We Have Moved!

Hey party people! We have moved to a brand spankin' new blog today! You can now visit our new blog at

www.chubbygirlsdiary.com

Please mark our new address in your bookmarks! What are you waiting for...head on over there and enter to win a $25 girl card from Sunflower Farmers Market!

xoxo
Tonya & Brenda

Gettin' skinny on vacation

Vacation - just the word send shivers up my spine and brings longing to my heart. Whether its a quick weekend trip some place close or a three week journey around the world, its the chance to relax, recharge and have some fun. Unfortunetly it can be a diet killer though.

There is a completely different set of rules when we're off having fun. New restaurants to try, new dishes to sample and lets not forget trying the regional cuisine. Food can be an amazing part of a vacation and its certainly something my family takes very seriously. In fact, when we went to Florida about 11 years ago, the first thing we did when we set foot in Epcot Center was to haul ass to Italy to eat Italian food. True story. In fact, we basically ate our way around Epcot, sampling the treats in EVERY country. French pastries, English fish and chips, Mexican nachoes, American funnel cakes, Chinese fried rice.....are we seeing a pattern here?

I'm traveling back to Denver and I'm so excited to hit some of my favorite food haunts and try out some new ones. Already this trip I've had delicious pizza from Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs and Thai food from this hole in the wall place with my good friend Damon.

Mountain High pizza from Beau Jo's. Two thumbs up indeed.

Believe it or not there is a way to have a fab vacay and enjoy delicious food and still stay on track. There is no vacation from kicking fat's ass and we must continue to persevere, even while away from home.

As you well know, I've been on my {TAIslim program} for about a month now and feel fab. This stuff is amazing and it has already changed my life. And its so easy that I can take it with me and its not a huge deal. The answer to staying skinny on vacation is:

TAIslim2go! 

O.M.G., right? Right. These little beauties are smaller than a cell phone and hold a two ounce serving. I have a couple of them stashed in my purse and break them out when I sit down at a restaurant. I've already used them and they work great.

Although that pizza looks super fattening, when you're only eating one piece, its not going to kill you. After I drank my TAIslim2go, I got a big salad from salad bar (see picture for proof of its existence) so by the time the pizza came, I was feeling full (thank you TAIslim) and only had one piece. It was the perfect lunch - I had pizza and a salad from one of my favorite places in the world and left there feeling satisfied and good. Win, win, people.

I found some other great tips off its Facebook page for staying on your program while on vacation.

1. Bring along healthy snacks such as unsalted nuts, popcorn, and dried fruit. In the car? Pack a cooler with fresh fruits and vegetables, yogurt, sugar-free pudding cups, sandwiches with lean meats, unsweetened tea, and plenty of water. Skip calorie-heavy flavored coffees and soda.
   (I LOVE this idea and did this on the drive over. We munched on low-fat string cheese, red pears and water. Not only was it good for us, but also way cheaper than gas station snacks.)
   
   TAIslimmer Tip: Pack milk, ice, and whatever you use in your SHAKEs in a cooler, along with a bag of SHAKEs and blender bottle. If there’s no cooler, pick up what you need for your SHAKEs at the market. Keep SKINNYs™ handy.
   
2. Follow your meal plan at least 90 percent of the time. Select healthy food choices; plan ahead by downloading menus of restaurants along your route and destination(s). Look for restaurants, such as Chili’s, Olive Garden, and P.F. Chang’s, that feature healthy items.
   (Just remember to have fun and enjoy your culinary vacation. Food should be fun and can create memories.)
   
   TAIslimmer Tip: TAIslim 2go™ makes bringing along TAIslim liquid convenient and hassle-free. Single-serving bottles easily fit in your pocket, purse, laptop bag, cooler or car console.
   
3. Continue to exercise. Walk before and after meetings; strive for at least 30 minutes daily. Visit the hotel fitness center and/or pool or get a guest pass to a nearby gym. Bring along dumbbells or exercise ball for in-room sessions or go for a run.
   (Even if you're not hitting the hotel weight room, you're probably still exercising by walking around attractions. Wear your pedometer and try to get your 10,000 steps. You might be surprised how much walking you do on vacation. Swimming in the pool, even just messing around with your kids is also great.)
   
   
4. Get adequate sleep. Try to get a solid 7-8 hours per night. When your body is well rested, you have the renewed energy for optimum functionality. Sleep affects your metabolism, so obtaining adequate, restful sleep is a very important aspect to weight loss.
   
   TAIslimmer Tip: Don’t skimp on sleep. Short-changing your body of rest can negatively impact your weight loss progress.

How do you stay on track while having fun on vacation? I will keep you posted on my fun trip! Loves to you all! Keep up the good work fighting the fat!

Doing something that actually works...

A few days ago I had the most unpleasant thing happen to me. My wire in my damn bra broke and every time I moved I got poked in the boob! Now I know that there was quite a bit of pressure on that poor little wire, but still I was annoyed. How dare it break! So I marched my chubby self to Lane Bryant in search for a new bra. My old one didn't quite fit right anymore so I had the sales girl do a fitting for me, and off I was to try some bra on. I was quite shocked to find out that my new bra I just got fitted for was 4 INCHES smaller than my last one. You read that right...I went from a 44 to a 40! Hells yes!!!

