Wahoo! Day 30!

OK folks here it is! 

I started my cleanse on March 26th and it ended today the 24th. 

In the beginningI weighed 240lbs, Arms=18 1/2 in. Thighs=30in, Waist=42in, Chest= 48, and Hips=54.

Now I weigh 227, -13 lbs!Arms=17, Thighs= 26, Waist= 38, Chest= 45, and Hips=52.In all I lost 14 1/5 inches!

Man oh man am I proud of myself! I am a bit eh to share my photo results, but hey it's only gonna get better right! SO here it is!

I can see a big difference! Woooo.

Now some people may even be like, only 13lbs? 

I'm gonna tell you about what a BIG difference 10lbs can do for you and your body.

Lowers Cholesterol

Being obese is linked to high levels of LDL, which from what I see is the "bad" type of cholesterol, as LDL circulated through your blood, it can deposit plaque in your arteries, narrowing them, which as we all know can lead to heart attack or stroke. 

When you lose you increase your HDL cholesterol, which is the "good" type. It stops LDL from depositing om your artery walls. 10lbs of weight loss can lower cholesterol by more than 10%!

Lower Blood Pressure

Blood pressure measures the pressure on your artery walls, so if you have plaque buildup, your blood pressure will be hihgh. Losing 10lbs will decrease your blood pressure, protecting your heart and kidneys.

Reduced Risk for Heart Attacks

As mentioned above, weight loss lowers your blood pressure and cholesterol. Just 10lbs gone can result in a greater than 50% risk reduction for heart attacks.

Reduced Risk for Dementia

Nearly half of Americans have too much visceral fat, the abdominal fat that surrounds your internal organs, visible in their protruding bellies. The Danger is this: visceral fat contains cells that release inflammation causing chemicals in the body, which can cause memory loss and increase your chances of developing dementia. 

Reduced Risk for Sleep Apnea

Losing 10lbs can widen your windpipe, helping you sleep through the night and reduce your risk  for developing sleep apnea. And when you sleep well, your levels of leptin (the hormone that signals when you've had enough to eat) rise. So, a good night's sleep will help you lose even more weight.

Reduced Joint Pain

Now this is a biggie! Being overweight put a HUGE amount of pressure on your joints. For each extra pound of excess weight on your body, you add 3 times that amount of pressure on your knees. This means that 1- extra pounds equates to 30 pounds of pressure grinding down. And when walking up stairs, multiply you extra weight by 7. Thirty pounds of pressure just became 70 pounds. 

As you lose weight and reduce the pressure on your joints, the cushioning between your bones will build back up. And 10lbs may result in as much as 50% decrease in your odds of developing osteoarthritis. 

Reduced Risk for Cancer

Fat cells are highly active, releasing large amounts of hormones like estrogen, insulin, and insulin like growth factors that can fuel many cancers. 

The risk for many types of cancers declines when you lose weight, but it's a particularly true for breast and uterine cancers, where losing only 8lbs can significantly reduce the levels of specific carcinogenic hormones.

Reduce Risk of Diabetes

The more weight you lose, the less sensitive your cells become to insulin. A weight loss of 10lbs can reduce your chance of getting diabetes by 60%.

Improved Sex Life

Your sex drive is affected by high blood pressure and diabetes, conditions you're likely to have if your overweight. Additionally, erectile dysfunction can be a problem for as many as 80% of obese men.

And last but not least! TAKE LESS MEDICATIONS!

If you're ready to get you Cleanse on and lose an extra 10lbs

 come on and ask to join The Cleanse Hub!

aka Miz.Giggles

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Isagenix Clinical Studies: University of Illinois

I wanted to share something I read this morning which I found to be pretty awesome! 

As many of you know I joined Isagenix almost a month ago now! My 30 day's is coming up and I'll do a total reveal of inches, weight, and maybe even pictures of my success results.

It's simply crazy how the way I've been feeling and how my body has been changing. 

I appreciate you all who take the time and follow me on this journey! 

Enjoy this post 

Study Finds Isagenix Superior to Leading “Heart Healthy” Diet

Dr. Krista Varady discusses clinical research on Isagenix products.

