Category Archives: Weight Loss

Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Weight Loss

Staying home could weaken your immune system

In the words of my trainer, staying home can mess up your immune system. When we are ready to mingle again, how resistant will our systems be? PJ Glassey of Xgym asks if we remember when Quarantines were only for sick people? I was once quarantined because I had the mumps. I remember the dark front bedroom and my mother creeping in to take my temperature and feed me soup. I was six years old. We have seldom quarantined healthy people.

We could end up on the other side of this quarantine period claiming it saved us all and

had we not done this unprecedented lockdown, millions upon millions of people would have died, and the virus would have continued to wreak havoc on the world for decades to come.

The other extreme side will say the lockdown had absolutely no effect on the infection or death rates and, in fact, the countries and states who didn’t close down proved that point by fairing as well or better than those who did.

Then there will be lots of people in the middle, adjusting toward one side or the other, based on what they believe to be true and then repeating that narrative based on their ingrained biases and agendas.

The bottom line is no one will really know. No one will be able to prove anything because no one can see into the future or even guess what might have been if things were done differently. PJ Glassey

Either way the lockdown will have negative effects on our immune systems and may cause increased infection rates if we don’t recognize what is going on and do something about it.

Here are some ideas about how to strengthen your immune system so you don’t catch every little cold, flu, bacteria, and other bugs the minute we are all mingling again.

First, let’s be clear that everyone gets sick, and there’s no way to avoid every bug….

The strength of anyone’s immune system lies mostly in their gut flora balance and diversity. In fact, over 70% of you’re immune system strength is directly attributable to the health and status of your gut flora.

Those little internal buggers protect you from the outside buggers in a myriad of ways, ranging from killing off those bad bugs themselves to communicating with your other lines of defenses in your body to help kill them there.

The best way to have an optimized gut flora is to feed them with the right nutrients and tools to be as healthy, balanced, and diverse as possible. If you help them, they are able to help you.

When you eat real, organic food, your gut flora thrives on the fiber (soluble and insoluble), vitamins, and minerals. Real (and especially organic) food is the best source for all this.

Non-organic food often has pesticides, fertilizers, and genetically modified components that kill off your good gut microbes, throwing off the balance, and slashing the diversity. Additionally, some respected scientists are finding the Coronavirus mechanism involves an “unmasking” of environmental toxins such as glyphosate, found in many non-organic foods, drastically amplifying its toxic effects inside the body on a cellular level, exacerbating the complications related to Coronavirus.

There’s something even worse than non-organic food though. Guess what that is? Yep – processed food. If you are eating most of your food out of bags and boxes, you’re decimating your gut flora and your immune system.

It just so happens that’s what most people are eating now in this lockdown, so they are setting themselves up to catch lots of nasty bugs when they get back out of their homes.

Another huge way we get and maintain a strong immune system is through constant exposure to microbes. When we are consistently coming into contact with viruses and bacteria, we are building and strengthening our immune system. We do this by shaking hands (and sharing microbes), playing in the dirt, hugging people, kissing, talking and laughing within 6 feet of each other, etc. – everything we are avoiding right now – so that’s another way we are decimating our immune system and setting it up for failure.

We are also acting like OCD people with all the incessant handwashing, hand sanitizers, spraying, wiping, disinfecting every surface, masks, gloves, and more, all contributing to preventing the natural and healthy exposure of the TRILLIONS of microbes we need to be in contact with, in order to try to avoid the ONE bug we are so fearful of right now.

If that worked, then clean-freak OCD people wouldn’t get sick more frequently than their “dirtier” friends but they do. They get sick way more often, in fact, because they are so focused on staying clean and sterile, they don’t get the exposure necessary for proper immunity. This, of course, feeds their OCD, which makes them try to be even cleaner, which then perpetuates the problem, sometimes resulting in the “Howard Huges syndrome,” along with Munchausen, and more.

When we are cooped up inside and out of the sunshine, we rapidly become deficient in Vitamin D, which drastically weakens our immune system. Some health and medical experts even believe Vitamin D should be reclassified as a hormone because it’s so much more powerful than other vitamins – especially with its effect on our immune health.

Since we are inside, out of the sun, and moving much less than we usually do, our hydration habits are also most likely suffering, as our thirst mechanisms are sending us fewer signals. Viruses and bacteria LOVE a dry host and HATE hydrated hosts because those people are stronger, more energetic, have healthier organs, happier gut flora, and the list goes on and on. PJ Glassey

During the lockdown, we are doing the exact opposite of what we should be doing to build and maintain a healthy immune system to be ready to come out of this and resume our lives.

