STRUGGLES WITH WEIGHT LOSS!

STRUGGLES WITH WEIGHT LOSS!

Even with Skinny Fiber, the past few months have been tough for me on this last weight loss journey.  My weight fluctuates always so I don’t pay much attention to the scales.  I pay attention to my clothes.   They seem to fit about the same but I don’t feel the same.

I feel bloated.  I feel unhealthy.  I feel fat.  I feel tired.  Nothing I am currently feeling is a good feeling. 

This weekend I decided to take stock of what was going on in my life and what I was and wasn’t doing to reach my goals.

Here are my reasons, which we all know are just excuses.   My ex died in August and it has really affected me much more than I thought it would.  I was in a car wreck in October.  I was restricted from jogging for almost 2 months.  I’ve been sick for the past 3 weeks.  It’s Thanksgiving.  It’s the holidays.  I’m busy.  I changed my schedule at work.  I guess I could add that we had rain some days.  Some days it was cold.  Some days it was hot.   There is always an excuse isn’t there?

So Sunday after the football game (Go Texans!), I decided to really think about what was going on.  Where had I gotten off track?  Here is what I realized.

1.      I wasn’t limiting my carbs like I had been.  Might explain why my blood sugar has increased.

2.      I wasn’t drinking 10 bottles of water a day.   Some days I was only getting in 4 bottles.  Not nearly enough for a big girl like me.

3.      I wasn’t eating enough protein.  I need protein 3 times a day, minimum!

4.      Some days I had forgotten to take my evening Skinny Fiber.  If you only take it half the dosage, it’s only going to work half as well.

5.      I was comforting myself with food again.  When you are eating and not paying attention to what or how much you are eating, that is for comfort.  No different than a baby with a pacifier.

6.      I stopped moving much at all.

7.      I stopped preparing my weekly meals on the weekend.

8.      I stopped portioning my food.

9.      I started drinking diet sodas again.  Not a lot but more than 2-3 a week.  Nothing wrong with a soda every now and then but let’s face it, folks, they are really bad for you.  And they are full of sodium which bloats you!

I had my answer.  When I was losing, the magic was ME.  When I stopped losing, the problem was ME.  Oh, the magic is still there.  I just chose to ignore it.  For awhile.

Sunday after the game, I cooked my breakfasts, lunch and dinners for the upcoming week.  No thought or preparation needed when thinking about eating.  Everything is portion controlled.

Monday I drank my protein shake when I woke up.  Two hours later I ate my egg muffins.  5 hours later I ate my meat muffin.   For dinner I had a bowl of chili.  And for a snack, another protein shake.  And it was all under 1500 and very few carbs.   I also pushed my water intake back up to 8 bottles. 

I slept so well last night.  I don’t think I woke up even once.  When I did wake up, I felt great.  I was ready to get up, get dressed and get moving.  I have felt energized all day!  I know by the end of the week, I won’t feel bloated anymore.  My system will be corrected.  I’ll be back moving come Thursday.  My body will be happy and so will I.

I could have given up.  In the past I would have.  Not this time.  I have come too far to turn back now.  If you are struggling and feeling like you have failed in your weight loss journey, you haven’t.  It’s just a set-back unless you decide to quit.  Re-commit.  Re-focus.  Remind yourself why you started this journey.

Come get back on your program with me.  Order your Skinny Fiber and commit to making 2015 your year of reaching your weight loss goals!  I have!

copyrighted 2014

caryn cannatella

Skinny Fiber Sales:  www.caryncann.com

EXCUSES!

EXCUSES!

This is my latest video from my YouTube channel, FAT LIKE ME!

Excuses!  We all have them!  Now what?

Be sure to like and leave a comment!

copyrighted 2014

caryn cannatella

Order Your Skinny Fiber here:  www.caryncann.com

WISHING WILL NOT MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!

WISHING WILL NOT MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!

We all have wishes.  These are the things we want in our lives that can happen randomly with no effort on our part. 

You know how wishes are.  Those are the things that we want but we don’t want to work for.  I wish I was thin.  I wish I was rich.  I wish I owned a house.  I wish I had a better car.   Wishes are the lowest rung on the ladder of success.

A couple of rungs up from that are dreams.  Dreams are more active.  You think about them.  You may even visualize them.  You don’t necessarily work towards them but you can.  Dreams are lofty but still much more achievable than a wish.

Keep going up that ladder a few more steps and you will find believing.   Believing takes faith and energy.  Believing is active and you have to participate.  Some people think you can believe yourself to anything.  From my experience just believing will not make things happen.   I remember once being told, “just believe whatever it is you want!”  I tried it for a while and here is what I found out.  You can believe something all you want, like “I believe my house is clean.”  However, until you get up and put some action behind that belief, you just have empty words and a dirty house.

What really works is to have a dream and believe in that dream no matter what.  Then make a plan of action to bring your goal to fruition.  When you do this, believing becomes so important.    Especially during the times when nothing seems to be moving forward, you become frustrated and sometimes want to quit!  I have a saying that I say aloud very often:  “I see with my heart what my eyes cannot yet see.” 