The highly anticipated results are in—Isagenix products are superior to a leading “heart healthy” dietary plan for weight loss and visceral fat loss. The manuscript has been submitted to two peer-reviewed journals and is still under review; however, you can read more details about the study on our clinical research summary and marketing flyer.

Krista Varady, Ph.D., the lead investigator of the study, is a prolific researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Applied Sciences with more than 30 peer-reviewed research publications. She has a Ph.D. in nutrition from McGill University—one of the top universities in Canada. Dr. Varady has devoted much of her time to investigating the ability of weight-management strategies to decrease cardiovascular disease risk and is one of the pioneers in research on alternate-day and intermittent fasting.

Dr. Varady’s research was presented in August at the 10th annual Isagenix Celebration in Phoenix. Eager to share the exciting results, Dr. Varady answered questions from Isagenix Chief Science Officer Suk Cho, Ph.D.:

Q: What did you think when you tried Isagenix?

A: I always try things before I make my subjects do it. I used Isagenix for three weeks in January before we began the study. I didn’t want to lose a ton of weight, but I did want to see if I could lose a few pounds with it. The easy of use was great—no dishes at breakfast or lunch; you didn’t even need to have milk at home. I went out and bought a few shake products to compare it to and I’m not sure what you guys do, but the consistency is like a smoothie. The other shakes were clumpy and it made them less appealing.

Q: What else impressed you about Isagenix products?

A: I was impressed by the Cleanse Day and the high-protein IsaLean® Shake. All the ingredients actually seemed wholesome. I had thought the shake would be a high-sugar beverage, but I found it to be really nutritionally complete.

Q: What attracted you to collaborate with Isagenix on research using their products?

A:  The main thing was that Isagenix incorporates fasting while on Cleanse Days. I find that really novel. If you look at other meal-replacement diets, they never really incorporate fasting or cleansing. Usually it is a shake for breakfast and a shake for lunch, but they don’t use all the other products Isagenix uses. I like that it is a multifaceted approach. You are also using supplements that may provide metabolic benefit and protect against free radicals—I thought that was really neat too, but the main thing was that there was a Cleanse Day every week because I am really interested in fasting research.

Q: What can you tell us about the study’s results?

A: Our main finding was that weight loss was actually greater in the Isagenix group. On average they lost 3.9 kg, so that works out to be around 9 pounds or so. Obviously, some lost more and some less, but the Isagenix group lost 3 pounds more on average than the other diet. We also saw those changes with fat mass. With Isagenix, we saw slightly greater reductions (although not significant) in fat mass. Neither group lost a significant amount of lean mass, which is great because you want to maintain your muscle mass to keep your metabolic rate higher and that allows you to burn more calories per hour.

Q: What are the results for visceral fat (fat that surrounds the organs)?

A: Even though it wasn’t statistically significant between groups, we found that there was a much greater reduction in visceral fat in the Isagenix group—about twice as much. They lost 0.7 kg, about 2 pounds. I find that amazing—they lost 2 pounds around their organs—that’s a lot!

Q: What other part of this study’s results do you find most exciting or intriguing?

A: What I found most intriguing at first was the adherence of the Isagenix group; they seemed to adhere better because of the convenience factor of the Isagenix system. Also, the Isagenix group lost more weight and more fat (especially visceral fat); and the blood chemistry looked wonderful.

Q: What other personal observations have you made about the Isagenix products and how they affect subjects?

A: Isagenix people just seemed happier. Also, the satiety (or fullness) aspect; people didn’t feel motivated to binge after a shake or cheat on the diet because they really did find those shakes quite filling, so I was pretty impressed with that. That is the main reason that I am even testing out these diets—to find diets that people will actually do and adhere to over the long term. They liked the taste of the shake and just in terms of the easiness too, they said small things like “there were less dishes to wash” and “for breakfast all you really have to do is keep the blender clean, there’s not that much prep involved and it is a portable system.” But those are actually really important things—if a diet is hard to do, people aren’t going to do it for very long. So making it easy, making it easy to clean up after—all those things add up for long term weight loss.

Q: You had some products left over after the study and people asked you for them, right?

A: Yeah, I had 3 boxes left of the shakes and I have never seen women diving in there, fighting with each other. They were all over each other. Those were gone pretty quickly after we opened them up!

