Tina - ITG Wellness Coach

I felt like this blog should be revisited because of its important prep content. We also have a video about the ITG Diet Survival Kit that shows you what to take with you to school or work, or any time you're on the go, to get through your day and be successful on the ITG Diet Plan.

Here’s the plan to succeed on ITG Diet:

ITG Step 3 Success For Life style.

Summer is fun times, most of them not including healthy eating.  A cheat here and a cheat there shouldn’t make too much difference in my weight.   As summer comes to an end and all the kids go Back to School it’s time for us to Get Back to Basics. …The Healthy eating basics! 

We all have heard the saying “you are what you eat” and if we have completed ITG Step 3 Success For Life we should have learned the truth in that statement.  Here’s to getting Back to Basics on Step 3, Success For Life!

      Ok, I will admit these may not be the hottest, sexiest costumes out there, but Miss Muffet was pretty risqué, even for me.  Little Miss Muffet was a loaner costume from a girlfriend and the 80’s costume was for a Bunco costume party earlier in the month.  When I was shopping for my 80’s outfit I tried on a costume that was one size fits all. 

     Check out this text I got from my son Travis. “Hey your diet is no carbs, no sugar right?”  I replied,  Low carbs, low sugar.   Our next phone conversation I asked him what all the diet questions were about.    He said there is a girl at his work that was talking about being on a diet and he tried to talk diet talk with her.  ITG diet talk, poor kid he hasn’t even been around since February and he is even preaching ITG!  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  After trying to fight the diet fight, you know the one when the person you are talking to tells you that they know what they need to do to lose weight, and back in the day they lost so many pounds and blah blah blah.  He finally realized he couldn’t out talk a girl on a diet. 

       My son was home for 21 days before moving to his first duty station in England.  Needless to say I wanted to make all his favorite dishes before he left.  This was not a good 21 days for my diet but I wouldn’t trade them for anything!  The 5-7 pounds I gained was well worth the good times we had while I gained them….but now that he is gone and getting situated at his new home I need to get back to taking care of me, and that starts with Detox!

   Old Tina costume                                             New Tina costume

Not if you want a Hot Halloween costume it’s not!

I’ve always had to have costumes that were big to hide my fat.  This year is going to be different!  This year I want to find a hot, tighter fitting costume. LOL! I have been searching online for the perfect costume to order but I just can’t decide.  Any ideas?   I still have 16 pounds to lose to reach my final goal weight of 123.  I can’t believe I am really almost to my ideal body weight, what an amazing feeling it is and I’m not even there yet but I can see the light at the end of this weight loss tunnel.  Join me on this 3 month journey to lose my last 16 pounds which is an average of 1.6 pounds per week.  This is going to be a tough goal for me to reach…I’m going to have to really work at it!  Wish me luck!

Already lost a total of 41lbs in 22 weeks!

Tina Sly

     Last night I saw an old friend that I haven’t seen in a while.  She had heard through mutual friends about my weight loss success, but this is the first time she saw my transformation with her own eyes.  She asked the first question everyone asks, “How did you do it?”  I proceeded to tell her about the program.  She was very interested because, of course, she is on a “program” of her own, to lose weight fast (what woman isn’t?).   And she wanted to see how ITG compared to her “program.”  I get this all of the time, at first I get excited to help someone else feel the way I feel about myself and my success, then they start talking about why they couldn’t succeed on the ITG Diet.  Excuses.  First of all, most people use the cost as a crutch why they couldn’t succeed.  And the other top excuse I get is, I couldn’t stop drinking. 

I arrived at my mother’s house about 1:30 to start prep work for our Mother’s Day healthy dinner.  Darel, my step-father jumped up to help.  He was slicing cucumbers for us to have for snacks while we played Chicken Foot, my new favorite domino game.  While we were playing he mentioned that he was experiencing a problem with his vision, it was kind of blurred.  I was very concerned and immediately started drilling him with questions.  Do you need to check your blood sugar?  Blood pressure?  Blurred vision is not something to mess around with, especially with a type 2 diabetic with heart stents.  He checked his blood pressure and it was extremely low 88/45.  He takes high blood pressure medication daily.  We put a call in to his Cardiologist to let him know what was going on and for him to advise us on any further action.  When the doctor called back and spoke to Dad he immediately started asking questions, just like I had.  This is when he told the doctor that he has changed his diet recently.  He quit eating fruit, started eating more veggie and healthy dinners.  The doctor told him this could be the culprit of this low blood pressure.  He advised him to only take one half of his high blood pressure medication the following day and follow up with his primary doctor.

Last week I experienced some great news.  My mother wanted to start ITG Diet!  She has seen 30 pounds fall off of me by just changing my eating habits, and she was ready to give it a try.  After the initial excitement wore off I began to realize I would be her Wellness Coach.  My excitement feeling changed to a bitter sweet feeling when I realized her success depends on me coaching or teaching her the program and her following my instructions (listening to me).  I have no problem coaching strangers and giving them some “tough love”, but my Mom? I know that weight loss will improve her health and will make her feel better.  So I just have to bite the bullet and Coach her as a dieter, not my Mom. (yeah, right)

Some of her first weeks comments about being on ITG Diet and my reply in red. 

