Losing Weight the Natural Way

Let's start off with a lovely disclaimer:  "Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information."   

 
 

OK, now that is out of the way!  Where I am a "doctor", I am not a doctor of medicine. I hold an earned Ph.D. in Administration of Leadership so maybe I can use that education and some experience to lead you down a great new healthy path.  I'm doing it too, so you won't be alone!  C'mon, it will be fun.  Let's shed the pounds together. 

For about four months now I've been trying to knock off seemingly hundreds of needless pounds, but in reality, it's a lot closer to 30-35. I literally woke up in August of 2020 telling myself that this was it, I was absolutely tired of feeling sluggish, not having the confidence I needed to ride my horse properly, and not feeling as if I was doing myself any favors because I was quite literally heavier than I've ever been in my life, which included the times when I was nine months pregnant! Of course, each time I was nine months pregnant I was much much younger than I am today, so my body just sort of bounced back - - or made an attempt to. For years I've neglected myself and it was not only catching up to me but it was showing (EVERYWHERE).  

I didn't exactly fall off of my horse Casper, but I wasn't riding properly and I could tell I was putting a bit of a strain on him as well.  He weighed about 1000 pounds or so and with my weight, my saddle, tack, and blankets, I was putting 250 pounds on top of him. A horse can take right at 20% his/her bodyweight comfortably and there I was adding an additional 5%, which may not seem like much, but if you added 5% of your body weight to your back right now it wouldn't feel all that terrific would it? I knew it would take me a minute to lose the weight and I didn't want to continue paying board for a horse I couldn't ride, so I did end up selling Casper to a great family with three children. He's in a better place and it gave me the opportunity to focus on ME (the right way). 

Through a good plan of dieting with less calories, cutting the carbs as much as possible, and giving up anything not necessary such as preservatives, empty calories, starch, sugary snacks, and the habits of taking a snack or two after dinner, I managed to lose 10 pounds almost immediately. I think within two weeks I had shed the first 10 pounds; that was an amazing feeling. Adding walks, lifting weights, and basically continuing the process led to me losing another 10-12 pounds, but then something really bad happened; I hit a plateau. I hit the mother of plateaus! I was stagnant for literally 62 days! NO ONE DOES THAT.  

 

I ate correctly, drank only tea and water, slept over 8 hours a day, did the intermittent fasting, I was working out, lifting weights, punching my kickboxing bag, doing planks - - you name it, and I was doing it! I was the quintessential diet and exercise machine soldier! The result was a resounding nothing! The scale did not budge! What was I doing wrong? I couldn't figure it out so I just kept doing what I knew would somehow have to create a calorie deficit and I would eventually breakthrough - - that was my hope. My hope was built on sand. Just a bunch of worthless sand. I needed a rock! I need truth. I needed help.  

If you know me, you know I love to study. If I could be paid to study and research I would do that. I would do it for free, but I have to pay my bills. I love reading. I love studying, I love looking things up and finding out things that I've never known before. I am THAT student. I have always been THAT student. It has served me well. Through reading about breaking plateaus, I came across a simple, easy, and cheap way to break through any and every plateau and it's not only natural, it's so freaking easy (and often talked about) that I couldn't believe it would work. I had it in my head that there's no way this could work, but I'd give it a try anyway. Hey..guess what...it worked! 

I won't string you along like they did in the infomercial thing that I stumbled across, I'll just tell you exactly what I did and am doing, and you can jump right on it as well. You may think it's crazy bonkers, but you'd be a fool not to do it too if in fact you need to (or want to) lose belly fat and get over that stupid scale issue I was having.   

Ready?  Lemon, ginger, cumin, cinnamon tea.  I add honey, blackseed oil, and actual tea to it too. It's NOT just lemon being boiled, you have to boil the lemons in their peel to get the pectin you need to boost the metabolism past the point to where the rest of the mix can do the job(s) they were masterfully created by God to do.  SIMPLE...super simple. You choose how much you want to drink; I personally drink about 5-8 cups of it a day because I am THAT way too. I don't mind the taste, and I certainly want to continue losing the belly fat, back fat, even the boob fat (sorry boys) because I don't like big fat floppy boobs. I want my boobs to stand up and pay attention and it's really hard to do that when each one is the size of a small cantaloupe (too much information?). 

Here's the recipe I use so you can do it my way, but please, please, feel free to add to it and make it your own. 

4 cups of water 

1 big fat lemon, sliced rather thinly 

1 teaspoon of cumin 

1 teaspoon of cinnamon 

1 teaspoon of blackseed oil 

1 tablespoon of honey 

1 tea bag - - usually Earl Grey or Jasmine 

YOU LET IT BOIL for around 3-5 minutes, and then turn off the stove to let it cool down. You pour it into a glass container to add more water to it, and you pour yourself a cupful while it's hot. You let it cool in the fridge and drink it either hot or cold throughout the day. Again, I like mine hot, so I just reheat it in the microwave for a minute each time.  Believe me when I say it will work on so many levels. You will find yourself going to the bathroom to relieve yourself a bit more, you will find that you have more energy. You will start to see a change almost immediately, certainly by the next morning.  