What a great post! Thank you all for reading! 

If you are interested a little bit more, come on by and ask to Join my Facebook Group,

The Cleanse Hub!

aka Miz.Giggles

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Simple Ways to Prep Meals

Holy cow! I've been looking a little for ways to have easy

 prepped food and I would like to share with you 

all what I have found!

Here's a beautiful post by New Leaf Wellness.

A genius way to prep freezer meals with less mess!

So, I got it in my head that I wanted to prep a bunch of freezer meals made from organic ingredients at Costco.  I ended up making 10 crockpot freezer meals and I’m excited to share my recipes and grocery list.  Since I was able to freeze them without any cooking ahead of time they only took me one hour to make, including clean-up.  Wahoo!

My in-laws were visiting last week so they watched our daughters while my husband and I went shopping at Costco and looked for inspiration in their organic foods.  They didn’t have nearly as many options as I thought they would, but I found these gems:

• Organic tomato sauce
• Organic vegetable potstickers
• Organic chicken breasts
• Organic ground beef
• Organic extra virgin olive oil
• Organic chicken stock
• Organic baby spinach

Then, I got creative and made these 10 organic crockpot freezer meals:

• Two freezer bags of Italian chicken
• Two freezer bags of Asian chicken and vegetable potstickers (sauce inspired by our favorite honey sesame chicken from Damn Delicious)
• Two freezer bags of crockpot “Monster” burgers (based on our favorite baked sliders)
• Four freezer bags of hearty tomato vegetable soup – two with chicken and two with beef (based on some of the soups in my crockpot cookbooks and shared for free below)

Since they’ll all be cooked in the crockpot I didn’t have to do any cooking ahead of time.  I just added the ingredients to freezer bags and stuck them in the freezer.  Genius, right?

We’ve made a version of all of these meals before, and I can tell you that they’re delicious.  I decided to make at least two bags of each recipe because it saved time while prepping and we don’t mind eating the same thing twice in three months (which is how long most freezer meals will last in a standard fridge/freezer combo).

Doubling the recipes also helped me use up most of the bulk purchases from Costco.  I spent a total of $130 on organic ingredients and combined them with spices and other items that I had on-hand, like organic honey and frozen mixed veggies that I bought at Costco last month.  The recipes are all very simple, so you can make them even if you don’t shop at Costco or use organic ingredients.

My husband and I are especially excited about the Asian chicken recipe with potstickers.  YUM.

I only had an hour to prep my meals before meeting one of my friends to go running so I hustled!  To save time, I skipped writing out my freezer labels and just wrote on the bags with a Sharpie.  Since I’m familiar with all of the recipes I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll remember the cooking instructions.

Prepping 10 dinner in an hour is pretty darn amazing, isn’t it?!  I even loaded the dishwasher, emptied the trash can, and wiped down the kitchen counters.   Now we’re set with 10 dinners for busy weeknights.  Woot!

I don’t have any fancy kitchen tools, but I did use a food chopper to dice the onions (because I hate cutting onions!) and my new hands-free baggy stands to keep my bags from spilling.

If you want to make the same 10 crockpot freezer meals, I saved my recipes and grocery list to a pdf that you can save and print: Printer-Friendly Recipes and Grocery List.  The pdf details the number of servings per meal, and they vary from 3-6.  It’s very easy to double the recipes if you’re feeding a crowd or cut them in half if you’re only feeding one or two people at a time.

I like to serve my crockpot freezer meals with basic side dishes, like spaghetti, garlic bread, or a side salad.  Such an easy way to get dinner on the table every night.

If you’re new to crockpot freezer meals, the recipes and grocery list in the pdf above will walk you through the process step-by-step.  It’s so easy, I swear!  My crockpot cookbooks also include a lot of great recipes and tips.

Thoughts or questions?  Please leave a comment below and I’ll respond as soon as I can.  I’d love to hear from you. 

PS I’ve gotten some requests to share “after” pics of my freezer meals when they’re finished cooking.  While I can’t always do that because it can take me months to cook all of the meals, we couldn’t resist trying three of these meals last week.  YUMMM.

