"Houston, we have a problem".  Talking to my food is a double edged sword.  My talk with my salad last night was everything it should have been.  Crunchy, healthy with an awesome dressing.  My talk with my apple strudel did not go as well.  Apples and raisins, healthy, sugar and crust on the other hand, not so healthy.  I just sat down and ate the rest of it so it would be gone from my mind.  Somehow, my brain feels the strudel is a healthy snack, yet I know it is not so.  I have heard that when you have your heart set on a food and you don't eat it, you overeat other foods trying to get rid of the craving.  I believe this to be true.  The popcorn I made this afternoon did not deter me from finishing the apple strudel, it wasn't even a close second.  What are my tools to help me change my thought process?  For starters, I need to not have unhealthy snacks sitting around the house.  The strudel was a left over from the Holidays.  I grew up not eating healthy and on many days, not having any food at all to eat.  For me, throwing away food is incredibly difficult.  I have looked through my kitchen and don't see any other food that may give me a problem. (I was wrong, I found some chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels) sigh....I don't even like pretzels...  I will continue to dialog with my food today and see what other red flags pop up.  I know my brain is trying to help me and keep me safe but I am no longer a hungry child.  Haven't had hunger issues in over 30 years.  Time to find a new way to think.
I have also decided to record how I am feeling, health wise   I am really stuffy from allergies and using Afrin.  If I use Afrin for more than 3 days, I get a backlash of severe stuffiness.  I will not use it for a week and see how I feel.  I do notice that whenever I am really stuffy, I eat without regard to hunger.  I wonder if my lack of sense of smell due to stuffiness prompts my brain to tell me to eat.  I am scheduling myself for surgery to fix my deviated septum this year.  It would be so great if this helped me conquer some of my eating issues.
Tomorrow my husband will take the rest of the Holiday snacks out to work.  Thank goodness!

Trendy Plus Size

Hi All.  It's a new year and I have decided to write with a different slant.  Whatever is on my mind is what will appear in my blog.  Trendy plus size dresses caught my eye.  I don't see myself as a plus size woman.  I still wear normal size pants but could definitely use to lose a few pounds.  If I were to dress in a trendy style, I can tell you for sure, it will not be in a plus size dress.  This probably has to do with my own self esteem but I wouldn't be caught dead in an off the shoulder waist hugging dress if I had more than 100 pounds to lose.  And in my eyes, that's what it would take for me to be a plus size.  Now, I could be wrong about this.  There  really isn't a written rule about plus size; it's all in the eye of the beholder.  I know some plus size woman who feel beautiful inside and out.  They would look great in a trendy plus size dress.  Not me.  So this forces me to take a hard look at myself in the mirror and wonder why I don't feel beautiful inside and out at my current weight.  I am not near my own, self established plus size range, but when I look in the mirror, I wonder when the baby is due.  My stomach is what catches my eye: round, protruding in such a way as to force my eyes there directly every morning.  I seem to define my self image by my stomach and this is pretty depressing for me.  I know that my weight is pretty evenly distributed, but my stomach pops out at me daily and shouts for attention.  My size really does matter when it comes to my self esteem and self perception.  Every bite I take is full of conscious thought; I am not a mindless eater.  My problem is, I have a short attention span and my conscious thoughts are sometimes self defeating.  I am super motivated every morning when I look in the mirror.  I tell myself: "Today is the day you will begin eating healthier and taking your health seriously".  Breakfast turns out fine and somewhere between lunch and dinner it all falls apart.  I fool myself into thinking it won't hurt me just this one time.  Well, I have had about 15 years of "Just this one time" and it has not been very helpful.  Today, I stood looking in the mirror and told myself "This is the day!  You will start eating healthy and begin reducing that cholesterol that that has been creeping up over the years".  I did fine till after lunch, when the little individually wrapped chocolate treats called my name.  My rational "I need to eat these quickly so they won't be here to haunt me later".  BOOM!  Trendy plus size here I come.  This really needs to stop.
So I think I will talk to my food before I eat it and ask some serious questions.  Are you healthy?  Will you help me stay full and satisfied?  I know you taste good but are you nutritionally sound?  Will you help me lose weight, not gain it?  If my food answers in a way that will sabotage my plan, I vow here and now, it will not pass between my lips.
I will not become part of the Trendy Plus Size population.
Wish me luck :)

Hello Friends!  I am beginning to revamp a previous book and could use some help.
If your favorite candy bar could have a super power, what would it be?
Please let me know!
Andi

Exciting and long awaited news in Melaleuca world.  The pending patent for Oligo Fructose has been granted after 4 long years.  What does this mean for us?  It means the patent office has done all of it's scientific inquiry and opened the findings to the world at large.  With no rebuttals or negative findings, we now own a patented health breakthrough.  If anyone is interested in specific details, please ask me.  The ramifications for our health and well being are immensely positive!  Taking vitamins will never be the same for Melaleucans!

