaeBo videos! Vaday jumped right on the TaeBo DVD.

It looked so fun I am workin it now.

Here I am on day two. I have to say that I was so sore from day one that I had to take a hot shower before working out just to get my muscles to move at all. OUCH!

Yeah baby- now thats sexy....lol!
Oh- Lord above! I may not survive this insanity!
Ok- so I did survive day two and actually made it through day 3.

Today is day 4 and I can walk again :)