2009 A New Beginning

Hello again. Yes, it has been a long while. Where has the time flown? Well, as we all have life's passages and journeys, these past 2 years have been a whirlwind.

Let me catch you up to date. When I last posted, I had a leg flareup while traveling by car to and from Florida. (See March 2007). While dealing with that issue, I also realized that I had just ended a long term honeymoon of very strong, effortless diabetic control.

Diabetes is a progressive disease. Remember, I have no medical background, I have just learned what I know about this disease to be a well informed patient and to ensure I take proactive measures for BG control. I spent several weeks working with my doctors and we ended up changing the dose of Actos to a higher daily level and then later on I added the new protocol of Byetta, an injectible drug that somehow balances the digestive part where the pancreas interacts with the early part of the small intestine. At least that is what I remember from my diabetes specialist physician explained to me. I am not going to bother to look it all up to explain better what it does, as this is not the point of this blog.

This blog is a journey. Life is a journey. Sometimes we are in different places at different phases of our lives. Since I worked with the specialists in 2007, concurrently, I was asked to help some financiers take a brand new company public, which has just been founded in January. This project consumed the next 24 months of my life, and I am now, 24 months later almost to the exact week, ready to begin the Cinch journey again.

This time, I am looking for Cinch partners who want to take this journey with me. I know how this program works, I have total faith and confidence in the science and nutritional value of the program, and was very pleased with the results when I was on this journey 2 years ago.

This time, I have a more defined reason and goal. On November 22, I am boarding a ship for a 16 day round trip journey from San Diego to Hawaii and back. This time, I want to be able to walk to and from the public areas and my suite without having to take several rests. I was on a 7 day cruise to/from Seattle and Glacier Bay this past September and spent most of my time in the state room, again, due to another leg flareup from the pre-cruise business trip I had in California before driving up to Seattle. I don't want to suffer through more leg issues when I travel. I know that Cinch helps reduce water retention, and I think also being significantly smaller in size and weight will also help with overall mobility and comfort. So, Friday, March 6 is the day to begin again. Tomorrow morning I will be doing the scale thing, do the measurements, go talk to some neighbors who also are interested in reducing their sizes, and begin my Cinch Journey of 2009.

Hello Again and down 22.6 pounds

I know it has been a while since I blogged. I left for Florida on February 8 and took 2 days to get to FL. It was SO COLD (below zero) initially during the the trip, that we didn't get above freezing until we hit South Georgia late Friday Afternoon on February 9. I had accidentally buried my cinch supplies in the middle of the back of my SUV and it was too cold to dig it out. So I spent the first 2 days on the road traveling, just making good choices. It is surprisingly easy to eat healthy on the road these days. Between Wendy's yogurt and salads, Applebee's healthy meals, Subway, etc., it is no longer the kiss of death in weight loss to have to eat on the road.

Finally we unpacked the car and moved into our time share for a week. However, disaster struck. For some reason, my left leg decided to act up. Way back in 1995 I got bit twice by a Brown Recluse Spider and landed in the hospital for over 2 weeks with a very severe case of cellulitis, that the doctors were afraid it would turn into the flesh eating bacteria and they were marking my leg to cut it off!!!. It recurred in 1996 and then off and on in a much less severe way over the years. Well by Sunday, February 11, my leg was very swollen and it really hurt. So I spent most of the week at the time share in bed with my leg propped up to help contain the swelling. It stayed pretty bad all week and when I got home on February 20, it was still really bad. During that time I was half way cinching, but I had no appetite either.

When I got back, the scale showed me UP 15 pounds!! Thank God for Cinch because I knew it was not a real weight gain. It was all related to my leg flareup. I took good care of myself the first week I was back and 10 pounds was gone (probably all that swelling). During this past week, another 7.6 pounds gone. I even enjoyed birthday cake!! (I turned 52 last Wednesday).