     I had big plans for my "vacation" eating schedule, see I planned to go off ITG Diet while I was in San Antonio for my sons Graduation from Basic Military Training United States Air Force.  The excuse I gave was that he had been deprived off all of his favorite foods for the past 8 1/2 weeks (just like me) and I wanted to make sure I got him all his favorites while I was in town, and  I decided I would join him.  I came up with this plan months ago, that's what helped me make it through the last 6 weeks on ITG Diet.  I went off of program for 2 weeks, I was only in San Antonio for 5 days but I planned in some time off program while at home.  Plus who can start a diet on a Wednesday, I needed a weekend off of program at home with my friends.  You know what that meant time for some Wine & Spirits.  Oh how I enjoyed eating drinking and being merry!  Until my belly started to hurt because I ate too much, and a hangover comes with fewer drinks than it did before.  My body has changed but my mind had no problem going back to BDT, before diet Tina.  This is what I went off program for? This is what I say I miss?  I'm sluggish, no energy or motivation what so ever.  I think its official...I fell off the horse.

    My goal weight was 150 lbs for my son’s graduation from Basic Military Training, United States Air Force,  April 4, 2014, an 8 1/2 week program that I think every young American should attend but that's another story.  My starting weight was 180.8 on January 6, 2014.  That’s a goal of 30.8 pounds in 13 weeks.  I didn't reach my goal but I did get very close.   My weight April 3, 2014 was 152.4 pounds, total loss 28.4 pounds, 2.4 pounds off from my first goal weight.  Did I fail?  Not at all, I proved to myself and you, that ITG Diet works and I can succeed at it.  And if I can succeed on this diet, anyone can succeed on it, including you.  Go ahead give it a try.

  
December 13, 2013                March 21, 2014
I wasn’t going to post any photos until my goal date picture of me and Travis at his Graduation April 4^th.  But I couldn’t resist when I stumbled onto this photo that was taken December 12, 2013 for a FB post announcing my employment with ITG Diet.  The other picture was taken this morning March 21, 2014. 

This week’s loss 2 pounds…. I know as a wellness coach that the average woman loses 2-3 pounds a week on ITG Diet, a 2 pound loss is a good week.  But, (everyone’s got one) the dieter in me still seems to get a bit discouraged with the same 2 pound weekly loss.  My Wellness Coach, Maria, could tell I wasn’t as pleased with my weekly 2 pound loss, that’s when she suggested we update my measurements. 

I received my first letter from my son at Basic Military Training, he said he is going to try his best to make Honor Graduate to make me proud of him.  I replied to him (by mail) that I was going to try to reach my goal weight prior to graduation to make him proud of me.  If this doesn’t motivate me to lose this last 10 pounds nothing will.  Graduation is April 4, exactly 4 weeks from today.  I have lost a total of 20.8 pounds since January 6 which is 9 weeks on ITG Diet.  These great results didn’t include any exercising.  Time to step it up and add exercise into the mix of this diet. 

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my “single ladies” dieters!
I want you all to know that building a network of friends and a community of followers among the diet community gives me as much pleasure as losing weight does.  My Valentine this year is ITG Diet!  What a Blessing ITG Diet has been to me.  I thank God every day for the new love of my life! I love ITG Diet!  I know this year my Valentine will give me the best Valentine’s Day gift ever.

     I figured with my son leaving for US Air Force I should start preparing for empty nest syndrome. (Empty nest syndrome is a feeling of grief and loneliness parents or guardians may feel when their children leave home for the first time, such as to live on their own or to attend a college or university.  It is not a clinical condition).   A very close relative to Empty Nest Syndrome is Emotional Eating.  I can already see myself being weak and falling off my low carb diet.  My son is my rock, it’s been me and him for 18 years, now it’s just me.  Will I make it? I want to succeed, but our emotions are very powerful.  You know what they say “Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer.”   Time to do some research and study this new enemy in my life.   Where to start? ITG Diet Health Article  “Are you an emotional eater?” 

As you all read in last week’s blog, my son is leaving for US Air Force Basic Training on Feb. 4.  I am having him a farewell party with all of his favorite foods, since he won’t be having any of them for the next 8 ½ weeks or longer. When I asked him what favorite food he wanted me to make for his party, I should have sat down first…lol   my stomach tied up into knots when he said, Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Then he realized what he was asking of me while on ITG Diet and said, “Should I pick something else, Mom?”  No Way! I can do this……I think…

     Have I told you my biggest pet peeve with ITG Diet? Well the exclusion of Wine and Spirits of course.   My spirit is vodka…I miss her so…lol

The same day I started the ITG Diet, January 6^th,  my son joined the US Air Force. Yesterday he tells me his recruiter called and he will be leaving for Basic Training Tuesday February 4th.  What? Is this really happening? So quick? Once the fog cleared from being in shock, I thought to myself, I’m going to have a drink tonight at my GF’s daughter’s 21^st bday party. Then my next thought was, you’re on a diet silly, NO DRINKING!  Here I am at Day #13 and I thought I had a good reason to cheat. 

  Last thing my ITG wellness coach, Maria, said to me on Friday at 5:00 pm day #5 of my ITG Diet was, “the best advice I can give you for your first weekend is to stay busy.”  She told me how it could be a few tough days ahead.  My routine was about to change.  I got used to getting up and coming in to the office.  Surrounded by supportive people and approved food choices.  How could I fail in the perfect ITG Diet setting?  Home all weekend doing house work and laundry…How could I not fail?   See I started on a Monday and was at work most of the day for days #1-5 but days #6 and #7 will be my toughest days… home alone with Me! (yikes) … “Stay busy, Tina!”

Let’s face it we all know ourselves better than anyone else.  I know my #1 excuse for cheating will be time.  I can almost hear myself now…”I got home from work too late to cook my chicken breast, I’ll hit the nearest drive thru.” Or here’s a good one…”I’m so hungry, I’ll be sick if I don’t eat something right away.”  As much as I am my biggest enemy, I am also my biggest fan.  If anyone can outwit me it’s me.