Then I tried a high protein diet, but I found that I don't work out enough for my body to process the protein well. It made me feel extremely tired and even more lazy than normal. To offset the tiredness I would drink more coffee which lead me to not sleeping and well... eh hem... let's just say stopped up a lot. I also found that my body was craving sweets on this diet.

Then I found High Carb Hannah on YouTube and tried her HCLF (high carb low fat diet). Well, the diet isn't really hers, but I was intoxicated by her videos and the logic on how the diet worked. I bought all the books I could on the subject and started on my path right away. I definitely lost some weight in the first 2 weeks, but it didn't come without a cost. I had spurts of energy that were AWESOME, but the crashing was worse than the protein diet. I also found that if I ate anything that had fat in it I jumped up on the scale. No bueno. As time went on I stopped losing weight and my performance at volleyball went down. My muscles felt weaker and I was often asked if I felt okay because people were noticing that I looked sick. I was actually sick a lot on this diet.

ke·toi·gen·ic di·et
noun
noun: ketogenic diet; plural noun: ketogenic diets 
a diet that tends to promote the metabolic formation of ketone bodies by causing the body to use fat (rather than carbohydrate) as its principal energy source.

That's right. Ketogenic diet. Or Keto diet or Ketosis. All of these things brought up tons of videos on how FATS can keep you thin. I obviously didn't believe what I was seeing because most of these people looked like they were eating meals that would clog their arteries within one sitting. After further research and my already awful path of being on a vegan diet, I decided that giving this diet a chance couldn't hurt. It was going to be hard since all of the research showed that animal meat, animal fats, and animal bi-products were the main ingredient to these omnivores diets, but I have never turned down a challenge.

There were only a few videos on YouTube about Vegan Keto people and their diets and I started watching some of them. Most of them had similar experiences with the vegan diet that I did. They swore by this "new" keto diet and talked about how it changed their lives. Well, they weren't wrong!

Within 3 days I had already lost a pound. Within 3 weeks I was down 10 lbs. It was amazing to watch the scale dropping as I found my health rising. After only a few weeks I feel like I found my vegan diet that I can live by. No more bouncing around to see what works. Eating healthy fats were actually making my body burn fat. I can eat tons of food that I would normally remove from my diet (and my house) and without the guilt. Avocados, you're back in. Olives, you're back in. Vegan butter and healthy oils, YOU'RE BACK IN! It's like winning the diet lottery for me. I love this diet!

I'm planning on sticking with this for as long as my body keeps accepting it with open arms. If my doctor says that it's working and I'm staying healthy then this will forever be the lifestyle that I live.

If you plan on doing this diet or you're already on this diet I'd love to hear from you! If you have questions about this diet please leave them below or as a comment on my YouTube channel and I will tell you the best answer I can through my own experience. Healthy living should be everyone's goal. I hope this information helped.


* DISCLAIMER * As with any diet or change in your eating habits, you should consult with your doctor to see what's best for you. By no means am I a doctor or a nutritionist. These are just my experiences and results that I'm sharing with you.

I'm always struggling to lose weight and keep it off. The last time I lost a lot of weight I started at 265lbs and worked my way down to 196lbs. I can't tell you the joy I felt when I broke through the 200lb mark. I would tell you that I celebrated by jumping up and down, but I probably celebrated with a cupcake.

That was 2 years ago and I forget to be proud of myself for keeping MOST of it off. For a while now I've been fluctuating between 200 and 206lbs and I'm ready to make the next big move.

Since getting engaged I thought this would be a perfect time to get back on the wagon and start doing something good for my health again. My aunt Linda told me about these shakes that were helping her and my other aunt (Kathy) lose weight. My mom caught wind of the shakes and she started them too. They are AMAZING! Even though I could have easily gone back to the other diet that worked for me when I started at 260lbs I wasn't keen on the flavor. This shake on the other hand tastes and smells like CAKE! Hello!!! Remember that celebration I had once I hit under 200lbs where I ate CAKE?

Now I wake up everyday craving the Body By Visalus shake. So far my favorites are pineapple & banana and blueberry & banana. They are so filling and they keep me full for a good portion of the day. I only bought the smallest package for the month, but I love these shakes so much that I just ordered more. I've already lost 4lbs and I'm trying to lose another 25-30lbs before the wedding. Not because I think poorly of myself, but because I want to be in the best shape possible to start a magnificent life with Sven. He deserves it and so do I. :-)

By the way, if you're interested in going on this diet/lifestyle change with me than check it out here www.jennireilly.bodybyvi.com. If you sign up and try it out all you have to do is get 3 more people to do the challenge with you and your shakes will be free. Although this is a money making shake/diet I have to tell you that my #1 goal is to lose weight for myself. So you can either try this one or you can check out the company that sold me the other shakes that only tasted half as good as these but still helped me lose a bunch of weight. They obviously worked, but I had to do a lot more weight management stuff with those shakes than I have to do with these. That website is http://mydietshopz.com/ and the shakes were under the HIGH PROTEIN section.

Either way, I would love to hear any and all stories that helped people get into better shape. I think that the more people can talk openly about what helps them feel better and stay in shape the more supportive people become during this lifestyle change.

I don't know what it is about this week, but it just seems depressing. I've had a few events this week and those have been good. I just haven't felt like my chipper self lately.