So last night I was curious is I had lost inches anywhere else. I have lost 2 inches in my belly and and inch in my thighs. My butt was the same still, but that is always the last place I lose...and I am ok with that. I like my big butt!!!

You want to hear a little secret...I haven't exercised in 3 weeks. Not because I didn't want to, but with moving I just haven't been able to. So how am I dropping the weight. One word. TaiSlim. Brenda and I are both 100% against crash diets and TaiSlim is not one of those. It really is amazingly easy to do and it is changing our lives. My husband has been doing it for 2 months and he is wearing shorts he hasn't worn in 2 years. It really works and I love it.

We are having a Taislim party at my sisters house on July 29th and we would love to see you all there. If you can't wait that long to hear about this amazing product we would love to tell you more about it. Just leave us a comment and we will get you more information or you can visit our Taislim Website.

This post is kind of sounding like an infomercial but that is not my intention. I am just so excited about my new weight loss and I couldn't wait to share!!!

xoxo
Tonya

A necessary evil

Ok people. You hate it, I hate it, your next door neighbor hates it, and even your clean-freak mom hates it. You know what it is: housework. Yes, it is a necessary evil. It must be done, because hello, have you watched Hoarders on TLC? Yeah, that’s why. So what does house cleaning have to do with exercise? Well, let me enlighten you. Here are three little household chores you can do to burn fat and build muscle.

1. Wax on, wax off while you wash the walls. Yes the Karate Kid Master knows what’s up. Cleaning walls is awful work, and very tedious, but it can also be a great upper body workout. Use pressure to really clean the walls and at the same time, work the muscles of the shoulder as well as the bicep and triceps. Apply pressure to the wall and really concentrate on the muscle groups doing the action. Be sure and switch arms to get an even work out, and try switching an up-and-down motion with a circular motion to work a variety of muscles.

2. Mop the flo. Whether you’re on your hands and knees or using the handle-mop, you can still get some burn. When on the floor, use the same motions you used while washing the walls. Round and round, up and down, all the while sucking in and flexing your abs. When you’re prone (on hands and knees) you can really create a good core workout at the same time you’re working your arms. When you’re standing, really push and pull that map to use arm and core muscles.

3. After-dinner delight. After-dinner dishes are the worst. You just prepared the meal, everybody scarfs it down and you’re left with the dishes. What a perfect time to get a little burn going on your calves! While you scrub, do calf raises, alternating the direction of your foot. Turn your toes in (pigeon toed) and then out, then straight forward, doing sets of 20 or more per position. This will give you all the more motivation to show off those rocks hard calves in the sexy heels you’ve been wanting.

There you have it. You’re such a multi-tasker aren’t you! As always, you might want to get a little warmed up before your workout, so run up and down the stairs a few times to get your heart beating (or to chase you child running with scissors). Get a hot bod and a clean house at the same time? Yes please!

Post by the lovely and talented Emily Fonnesbeck

Bountiful Baskets

My good friend from high school Chantelle Ray turned me on to the greatest thing ever! We all know its important to eat fruit and veggies but as a mom, sometimes I feel like my entire food budget goes to produce. The solution: Bountiful Baskets

Chantelle is uterlly amazing to me and she wrote up some information about this program and how it has made a difference in her family's life. 

Have you heard the news?  The USDA has changed the Food Pyramid to a Food Plate.  It’s a great visual and so incredibly easy to teach your children.  ½ of your plate should be filled with fruits and veggies, ¼ with whole grains and ¼ with low fat protein.  Then add a little dairy on the side.  Easy enough to follow…unless your monthly food budget is tiny.  A few weeks ago a good friend of mine was annoyed that her hubby had dropped her weekly budget.  How could he expect her to ONLY use $150 last week and $200 this week?!?!  I didn’t tell her that her weekly budget was pretty close to my monthly budget.  Because of this, we lived on lots of cheap, unhealthy processed and caned foods.  There was absolutely NO WAY that we could ever use the Food Plate as a guide.

Here is what I got in my first basket. All this for $15? Somebody pinch me!

Back in November a good friend introduced us to Bountiful Baskets and it has completely changed things in our house.  Bountiful Baskets is a produce co-op that brings together the purchasing power of over 15,000 people in 11 states each week. For a contribution of $15 we get a TON of fresh fruits & vegetables.  This co-op changed the way our family eats and we fell in love with it immediately!  Bountiful Baskets has made healthy eating affordable for our family.  Now it’s a piece of cake (heehee) to follow that Food Plate.

Our eating habit is not the only way Bountiful Baskets has changed our lives. We have been blessed by this co-op so much that I wanted to share it with others. I also want to teach my children the value of service and the importance of making good food choices.  BB is an amazing way to do all of this.  It’s run completely by volunteers.  Even the 2 ladies who started the co-op and work a crazy number of hours on it don’t make a penny. So, I got trained, found a site and opened a new drop off location.