Here's another trick/clue that the professionals told me through my research: weigh yourself around 5:00 a.m. or before the sun rises because you'll add weight to your body through the liquid and/or food consumption during the day.  If you're honest you can take off 4-6 ounces for waste and it helps you to feel that much better about your true weight.  No one is going to freak out if you claim you weigh 4-6 ounces less than what the scale says. It's your little secret.  

There you have it. WEIGHT LOSS the natural way. Do talk to your doctor first if you feel you may need to do that. It's never a bad idea to get a professional opinion. I'm great at leading people in the right direction, but I will never claim to know what makes us tick! That's beyond my scope of education at this point.  

Best of luck to you, and seriously consider giving up anything that may hinder both your mind and your body from being the best it could be. You may find that sugar is simply not the antidote we all believed it could be.  I remember my granny was a stout woman, but she was a hard stout woman. She had rock-solid muscles well into her 80s. When I thought about that and how she could achieve it I began to recall her diet, her daily exercise routine, and there it was, she had lemon and ginger tea almost every single day.  Why did it take so long for me to figure this out for myself? (Shakes my head). 

Do As I Say

 When I encounter women who are pissed at their husbands to the point of hearing them both belittle and degrade said husband, I am reminded EXACTLY why it is that I am single. I made the very same mistake(s) many women do when it comes to getting married.  I married the wrong man.  When I say that, when I say I married the wrong man, I'm not saying that he was wrong, bad, nasty, incredibly ignorant, base, or immoral - - well yes, I am saying that because he was, but for the sake of this blog I'm saying that the man in question isn't necessarily the problem. There are times ladies, myself included, when WE are to blame because WE said yes when he asked us to marry him. WE said yes to ALL that is supposed to mean. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY YES?  It means we'll be willing to submit and subject ourselves to his authority and if WE (me) don't believe he has any authority over us then well WE are the problem - - he may also be a contributory factor but if WE said yes and then don't do what we are commanded to do through the Word, we are the ones who need to take the blame for it.  I learned this the hard way, it's the only reason I can say what I'm saying now. I have and am placing 100% of the failure of my marriage on myself EVEN though the man I married was in fact a complete and utter disaster, I am the one who agreed to marry him. No one put a gun to my head and forced me to say "I do".

In the book of Ephesians Paul tells us that a wife should submit herself to her husband as she would submit herself to Christ.  If she is unwilling to submit herself to Christ there is no reason to assume she will follow the rules and vows to begin with, but if she is a Christian, and she will submit her life and her obedience to Christ, then she is also likewise to submit herself to the decisions made by her husband IF HE IS UNDER CHRIST as well. If he is NOT then that's where the problem(s) begin and both parties should immediately get their souls in order because NOTHING will work for good if they can't get that position under control.  Jesus saved the man, Jesus saved the woman.  Jesus is the Head of the Church and the man is the head of the family. The wife is to submit her well being, finances, final decisions, and even her body to her husband because he is commanded to love her as Christ loved the Church, even so much as to be willing to lay down his life for her. If he's not doing that - - then he's the one who will suffer for it, and she (the wife) is free of any judgment from God if she has been submissive and willing to follow, pray for, and support her husband in his journey to be more Christ-like.

This belief is not my opinion. This is not even an option for wives, it is a command. It is a qualified and quantified directive from God; it is not up for debate and even though my friends think I'm a nut case for saying so, I will (if I am ever married) follow this command if called upon to do so. I don't have any plans to get married (hell, I don't have plans to date) so it may never happen, but if it did you can bet your last hard-earned dollar that I will ONLY marry a man who is so grounded in Christ that I will never have to worry or question if he has my very best interest at heart. NOPE...it is probably never going to happen, but if it does, if God decides to make me a wife He will certainly have to provide the one and only best husband out there because I could not make this promise to two people, ONLY ONE.

Why is it so important that we do what we're told to do?  There is a plan, and the plan is simple. Do what God commands and all things will work together for good. Seek the Kingdom, all else falls into place. Delight in God, commit to Him and His ways, and He will provide. I can't make that any more clear. You, wives, do as you're told, and you, husbands,  do as you're told, and guess what, I can all but guarantee you that the divorce rates will plummet! Did that sound really old-fashioned, conservative, churchy, and even backwards to you? Well, my grandpa said it best when he told me that there are two ways to approach God's word; you can say yes or you can say no, but God's Word only has one way to approach you.  He's not wrong.  Do as you are told! 

Be blessed. 

HITT Me Baby!