Here are PJ’s top 7 suggestions, based on what he has learned about the human body as a biohacker and health researcher over the last 34 years:

1.) Drink 2-4 quarts of clean, filtered water per day. Here’s a “ballpark” way to figure out how much you should have: Take your body weight in pounds, divide that by two, and drink that many ounces each day, spread throughout the day as much as possible. This general formula works great for people who weigh between 100 and 250 lbs. but some may need a bit more or less depending on climate, habits, activity, sweating rate, etc.

2.) Eat organic real food, prepared in your own kitchen, with your own hands.

3.) Stay away from processed food, artificial ingredients, and especially sugar because that can really hurt your internal buggers. If your food has a label on it, treat that as a warning label, and the longer it is, the more urgent the warning!

4.) Exercise! This can be through the X Gym online training, the X Gym app, running, biking, hiking, dancing (learn a new move on TicTok), or anything else that gets you breathing hard. [Join Free Form Dance Dance on Saturday morning 10:30 – 12. zoom to a curated set list virtually dancing with several dozen people. It’s a hoot.]

5.) Get out in the sun and/or take a vitamin D3 supplement.

6.) Eat fermented foods like kimchi, or sauerkraut, or kefir, or all of those, as I do. These foods are packed with probiotics – another word for the “good buggers” I’m been talking about and will help balance and populate your gut flora. [Shaklee’s Optiflora does a great job.]

7.) Get outside and roll in the grass, plant some stuff with your bare hands, play with some earthworms, walk on the beach in your bare feet, dig in the sand with your hands, etc., and then rub your face with those grimy hands!

How is your score on doing these 7 things? Begin adding one after the other over the next few days/weeks to get ready. Hopefully, you have not put on 19 covid pounds during this stay-at-home order. Shaklee can help you there with a 7-Day cleanse to kick start better eating anytime you are ready.

Our current “quarantine quandary,” as PJ calls it, is more than just weight gain. It’s going to get way worse if people don’t become aware of the current immune-depressing world we are moving around in. Personally I know a lot of people who are gardening and walking and getting up close and personal with their “quarantine pod” of friends and family and so are not overly depressing their immune system. If you see yourself in the situation PJ describes, take steps. You’ll be glad you did.

Be well, do well, and keep moving!

Betsy

 

Betsy Bell’s Health4U

206 409 5940

betsy@hihohealth.com

www.HiHoHealth.com  my Shaklee shopping page

 

 

 

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Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Weight Loss

Resisting your fitness goals?

Gentle Reader,

How often I hear the gloomy discouragement “I want to exercise, but I just don’t do it as often as I need to. I can’t get results. I’m not losing weight.” Gyms make nearly all their money by signing people up who never show up after the first visit. Even at my Xgym where the monthly cost is just under $400 for a twice a week session with a personal training, people let their credit card run month and month and don’t come to their sessions. How lame is that? What a waste of money.

If this is even a little bit you, read on.

Do you think a couple supplements might help? If they could help, would you like to hear about them?

Shaklee has a line of Sports Nutrition developed for elete athletes at the request of several different agencies over the last 30+ years. First there was the Daedalus Project where Leonardo DaVinci’s human powered airplane was built by some students at MIT. To power the bicycle with wings, they needed a fuel that would keep a cyclist peddling non-stop from the Island of Crete to mainland Greece. The idea was to put that ancient Greek myth about Daedalus to the test. Look it up if you’re curious. Shaklee created Performance, a rehydrating drink with sugars and electrolytes that provided the only fuel for the guy on the bike for 119 km or three times the distance across the English channel.

Take a listen to Les Wong, long time Shaklee scientist and heavy duty sports guy, tell about what the company was thinking when they developed these new products. The history of Shaklee’s involvment with gold medal-seeking athletes is impressive.

Here’s the new no/low-calorie line: Performance Fitness Pack

Buy on or before Sept 30 and the water bottle is free.

I’ve been using the Shaklee performance drink ever since they brought it to market for regular folks. It does have a pretty high calorie count due to the requirements of that extreme effort. Women who are counting calories have stayed away from such a rehydrating drink even though there are excellent nutritional reasons for the sugars to help power an extreme athlete. Most of us don’t fit that catagory of athlete.  Right? Right.

We are not going for the Gold. For the regular person like me who is out walking, doing Zumba and other group exercise classes, often in conjunction with a weight loss program, we now have three new sport supplements with fewer calories. Yeah! Shaklee.

