A Conversation With “My Ghouls”

This week’s blog is going to be a little bit different. I have been receiving numerous questions from some of my readers. I really love that! And I want to take this week’s blog and answer those questions because I feel it is important to connect with you all on a very real level. I will do my best to give you what you are looking for here. I appreciate your support and that you take time out of your busy schedule to read my blog! Thank you!

What made me want to start losing weight and when did I decide my lifestyle needed to change? Well, for years, (too many to count) on Halloween night, we have been gathering together with a group of friends who have kids the same ages/grades as ours. We get together, eat, and have a great time while the kids, now old enough to go on their own the last few years, all head out to reap candy from kind neighbors and friends. In 2018, we all sat around and visited just as we had in years past and, over the course of the night, the men found themselves at the kitchen table and the ladies were gathered in the family room laughing and talking. In this group are some wonderful girlfriends. I had alluded to these friends in one of my early blogs . . . we affectionately call ourselves “my girls”. The friends who make up “my girls” are a varied bunch. We have Cara and I who have struggled with our weight for a long time. There are a couple more who run often and train for different 5k and 10k runs. Another is a crossfitter and has shared in the same struggle (but not to the same extent) as Cara and I have. And still another who walks regularly and has always maintained a healthy lifestyle. Not unlike many close groups of girlfriends, we have shared a LOT of life with each other. We have laughed together (SO MUCH) and cried together, and joked, and played, and shared hopes, dreams, and fears, and we have complained, and we have celebrated large and small things, and we have individually risen victorious through various circumstances all while giving the very best of ourselves to each other as often as we can. This night was no different. I shared with them that I had been contacted by a former business partner about a new CBD company coming to market that was offering products unlike any in the marketplace anywhere in the world. She had contacted me about 2 weeks prior to this Halloween night. This company has a weight loss coffee which actually really appealed to me. Yet, I was undecided as to whether or not I was going to join in with her. Then Cara told our group that she had decided she was going to have bariatric surgery to assist her in losing weight. I am really not sure what else was said because my mind kind of stopped. I may have even blacked out. Not because of WHAT she said. I was actually really happy for her. This topic had been put out there by her and even myself before and I knew she was in a place at that moment where she knew she wanted to be healthier. But I also knew that this meant that I WAS ABOUT TO BE MY ONLY FAT FRIEND. I saw this in flashes of light across the back of my eyelids. I heard in my mind this dramatic doom and dread announcing music from the cartoons and movies, “BOM, BOM, BOMMMMM . . . ” and I’m pretty sure I heard Robin say, “Holy fat rolls, Batman!” Bottom line was I knew I needed to do something or this group of girls would be doing things together that I may not be physically able to do. It was very real to me at that moment and it made me very sad to think about. And that night, I made the decision to sign up to be a brand partner with NEWYOU so I could use the weight loss coffee. And am I ever glad that I did!

What are things I have tried in the past and what am I doing now to lose? I have tried just about everything you can think of, honestly. I have tried Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Noom, Beachbody . . . and the list goes on. Now, these programs all worked for a while. But, what I hadn’t tried was commitment to the new lifestyle that would be needed. I would do these programs either half heartedly or I would give it my all and eventually tire and be frustrated with how long the process was taking and stop. And when I stopped, I always gained the weight I had lost back. And that weight came with more weight than I had lost initially. The thing that didn’t work for me in the past was ME. I have been in this new lifestyle for nearly 14 months and I have lost over 140 pounds. I don’t know why I thought it was going to be a fast process. Or an easy one. And I also had a hard time admitting I had a problem to begin with. My numbers were always really good on my yearly blood test reports. And I felt good. Consequently, in my mind, nothing needed to change. I was just fine. However, I have finally found something that has given me better success than I have ever achieved before. My CBD business is with a company called NEWYOU. They launched the first of it’s kind weight management system combined with daily CBD intake. It has made the difference for me. Part of that program is the weight loss coffee which curbs appetite and levels blood sugar in our body. I absolutely love it. Another part of this system is an intermittent fast. I eat no later than 6:30 at night and then I don’t eat again until 10:30 the next morning. I drink the coffee with NEWYOU’s amazing nano-amplified beverage drops with CBD added in at about 8 in the morning. And I walk. A lot. I try my best to walk at least 5 out of 7 days a week and go no less than 2 miles. I have been fortunate to be able to share this amazing system with numerous others. Most of them have had great successes with it as well. And it has been so fulfilling watching others change as I have.

