Jamberry nails

I became a consultant of jamberry nails last weekend! Why you ask? Because I love their products, their designs, and the way they handle their business! If you don't know what it is, the nails are called wraps, you stick them on your fingernails for a better look, and they stay on your fingernails for 2 weeks and your toenails for 4 weeks! It's not hard to put them on at all. There's no drying time, no harsh chemicals and you can even put them on your kids hands and not worry about them putting their fingers in their mouths with chemicals on their hands. Feel free to check out my website melcutliff.jamberrynails.net one wrap is $15 that covers you for two manicures and two pedicures which is so much cheaper than going to get your nails done. If you have acrylics, you can put them on top of those! There's even laquer that you can put on your fingernails like nail polish and you can put wraps over that, usually clear wraps are out on top so you can see the color of the laquer, the difference? Laquer lasts MUCH longer than the regular nail polish! I seriously love these products and wouldn't share it if I didn't love it! Plus, it gives you time to pamper yourself and have a mommy/daughter date time, how fun would that be? 

Feel free to order anytime!! I'm here if you have any questions, I love sharing what I love! :-)

Here we go!

I decided to catch up with myself and start losing weight again. I hit a rough spot when I got pregnant with my third child after I had lost all my weight (from the previous posts). I didn't feel good, I didn't feel like I could exercise because my body had slowed down. If you don't know me very well, I have hypothyroidism, which is basically the thyroid hormone system. If its low, your body slows down, you're tired all the time, your muscles are slow, and you have no appetite. If its really bad, your skin is pale, you gain a ton of weight and you sleep, a lot. When a woman is pregnant and has hypothyroidism, the whole body can slow down until it is corrected with medication. This happened to me when I got pregnant. It was hard for me to do anything except I wanted to eat all the time because I was hungry and I didn't want to be sick, like with morning sickness, so eating helped me to not feel as nauseous. Luckily my thyroid levels weren't too low at this point but I definitely didn't want to exercise. At the end of my pregnancy, I had gained back all my weight, plus some, which essentially added up to 50lbs. I've never, ever in my life gained this much weight. I wasn't very happy about it because I knew that after the baby was born, I'd have to lose it all over again, which, wasn't such a bad thing but this time I'd have to learn how to do it with breastfeeding and finding the time to exercise. While breastfeeding, I still continued to eat a ton, until I was full, which is the ideal anyway. I however wasn't eating much of what I was actually supposed to be eating. My baby wasn't gaining the weight that she should have been with just my milk, and I hardly felt good at all. This has taught me the great lesson of eating correctly in general, not just during pregnancy, and not just while breastfeeding, but all the time. The changes I've made have been drinking more water, at least a gallon a day, eating veggies more often, eating more fruit, and instead of snacking on sugar all day, setting myself to breakfast, a small healthy snack that would be a fiberone bar, or some fruit, then lunch, then another snack which would for me be like celery with peanut butter and raisins, and then dinner. I drink a glass of water before my meal, make sure I have the correct serving size so I'm not overfilling myself and then drink more water after I eat. One of the things I've tried my hardest not to do is eat after 7:00pm, and if I do, it's a popsicle that doesn't leave fat on my body and its a refreshing dessert that is only about 70 calories. We love the outshine popsicles the best because they are frozen fruit and juice (depending on the kind you get) but I would choose these over ice cream any day! I'm on my way to a newer healthier me. I'm determined to get myself back down to the weight I want to be because that's when I was the healthiest and felt the best I've ever felt.

My Weight Loss with pictures

This is amazing, I am truly feeling the blessings of watching what I eat and exercising everyday, my clothes don't fit me as tightly anymore, I'm happier, I feel much better, I feel more confident and I look amazing! Still around 10 pounds to go but, I'm made a big improvement in just a few weeks. I started in April and now it's the end of June so two months work of exercise and counting calories, hopefully you can see a difference in the pictures! 

Big face vs little face

Bigger body vs smaller body

Don't mind my non-smile, I always feel weird taking pictures of myself and forget to smile hehe :-) if you ask me, that's kind of a big difference, feeling and looking skinny feels great! Sometimes I forget how amazing I feel and how hard I've worked and I just want all kinds of junk food like milkshakes and cookies and brownies, and then before I even touch them, I remember that I have done a lot of work and it feels great and amazing and I shouldn't blow it on just a milkshake or something that would make me gain weight again!! 