Low Calorie Electrolyte Drink powder sticks   

You’ve got your water bottle. Now break open a stick of rehydrating drink mix with zero calories and keep on moving. This box of powder/power sticks( item # 21307) in Lemon/Lime is only $20 for 20 sticks. Talk about convenience and help for the person who is exercising to help lose weight.

Shaklee’s Performance Advantage Physique
whey protein now comes with only 110 calories per serving and 3 grams of sugar. The same bio-build that is in the body building Physique with extra leucine to repair muscle while letting the fat go. The same amino acids that athletes look for in a recovery drink. Now in chocolate and vanilla flavors.
#21314 vanilla, lower calorie Performance Advantage drink mix is $50 member price for 20 servings, 2 scoops per serving.

Energy Chews are now called Performance Energy Chews. Same product, new packaging.
I use these daily for those days when Pomegranate tea sends me running to the bathroom. If I’m hiking or going to fitness class, I’d rather get my energy boost from a solid. Two Energy chews due the trick. They are also excellent for keeping you alert driving home after a meeting or a party and you are feeling drowsy.  Safety first.

    New! New! New!
                                                    Sleep better!Wake up pain free!

Performance PM Recovery Complex
Who knew science had a way to help the sports-tired body recover while we sleep?

Ultra pure Tart Cherry extract clinically shown to optimize recovery and reduce exercise-induced muscle soreness which helps improve sleep quality
Relieves pain cause by overexertion

I take one of these plus Pain Relief Complex before bed on days when I have pushed myself and am worried I’ll get out of bed creaking and groaning. It helps! Maybe if I were still 60 instead of 80, it would help even more. Try some and let me know how it works for you.
Keep moving. Don’t give up. Drop the weight with lower calories and recover from your workouts, whether it is gardening, aerobics class, cycling, hiking, swimming or dancing (my favorite).

See you at the gym/YMCA/trail head.  Love, Betsy

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving.

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Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis, Weight Loss

Victim of genetics

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Gentle Reader,

 

One of my clarion calls has been “Don’t be a victim of your genes.”  Recent genetic studies indicate that some conditions that “victimize” people are dramatically challenging.  My local Seattle Times carried an article discussing the latest research findings published in The Lancet, Diabetes and Endocrinology.  Turns out there are 32 genetic variations that have been linked to obesity. In one study of 148 women between 35 and 60, those who carried 21 or more of these genetic variations did not benefit from resistance training.  No matter how much they worked out in the gym, their genetic makeup protected their fat stores and prevented weight loss.  Looks like these people are a victim of genetics.

Do fat-genes make you a victim?
Do fat-genes make you a victim?

 

In some of our bodies, lowering calories and increasing exercise cause a famine response.  We store more calories, no matter what.  If you have fewer of these genetic variations, lowering calories and working out results in weight loss.  The difficult alleles (one of two or more alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are found at the same place on a chromosome), seem to work together to keep the body from losing weight.  In fact, they strive to get you back to the highest poundage you ever weighed.  If you succeed in achieving normal weight, you are considered to be obese-in-remission.

 

What shall we conclude from this miserable information?  (Sometime I wish we didn’t have all this new data about our genetic makeup.)

 

The endomorph body type is more likely to hold excess weight.
The endomorph body type is more likely to hold excess weight.

I am neither a doctor nor a scientific researcher, however, I have been observing my own body over time and been in close contact with hundreds of people who have discussed their health issues with me.  One of the questions I ask people when we sit down for an advisory session is “What did your parents die of?”  If they are not dead yet:“What health challenges do your parent/relatives face?”

 

In my own case, my hair was thinning, my fingernails were breaking and splitting, my joints ached and I suffered from arthritis at age 48.  I had dandruff, bleeding gums and smelly arm-pits. My PMS was terrible and I yo-yo dieted.  My doctor never asked me these questions, but Jayme Curley did.  Jayme was the person who introduced me to supplementation.  In the preventative health world, these answers tell us what tendencies your body has toward various future conditions.  I had breast cancer at age 34.  I wondered if a poor immune system might be the cause.  No professional health care provider will travel down the road of cause with cancer, but after looking at my various poor health markers, Jayme concluded I might not have a strong immune system.

 

My mother had the splitting nails, bleeding gums and the menopause rages. My father had psoriasis and arthritis and caught colds constantly. I was following in their footsteps.

 

I reversed all these unsavory traits by introducing better nutrition—protein and vitamin supplements—into my diet.  Having cancer so young put me on a mission to outwit any deficiencies my body had which would lead to cancer.  My new supplement regimen helped when all the attempts I had made to mitigate these various minor symptoms before supplementing had failed, including maintaining a healthy weight.