Here’s how it works:  On Monday morning each week, people make their contributions online at bountifulbaskets.org.  A conventional basket is $15, an organic basket is $25 and there are usually 5 or 6 other items you can purchase if you want.  The “add ons” change each week, but you can get things like 9 grain bread, a “tropical pack,” “Mexi pack” or a case of apples.   

Then we wait until Saturday morning.  Under the direction of a Volunteer Site Coordinator a few participants meet the trucks arriving at their pickup location and help unload and distribute the produce evenly into 2 baskets for each participant - one for fruits and one for veggies. About an hour after the truck drop time the rest of the participants show up to get their baskets transferring their share of the food into their own basket or bag and take it home to enjoy.   

My kids LOVE helping with the distribution. They're not old enough to handle the produce, but there's plenty of other things for them to do. One week during my training the boys were busy crushing boxes... but took plenty of time to play in them as well. (We all know boxes make the best cars and planes and trains.)  I love that it’s teaching them service and the value of helping our community.

These are Chantelle's little cuties. Aren't they adorable? I think so!!

Also, BB has changed one of their policies and we wanted to make you aware of it:

"We thank you all for participating in Bountiful Baskets. With the recent growth of the co-op we are now requiring that you provide a printed confirmation or have an electronic copy of your confirmation number before we can allow you to get your produce and extras. We realize some of you may not have brought your confirmations today. We understand and can be more understanding while we implement this new policy but next week we won't be able to release produce or extras without a confirmation number. Thank you for your understanding. This is to protect you and the co-op from any problems and helps us better resolve any possible issues."

To read how BB has changed other people’s lives, go to this post on facebook – prepare to be amazed! http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150244107364382&id=40869244381

If you want more information, check out the website and click on New Participants.  www.bountifulbaskets.org

Here’s to happy, healthy eating!

Thanks Chantelle! I have used BB for a few weeks now and it has been wonderful. The savings are amazing and the produce is a good quality. Have you used BB? What are your thoughts?

Fat's ass just got kicked

That's right kids, there are five, count them FIVE less pounds on my body as of this morning bringing my grand total to 11. Please, please, keep your applause down. I stepped on the scale today and wasn't expecting much. When my stupid scale finally registered my weight (after about six attempts, piece of crap) I couldn't believe it!

I walked out of the bedroom dragging my jaw on the floor. O.M.G., right? Right.

I've been talking about my new {program} for about a month now and I'm really starting to see the results! The program is called TAIslim and it is incredible. I've already lost a few inches, so much in fact I've had to throw away two pairs of pants. O.M.G., right? Right.

So now I have three choices - walk around with out pants (a viable option in the summer but hard to explain, especially at City Council), buy new pants (hard to do with no money) or transform a pair of fat pants that still currently fit into capri pants. And number three is our WINNER!

In my closet there are two pairs of jeans and two pairs of corduroy pants. I took one pair of each, hacked off about 10 inches (I'm short along with being fat, what can I say) and then used my mad sewing skills to produce two new pairs of cute capri pants (see not so flattering picture below).

Please excuse the weird wet spot on the front of my pants, the damn sprinkler got me.

I'm never going back to my fat clothes, EVER. Ever. Ever. So what's the point of keeping them around, clogging up my closet. My fat clothes will soon become the ugly white trash neighbors that live near you who don't keep their yard up and bring the whole neighborhood down. My skinny clothes will deserve a beautiful place to live. Burn down the trailer park, the white trash fat clothes have to go.


We're going to be having a TAIslim open house in the end of July. If you are even slightly interested in finding out more about this product, please plan to attend. This product will change your life if you follow it (and its painfully easy), you will feel better and feel better. O.M.G., right? Right.


Oh, and keep my dear sister Tonya in your prayers. She's struggling a little right now and could use the good vibes!


Love you all! Please don't stop now, we're making so much progress! Don't let fat get the better of you! Fat's ass needs to be kicked and our faithful readers are just the people to do it! Kisses!!

I have let my dear sister carry this blog for the last 2 months. Not that anyone is complaining much because she is one funny biotch, but this blog is called Chubby Girls not One Chubby Girl. So I am going to make a bigger effort at updating much more often. I do have wonderful excuses why I haven't updated this blog, a vacation to Disneyland with my bff who has ugly cancer, traveling to Michigan for an AMAZING wedding shoot and moving back to UTAH!!! We are finally settled into out new, teeny tiny apartment and now I can focus on weight loss and this blog.

I haven't done as well with weight loss as my sister has in the past two months. We have started a new wonderful {PROGRAM} but Brenda has been so much more diligent than I have about it. I have lost about 5 lbs and 1 inch. Which is still great, but not as good as my favorite sister. She as been so diligent and has done great. I love my sister so much and I am so proud of her for being able to throw away some of her fat pants! Well done sister!!!! xoxo

The next time I blog it will be with better news...like I had to go shopping because my pants don't fit anymore!

xoxo
Tonya