So…I don’t think it comes as any surprise to people who really know me that I have struggled with my weight for about 8 or 9 years. Up until my freshman year of college, I was pretty fit. However, I was also more active. I dabbled a bit in sports and did a lot of musical theater (so loads of dancing during rehearsals and performances). But then came college. Suddenly every meal that I ate was buffet style. Except for the late night take-out meals that we would buy for study sessions or just hanging out. Not to mention my stash of junk food that I kept for in between meals (because sometimes if your class schedule was really sucky, you ended not making it to the cafeteria in time). So…yeah..my eating habits were awful.
And let’s not even discuss how much I was NOT active. Sure I had to take a couple of physical education courses. I even took a yoga class as an elective. There were also a few times when I bought gym memberships, only to realize that I hate going to the gym. In short, my activity levels were a far cry from what they had been prior to college. And it showed. I am POSITIVE that I gained the Freshman 15. And the sophomore, junior, and senior 15 as well. Oh dear! I came into college weighing a healthy (for my height of 5’9″) 145 lbs. When I graduated I was closer to 200 lbs. Eek!
Well, after I graduated, my mom grew concerned about my weight gain and told me I should get it checked out. She believed that it had more to do with my hormones than with my diet and activity. She was right! In 2009 I was diagnosed with hypothyroid disease. This condition can cause weight gain and make it more difficult to lose weight. Awesome. Not! Then, in 2010 I became pregnant. Now, I didn’t really gain a lot of weight during my pregnancy, and I was really hopeful that since I had decided to breastfeed my son that I would drop the weight off quickly. I mean, that’s what everyone said would happen. Lies, I tell you! Not only did I not lose weight, I actually GAINED weight.
It got to the point where I just hated going shopping for clothes because I felt hideous in everything. Then came my “ah ha” moment. Or should I say my “Oh my God” moment. That moment when you see a full body picture of yourself and don’t even recognize the person in it. I was mortified and very upset with myself for letting things get that out of control. Now, I don’t mind being on the curvy side of the spectrum. However, when your weight is negatively impacting your health, it is time to reassess things. And I was definitely at the point where that had become a necessity. After all, I want to be around for my son for a very long time. And I want to be able to run around and play with him without getting winded after a few minutes.
This is around 2004. My sophomore year in college. I had already started to gain weight, but little did I know that it was just the beginning. I believe I took this picture before I started one of several gym phases. I wanted to be able to compare my before and after.
This is me a mere 3 years later. As you can see, I had put on quite a bit of weight.
This is a picture that was taken at my son’s first birthday party. This is also the picture that provided me with my “Oh my God!” moment. I looked at this and felt so disgusted by myself and by how much I had let myself go. This was when I was at my heaviest and is when I decided that I needed to take charge.
So I tried a workout program. A few of them actually. And I ate healthier. Over the course of a year I lost over 50 pounds. And I was proud of myself. But then the weight started creeping back up. And my motivation to continue working out dissipated. So I tried another product. And it actually did work, but I only lost inches. Never pounds. And though it was nice to drop pants sizes, I wanted to see the numbers on the scale go down. I wanted to get back down to a healthy weight. And it just wasn’t happening. Pretty soon, I had gained back 12 of the pounds I had worked so hard to lose. And I was stuck there. I had hit a plateau and couldn’t get any more weight off no matter what I did. I ate right. I exercised. Nothing worked. I felt like it was hopeless. But I still wanted it. And that was the frame of mind I was in when my friend Tamara approached me about Plexus.
I had heard a little bit about the company, but not very much. I basically only knew that they were another weight loss company. Having tried something else with no actual weight loss (though plenty of inch loss, as I said) I was not very confident that it would work. She was. So much so that she gave me a 30 day supply to try out for free. That’s some faith right there!
So…since there was no financial risk involved for me, I decided to give it a shot. And I did. I drank the drink and took the pills every day. I am notoriously horrible at remembering to take pills, so I think I did pretty darn good. I did skip some doses, but I think I took 85% of them on time. One thing I did notice was that I had more energy. I was waking up around 5-6 some days and not feeling tired at all. In fact, I felt energetic. That was nice (especially since I am NOT a morning person). However, I was waiting for the weight loss. So I kept taking it — hoping that i would have one of those great testimonials that I kept hearing about.
I got really nervous that first week because I suddenly had really strong cravings for sweet and salty foods. Tamara told me that meant that it was working . And I did lose something. Inches. No weight. Now, don’t get me wrong, inch loss is nice and everything, but (as I said) I wanted to see the numbers on the scale go down. So I began to get discouraged. I didn’t think it would work.
Now, in addition to the Plexus Slim + Accelerator,I was also taking their Biocleanse product in the hopes that it would help my Irritable Bowel Syndrome (I know, I’m just a mess, right?) Well, some time during that 2nd week, I had a pretty painful flare-up. So I stopped taking the Plexus products the way I was supposed to. Not because they caused it, but because I just couldn’t be bothered to remember to take them regularly. I was still taking some of them some of the time, but I definitely wasn’t following the directions for getting good results. And I wasn’t getting any results.