Yeah OK, so the YMCA is literally across the street from where I live so I go there at least 3x a week. I was going more often when I first began losing weight because I thought I had to show up for over an hour and do cardio, lift weights, maybe get in a spin class or do barre work, but to be honest with you it turns out I'm not supposed to work my body that way.  Turns out I need H.I.T.T. or High Intensity Tactical Training instead. H.I.T.T. isn't for everyone and for many years it wasn't for me. I had to work myself up to it and get most of the blob off of me before I could even begin to dream of pumping my heart super strong and continuously for 15-20 minutes.  H.I.T.T. is NOT the same as High Intense Interval Training. There is a difference. The military uses H.I.T.T. My personal trainer has bragged about his experiences using H.I.T.T. for all those same years, and because the 3rd word in H.I.T.T. is TACTICAL I'm reminded that my military Drill Sergeant of a son may actually know what he's talking about (Spoiler: he does know what he's talking about). 

Here's a little blub from the internet to show you a bit about H.I.T.T. and how it helps people whose bodies are shaped like mine. I have an endomorph body shape, rounder in the center with long dangling limbs. Some people call it the "apple" shape. I think apple sounds more pleasant than endomorph, but either way I'm thick in the middle and can't seem to get that area to cooperate most of the time. This is where H.I.T.T. may help -- and little trick called "Metabolic Confusion", I'll explain that in a minute, first the blub from www.healthandstyle.com  

"High-impact exercise (e.g., running) requires greater levels of fitness and strength to lift yourself off the ground, withstand the bigger impact and avoid injury. The more you weigh or the more out of shape you are, the tougher it gets. That means it’s harder to exercise long enough (i.e., more than 20 minutes) to burn a significant number of calories and that your risk of injury is greater. 

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t run, jump-rope or do any other high-impact workout. But just that if you’re a beginner, you need to ease into it. Remember. Do what you love!" 

Since I dance as much as I do, I try to add at least two dance sessions into the mix each week, working on the legs doing squats or lowering type movements and I keep up the cardio end of it for at least 10-15 minutes before resting or taking in a slower song to sway to. There will be swaying, bending, pretend-ballet, and even a little jazz-step! For me, H.I.T.T. means I don't have to spend hours on the treadmill I can do what I want to do, which is lift and dance. I go to the YMCA, pack in a few reps on both arm machines and leg machines before hanging on the rings and doing 20-30 rapid squats using said rings to pull me back up - - something I saw a pole-dancer doing to prepare her core.  If she thinks it will work, I'm going to trust her. Have you seen those ladies? I'm going to trust her! 

Baby Boy (son Reuben) is all about my lifting. He's standing over me usually counting my reps and threatening to add weight, but at this point I really want to lose every pound before adding too much muscle; maybe just enough to chase the fat away as I know muscle burns more energy than fat and causes the fat burning hormones to do their job. I feel really exhausted after I lift but hot showers help and the protein shake with collagen peptides and mango seem to be helping too!  I'm thinking of letting Baby Boy slip on another 20 pounds this week. We'll see. 

I mentioned Metabolic Confusion, and I don't know if that's a coined phrase or not, so I won't give full credit to where I first heard it, but there is another professional trainer out there, this one in California, who quit his day job training celebrities to work solely with overweight women over 50 who need to lose weight both in the center of their bodies and in their limbs. He swears by the Metabolic Confusion method so we'll see if he's right or wrong. I'm only on day 10 so far and I'm not seeing the results I would like to see, but then again endomorphs are the one body shaped type people who really don't see the results as quickly due to the fact that our bodies adapt quickly to whatever it is that is happening to it. 

Metabolic Confusion is exactly what it sounds like; you have to "trick" your body into thinking it is working overtime on whatever state of metabolic cycle it is working on. If you eat 1500 calories a day and work out 30 minutes a day your body gets used to it. If you eat 2500 calories a day and work out 30 minutes a day your body gets used to it. If you alternate those two calorie intakes and change up your exercise program on a daily basis your body has to rethink and readjust and that takes time. While your body is taking time to adjust and readjust, you're still switching things up and your body's system goes into a "confusion" and works harder to adjust to its correct setting. That's a paraphrase.... don't think I am a doctor or nutritionist, I am not. I'm a lady over 50 trying to lose weight in the center of my body. My legs and arms are fine. If only the entire body would mimic my arms and legs, I'd be one happy camper (and I don't really camp).  

Endomorphs hit plateau more often and stay longer in their plateaus than other body shapes. It's just a fact of life. Men and women both suffer from weight problems as endomorphs; there are literally just as many men as there are women with this particular body shape. Look around you'll spot us pretty easily! If you're one of us - - maybe you'll find a bit of solace in what I'm saying. Hopefully, you too can feel better about making changes in your life that make you feel and look better.  I'm not saying it's a miracle - - but working out and moving your body can help your spirit, your mind, your emotional state, and of course your body!  "A body in motion stays in motion" - - at least that's what they tell me.  H.I.T.T. me baby! 