I can tell you from my experience that dreaming, believing and putting an action plan in place does work.  Sometimes it works quickly.  Sometimes it takes more time.  And when you become frustrated, add a little more commitment.  When you put commitment into the mix you are telling yourself and the world, I’m here to stay.  I’m in it to win it!  I’ll never give up, no matter what my circumstances seem.

When you do these things, you will take your wish all the way up the ladder to success and over to the end of the rainbow.  What was once just a wish will become a reality.  Then you will truly see your dream become your life.  Try it!  It really does work!

copyrighted 2014

caryn cannatella

Order Your Skinny Fiber Here:  www.caryncann.com

EVER FEEL LIKE YOU ARE GETTING NOWHERE?

EVER FEEL LIKE YOU ARE GETTING NOWHERE?

We all feel this way!  We set our goals; we work our plans and we just feel stuck!

I compare it to being on a treadmill or exercycle.  You are moving but you aren’t going anywhere.  Does that mean you aren’t progressing?  No!  It just means that the progress is slower and less evident.

This has been proven to me over and over on this last weight loss journey of mine.  Looking at myself daily it often seems that I’m still almost 300 pounds.   This is one of the reasons I take a new picture every month or so and join it together with my before picture.  That is when you can really see the difference in all of you.  Your body, muscles, smile, eyes and face.

When I started jogging I thought, well this will certainly help me lose some extra pounds.  It hasn’t.  And I’m burning  an extra 300-400 calories a day.    But my body is definitely changing.  My calves are leaner.  My abdomen is still shrinking.  My thighs are tightening up.  My torso is decreasing.  My face is becoming smaller. 

Here’s my point.  Many days I feel like I’m on that piece of exercise equipment that allows me to move without really being aware of how far I’ve gone.  That’s why I love running my neighborhood.  I can show myself and others, “this is how far I traveled on my own power!”  Even at that, there are still times I feel like I’m moving and going nowhere.

You have to remind yourself that everything you do is helping you change your direction towards your goal, whatever your goal is.  It might just be your endurance and stamina.  It might be your attitude.  Even though you feel like you are at a standstill, any movement is progression.  When you look at it as just a picture in time, you can convince yourself that your work is for naught.  Those are the days when comparing yourself to where you started becomes very important.  You have to be able to see the comparison!  It will uplift you and encourage you to keep going.

I think that is what commitment is all about.   You keep doing what you are doing.  Even if you don’t see your goals materialize as quickly as you hope.  No matter what your goal is.  All the work you put in to reaching your goals will pay off.  You just have to be consistent, keep going and NEVER EVER GIVE UP!

copyrighted 2014

caryn cannatella

Order Skinny Fiber Here:  www.caryncann.com

EXERCISE IS HARD!

EXERCISE IS HARD!

There I said it!  I know when I was over 300 pounds, I wasn’t impressed by people who exercised.  They were normal size or even small.  How difficult could it be?  They just get up and jog or run.  When they go workout at the gym it is a piece of cake.  I doubted they ever sweated or even got out of breath.

As I have travelled this road of my last weight loss journey, I have seen the light.  I have experienced the truth.  I’m going to share it with you.  Anyone who is exercising is working hard.  And I mean HARD!  The same commitment it takes for me to exercise is no more or less than the commitment it takes for a body builder or skinny person.     We all start at the beginning.

Just because someone is lean or their muscles are cut doesn’t mean they were born that way or were there when they started their exercise routine.  Chances are they were far from where they have ended up after months of exercise!  Nothing comes easy when we talk about changing our bodies.  It is work!

We all start where we are, wherever that is.   We start slow.  We set small goals and build on them like a foundation.   We set new goals and push ourselves.    We don’t exercise if we have time; we make time to exercise.  When someone tells me they don’t have time to exercise, I ask them how much time they spend watching television or posting on Facebook (or other social media) or playing games?  If it’s more than 30 minutes a day, you have time to exercise.  You just choose not to exercise.  It’s not a matter of time;  it is a matter of choice.

Now, I admit, I’m nowhere close to my goal weight or even my exercise goals.  I don’t focus on that.  I focus on what I am doing.   I set those small goals for myself.  I push myself hard even when it hurts.  I don’t listen to my body complain about exercising.  I listen to my mind telling me “YOU CAN DO THIS!  JUST KEEP MOVING!”

Every week I see improvements in my stamina, my endurance and my body.  I notice my calves beginning to look like runner’s calves.  I see how my knees are getting smaller and smaller.  Although my inner thighs still jiggle, my outer thighs and the backs are my thighs are becoming hard and lean.  Each time I notice improvement, it spurs me on to keep going.

When I started jogging the first week of June 2014, I was happy when I made it to ½ mile.  Now, 14 weeks later I have completed a 5K (no walking) and I’m training for a 10K within 6 weeks from now.  Yesterday I jogged/ran almost 4 miles in an hour.    When I started I was a slow jogger.  My pace has picked up and I now intersperse running with my jogging.  I started with 100 steps of running.  Now, I am running between 200 and 225 steps at a time.  By the 10K, my goal is to jog ½ and run ½.  I believe I will do it!