What are the lessons learned from this experience? Sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, our body just betrays us. Something is wrong inside and our weight loss aspirations get derailed. At this point, most people just get upset with themselves, blame themselves and quit trying. I know this feeling intimately, as I did that myself many times over the years on almost any program you can name. I am glad I was taught so much about how Cinch works, because I had no reason to beat myself up or think Cinch wasn't working anymore for me.

Weight loss is a very simple thing, in the big picture. To gain a pound, a person has to eat about 3500 more calories than they burn during that same amount of time. I was gone 12 days during my road trip to Florida. At my weight, my body probably consumes about 3000 or more calories a day (Cinch has me on about 2200 calories each day to LOSE fat and thus weight). For me to "gain" 15 real pounds while I was gone, I would have had to eat 42 THOUSAND EXTRA calories in 12 days over and above the baseline needed to be weight neutral. In 12 days, it would have had to be a 6500 calorie a day binge. I don't think I have ever consumed over 3500 or so calories in one day in my life, let alone almost twice that amount.

It is hard to be rational when you have a weight issue. We strive for quick results and perfection. It is very hard when things go well to tackle a "diet" and stay on it longer than a month or two. I am just wrapping up my 10th week today and the past 4 weeks have been a health issue hell. (I hate it when my leg is messed up, the pain is horrible and it is hard to walk and there are just other issues of discomfort I won't bore you with).

In spite of all of this, I am delighted I am down 22.6 pounds and still happy and enthusiastic about my long term success with this program. Now that my leg is back to normal and my mobility is more back to normal, I expect some more turbo results in the next 4 weeks. What is even better are the results my friends are getting on this program. We are cinching together and are living the "less is more" life with great success on Cinch. Stay tuned.

Day 40, Down 20 Pounds and 6 inches in the Waist!

I am afraid my blog is going to become repetitious, this program is just so easy to do. I am on day 40 today. On Tuesday, I complete my first 6 weeks on cinch. I have lost 20 pounds. So far I am down 2 inches in the chest (I didn't measure again today, that is a 2 week old measurement), 6 inches in the waist (another inch since I measured 2 weeks ago), 4 inches in the hips, and one half inch in the upper arm (first time measured a reduction here).

Although the Cinch Coach has me on about 2300 calories a day, I am not eating that much. I am under 300 to 500 calories daily. That is probably a good thing because that is more of the level of calories for people about 100 pounds smaller than I am, and since I want to get there, it is nice to find the appetite dwindling with the size.

Here is what I have noticed: My knees don't hurt as much when I walk. Before cinch, my pain threshold was probably a constant 10 out of 10. Now the pain is only sporadic, at best. Who knew that a measly 20 pounds would make such a difference. The pain reduction in the knees alone has made this all worth while. If I never lose another pound, the program has yielded results way beyond my expectations. My back pain is down from a constant 12 out of 10 to maybe a 4 out of 10. In addition, I am able to stand for longer periods of time. I am also standing up straighter.

There is also an overall sense of well being and serenity. I think Shaklee has designed the nutrition in the Cinch program where we are getting optimum nutrition and I think when you are feeding your body with the proper balance of nutrients, it is just easier to be and feel happy. I am also sleeping better now.

I am traveling to Florida for 12 days. I am leaving on Thursday. The only thing I have to do differently than I am doing now is to remember to drink lots of water. That is what I forgot to do when I went to Chicago for 3 days during the 2nd week of my program. Being on Cinch, I am going to save a small fortune on food and eating out costs. The savings on the eating out costs alone is going to pay for the gas to get there and back. I guess you could say that because of Cinch, my trip is free!! .

We have a blizzard going on today. The snow is piled up to our window sills now, so I guess I am running out of excuses to finish unpacking my office in my new condo and begin to work on filing all the papers and starting taxes. Oh well, it WAS a nice day!!