Maybe it's the diet taking a toll on me. I've been eating all my protein and veggies that I need in a day. I'm happily down 9 lbs since I started. YAY! But really I've just been in a funk.

Tonight we have a REALLY big event at The Tilted Kilt in Clearwater. We have over 40 people coming out and they're going to give us all kinds of good deals. It should be a great night to celebrate the June birthdays for Play Dates for Adults. Plus it's Jack's birthday weekend and he's got the rest of the weekend all planned out. It should be a lot of fun if I can start enjoying it.

I got a bikini wax for the first time. OUCH! That's no joke. I thought that maybe these girls were wusses or couldn't handle pain very much, but OMG! It's obviously much better once it's done, but seriously this may have been the reason for my cranky mood lately. It's already a violating process to begin with but then to add pain on top of it. GEEZ! Don't get me wrong I scheduled a second appointment to keep it up, but I just thought some of the ladies out there should know that it hurts. Plus it beats trying to do it myself and having wax stuck in places it doesn't need to be fore days on end.

It's been a very hectic week. So far while I was down in Ft. Myers we ended up having two Play Dates events. Both of which ended up being trivia since our volleyball event got rained out. We had a great time and we took 1st place at one of the venues and 3rd place at another venue. I got one of the craziest questions correct and I was so proud of myself for listening in middle school. What is an acronym for the word GOLF which has to do with the urban legend origin of the game?

Anyone? Anyone?

G - Gentleman
O - Only
L - Ladies
F - Forbidden

Isn't that some shit. lol I was so proud of myself for remembering that. Oh well, moving on.

I can finally say that I have lost 5 lbs since starting my diet. I went up a little during one of my work trips, but now I'm back down and it's staying down. I've introduced a few items to my menu which I think are making all the difference. One is Greek yogurt. OMG! This stuff is amazing. It's a cross between Riccotta and Sour Cream which gives the yogurt a better texture I think. Second there are these Chicken, Herb, and Mozzarella sausages from Sam's Club that are only 120 calories each. Mix that with a 1/2 cup of quinoa, 1/4 cup of tomato sauce or diced tomatos and some fresh basil and you have yourself something to sing about. It's wicked good and under 500 calories.

I've decided to add a new charity type event to the Play Dates for Adults website. We're going to be collecting donations and care package goods to our troops. I thought it would be a good gesture at the time of year where people remember them the most. Independence Day! Well, we're going to be getting together on July 1st to collect donations and items. I'm really excited about it, because I've never sent them anything before. I've donated to the them when I come out of a grocery store, but nothing like this. Hopefully we'll get some pen pals out of it.

Sorry if this blog was on the boring side. I enjoyed my week and I suppose that's all that matters. lol :)

This is the first Sunday in a long time that I've been able to sit back and relax without any events. Well, I suppose "relax" isn't the right word. I've been working all day in the yard and in the kitchen getting everything sorted. Finally I can see a counter top and actually USE it. Still it was nice to just do things around the house and outside.

My roommate and I went next door and got facials done from Mary Kay products. They have a lot of cool stuff since I last tried them out at 16yrs old. They have these new perfumes which smell amazing. One smelled so good in the bottle, but once I put it on it made me smell like a guy. It was funny because it would be a great cologne for a guy if it smelled the same way on him, but I doubt it would since it was my body chemistry that changed the smell. The Bella scent was my favorite. I'm going to have to ask for that for Christmas. Oh my god it smelled so delicious. As for buying stuff, I only ended up getting a few things. I get a lot of freebies from my sister since she gets them from work. Gotta love Bare Essentials.

I suppose I should get back to my work homework and packing for my trip to Ft. Myers. I will be having my second and third Play Dates event there for the Ft. Myers location. I'm very excited! We've come a long way from having just one location for the past 1.5 years. Now I just need to get more people involved in the Ft. Myers location.

Hope you all have a great Sunday afternoon!

I can't believe I'm having to do this AGAIN! Ugh. In November of 2008 I started a diet with my doctor and by the end of the summer I had lost 55lbs. Now, I haven't gained it all back by any means, but I have put on some weight that I DON'T want. So here I go again. This time it's without the doctor and I'm hoping that I can be strict with myself and maintain the same eating techniques/habits.

It's day 2 of the diet and so far the Wii Fit is telling me that I've lost 2.1 lbs. As we all know that's probably just water weight from the lack of sodium that I've been taking in. Either way it's good to see it move in the right direction. Hopefully tomorrow I'll still be on the same track.

Now some of you are probably concerned about me getting on the scale everyday, but for me it works. I did this for a year and it REALLY helped me figure out what was going on with my body. You forget what's going on after a while on the diet and it's good to keep track. Some may do it by writing their food down and some do it by exercising. I personally count calories, protein, keep sugar under 10 grams per serving of food, and I check my weight daily. I also drink the hell out of these low sugar protein shakes. OMG! I love the Proticcino shake. http://mydietshop.com/  I won't get any referral bonus or anything, but if you decide to order from them I would appreciate it if you let them know that you found it on my website.

Now for an update on the roommate status. Things are good. I love having someone in the house with me. Especially someone who I can relate to. She and I have similar eating habits, daily stories, and similar opinions on many subjects. The best part is we have opposite taste when it comes to dating. That helps out a lot when we go out to the bar or to one of my Play Date events.

Hope everyone is having a great week! Stay focused and pursue that job that you've been dreading. I just cleaned my desk. It took me all day!