I am blown away by the impact that 2007 has had in my life. The absolute power of GOALS and POSITIVE THOUGHTS is life affirming and path changing. Simply by directing my thoughts in a controlled direction, I have accomplished things I never dreamed I could.

I read more books than I ever thought I could (or had time for), shaped my body into something I never thought I could regain after two sets of twins, and done more for my businesses than I ever dreamed.

There are so many awesome resources for involving goals in your life, as well as directing your thoughts to positive experiences you desire. My journey into this amazing school of thought began with Think and Grow Rich, As a Man Thinketh, The Secret, and other authors such as Bob Proctor, David Allen, Tim Ferriss, Dale Carnegie, and the list goes on...

Any time an author would mention another author in their book, I would go get that one. This sent my reading and study into a concentric spiral of thought, that would overlap and complement and expound on my knowledge. It is an amazing ride.

When truth comes to the surface & breaks through the mundane, it shines like the brightest light. This is how I know that I have found it. It burns within me and I cannot turn away from it. When many like truths surface in various sources, it is magical. As I travel this spiral of thought through the wisdom in books, I refine my thoughts about what I am studying. I am able to apply one of two things from each book I read, and just these small baby steps have enabled me to make huge leaps in my personal life.

I highly suggest that you start your baby step, pick up one of these books, and see what direction it takes you. You may like what you find out.

I wonder where 2008 will lead me.....

The amazing lesson that I've learned in this short time is how little food I need to eat to be satisfied. In this society we are programmed that we need to eat so much, just go to any restaurant and note the size of the plates. They fill them to overflowing and we think we need to eat it all. It is very hard to pay attention to when I am no longer feel hungry, which is when I should stop eating, not when I'm full (or even stuffed). I guess we think, "Well, I've paid for this food, this is a nice time, so I better eat it all." I'm not even going to talk about "appetizers".

However, today, I think I ate until I was stuffed. I've been drinking a lot of fluids, mainly because it's yummy sugar free drinks. I've been trying new recipes and enjoying new tastes that satisfy me completely. Today I found something really yummy. So, on K/E I'm not supposed to eat cheese, because fats are supposed to be at a minimum, and you tend to overeat cheese. A nice alternative to that is parmesan cheese as it is low in fat, cals and has no carbs.

I whipped up a batch of chicken fingers "breaded" with parmesan and seasonings. It looked and acted better than the real breading. I did it to try them, and let the kids enjoy them, but instead, I enjoyed them. A little too many in fact. Wow, they are yummy! Maybe it's all the liquid, but I'm stuffed to the gills. I maybe had 4.5 oz of them (yes, I weighed them), but I felt like I'd eaten 20. I probably could have, too.

Let's take a step back and regroup

In order for this blog to make much sense, I need to say exactly how I am eating, and what plan I'm on. It's low carb for sure, but specifically, it's a fantastic plan developed by Kimmer (as she is referred to).

This is not Atkins. It's adapted from that diet, and others, but has specific guidelines that enable you to cut out the middle man as far as fat burning is concerned. This is stuff that Atkins allows that seems to hinder people from continuing to loose. Many stalled Atkins people are migrating to Kimkins to break through that barrier. They are having amazing results. This diet just simply burns up whatever fat you have on board. I feed my body great food, you know, the stuff that supermarkets put around the OUTSIDE PERIMETER of the store. Veggies, meat, eggs! I nourish and my body seeks out the calories it knows I've got on board for energy.

I need to say now that I am not an expert on the finer points of ANY diet. I've never entertained any diet until I did my own based on what I read in Body for Life. I'm not posting to start a debate, I'm posting to share my individual experience with this and how it is changing my life and my family's life.

Kimkins' guidelines give you the ability to lose weight FAST. Not dangerous fast, but steady, manageable, and smart. She has several types of plans to choose from, so if I get tired of one I can move to another and see how my results change. I think that is a great idea for when you seem to be on a plateau. Although it seems that you will not plateau if you stick to it and don't let down your guard and cheat or try to rationalize that some food is okay. She recommends staying as "clean" as possible and that will keep the fire burning away that fat. She also warns against FrankenFood (the manufactured fake diet food we see everywhere.) Sure it's okay to have once in a while, but it will slow your progress.

I love my food, and it loves me

So, when I first started induction, I was pretty grossed out by eating meat all the time. I didn't really enjoy hard boiled eggs, either. My determination to try this is helping me get past that and discover some really neat ways to prepare the same foods every day, making it a bit different to keep it exciting. This afternoon I was so loving my food, it was scrumptious!