Day 37, Down 18.6 Pounds

Wow, already into my 2nd month in Cinch. I never imagined it would go this quickly and be this easy for me. I have NEVER lasted this long on any reduction program in the last 20 years. What is more amazing, for the first time in my life, I believe there is an end game at a normal weight. I am no longer resigned to being super sized for the rest of my life. I know I also have a normal weight in my future, not even "big". This is such a blessing. If this was even the teeniest hard to do, I would be finding all kinds of excuses to get my hands on my favorite munchies. I am not even slightly tempted. I am also saving a TON of money on the food and snacks I used to buy. I think I actually am saving money overall on this program. I used to eat out at least once a day. I am down to about once a week. I rarely even drink diet soda any more. Water is just more refreshing.

I am still at 18.6 pounds gone. One thing I did last Saturday, which was disappointing, is that I accidentally deleted my user profile on the Cinch Coach CD. I am a fairly literate computer user and never even noticed that it had a database backup feature. DOH!! Idiot alert!! I was conducting a training on a conference call on the CD Coach and meant to delete the user profile I set up as I helped my friend get started a week ago. Somehow I didn't notice it was my profile that was highlighted and when I clicked OK, I was a goner. Darn!! Thankfully I remembered my beginning weight and measurements (thanks to this blog), but I lost my first 4.5 weeks of Cinch history. Double Darn.

So if that is the ONLY negative so far in 36 days, I can only say, Cinch is God send. Please Cinch, it really works.

Another Day, Another Pound

Just a quick check in here. Today is day 32 on the program and down another pound to a total of 18.4 pounds. And this was a mid-day weight, not a first morning weight. When they named this the "Cinch" program, they named it perfectly. So far, stress free reduction. :)

It is Fun to Cinch With Friends

I just got done spending an enjoyable couple of hours helping my friend Norine get started with her Cinch kit. She is a tepid computer user, so we laughed and had fun as we went through the Cinch Coach CD and got her profile setup. She lives 2000 miles away from me, so we were each on our own computers. I helped her put in her profile, where she groaned about her weight and measurements. I told her, "Hey, it is just a starting point, just think how much fun we are going to have as these numbers keep getting smaller and smaller". That made her feel better.

What made her very happy is that her cinch coach told her she needs to eat almost 1900 calories a day. We actually had trouble finding enough food for her to eat to get all that in. Now she doesn't even feel like she is dieting at all. As Shaklee says, "IT'S A CINCH!!!"

My friend wisely opted to let the Cinch Coach plan her menu for the next 2 weeks. When you get started with Cinch, it puts in 14 days of meals and servings size and snacks beginning the next day. So she learned how to print out her meal plan for each day and the shopping list that the Cinch Coach automatically figures out for her. Then we discovered that behind the meal plan are also lists of the meals for the food preparation ingredients. All she has to do is go pull the ingredients out for her day and she is all set. We then printed out her recipes.

I really like how these reports look. A person can have a paper trail to chronicle their journey. I am going to print out all the recipes and put them in sheet protectors and put them in a notebook. That way I can have them ready at my finger tips.

I can't explain how much fun this is to Cinch with people we care about. There are about a dozen people I am close to all Cinching and we reach out and ask each other questions, celebrate successes and giggle together. I met a gent online at Yahoo Games the other night who is interested in Cinch so I am mailing him a sample of the Shake flavors. He likes the idea that he can use the company's referral program to help get his Cinch program paid for.

I dropped a lot of weight in the last few days. These past 2 days, I have remained the same. I am glad about that. Usually when there is such a sizable drop in 2 days, the tendency is for the body to "rebound" a pound or 2 before it settles on the lower weight. Instead I am staying between the same 0.6 pounds give or take. That is just body fluctuations.

