All month long I have been sharing valuable tips for a Thinner You and a Thinner Me.

Let me be REALLY REAL.  On October 1 I posted my first 31 days post.  It was scary.  WHY?– because I was stepping out of my comfort zone.  I used to be super thin but after 4 babies I knew I needed to lose weight.  The problem was, nothing had really worked.  I had tried.  I had worked out a tough work out schedule and ate very little.  I ate salads, low fat cheese.  I didn’t fry food.  If I needed to use oil in something I used healthy oils like EVOO or Coconut Oil but the scale moved very very little.  I asked my doctor WHY and her answer was JUST KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING.  That was so frustrating because it obviously wasn’t working.  I KNEW my metabolism was all messed up from how ill I was during my first pregnancy.

E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g

had changed with the way my metabolism worked

(and it hasn’t worked correctly since that first pregnancy)

During my pregnancy I spent more time at the porcelain tank losing anything I ate than I was able to keep down.  I was even in the hospital for being dehydrated and then lost all of the IV’s that they gave me.

YES you read that right I upchucked IV’s.  That played havoc with my system and how my body worked.

— I knew it was my metabolism but I didn’t know how to get it back.–

and every time I asked I was told to continue on and it would eventually come off.

Am I the only one–do I hear crickets chirping or are some of you in the same boat?

Remember we are being REALLY REAL

Some of my friends nursed and dropped their weight quickly but then other friends that I knew struggled–WHY–why did it have to be so hard?

I asked my doctor.  I begged for them to run tests.  I was determined to figure it all out.  They ran all kinds of tests–at my request.  Guess what–she said that all of my tests came back great and there was no reason I shouldn’t be losing weight.  SO–Great I am healthy as can be BUT Why can I not drop the pounds.  She looked at me again and said “Just keep doing what you are doing”.

REALLY?–it wasn’t working.

My oldest is 15.  When was it supposed to eventually come off?

I wanted to have energy.  I wanted to be a fun, great Mom and wife but I didn’t know what to do to get my metabolism back and working again.  HONESTLY, It was so discouraging to work out so rigorously and eat so little and get such minimal results.  Can you say discouraged, defeated.  Yes, on the dieting side of my life I was.

One day my doctor said some thing insinuating that I must not REALLY be working out as hard as I claimed to be.  Thankfully my husband was there to confirm that he saw me working out and had taken my pulse after work outs and knew that I was working out as hard as I possibly could (85%-90%).  I thought ‘what is the purpose, my doctor doesn’t even believe me’.

Then a little over a month ago I was talking with one of my best friends from college and she had begun a lifestyle change, not a diet, but a lifestyle change.  She had lost 35 pounds in 2 months.  Everything she said made sense and I just KNEW this PLAN was going to work because it gets your metabolism working for you and boy has it worked.

I am losing at a consistent pace–I do not have time to get discouraged because the scale is moving so easily and so quickly.

My metabolism is working FOR ME once again.

Beyond the weight loss, my energy level is unbelievable.  I feel like I am 15-20 years younger.

Every day, I eat 6 healthy–perfectly balanced meals that work together physiologically to get my body working at it’s optimal and the weight is falling off.  6 meals means I am not hungry all day long.  I have to make sure to tell myself to eat because sometimes I am not hungry but I want to keep my metabolism working so I do it –and you know what — the weight keeps falling off.   I started this plan on the 5th of October and I am so pleased with my first month (and I haven’t even hit the one month mark yet) and looking forward to my second month.

The holidays are coming up and the best part is I don’t have to give up my Thanksgiving meal.   I did a test run for our healthy Thanksgiving meal and my family gave it a HUGE THUMBS UP!!!

I have had the honor of working with these lovely gals all month long on the Thanksgiving Traditions party.

I am hosting the Thanksgiving Traditions party, starting tomorrow and it will be on my site for the week so I decided to share my HEALTHY THANKSGIVING MEAL

(just so you don’t think I am starving or missing out on anything).

Here is what I made (and will make again for Thanksgiving Day).

That entire plate of food and jello is on the PLAN.  That is how much I can eat every night at dinner and I am loosing weight.

That is not saving meals throughout the day and packing them all into one meal — my day still had 6 meals, including the one above.

and for my dessert later on I had

A Pumpkin Pie Spice Shake

(this will replace any sweet tooth cravings for some pumpkin pie.)

My meal was not a diet–as you can see.  I felt satisfied and didn’t feel like I missed out on a Thanksgiving feast at all.

All of my cravings have been kicked and I feel awesome.

Why would I want to leave the table feeling stuffed and lethargic when I can feel energized and great?

…and do you want to know the best part?

The next morning after our meal I had lost more weight.

It is fun to jump on the scale and watch it move in the right direction.

If you are looking for a way out of the DIET rat race and want to regain your health back, send me an e-mail with your phone number and I will be happy to share more of what I am doing to regain my life back.

Cheri.Peoples@live.com

Come back tomorrow and I will share a Fall project with you and one of our Thanksgiving Traditions.

Then, I want to see all of your fabulous Fall projects.

(You can link up something new or something from your archives.)

Setting For Four