Was my decision to start losing weight “doctor recommended” and what did my blood work look like before and after? I can tell you that my doctor would always mention my weight. Never in a way that left me feeling shamed or like a terrible person or “less than” as I have mentioned before. No, she has always been very caring and concerned. She would just tell me it would be good to get some of the weight off. I am glad that she has been so kind and compassionate through my time with her because if it had come from her as a strong recommendation, I would likely have turned to my stubbornness or started and not been nearly as committed as I needed to be. I don’t have the numbers with me right now as far as what my labs have looked like. I will try and get them and will report back to you when I have my yearly physical in the next few months. I am about a month behind in doing my yearly check up. (Don’t judge me – it’s been a long year!) 

How do I feel since losing weight and what has changed for me as a result of the weight loss? I feel fantastic. I feel healthier. But I always say part of that is my daily, consistent intake of CBD and the other part is the weight loss itself. As far as changes go, there are so many! Too many to list all of them here. But I’ll try! I can move better. I can walk farther than I had ever even attempted before. I can paint my toenails without having to be a contortionist. I can tie my shoes without holding my breath. I can fit into a chair with armrests and FIT without feeling them pinching into my thighs. I have a jawline and a neck! I can buckle the seatbelt with one hand and don’t have to lean over to expose the receiving mechanism of that belt in the seat. But more than that, it’s all the “things” I have already written about. And really so much more. My smile is bigger. My laugh may be a little louder. I have a different confidence. I wear jewelry again; more than just my wedding ring, anyway. And I have been the recipient of beautiful hand-me-downs from “my girl” as she has lost weight. (I affectionately call all these clothes my “Cara Collection” and she has great taste!)

What has been my biggest struggle and how much more weight do I have to lose? My biggest struggle is patience, I think. That and the fact that I am an emotional/stress eater. I have SO much weight to lose and it is taking a long time. And I know that it WILL take a long time. I just wish it were faster. But the weight didn’t pack on overnight and it isn’t going to be conquered overnight. I haven’t really had many days when I stress eat. I allow myself a cheat day. And I usually can’t eat all of the “sweet” item I have chosen because my body isn’t used to it anymore and my tastes have changed. I don’t crave it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. The weather is also a challenge sometimes. Living in Colorado and walking outdoors can be tricky in the winter. But I am back out there again now. I still have about 80 pounds to lose. I do understand that some of my weight is now tied up in all the loose skin I have inherited as the fat has disappeared. So I really don’t know how much more I can lose versus how much weight there is left in the skin that will eventually need to be surgically removed. 

And last, someone wrote, “I’ve heard that sometimes there is a moment in time when a person can pinpoint when they began to gain weight. Do you have a specific moment in time that you can see where you shifted your lifestyle or did it just happen?” In short order, yes. I know there was a specific time when I stopped caring and stopped believing that I deserved to be happy and healthy or that I had any beauty or worth. And, again, I spoke to that in a previous blog. Let me say this, all of us at some point will encounter moments in life that are so much bigger than ourselves. When we give birth to a child; when we bury a loved one; when we are forced to walk through a traumatic event or the consequences of a tragic decision by ourselves or someone else, all of these things shake you. All of these things change you. To our very core. And our response to these things varies person to person, event to event. I didn’t ever turn to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism for the things I have had to walk through. But I did turn to food and what that food brought to me. Added pounds to hide Lacy away from the world as a depression so deep and dark took my life over completely. But, through the love of an unfailing God, the love of my family, a company with the best CBD (and people/leaders) on the planet, and the absolutely unwavering love and support of friends (especially “my girls”), I have arrived on the other side of darkness. Very literally. My little conversation with friends on Halloween night in 2018 will forever go down as the day that Lacy decided. She decided to take the drastic steps she needed to get healthy for herself and her family. She decided she was worthy enough to receive the love and support of her family and friends. And she decided she wanted to write a different ending for herself. 

#loveyourjourney #youreworthit #bettermewithNewYouCBD #Endo30 #itsuptoyou