MY HERBALIFE

Well, all righty, then. We've been on herbalife for about 17 days now. It's been great and not so great. The good news about the not so great part is that it's not herbalife's fault.

I'll try to be a little more specific about what I'm doing as I write this post, but I don't want to go into so much detail that I put you to sleep. My eating and toileting habits cannot possibly be all that fascinating.

Faithful Coach Melynda (of http://melyndarockinthecrazy.blogspot.com/ ) told me to pick two meals and replace them with protein shakes. I chose breakfast and lunch. I absolutely love the shakes. They are thinner than a shake you would make with ice cream cuz they are made with skim milk.

I fix them in the blender with the herbalife shake powder (vanilla flavored), some ice, and various ingredients to make it taste good. You have to be careful, though, because you don't want to add a lot of fat to your shake. I love frozen strawberries and Hershey's syrup or a little peanut butter and Hershey's syrup.

Hershey's syrup has long been one of the great loves of my life. Now we are dating twice each day.

For my third meal I'm supposed to have 4 - 6 ounces of meat. Melynda recommends fish or chicken since red meat is higher in calories. That's fine with me. I can't remember the last time I ate red meat. Schwan's sells salmon in perfectly sized individually wrapped portions. Salmon is my preference, but I eat a boneless chicken breast occasionally.

An easy way to know you have the right amount of meat is that the meat should be about the size of the palm of your hand. Along with the meat you can have some veggies and fruit and a bit of carbs, like 1/2 cup of pasta or rice. I like to bake my salmon with a little teriyaki sauce and have some teriyaki rice with veggies (which I also get from Schwan's).

I'm also supposed to eat two snacks, one at mid-morning and one at mid-afternoon. The snacks should be something high in protein but fairly small, such as some yogurt or a piece of cheese or a little peanut butter on a few crackers. And I should drink about a gallon of water each day.

I take a multivitamin and a cell activator, which is supposed to help the body absorb more nutrients. At the same time, I'm doing a "cleanse," but it's a gentle cleanse. It's not like the preparation for a colonoscopy. The cleanse does not cause diarrhea, but when I've gotta go, I've gotta go. There's no waiting.

The best part of herbalife so far is that I don't crave carbs and sugar. I feel happy with what I'm eating.

The hard part for me is that I'm not eating as much as I should. It's important to have all the meals and snacks so your metabolism doesn't slow down. But I was sick recently and then my doctor started me on a new antidepressant that causes nausea. I'm definitely feeling the nausea.

The shakes are the easiest part of eating for me. Having supper and the snacks, no matter what the food is, makes me feel barfy.

So I don't always fix my salmon. I know I won't be able to eat it. Last night I went to my favorite bistro for dinner and had a spinach salad, dressing on the side (I don't pour on the dressing; I dip a little spinach in it), and I could hardly choke it down.

I've only lost about three pounds. I'm sure I would lose more if it weren't for the illness and nausea from the medicine. I'm not exercising every day, and I'm not eating enough.

However, Melynda also pointed out to me that women lose inches before losing pounds. It's the opposite for men. So she said that before I lose many pounds I'll probably notice that my clothes fit better.

She's right. Last night I wore a red blouse that used to be almost too tight. I could barely button it over my belly and bazooms. Now it fits very comfortably.

Here's the funny part. With the red blouse, I wore navy leggings and a short navy skirt recently purchased from Victoria's Secret. I bought my VS clothes size XL because their clothes tend to run small. For quite some time, I couldn't wear VS clothes at all because I was too fat.

Well, my new navy skirt is pretty loose. It has an elasticized waist band. When I got home last night and headed to the door to go inside, I felt my ability to walk constricted. Something was in the way of allowing my legs to move.

I looked down and it was my skirt! It had slipped down to my calves. If it does that again, I'll be very glad I'm wearing my leggings, but I'll also safety pin it to make it fit a little tighter, or I could pin it to my leggings.

Dealing with this nausea is difficult, and I wish I could tell you I've lost more pounds than I have, but if I'm doing well enough that my skirt falls down, then that's o.k. with me.

Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug

In the future I'll need to wear a tighter skirt, like the one above, or perhaps I can find this tutu with leggings in my size.