If you have been referred to my blog because someone cared about you enough to tell you about Cinch, please give this a try. The best case is, it works for you, too. The worst case is you get some healthy nutrition for a couple of weeks, that never hurts. I only know of one person who got her kit, made all these excuses (lactose intolerant, etc, etc) and gave her kit back to her brother. She didn't even attempt to go to the store to buy soy milk so she could consume the shakes without the dairy problem. Then when she was told you can have 3 scoops of shake and add water instead of milk, she didn't want to hear it. My heart breaks for her because she is about 20 years younger than me and bigger than I was at that age. I hate to think about what she will be when she is my age, since I gained a lot of weight over those 2 decades. I know how uncomfortable it is to be outside the norm for "big". Hopefully she will see her brother do well on this program and try again.

I understand a person has to be ready for this. Frankly I used the Holidays as an excuse to delay my start. I wasn't really sure this would work either. Do I wish that I had started sooner? Not really. I think this was the right time for me. I go throughout my day really HAPPY. I am glad I can help myself, but I am grateful that maybe my blog here can help others.

All I can say is, if you are reading this and have no idea who I am, please believe in yourself. Get back to the person who asked you to visit my blog and say, "Yes, I want to Cinch, will you help me?" If you want more information, come to our Cinch overview conference call on Monday nites at 9 pm Eastern time (except Major Holidays, next one is Memorial Day, we will have our calls each Monday in February). The phone number is 712-432-3973, the pin code is 123456#. On Thursdays, at the same time and number, we go over how you can Cinch with 3, Get Yours "Free". The company has a very exciting referral program so you can offset your Cinch products costs with referral income from Shaklee. We have a lot of people who are opting to do this. We welcome you to join us on these calls and then get back with the person who invited you to read my blog and ask them to help you with your first Cinch order with your Starter kit.

When your kit arrives, join us on our Cinch Coach CD training call on Saturdays, at 1 pm Eastern, same number and pin code as above. We will show you how the Cinch Coach CD works. Have your CD loaded before the call and join us. Be at your computer so you can walk through the steps as we talk about it on the call. My friend Jody, who has dropped probably more than 40 pounds by now (since August), has had tremendous success because she uses the Cinch Coach CD regularly and lets it help her remain inside the 30% protein, 40% carb, and 30% fat calorie ratios. She learned that the closer she stayed to those ratios, the faster she is losing.

She also is using the pedometer that came in the kit (look underneath that cardboard panel above the cinch shakes in the starter kit - the pedometer and tape measure are there). She said when she first put on the pedometer, she was only walking about 1200 to 1500 steps a day. She said she was a slug. So she consciously went about upping her steps to now she regualarly hits the recommended 10,000 steps a day. You put it on your waist first thing in the morning and keep it on until you go to bed. Every step counts. For me, because I have horrific knee pain, I am going to wait 50 more pounds before i begin the walk outside my regular daily activities. By then, the stress on the joints will be a lot less and the Shaklee joint health supplements will also have helped to build back up my knee joints.

If you are not sure what Cinch really is, scroll down to the first couple of posts on this blog. I give a pretty good explanation of the products and the program in those posts. Happy Cinching!!

This is Just Getting Too Easy!!!

Wow, today marks the beginning of my 2nd 4 week period of Cinching. Right now, I am down 17.4 pounds total for the first 4 weeks. This is like shooting fish in a barrel, however instead of annihilating fish, I am annihilating fat cells!!! I measured myself 4 weeks ago, so I am going to do it again today, and report back in. Be right back

OK, I couldn't find my extra long tape measure so I improvised and used string. Drum Roll Please!!

Chest, down 2 inches
Waist, down 5 inches
Hips, down 4 inches

Total shrinkage of 11 inches during the first 28 days. So, 17.4 pounds and 11 inches. The arms and thigh remained the same. It is very difficult to measure the thigh since I am going all the way up to the top of the leg where it is the widest. The upper arm was the same, but it was hard to hold the string in place. However, Shaklee said the most important measurements were the waist and hips.

This is proof positive that fat cells take up a LOT of space. Who knew that a measly 17.4 pounds would result in 11 inches removed from my torso girth in 3 places??!!

OK, onward and downward, my 2nd 4 week period awaits more fun and success!!