So why am I telling you that exercise is hard?  Because I believe in keeping it real and telling the truth.    I don’t jog every day.  There are days that I battle with my body and mind just to get out there.  Even then I get in 4-5 days a week.  Some days I only put in 2 miles.  But I still get out there and do it.  You can too.

When it comes to exercise you have to start where you are.  It’s not a competition with anyone but yourself.    You can start by walking 20 steps a day.  By the end of a month, I guarantee you can be walking at least ½ mile.  Maybe more.  Depends on your commitment and focus.

The best thing I have done this year was to start moving.  I chose jogging.  I do enjoy jogging but there are days that it is a battle.   Make a commitment to yourself to start moving.  Choose your own exercise.  Yours might be dance, or skating, or walking or Tae-Bo or Richard Simmons.  It doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that you have to move, you have to commit to it and you have to keep your focus.  That’s what matters.  And remember this:  your body will follow wherever your mind leads.  Always.

copyrighted 2014

caryn cannatella

Skinny Fiber Sales:  www.caryncann.com

LEARNING TO PLAY THE FLUTE

LEARNING TO PLAY THE FLUTE

Think back over your life to a time when you really wanted to learn or do something.   

I was thinking about this earlier today.  I’m trying to learn Spanish (again) and this time I’m determined to do it!  I know it’s harder to learn a language after the age of 12 but that is just an excuse.  People learn new languages all the time.  Why is it so difficult to learn something new?

I remembered back to the 7^th grade.  I was in the band learning to play flute.  My flute was as old as an antique.  The pads were always coming off.  My band director, Mr. Bullock, spent a lot of time keeping that darn thing just playable.  Every note required different positions with every finger.  Then you had to have your lips just right.  You had to change the position of your lips depending where on the scale the note was.

You had to learn to breathe properly to even play the note.  You had to blow across the hole and down into it.  Don’t forget the position of your arms!  Trying holding your arms in the position in the picture for long periods of time.  Just learning that took time and practice!  And then there was the vibrato you had to learn at some point down the road.  Vibrato happened by controlling your breathing AND controlling your diaphragm.  And you had to do these things all at the same time.  How Mr. Bullock taught 100 kids playing lots of different instruments how to play them well enough for a concert at the end of the year still amazes me.

August before 8^th grade we added a new challenge.  We had to memorize all of our music for football season.  We had to learn a new half time routine every two weeks.  And let me tell you they were intricate and amazing even for junior high!  We had to do the routine and play at the same time.  Yep, it was hard.  But we did it.  The entire month of August we spent 3-4 hours, 5 days a week in the East Texas sun learning.  Then we trudged indoors to learn the music.  Two nights a week we were marching.  We were committed!

By the summer after 8^th grade I was practicing my flute hours and hours a day.  Probably 4-5 hours.  The more I committed, the more I practiced.  The more I practiced the better I got.  By high school I became an accomplished flute player.

I look at things I want to do now.  The 5k I completed.  The 10K I am training for.  Pushing to run.  Learning Spanish.    I am thinking about those 2 years in 7^th and 8^th grade.  What can I learn from that child who was 12 and 13?

Here it is in a nutshell.  First you have to want it.  I mean really want it.  Then you have to commit to it.  That means every day.  Committing.  Practicing.  Learning.  You can’t just do it once a week.  It’s a total immersion and consistency.  How many times have I heard that from runners:  Be consistent!

What makes that kid so much more committed than we as adults are?  Well, we all found our reason that kept us motivated and going.  It can be a big thing or it can be a small thing.  In Skinny Fiber we call it “finding our why”.  I can tell you what my Why was for being in the band.  Oh sure, I loved music.  I mean really loved music.  But that wasn’t it.  I was committed to learning it because if I didn’t, I had to take Physical Education.  That meant taking my clothes off and showering in a room with a bunch of other girls.  I couldn’t do that.  I was fat.  It wasn’t about the exercising.  Band kids probably did more physical activity than anyone in gym.  It was the fear and humiliation of that shower room.  So I was committed.  Those first two years were so very hard.  But I never quit.  I just kept working at it every day.

That’s one reason I set goals for myself.  A 5K.  A 10K.  A 30 day squat challenge.  My goal in a month with Spanish is to have at least a short conversation with my friend Marisela, totally in Spanish.  Yes, it scares me.  Makes me anxious.  But I know I can do it if I commit to it.  Work it every day.  Set daily goals.  Have weekly goals.  Practice and never give up.  I’ll look back in 30 days and realize how far I have come!  And I will keep going.

Go back to a time when you really committed to learning something or doing something.  Remember all the steps you took to get to your goal.  You will be amazed, especially if it was when you were a child, just how hard you worked.  That child that learned to play flute taught me a lot and still is almost 50 years later.

copyrighted 2014

caryn cannatella

Skinny Fiber Sales:  www.caryncann.com