Tamara told me to get back on the routine. I still had about 2 weeks worth of full doses left. She reminded me that because of my thyroid problem it might take me more time than usual to get the results that I was looking for. I was discouraged. But she had invested her own hard-earned money into giving me this chance and I didn’t want for her to have wasted her money, so I committed myself to finishing up those last 2 weeks the right way. So I took the right doses at the right time and drank my 8 cups of water each day (if you know me, you know that is a feat in itself). Well, it came down to those last 3 or 4 days and I had only lost 2 pounds. I tried to be excited about it, but I just couldn’t. 2 pounds in one month just didn’t seem like a whole lot to me . That’s only one pound every other week(granted, I really didn’t take a full 2 weeks supply in a row since I missed doses and stopped for about 1.5 weeks). I wanted to lose at least 1 or 2 pounds each week. So I thought that once I finished taking the drink and pills that I could walk away knowing that at least I had given it a fair shot, but it wasn’t for me.
Hehe…that’s punny. 🙂
But then the day after I finished taking all of the drink and pills I weighed myself again. The scale showed that I was nearly 5 pounds lighter than I had been just 3 or 4 days before! I checked and rechecked the scale 3 or 4 times to be sure. I had really lost about 6 pounds in one week. And I didn’t change my eating habits. I didn’t exercise. All I did was stick to the recommended dosages and times for the products that I had. I was shocked to say the least!
Ginny couldn’t believe it either.
So…me being me, once I saw that I had gotten good personal results and that it was a product that I wanted to keep using, I gave serious thought to becoming an ambassador. I firmly believe that if you love something and it is attached to a way to make some money, you should consider becoming an affiliate or rep. I mean, if you’re going to be telling people about it anyway, you might as well get paid for your referrals, right? So…as of today I am officially an ambassador for Plexus Slim. I have tried a few weight loss companies in the past, and I know that they work great for a lot of people. But this is the first one that has given me the weight loss results that I want in a time frame that got me excited. I am excited to be able to continue using the products to see where I am with my weight loss goals six months and a year from now. Hopefully I will be a lot healthier and, as a result, a lot happier with the way I look and feel.
I want to be able to give myself two thumbs up when I look in the mirror
I know that there are a lot of people out there who struggle with some of the same issues that I do. People who have hormonal imbalances that make it very difficult to lose weight. People who have digestive issues that disrupt their lives sometimes. I am happy to be able to offer products that I have personally tried and believe in that I can recommend. If you would like to learn more about the Plexus Slim products, feel free to check out my website. I would also be happy to chat with you about the opportunity, if you feel that this might be a good way for you to not only improve your physical health, but your financial health as well.
I am glad to have finally found a product that has helped me to jump start my weight loss again. Summertime is about 4 or 5 months away. Perhaps I can put a sizable dent in my weight loss goal. I’d love to have you join me on that journey. Feel free to send me a message through the contact form or through my fan page if you have any questions. But before you leave…what is your long-term weight loss goal? Mine is to lose 60 pounds. Tell me yours in the comments below. 🙂
In case you were curious, here are the three products that I used.
This is Biocleanse. It helps detoxify and cleanse, energize, enhance weight loss, and relieve constipation. I decided to use it to help me with my Irritable Bowel Syndrome by cleansing out my digestive system on a regular basis. It works!
This is the Plexus Slim + Accelerator Combo. The Plexus Slim (a kind of berry-flavored drink powder that you add to water) helps you lose weight and inches by burning fat, not muscle. Slim also helps keep blood sugar, cholesterol and lipids at healthy levels.
Accelerator+ helps speed up weight loss and overcome weight plateaus. The combination of ingredients in Slim and Accelerator+ work synergistically to help you lose weight fast!
Updates:
2/25- I will admit that i have not been taking my Plexus regularly. As I mentioned, I SUCK at remembering to take pills every day. And between my friend visiting for 3 weeks and life in general, I have not been remembering. However, I stand at 15 lbs lost since I first started using Plexus. Not bad. But I need to get back into the routine. Bad Tiffany! Here are my “official” before pictures. I’ll continue to post updates as we go along. 🙂
Update: 7/10
I haven’t weighed myself in a while, so I need to do that when my mom gets home (I like the scale she has at her house better because it is digital and more reliable than mine). But I will say that my IBS has been DRAMATICALLY improved. I went about 5 months without a single flare up. Then my forgetfulness kicked back in and I stopped taking the Biocleanse regularly. AFter about 2 weeks of not taking it, I had my first flare-up. Now I am back to using that regularly and have not had a flare up again. As for my use of Slim, I had been slacking on that as well while I focused on my gut health (using Biocleanse and ProBio5) because I learned that if your gut isn’t healthy then it will be even harder to lose weight.
I actually hit another plateau and got discouraged again. People comment that I look slimmer and shapelier, so I guess that other people are seeing what is happening even if I don’t (because I see myself every day, lol). but I know that I have health issues that make it harder for me to lose weight and that the only way to get off this plateau is to keep using the products and doing the right things, so that is what I am doing. Now I am back to using the full regimen of the Fab 5 (Slim, Boost, ProBio5, Biocleanse, and X Factor) and will report in later with my progress. People comment that I look slimmer and shapelier, so I guess that other people are seeing what is happening even if I don’t (because I see myself every day, lol).
I truly love these products AND the company. They are getting my health back on track in big ways. And I firmly believe that the business side of it will get me to where I want to be. As with any goal you set, I just know that I need to give it my all and STICK WITH IT! I’m in it to win it! 😀