For the record, my youngest daughter had two cancers at an early age which prompted her HMO to do a genetic study.  Low and behold, her blood and mine (they wanted the parents but the father was dead) are genetically skewed at P53.  P53 has a DNA repair function which, when wild or variant, doesn’t do its job.

 

Stay with me, here.  Suppose I had decided I had no choice but to be like my parents and live with these minor ailments, yo-yo dieting and medicating heavily at the slightest twinge of sinus infection or arthritis?  That would have made me a “victim” of my genetics.  Before I knew I have a genetic pre-disposition for cancer, I declared myself a victor over future cancers.  My mother had breast cancer at age 74; my cousin died of breast cancer; another of melanoma and another of a brain tumor (two of the three deadlies that come with P53 variant).  Am I just the lucky cousin?

 

In the case of obesity and obesity in remission, I have great sympathy for these people.  The Lancet article offers medical interventions and I’m sure many desperately over-weight people will take advantage of them. If I were exercise-weight-loss-hypnosisgenetically tested for obesity genes, I’m sure I would have a handful of the 32, maybe even the dreaded 21 that put women over the edge.  I feel as though I am an “over-weight-in-remission” person.  To change my body into the relatively lean one I live in today, I had to go after an unhealthy sugar addiction but cutting out all sugar including grapes (forever mostly) and all other fruit for a period of time.  I was rigid for years about white flour and sugar.  I’ve been able to relax, but continue to avoid refined flour, sugary snacks, baked goods and I limit my fruit intake. I have always eased myself out the door to exercise, even when the book/computer/bed held me back.

 

While the morbidly obese have what seems like an insurmountable struggle, those of us who tend to pack in on easily and have a hard time getting it off again, would do well to claim the victor attitude, rather than the victim.

Genetics is what can happen, our choices is what does happen!!
Genetics is what can happen, our choices is what does happen!!

Fool your body with gentle and gradually increased exercise and modest food changes.  We may be better off not calorie counting, pushing the numbers so low our body goes into starvation-avoidance mode.  Get out the glycemic index chart and avoid the foods that contain the most sugar while loading up on the low-glycemic foods.  I like a diabetic-safe soy protein shake loaded with vegetables and I pay attention every day, whether home or abroad, to how many vegetables I eat.

 

I will probably never have a flat belly or slim hips.  We can love our bodies the way they are.  One thing is sure: when your diet is heavy on the protein/vegetable end and you take some form of exercise every day, your brain, your immune system, your sense of well being are all enhanced.  Does it matter, really, if you are never a size 6?

 

When articles like the one on Mother’s Day claim our genes may be at fault, I worry that some may give up the effort and believe themselves to be a victim of genetics.  Why not eat what I love and crave:  I’m going to be over-weight anyway?  This is victim thinking.  It could lead to diabetes (another condition that ran in my family), a poor immune response, arthritis and heart disease.  Be a victor, no matter what your parents dished up.  You’ll feel better and live longer.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

PS: If you are reading this and you are morbidly obese and have tried everything, are at your wits’ end, I have great empathy for your situation.  I don’t mean to be flip or suggest this is a 1, 2, 3 easy change.  No doubt you have sought medical help already.  If I can support you in any way, let me know.  For the psychological aspect of the issue, you might take a look at http://workwithgrace.com/eating-peace/.

I love your comments, and read every one.

If you are interested in the protein shake I use, you can find it here.

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Be Well health tips, Weight Loss

Think Thin

Gentle Reader,

I hear “I’ve got to lose those extra pounds I gained over the holidays.”  This cry goes up every year in January.  The newsstands and grocery checkout lanes are full of magazines with the latest and greatest way to lose weight.  Did you ever wonder why it is so hard to get to your goal weight and stay there?

Could it be a question of BELIEF?  Perhaps you do not believe you can maintain your goal weight for the rest of your life.  Perhaps you, like me, have gained and lost countless pounds never believing you would/could arrive at and remain at your goal weight from now on—even when the holidays came and you indulged a little more than normal.

This was my personal view for many years. Those extra 25 pounds just hung around, got lost and found themselves again.  After the holidays, I would have to make a great big effort, increase the exercise program, go back to my fat clothes for a while and suffer.  Not anymore.

What changed for me can change for you, too.  I developed an enduring belief in myself at 140 instead of 160.

A little book called Mach II: With Your Hair on Fire, by Richard Bliss Brooke came across my desk recently.  In chapter 7, he describes how we change our beliefs and how the new belief will create new results.  He opens this chapter with this quote from the Bhagavad-Gita “Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.”  I will add Dr. Shaklee’s famous saying, “What you think, you look. What you think, you do. What you think, you are!”