I'm at the point now where I'm really enjoying this journey and I want to help others if I possibly can. I want others to have the joy and happiness of feeling great like I do. It's an amazing feeling not having all that weight you once dragged around. I've lost about 13lbs and just holding ten pound weights makes me tired, I don't know why you would want that on your body, carrying it around everywhere, seems tiring. 

Anyway, if you'd like to know more or even get some motivation, feel free to ask me, I'd love to help get you in shape and help you feel great!!

Jillian continued

Some new things I remember, know the "clean 15" and the "dirty dozen" foods because the foods with thin skin will have pesticides in them if they are not organic, this includes grapes, apples, peaches, nectarines and the list goes on for the dirty dozen including celery. As far as the clean 15, the list includes grapefruit, asparagus, kiwi, and a few other foods that are ok organic or not. Red meat is ok, but not all of the time (as it says in the scriptures as well) Be aware of what you're eating, cows now days are not eating grass like they should. They are being fed hormones and other things that make them grow a lot faster and bigger, they are ready to be slaughtered in 6 moths rather than 2 years when they naturally grow. The reason for this is because of demand and money. It has become a disgusting world and that's why we as people are getting fat. We are not aware of what we are eating because we love food. Food is comfort for when we are down but food can also be a weapon and eventually kill us. You may be thinking "but organic and healthy food is so expensive" we'll Jillian says, it's either eating healthy now and paying a little more out of pocket then eating cheaply and unhealthily and having a heart attack or having a life threatening disease that will cost you triple than what you would have paid for healthy food. Make a conscious decision on the food you're eating. If you're faced with two evils, choose the lesser of the two evils and have portion control. BE AWARE!! Stay away from: artificial sweeteners Artificial colors A large consumption of caffeine She said that mt dew is completely poison - it's full of so much crap that it will kill us alone if we drink it long enough She said to turn on your "BS" meter to know when something isn't true. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Just in case you think that Jillian eats healthy and exercises all the time, she doesn't and she also hates exercising. She's normal, just like the rest of us. She just decided one day that she wanted the chance to see her grandchildren one day and be with her daughter at her wedding, well, you can't have those types of dreams come true if you are constantly eating unhealthily. Have a long term goal in mind, do you want to be alive for your kids and grand kids? I know I do!! Start now, you won't regret it! Just count your calories and don't go over them, you go under your calories= losing weight, you go over your calories= gain weight. It's simple math. Good luck!! Be accountable, tell someone about your workouts or your calories if needed. Either way, get off the couch and start moving your body! Stay tuned for more updates on remembering!!