Went grocery shopping tonight at Costco and there were only about 10 things I wanted to (or could) eat in the whole place. There are carbs everywhere in everything! Sugar is rampant. This whole experience is making me take my maintenance plans very seriously. Even my favorite morning staple of my original diet, fat-free yogurt with splenda and fruit is on the possible chopping block. Possibly might have it once in a while, (in maintenance) but it will be much smaller servings. I'll be smaller and I have to take that into consideration.

I'm allergic to carbs, they make me break out in fat.

Love this quote (it's not mine, however). I used to have a problem with puffiness all the time, especially at night and sometimes in the morning. Living in Arizona seemed to aggravate this, so I thought, with the heat. I would really become miserable. I always thought it was salt! I never really added salt and thought it was always low, but attributed my puffiness to some salty food I thought I'd eaten that day.

I had quite a revelation two years ago when I started my diet and cut the carbs. Suddenly my rings would spin! I love thin fingers and suddenly I had them! The don't call them carboHYDRATES for nothing. I had been retaining water all right, but it was not from salt.

Tonight I had to take my ring off because I can't keep it where it belongs and it's hard to type. My fingers are super slim. So much I may need to have my ring sized down. Again. Just another bothersome side effect of the Kimkins Diet. What a pain! :O)

WOW

After three diligent days of munchies and eating only eggs and lean meat, I have begun the reward process. My body gave me a four pound loss this morning, just like Kimmer says it will. I do realize that most of this initial weight is water, but I know that my liver is doing what it is supposed to do, convert over and start burning body fat.

So, as this time has passed, I've been quite happy with the way I look and feel, but I've noticed that I seem to have hit my plateau as far as weight is considered. I saw 118 once in the last four months, but it did not stick.

I want more.

Truly, I know that I can do better. Now that I am comfortable here, the babies are a bit more allowing, I feel that it is time to try a few new things. My Mom has had incredible success with her diet which she started in January. She started with Atkins but stopped losing at 130 lbs, she then moved to Meat and Eggs (had some more success), and then found a new modification and purification of Low Carb called Kimkins. She has been talking to me about it and I know hoping that I would try it for some time now. I've never done Atkins or the like before. I just watched my carbs and balanced them out with protein.

Goals are amazing!

I'm all about goals. A while back I wrote down some goals that pertained to my health, fitness level and weight. They have been flashing across my screen all day long, slowly sinking into my subconscious mind.

I can attest to the power of writing down your dreams and setting them up as goals. They have a wonderful way of coming to pass, sometimes when you least expect it.

Okay, a little history to get you up to date.

I'm a mom to five amazing children, whom I love to be around. So much so that I have chosen to educate them at home. That makes for very busy days, as we squeeze in all that there is to do. I have a wonderful, supportive, inspirational husband who stands behind me no matter what. He is my foundation from which I build all my castles. We will be celebrating our 17th Wedding Anniversary this July. I can't believe how fast time flies. We still feel and act like newlyweds.

I'm also self-employed and I enjoy a prosperous business as a Wedding and Portrait Photographer.

Over the course of time, facing infertility, two twin pregnancies, my body has taken on a lot of hormones and also tried to deal with hormonal imbalances due to P.C.O.S (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). Weight found it's way to me over the years. I can't complain, it was never very bad. At 5'4" my highest weight was 165 during pregnancies. I was lucky in that I was able to lose a reasonable amount afterwards, pretty normal recovery. Each pregnancy left a little baggage behind.

I really began to take notice after my last twin pregnancy. There is nothing like knowing you are finished having children to set the self image wheels in motion. Besides, why do all that work just to have it pack back on when you get pregnant again? It was obvious to me that it was time for a change.

I began to read and study for a way to change my eating forever. This was not a diet, this was a life change. I read lots of web pages with lots of different methodology, all varying in approach. I finally decided on a balanced carb to protein plan with limited calories. I liked Body for Life's approach to diet. I knew I was not going to do his workout regimen, however.

I took the first step.

I went to the grocery store with a list of new foods, and ended up pushing what seemed to be someone else's cart. It was filled with yummy healthy DIFFERENT food. I loved my new food, charting all my meals and snacks into Calorie King and loving every minute of it. I knew that if I ate carbs, I had to balance it out with some protein. Whey protein was my new most favorite food, well, drink.

I'll go into more detail about the actual diet in another post. This was my life change. I stopped eating all the junk I used to and enjoyed great success doing it. Over 4 months I lost 25 lbs and was down to 125. Over the next 6 months I lost another 5 just by doing maintenance. 120 was my original goal so I was happy.

I've kept it off

I'm very happy to report that this must be working, because I have maintained with hardly any effort and some bowls of ice cream, cookie dough, pizza, eating out etc, but I try to have a low cal/low fat/low carb day following said splurge.