This week was fun with Melaleuca.  We received two things in the mail.  One was a certificate of achievement for becoming a Marketing Executive III and the other was a Circle of Influence award.  With the award came two gold lapel pins etched with the imprint of a Melaleuca leave.  Nice to be recognized for putting in the effort!  I didn't expect this, it was a nice surprise.

Along with my new career, I have also begun new eating habits.  At marksdailyapple.com I finally found
the reasons  I couldn't lose weight.
 As a woman, there were many possibilities: health, hormones, menopause...the list goes on.  I began looking into things one topic at a time.  Health issues took priority and for me that meant surgery and a lengthy recovery period.  Mental health was also in the cards for me, so I spent a year taking care of issues. Next I tackled hormones.  I had a saliva test done about 2 years ago, found out where I was deficient and am now using a compounding cream.  For menopause, I became knowledgeable and read till I couldn't see straight.  For some reason, women in my family don't share their personal issues with anyone, so I was on my own.  I spoke with my doctor (she's wonderful), opened up with girlfriends and found comfort in knowing I wasn't alone.  Age was also a factor, this I can't do anything about...the years just keep creeping up on me.  Having taken care of all these areas, there I sat, with all my weight still in place.  I tried Nutra System, Weight Watchers and Slim Fast only to work my buns of for a few pounds that came back anyway.  I tried to implement regular exercise.  Apparently for me regular means doing in once in a while in a haphazard fashion.  I had a personal trainer for 3 months (loved it), joined a fitness club; it felt like I was wasting my money with the amount of times I actually went and tried walking my dog 5 days a week.  Between starving myself, depriving myself and getting so sick of veggies that I could puke, I hopelessly decided I would be stuck in this body forever.  Then a co-worker of my husbands was here for a conference.  While we were having dinner together one night, she told me about her successful weight loss.  I sat there watching her eat this humongous bison steak, sweet potato and veggies (I mean she had a full plate) and I am chuckling to myself.  "So you cheat on your diet while you travel?" I said, smiling.  "Nope" she answered.  She proceeded to tell me about Primal eating, gave me the link above to look at and calmly finished almost everything on her plate.
I skeptically logged onto to marksdailyapple and for about 4 months did nothing but periodically read the weekly newsletter. Then one day, the article on cholesterol caught my attention.  I spent about an hour reading, re-reading, doing online research and ended up sitting in front of the computer dumbfounded.  Could this be the answer to my weight issues?  I made a decision, at that moment, to give this primal eating a try.  The worst that could happen was nothing (no weight loss).   I am now in week 3 with a 5.5 lb weight loss.  Here is the best thing for me:  I don't have to track my food!  Really!  In previous diets, I thought about food all day long.  What would I eat for lunch, how many calories left for dinner, did I add in my exercise calories burnt to be able to have some dessert?  It's really hard to lose weight when all you think about is food.  Another great thing is I am not hungry during the day.  Really!  My day is packed with protein, not just meat but dairy, nuts and 2% milk.  I can't tell you the last time I had 2% percent milk,  it's delicious!  I have given up processed foods, sugars, breads and pasta.  I don't miss it.
Go to the website, give it a read and then give it a try.  You may be amazed, as I am, and you may finally find a way to lose those pounds and get healthy!  Let me know what you think!

Yesterday I totally stepped outside of my box.  I went prospecting for customers and checking out prices at a major department store and at a high end mall.  My director and the person who signed me up came with and we spent the day walking and talking.  We did exchange cards with two people and found our prices are much lower than the high end stores for beauty cream and makeup.  While it was educational and I did get to know my co-workers better, I am not interested in doing this again.  They say your cold market stays cold until you develop rapport and make it warm.  This was very uncomfortable for me.  I don't have a problem meeting people and making small talk to form a connection, but I do have a problem with asking for information.  I will stick with my warm market and take it from there.  My goals are to move along at a slow, steady pace.  This isn't a race for me.
New facial products, including an acne program have been released.  This is good news, it opens a whole new market.  Along with the holiday line, I am hoping the find a few new families that are interested in bringing health into their home and taking the poisons out.