In my case, I suddenly gained 25 pounds when I got so sick in high school that I couldn’t swim.  I swam competitively and ate all I wanted without ever going over 137lbs:  milk shakes after school, candy bars, fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits with butter and honey, all that great Southern cooking available to me every day.  My mother was so shocked at my sudden weight gain—along with the stretch marks on my thighs and breast—that an all out war on food ensued.  My father and younger brothers got involved in weighing in Betsy every morning and counting her calories every night.  Mother and I ate competitively, going for a 25 lb weight loss in a few months.  We ate those appetite-suppressant chocolates called Aydes, grapefruits and nothing else for lunch. I can’t remember what other stringent means we concocted.  You have probably done similar things to lose the weight you fight.

“We made up all the beliefs we have about ourselves.  We made something up based on what happened, or what we thought happened, or what someone told us happened.  And then, we went about learning to believe in those stories by listening to them over and over again” in our thoughts.  I decided, based on my father and brothers’ words, that I had no will power and that I would never lose those extra 20-25 pounds.

“Human beings are not born believing anything.  All we are at birth a clean slate for limitless possibilities.”

Brooke says the first step is “We give up our right to be right about us.”

Think about that statement.  We give our right to be right about ourselves.

He goes on to explain “Most of us hold on to what we believe to be true—about life and most everything else—as if there were no possibilities for any other truth.  Breaking through your barriers to success requires that you make up a new set of ideas of what’s possible, so that your possibilities support and empower your desires.  It comes down to a new screenplay.

Sometime in the 80s, I started drinking Shaklee’s Energizing Soy Protein shakes and leading weight loss classes called Slim-up and Live.  I listened to a 20 min. audio cassette in which questions or images were suggested.  I listened every day, often more than once.   At some point, I was a person who weighed 140lb.—not 160lb.—and my eating and exercise supported that vision, that belief.  I gradually started to think thin.

Brooke uses an interesting analogy taken from the practice of dyeing cloth used by Native Americans.  “Creating a new belief is like dyeing cloth in the old traditional way.  Native Americans would take a piece of natural fabric and change it into a different color by soaking the cloth in a dye, squeezing it out, hanging it up to dry and set, and continuing the process over and over again until the cloth ended up the color they wanted—the color they thought was possible to achieve.

“At first there was little, if any, change in the color of the fabric.  It took many soakings, rinsings and settings, and the change of color was gradual. Although at times the change was hardly noticeable, the new color deepened each time.  After a while, this change accelerated, becoming richer faster, until soon there was no hint of the original color.  The old color was gone and in its place was the new color.

“Our beliefs are created the same way.  This ‘dyeing’ process with our beliefs occurs in the mind and is called imprinting.  We have the extraordinary ability to create thoughts at will, and we can imprint those thoughts on and into our minds at will, as often as we choose—literally hundreds of times each day

“Like the depth of the color of a piece of dyed cloth, we can also control the quality and intensity (i.e., power) of the imprint we create. To the degree that our picture has clarity and detail, and can be expressed and experienced by our senses and emotions, our mind will respond to it as if it is a real experience.  The richer and more complete the image, the greater its impact in and on your mind.”  And on your behavior.

I have lost that cassette tape years ago, but found in Richard Brooke’s book, a series of questions very similar to those I used to change my belief so I would think thin.  Ask yourself these questions and answer them with as much detail and specificity as you can to form a new belief in yourself.

  • What exactly is an excellent weight for you?
  • What exactly do you look like at that weight?
  • What is the shape of your body at that weight?
  • Describe the new lines, curves, contours and the definition of muscles you see now.
  • What do you think about when you see yourself in the mirror?
  • What does the scale indicate when you step on it?
  • How do your clothes fit?
  • What do your new clothes look like? How do you look wearing them?
  • How do you feel at this new weight?
  • Are you doing any new activities now? What do you like best about them?
  • What are people saying to you about the new you?
  • What are people saying about how good you look?
  • How do you feel about that?
  • Do you have any new attitudes?
  • Are you more confident…? more attractive…? more secure..?happier?

“You may think that your answers to these questions sound silly, contrived.  That’s fine.  Realize that your answers are providing a powerful clarity—your answers are filling your mind with a richness that’s the equivalent of having a real life experience.”