Woo wee so delicious and simple! I am doing this next grocery trip! You should too!

aka Miz.Giggles

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5 Reasons Why Cleanses are Vital

It's surprising the amount of people who think and believe cleanses are bull shit.
No joke, in those exact words people don't think cleansing your body of toxins
doesn't do anything for you.
 I don't know, but all I do know is I can share
 5 reasons on why Cleanses are Vital,
especially if you are planning to drop some pounds or tone your body.

Everything we put in our mouth touches and affects the walls of the stomach, small intestine and colon. When these substances are toxic, they damage the intestinal wall and cells, intoxicate the nerves and glands and can be absorbed through the walls into the blood and lymph and ultimately to the cells and tissue. These substances also cause inflammation and damage leading to disease, abnormal brain and nervous system behavior.-Hacer Bozkurt, IMD

With a Cleanse

1. Helps your dissolve all toxins and congestion that formed in your body.
2. Cleans out your kidneys and digestive system.
3. Purifies your glands and cells throughout your body.
4. Relieves pressure and irritation in your nerves, arteries, and blood vessels.
5. Keeps your skin elasticity regardless of your age.

Man I could go on!

There's a saying, You are what you eat. Now if hearing that is a good thing, then good for you!

But if your thinking to yourself on how it's a bad thing, then you need 

to change and what is a better time then now with a cleanse?! 

Change your diet, start eating clean. And I don't wanna hear excuses on how it's to expensive to eat healthy. You cannot tell me that because you are per say "Broke"

 your willing to let your body go to shit before you even get to live? 

No no not on my watch.

That is all for now! 

Comment below on your thoughts of cleanses, 

do you think they are good, or bullshit?

aka Miz.Giggles

P.S.

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It's April! Update!

I don't know, but I'm super excited about April!
This month is just going to be full of amazing-ness.

 First things first! Today is day 9 of my cleanse. Tomorrow is my next Deep Cleanse!
 I feel amazing!
The other day I walked to the store and it's a good two miles away.
Ask me to do that two weeks ago, it would have been a good NOPE.
But I did it and it was a perfect day!
I've been listening to podcast lately by only a few people like Jeffery Combs and the Isagenix podcast. If you listen to podcast who do you listen too?
 I could add them to my list.

On other news Arsenio and I have started up our gaming channels on YouTube!
 I've started up with a walk through of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
 Arsenio, or shall I say, Blackiechan is posting from Street Fighter, Destiny, Batman etc. 

 Go visit and Subscribe to Blackiechan!

Go here to get to my channel Miz.Giggles!

How has your week been? Tell me below!
Stay tuned for Easter!

aka Miz.Giggles

P.S.

Don't forget to love this post up and subscribe if you want to see more of my post.Go follow me here too!

aka Miz.Giggles

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How Cleanses Can Help You Live a Better Life.

I'm on my day 3 of my 30 Day Cleanse! 

 To be quite honest I'm a little embarrassed to share where I am right now, but I'll tell you what, at my height I should be between 120-130 lbs and I've got almost 100lbs to lose. But for the 30 days I want to lose at least 15-30lbs and maybe around 30 inches all around. 

Man oh man I am loving lunch times. The first day I made Cajun chicken with potatoes, mushrooms, Swiss chard and Greek Yogurt. Second day (yesterday) I had Whole grain thin spaghetti, chunky veggie sauce, with spiced chicken, topped off with mozzarella cheese. Delicious!
 Today is my day 1 of the 2 day deep cleanse when I only have lots of water and Cleanse day products.

Everything is going great. Yesterday I went food shopping and it feels good to get the things I got! 

Even being only on day 3 I feel amazing. I feel like I'm discovering new foods and not feeling pinned down to a "Diet" type feel if you know what I mean. It's definitely a lifestyle change. I've always had my head on eating healthier but I didn't have the right portions and a lovely plan that I'll stick by for a long long long time

That's all for today! Stay tuned for tomorrow's post and I can really get in depth with the cleanse day's and how I feel.
Thanks for the lovely support I've been getting!

aka Miz.Giggles

P.S.