My son Reuben is on the right (below)

The Hardest Thing to Do is Nothing

For me, and I don't know if that means for you or not because I can't live your life; one of the hardest things to do is to do nothing at all.  I am an active mover, a doer, and I make things happen. I don't stand still. I don't sit. I don't wait well either, and I really never like to admit it, but I don't ponder - - I act.   God has been dealing with me in this capacity; He has been teaching me that patience is truly a virtue. I know He's right. My soul understands that He is absolutely right and that I am supposed to do exactly what He said to do -- exactly, but it is SOOOOOO hard for me to just sit and watch, wait and pray. It just seems like my time could be spent DOING something.... but I am, I am obeying.  This is not easy for me.  

Do you believe in God? I do. I not only believe in His existence but also in His omnipresence I know that He is in me, on me, around me, under me, above me, through me, and always watching over me because He and I both know I'm going to put my foot in it. I'm going to screw up, I'm going to fail, and without His perfected will I would be back on the ground again, face-first, and in this case, I would be both embarrassed and unable to show said face in public again. I have been given an assignment. I have been tasked. I have been told what to do and the thing is, it is the hardest most agonizing thing ever because I am to do NOTHING. I am to pray and watch. I am to pray and pray again. I am to pray and put my faith in God's plan, but I am not to do anything.  This is tantamount to taking my pen away from me and expecting me to record my feelings! I can keep them, but I can't put them to ink. I can know them, but I can't share them. I can have them, but I cannot give them. When I asked God why He was doing this to me the answer was rather blunt - - it was basically "Because I said so, do as you're told."  (Funny how we like to dish it out to our own kids, but when we're told to do the same thing, we squirm a little.) 

What is my assignment? Well, it's rather a who. There is a man I am supposed to pray for. I am supposed to love him (and love him without question) but not DO anything about it. My mission, my assignment, is to love. I am to ask God for his wisdom, I am to ask God to protect him. I am asking God to guide him, lead him, show him, help him, but I personally am not to do anything toward assisting him as it would not be appropriate or accepted. I am simply to be there where I can't be seen, heard, known, or even thought of, and I am just to pray that God's will be done in this one man's life.  WHY?  Why is this the case? Why this man? Why not someone I can actually help? The answer again was fast and simple -- to prove to me that God is the one who will take care of it; both myself and this man apparently, need to know that GOD and GOD alone is the one who will straighten everything, work out every detail, and at the right time it will be revealed to this man who has been supporting him through love without question, and with prayer and supplication. It's a great plan really -- but I hate it. 

For the better part of a year now, actually just over a year, I've begged God to let me stop thinking of this man. I've begged God to take away any and all feelings as they don't seem right to me even, and if they don't seem right to me, and I'm the one having them, wouldn't you think they need to be ended? God won't let it go -- I'm not supposed to act on my love, but have it. I'm not supposed to fix anything, just pray. I'm not supposed to make my heart's path known - - but to make it strong. I am simply to love him and simply to pray for him.  It wouldn’t matter if the man himself told me to stop – I'd love to stop, thank you, but I was not given that option, and the man has zero authority to ask me to stop! It is what it is, I’m not going to question God after I’ve already questioned Him a 1000 times and gotten the same answer! 

 

Someone once said "Thank the overthinker for loving you because surely they've thought of every rational reason not to."  This is true. I didn't ask for this. I didn't look for it. I wasn't trying to do it - - it was commanded. Odd as that may seem, it was flat out told to me that I would in fact love and that I didn't have an option. Love doesn't fail. I am not to fail. I can't fail, and I won't.  Damn. 

 

One day God will bring it all full circle and at that moment I can say "OK see, I wrote that in my journal a year ago" or I can say "Yeah, I know, I remember when you went through that, I wrote it out in my journal and prayed about it."  God will provide. He always does. I just have to do what I'm told - - and get over myself.  Some people are sent to Africa to preach, some are sent to government, to the streets to bear witness; and some are told to go into their closets and pray for one single person - - until God says to stop. What do you want to bet God never asks me to stop? Love never stops. Love never ends. I was asked to love not pretend. I will do as I am told and really, it's OK; God has never failed me either. In this assignment I've already learned to be compassionate towards others with addiction, depression, and anxiety.  I've also learned to lean on God and let Him know I can be leaned on as well. I've been there. I'm pretty sure someone prayed me through it -- with love. 

This is where you say "Here am I, Lord" and you just do what you are commanded to do. It's so much easier when you surrender to God; His will is going to be done one way or the other. I'd rather be a part of it than fight it and find myself inside the belly of a fish or outside the promised land. Here we go...prayer time.