If you want to further the power and effectiveness of creating real-time present pictures of the answers to each of the above questions, write them out and then speak them into your computer’s recording device and make your own MP3.  Play it to yourself as you exercise, ride the bus, do the dishes.  You will create a new belief about yourself at your ideal weight.  You will think thin. If writing out the details is too much for you, speaking these questions into a recording device and then pausing after each question, can be just as effective.  Listening to the question with enough time after it to visualize yourself in this new ways is a powerful tool to changing your belief.

180 Turnaround Program

While you are programming your mind for success, it is helpful to have a weight management eating and exercise program to follow.  I strongly recommend the Shaklee 180 Turnaround program for healthy weight loss. Right now is an advantageous time to participate as Shaklee has announced a major push to help people lose a total of 40,000 lbs.  WOW!  Big goal.  Check it out here.

The 180 Turnaround Program not only feeds your body the calories, protein, fat and fiber it needs with two replacement meals a day, but also helps your body keep its lean muscle mass.  Only the fat goes.  This means your metabolism stays high and you continue to have good energy all day.  Here is my youtube channel with success stories.

Think thin by changing your belief about your ability to succeed.  Once you are at your ideal weight, continue to think thin and support your resolve by using the Lean and Healthy program.  That’s what I have been doing for years.  Those extra couple pounds from the holidays are gone already thanks to the Lean and Healthy program.

I’d be happy to help you get on a weight management path with all the support your want from me.

Be well, Do well and Keep moving, Betsy

206 933 1889

You may want find peace around your struggle with weight by working with Grace Bell,  Eating Peace . In telecourses she asks, Making peace with food, not war, is so difficult for many. Where does it go wrong? What’s really going on? How can I become free again with food, and innocent as a child?

 

 

 

 

 

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Weight Loss

Lose Weight


Why do you want to lose weight? Perhaps you have been carrying a few–or a lot of–extra pounds for years.  Or you have been on every diet out there.  Maybe you have always maintained a healthy weight until you hit the post menopause slow-down and now look.  Where did the belly roll come from? What is your over-weight story?

You are sick of the yo-yo diet that gets you to the size you love and then blows you up again to the size you hate.  You are sick of not feeling on top of life.  You are tired of a body that just puts on weight no matter what.  This time you think you can do it–lose that 15 lbs quickly, the way you did last time, but it just isn’t working.  You really want to lose weight.

You have come to the right place.  I am Betsy Bell.  I’ve been there.  I’carried 20 pounds extra after an illness in high school knocked me out of my sport.  I forgot to modify my eating to fit my calorie-burning life and blew up, complete with stretch marks, 20 pounds in a few weeks.  It was mortifying.  I couldn’t fit my clothes.  I was humiliated by my brothers and father. I was desperate to lose weight.

My mother and I went on a grapefruit and those little Amphetamine-laced chocolates they used to sell in boxes that looked like Sea’s candy.  Not sustainable. I quit dieting and gained it all back.  Then came the four pregnancies and the weight gain with each one.  Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer and after the successful mastectomy, dieted like crazy to slim my big butt and hips to fit my shrunken top.  Up and down.  Up and down.  Help me lose weight!

In 1985, I met a woman who introduced me to the Shaklee product line of supplements.  Within a few months, my metabolism leveled out.  I started losing weight naturally.  With the 180 Turnaround Smoothees, I got to my goal weight, ended horrible menopause symptoms and have kept my goal weight ever since.  I learned to eat for health, a big dietary shift I maintain even on vacation. (Back in the 80s, their smoothees were called something else.  Today’s 180 Turnaround Smoothees have the benefit of leucine and the science behind retaining lean muscle mass.)

I am your coach, your 180 Turnaround Specialist.  Join me and end the yo-yo misery.  Click here to get started with your program.  You will learn habits that will help you lose weight and keep it off giving you health you only imagined.  I’ve been healthy for 26 years and have lots of healthy years to go.

Betsy Bell, 180 Specialist

206 933 1889

betsy@hihohealth.com

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Weight Loss

From size 16 to size 6

Read Elizabeth’s Shaklee 180 Story:  Learn how she went down 30 pounds and dropped from a size 16 to 6 and stayed that way.

Some of you may or may not know this about me, but I have struggled with my weight for quite some time. At the age of 14 I got up to a size 12 and I stayed there until I was 19. Then in fall of 2008 I spent 4 months in Germany as a volunteer helping out an religious order of retired sisters. Little did I know that I would come back home 20 pounds heavier than when I left. I went from a size 12 to a size 16! My clothes didn’t fit any more and I knew I didn’t want to buy all new clothes! Something needed to change and It needed to change fast.