Don't forget to love this post up and subscribe if you want to see more of my post.Go follow me here too!

aka Miz.Giggles

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Clean Your Body

It's pretty vital to clean out your body from all the toxins. Whether you drink soda, or add sugar to your coffee. It's really good to just give your body re-start with a cleanse and really work towards your health. Hence since it's time to do your Spring cleaning, might as well clean out your body too! I'm going to share a few step with you to help you towards your health when you may be having a bit of a tough time. I know I've changed a few things that I thought I would never with out. It's crazy what can happen when you set your mind on something.

Number One: Set Your Mind Straight 

First ask yourself, Whats your overall goal? Why?

I can tell you enough how important your Why is. If reading a number on a scale helps you reach your life long goal, or being a better parent, your more likely to stick to your goal.

Once you've figured out your why, have that be the first thing you think about every step!

An awesome way to keep your mind straight is to create a vision board. I friggin' love creating vision boards! It's a lot of fun to do by yourself to really have a visualization of what you are setting yourself up for. Don't be scared Get creative! Make sure you hang it up some where you can see it at all times.

Number Two: Go Crazy For Your Nutrition!

Clean out your pantry and change up your grocery list to how ever far you can get. Change little things at a time if needed. For example switch your soda to water, coffee for tea, eggs to free range, sugar to honey, etc. Get rid of the empty calories and artificial flavors and colors. Get that 20-40 grams of high quality protein per-meal. The more you put good food in your body the more your body will crave it. If you don't feel like prepping your meals once a week a great way to start is on a nutritional system to get rid of your unwanted pounds or gain that lean muscle and get rid of the harmful toxins. A healthy lifestyle is all about diet and exercise. Hey if you live with your family have them to join you on your journey and plus it will make it easier not to cheat lol.

Number Three: Move it!

“The link between exercise and mood is pretty strong,” Michael Otto, Ph.D., told Monitor on Psychology in 2011 . “Usually within five minutes after moderate exercise you get a mood-enhancement effect.”

The best workout is the one you actually do! Go join a class, start taking walks around the neighborhood, or start working in the yard. Find something that suits you and stop finding excuses to not start or continue. 

Number Four: Share Your Goals

The best way to reach your goals is to make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely). Once you have identified your goals share them! Don't keep them to yourself until you've completed your goals, that's no fun! Get your cheer-leading squad rounded up!

 Research performed by Dr. Gail Matthews, a clinical psychologist, found that participants who wrote down their goals achieved significantly more than those who only thought about their goals. And, those who wrote down action commitments (in addition to their goals) were even more likely to reach their goals.

But you can do better than that! The study participants who formulated action commitments, sent their goals and commitments to a supportive friend, AND sent weekly progress reports to that same friend were the most likely to reach their goals.

Tell me what your thoughts are! Comment below!

Resource

aka Miz.Giggles

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aka Miz.Giggles

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You Must Have Commitment!

How many of you start something head on? How many of you start to lose focus, faith, and confidence? I'm WAY guilty of this! We're only human, it happens!
We can get all hyped about something, then end up not pulling through. You know why?
We lost the commitment we made to OURSELVES. You can't just hit a bump in the road and back all the way out. What's the point? That means your going to have to
work harder and harder each time you set yourself up to fail. Even if it ended up not being your
kind of thing, I get that too. But how do we really know it wasn't for us?
Did you put your self all out and really really try?
If so then you may have the upper hand.

There a articles about this for MILES. I've pretty much read all of them listened to everyone.
 They were never wrong, you know who was wrong though, me.
 I swear to goodness gracious I trip myself over the stupidest shit,
then I start to lose my focus, then my faith, and confidence.
But we all know we have to have a why. There is always the WHY and that's really were you have to put your COMMITMENT. My why is my FAMILY.
I want to set up Stella so where she never has to worry about anything financially.
I mean seriously isn't that what we all want for our kids,
to make them not go through the worry of getting your lights and water shut off, and dining on cheese puffs. I could go ON!

 Your going to have to have those four things to be fully on top of it!
Hope this is a good lil' pick me up if you feel like your losing at your own game.

aka Miz.Giggles

P.S.

Don't forget to love this post up and subscribe if you want to see more of my post.Go follow me here too!

aka Miz.Giggles

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