Jillian Michaels - Maximize your life- tour

On Wednesday May 8th, I went to see Jillian Michaels, if you don't know who she is, she is one of the most famous personal trainers in the united states. She has been on the Biggest Loser and she has many dvd's that help people exercise. Anyway, so she is going on this tour called "Maximize your life"- I was very excited to go and see her because lately I've been all about trying to lose the 20lbs left that I have to lose to be as fit as I can be. I decided I wanted to go to her show when there was a buy one get one free ticket special, so initially I only had to pay $25 instead of $50 to go. I was so excited that I asked around to see who wanted to go with me. I found a friend, and so I ordered the tickets and decided we were going to go and I was super excited about it!! Earlier in the day on wednesday, the box office called me and said that they were moving people up some rows, free of charge and asked if I wanted to move closer, I of course said "HECK YA" I was so stoked! Anything to get closer to the stage. it was so awesome. When it was time, We took the one hour drive to Wabash, IN and arrived at the venue. I was so excited that I was nervous and felt like a teenager all over again. We were trying to contemplate whether or not to get the VIP but it was $50 a person and I didn't really want to spend that kind of money. I really wanted to meet Jillian though and give her a hug, that's all I wanted. I told my friend we would think about it and then get them at intermission if we decided to go for it. Well, I went to sit down for the show and the people next to me asked if I had a friend that I came with and I said "yes" and she said, "the reason I ask is because I have a VIP ticket but I only have one that we're not going to use, could you use it?" I said "are you serious? that means so much to me, I really appreciate it" they said "of course, that just makes it all even better" I was so excited I almost started crying!! What an experience, a once in a life time experience to be in the same room as jillian, let alone getting the chance to meet her. The first half of the show, she started out talking about how some of us were there to lose weight, to change our lives, and to better our lives, if not all of us. she said, "I have two secrets to help you lose weight, Eat Less.....Move More.....Thank you!!" as if she was done with the show. Of course, we all laughed. it was pretty funny. she went on to talk about the calories we eat and what we put into our bodies. basically she was telling us we are putting poison into our bodies when we don't eat right. We need to watch labels of food, how many servings are in one container or bag and then only eat one serving at a time. the reason we gain weight is because we overfeed ourselves. we should really count calories to recognize what we're taking into our bodies everyday." She also talked about if we know how to do math, we can lose weight. one pound is 3500 calories. "If you know how to do math, you can lose weight." She then talked about how to help our metabolism, we need 7-8 hours of sleep every night, we need to relax (yes mom, I thought about you when she said relax, haha) and don't eat poison! (your metabolism is your hormone balance, your biochemistry). She then went onto explain some math and how to tell what your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is and your AMR is (Active Metabolic Rate), she also said to google it to help us out. I"m still trying to figure it out myself.....here's what she had, decide what your level of activity is, 1.1 (really light activity), 1.2(moderate activity, 1.3(personal trainer), 1.4 (construction worker),so I can't remember the equation to find your max heart rate, but go ahead and google it so you can have the right equation and your own numbers. She then went on to talk about how we need to move our bodies, when working out, we need to keep our heart rate up to start having results. We cant only eat well or only exercise to lose weight, we need to do both to strengthen our bodies and then also lose the weight. Intermission came around and I was super excited for the whole event and my friend went and got her VIP ticket. It was super exciting!! sadly my phone was about to die so I couldn't take anymore notes and I didn't bring a paper and pen (oops), but I do remember a lot of what else she said. She talked a lot about emotions and how we need to get rid of the junk in our lives, not just food, but the hurtful things that have happened to us in the past. These things that are holding us back prevent us from moving forward into making a change in our new lives that we're trying to create. For example, there was a girl that had lost 100lbs when she moved away from home, she was living a healthy life and she was happy. Well, school ended and she said she was moving back home but she was afraid to because that's where she gained all of her weight because of her eating habits and everyone else's. Jillian gave her the advice to not go back home. stay away, get a job, do whatever you have to do to not be in the environment that put her in a bad spot in the first place. She needs to keep the past behind her and continue on with her new life that she's created so she lives a healthy happy life and continues to stay small instead of gaining all the weight back. She said to get all the people out of your life that make you feel like crap, those that put you down are hurt themselves and don't know what to do besides hurt others in their life as well. She said to stay away from relationships that are harmful to you physically and emotionally. Nobody wants to live a crappy life. That was the gist of what she said. If I remember more, I will post more as I go. After the show was over, we finally made it down to the VIP where we only had our tickets and nothing else. they were taking names, which of course, they didn't have mine or my friends' because we just got ours that day, so they had us sit tight for a minute but then just let us go find a seat and got our packets to us later. we were sitting front row of the VIP, it was so great! I was so excited to see Jillian and also with her she had Danni that won the biggest loser this last season! There was a Q&A period where they took questions beforehand from people and then picked them as they went with their sheets, some people in there had lost 100+ pounds. it was awesome!! They gave some really good advice, and I even got a small glimpse of her on video, not that that's anything new since we see her on tv ALL THE TIME!! Here is her on stage, it obviously didn't turn out at all, you can just see a silhouette of her. Here's me and my friend Kari, she was just as excited to go as I was. In the VIP, front rowMeeting and getting a picture with Danni. She's super nice!! What an experience! Afterwards, as you can see, I was able to meet Danni and get a picture with her, and then I also got a hug from Jillian, which is what I wanted!! It was such a blast and a once in a lifetime experience. Now I can add her to my "meeting famous people" list!! If I ever figure out how to post a video, I'll post the glimpse.