After a year of not being able to lose the weight and after trying so many different kinds of diets, none of them seem to work. I guess you can say I gave up on trying to lose the weight all together. I found that it was easier to put on weight than it was to take it off. I had convinced myself and everyone around me that I was comfortable with who I was and how I looked. But what I really needed was to do a complete 180 with my life.

I felt very sluggish and unable to show my true potential. Everything I did took me twice as long as it should have and that was just to get the bare minimum done. I would want to sleep in late, go to bed early and nap almost daily! I had no energy to do anything and no motivation to change on my own.

My sister Bonnie was really the one who introduced me to the Shaklee 180 Turnaround program. I decided to give the program a shot. I had committed to give it my all for the full 90 days, as long as Bonnie did it with me!

As far back as I can remember, Bonnie and I would always do everything together. Whenever one of us would want to lose weight or get healthy we would make the other do it as well. It not only made it more fun but it was great to have someone keep you on track and keep you going.
Take the Challenge today, we did!!

In just 5 months of using the entire Shaklee 180 program, I ended up losing a total of 28 lbs and 19 1/2 inches! I went from a size 16 down to a 6! I don’t think I had ever been a size 6 before. Thanks to Shaklee 180 my life had been changed forever!

I haven’t even told you the best part yet…It has been 3 years and I am still a size 6! I have never had a weight loss program teach me how to keep off the weight like this one did. I love that Shaklee focuses on not only your before and after but your after-after as well! I feel better than ever and I have more energy than I ever could imagine. This is a picture of me from October, 2012. Now that I am a Shaklee specialist, I earned a free trip from Shaklee. It was a week long, all inclusive resort to the Rivera Maya in Mexico. I never felt more comfortable in my bathing suit and I am looking forward to my next year’s Shaklee Trip!

With my wedding only 8 months away, my fiancé (Brandon) and I have decided to do this challenge again! We would love to start our lives together feeling health and happy. I know personally I want to be “Tiny Tone and Tan” come my honeymoon! Besides with Shaklee’s 100% money back guarantee, we can’t go wrong.

Ok, now you are probably wondering what Shaklee 180 is and how you can get more information about it. Well don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging. I got started with the Shaklee 180 Turnaround kit! It has everything you need to get started with your own weight loss journey. This is an amazing value! This kit includes: 2 meals, a snack, an energy drink, the BURST work out program, along with a great mobile app to help you track your progress and receive manageable rewards. Not to mention an amazing support group to help you stay on track and meet your goals. All for less than $9 a day! You will also receive a free Shaklee Lifetime membership that will give you not only 15% off all future Shaklee orders but you can also get the chance to get your entire Turnaround kit for FREE! And I used to think that a $5 foot long was a good deal!

Read Elizabeth's Shaklee 180 Story:Some of you may or may not know this about me, but I have struggled with my weight for quite some time. At the age of 14 I got up to a size 12 and I stayed there until I was 19. Then in fall of 2008 I spent 4 months in Germany as a volunteer helping out an religious order of retired sisters. Little did I know that I would come back home 20 pounds heavier than when I left. I went from a size 12 to a size 16! My clothes didn’t fit any more and I knew I didn’t want to buy all new clothes! Something needed to change and It needed to change fast.After a year of not being able to lose the weight and after trying so many different kinds of diets, none of them seem to work. I guess you can say I gave up on trying to lose the weight all together. I found that it was easier to put on weight than it was to take it off. I had convinced myself and everyone around me that I was comfortable with who I was and how I looked. But what I really needed was to do a complete 180 with my life.I felt very sluggish and unable to show my true potential. Everything I did took me twice as long as it should have and that was just to get the bare minimum done. I would want to sleep in late, go to bed early and nap almost daily! I had no energy to do anything and no motivation to change on my own.Elisabeth Heasley Before Pictures for the Shaklee 180 program!My sister Bonnie was really the one who introduced me to the Shaklee 180 Turnaround program. I decided to give the program a shot. I had committed to give it my all for the full 90 days, as long as Bonnie did it with me!As far back as I can remember, Bonnie and I would always do everything together. Whenever one of us would want to lose weight or get healthy we would make the other do it as well. It not only made it more fun but it was great to have someone keep you on track and keep you going.Take the Challenge today, we did!!In just 5 months of using the entire Shaklee 180 program, I ended up losing a total of 28 lbs and 19 1/2 inches! I went from a size 16 down to a 6! I don’t think I had ever been a size 6 before. Thanks to Shaklee 180 my life had been changed forever!I haven’t even told you the best part yet…It has been 3 years and I am still a size 6! I have never had a weight loss program teach me how to keep off the weight like this one did. I love that Shaklee focuses on not only your before and after but your after-after as well! I feel better than ever and I have more energy than I ever could imagine. This is a picture of me from October, 2012. Now that I am a Shaklee specialist, I earned a free trip from Shaklee. It was a week long, all inclusive resort to the Rivera Maya in Mexico. I never felt more comfortable in my bathing suit and I am looking forward to my next year’s Shaklee Trip!With my wedding only 8 months away, my fiancé (Brandon) and I have decided to do this challenge again! We would love to start our lives together feeling health and happy. I know personally I want to be “Tiny Tone and Tan” come my honeymoon! Besides with Shaklee’s 100% money back guarantee, we can’t go wrong.Ok, now you are probably wondering what Shaklee 180 is and how you can get more information about it. Well don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging. I got started with the Shaklee 180 Turnaround kit! It has everything you need to get started with your own weight loss journey. This is an amazing value! This kit includes: 2 meals, a snack, an energy drink, the BURST work out program, along with a great mobile app to help you track your progress and receive manageable rewards. Not to mention an amazing support group to help you stay on track and meet your goals. All for less than $9 a day! You will also receive a free Shaklee Lifetime membership that will give you not only 15% off all future Shaklee orders but you can also get the chance to get your entire Turnaround kit for FREE! And I used to think that a $5 foot long was a good deal!To get yourself started with a 180 Turnaround, go to my shopping web site.  It’s my personal Shaklee web page for all the Shaklee products.
Be well, Do well and Keep Moving!
Betsy
206 933 1889
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Weight Loss

Weight Loss winner!

 

Ask Shaklee 180™ Healthy Competition Winner, Weight loss winner, Viki!

Ask Shaklee 180™ Healthy Competition Winner, Viki!

She was a burden to her family.
She was a burden to her family.

Viki, Healthy Competition Winner and Pro Cartwheeler
Did a 180 and lost 127 lbs*

Viki went from feeling like a burden to her family to feeling happy, healthier, and confident. Here’s her weight gain and weight loss story:

Viki’s Before:

  • Used to not be physically able to do the dishes.
  • Used to feel like people turned away from her at the end of her sentences.
  • Used to feel miserable all the time.

The Tipping Point:

“I was a burden to my family. I couldn’t even do things like washing the dishes; it was embarrassing.”

Viki’s After-After™ Snapshot:

“I go to lunch with my girlfriends and I’m not afraid of what the restaurant has; I live without fear.  There’s nothing in my life that’s bigger than that.”

Tell us about your before:

“I struggled with my weight as a teenager, but it was nothing that I couldn’t get under control if I felt like it. And then I got pregnant with my first child and I gained 60 pounds. I was pregnant with my second child in under six months, and I didn’t gain as much weight, but I didn’t have the chance to take off the weight. There was no weight loss at all.  I just kind of didn’t do anything or really think much about it outside of wishing I was thinner until I got on the scale one day and I weighed 282 pounds.  I got back off the scale and I literally kicked it.”

How has Shaklee 180™ changed your life?

“There are a lot of changes that come with losing so much weight.  It’s definitely an emotional process to work through. When you’re heavy nobody’s paying attention to you and you just kind of go about and not worry about everything.  People don’t treat you the same; that’s just a fact of life and so there’s some pulling back of what you would otherwise feel bold enough to do. Before Shaklee 180™, people used to turn away at the end of my sentence; now they keep the conversation going.”

What else has changed?

“Shopping for clothes is now one of my favorite things to do! It used to be that I could shop until the cows came home but I couldn’t find anything that made me look good. Now I can go out and the problem is—my husband will attest to this—deciding to not get everything I like. [laughs] It’s a whole new mindset, you know, to go through an entire wardrobe of things that you don’t feel good in to trying to figure out what look you want to wear today; that’s a big difference.”

Tell us your Healthy Competition experience:

“I would have never imagined that I would be sitting here and talking to people on camera. Or being in a photo shoot where people are fussing with my hair and makeup and making me look pretty all day long. I loved it!”

Shaklee 180 Healthy Competition Winner Viki

 *Results and experiences from the Shaklee 180 Program are unique for each person, so results may vary.  People following the weight loss portion of the Shaklee 180 program can expect to lose 1-2 pounds a week.

Start your 180 program today.  Contact Betsy Bell, your 180 Specialist 206 933 1889 or visit www.BetsybellFatLoss.com to sign up.

Thanks to Shaklee corporation for the products they make, for this post and for the life I have and offer to anyone who wants better health and financial freedom.

Be well, Do well and Keep moving, Betsy

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