Shelley A. Sonnenberg

Author who has lost 159 pounds and written a book about it!

Tag: No Salads Required!

Tips on Providing Support to a Loved One Who Is on a Weight-loss Journey — May 1, 2015

This photo of my mother and I was taken by my father this month. I like to refer to my parents as "my two best friends". They are my biggest fans and supporters.

Tips on Providing Support to a Loved One Who Is on a Weight-loss Journey

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Losing weight is one of the most popular topics on the planet today. It seems like almost everybody is thinking about it, talking about it, reading about it, blogging about it and tweeting about it, but very few people are actually successfully doing it.

Do you know somebody who both needs to lose weight and has a desire to do it, but can’t quite make any program that they try work? Maybe they need some help and maybe you are just the person to provide it! Now, I know some of you reading this are saying, “But what can I do? I am not a doctor, or a nutritionist or a personal trainer! What could I possibly do to help?” Actually, there are numerous things that can be done to assist a loved one on their weight-loss journey that do not require special training or a college degree! This is especially true if the person who is working toward reaching a weight-loss goal lives with you!

This photo of my father and me was taken before I began my weight-loss program. I weighed about 281 pounds at that time.
This photo of my father and me was taken before I began my weight-loss program. I weighed about 281 pounds at that time.

I recently lost 159 pounds during a fourteen month period and one of the things that really contributed to my success was the ongoing help of my family and friends during the whole journey and even beyond that, as I have been working to maintain my weight.

Here are some things you can do that would definitely be appreciated:

  1. Start a support group. This group can be comprised of friends, family or both. My parents and I formed a support group the day I began my program and we still support each other now! The best part about supporting each other is that everyone wins.  Not only did I lose weight, but they did too!
  2.  Listen to the person who is on a weight-loss program and discuss what is going one in their lives. Many people eat as a form of comfort and in order to stop doing that they need to develop relationships with people they can confide in, discuss positive solutions to problems and also just have fun!
  3.  Volunteer to help your loved one with some of their daily chores such as house cleaning, grocery shopping and cooking for them so they can have time to exercise.  You don’t have to help them every single day to be appreciated. Just do what you can!
  4. If the person who is working at losing weight has children, you can really do a great deal to assist them by helping with child care. Many parents, especially single mothers find a starting an exercise program practically impossible because of the needs of their kids. You can volunteer to care for the children yourself so the parent can go to the gym alone or you can pay for a babysitter so they can go to the gym with you. Either way, this can be extremely helpful!
  5. Speaking of gyms, you can also help pay for your loved one’s membership if they are facing financial difficulties. If they want to go to the same gym that you do, ask about what it would cost to add the person trying to lose weight to your membership. Sometimes you can get a discount this way.
  6. Help your rapidly shrinking loved one with acquiring new clothes! One of the biggest challenges during a weight-loss program, especially a successful one is figuring out what you are going to wear when you are changing sizes so often. Buying new clothing all the time can be really expensive and before you know it, whatever you just bought is already too big! One of the really wonderful things my Mom and several ladies I know from church did was to clean out their closets and give me free gently used clothes in the size I was wearing at the time. They took turns doing this as the need arose and I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am for that! Not only did they save me a tremendous amount of money, but I was also reminded how much I was loved and supported every time I opened my closet! I especially appreciated help with acquiring exercise cloths. It was nice to feel well dressed while I was working out!
  7. If the person you are supporting lives with you, volunteer to keep tempting foods that they are trying to abstain from like ice cream out of the house while they are actively trying to lose weight. This does not mean that you can’t sneak out for an ice-cream cone or other sweet treat at a restaurant when they are not with you. Just don’t wave the tempting foods under their nose!
  8. If you really want to be a hero, volunteer to follow the same food plan your loved one on the weight-loss program is following! This is especially effective if you are living together, because you will find it’s easier to shop and cook meals when everyone in your house is eating the same things and also your loved one will feel really cared for and supported. This works just as well whether you are following a pre-planned program from a weight-loss book or designing you own program. In my case, I designed my own weight-loss program and then wrote a book about it after my program was successful. The title of the book is No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds without Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How You Can Too! and it will be available to order from Amazon.com and other places in either late summer or early fall of 2015.
  9. Gather your support group together at least once a week to discuss how your weight-loss program is going and what you can do to help each other. If you are all following a program from the same weight-loss book, it might be helpful to discuss one chapter of the book every week. This not only will give you something interesting to discuss, but it will help you keep motivated to stay on the program and to read the whole book! Some weight-loss books, including mine have a discussion guide in the back designed to stimulate thoughtful conversations about the information the book covers. These talks can be both and helpful and entertaining!
  10. Think of your own ways to help! The ideas I have listed here are just the tip of the iceberg! Use your creativity and extend your hand of help in whatever way is needed!  If you are not sure what the person needs, ask them! You are not only offering love and support by doing so, you could also be helping to save their life!
As Time Goes By: Tips on Maintaining Your New Figure Once You Have It — April 28, 2015

This photo was taken just a few days ago. I love being at a healthy weight and I am willing to work hard to stay there!

As Time Goes By: Tips on Maintaining Your New Figure Once You Have It

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I recently lost 159 pounds in fourteen months and I have to say it’s great to have a new figure! I feel great, have lots of energy and can wear clothing styles and sizes that I could have only dreamed of wearing just a couple years ago.  I started what I call the “intense phase” of my weight-loss program in January of 2013 and completed it in February of 2014.  From then I have been in what I refer to as the “maintenance phase.”

This picture was taken a few months prior to the start of my weight-loss program. I weighed 281 pounds at that time.
This picture was taken a few months prior to the start of my weight-loss program. I weighed 281 pounds at that time.

Maintaining a new figure once you get one can be especially challenging, because unlike the original period of time when a person is actively losing weight, which usually has a start date and an end date, maintaining your new figure is supposed to last a lifetime! Of course this means that the newly slim person needs to figure out how to live through all of life’s ups and downs and still remained reasonably disciplined where food and exercise is concerned.  So far I have done pretty well, but my journey has already had several bumps in the road and if I know anything about life I can only guess that there are more up ahead.

The good news is that there are also plenty of days in life when things are going reasonably well and if I just stick to the good habits I put in place when I was actively losing the weight I should be able keep most of the weight off all the time and also re-lose any pounds I temporarily pick up due to a problem like an illness or injury that keeps me from exercising for a short while. I did have a couple of such situations already in the last few months and I am happy to say that I am feeling fit and fine and am back to my exercise program full blast.

Another type of problem that arises from time to time on a maintenance program is the temptation to overeat due to emotionally charged events that can arise in one’s life. I find the best way to deal with these things is to turn to God, friends and family instead of the refrigerator! One of the nice things about modern technology is that almost everyone we know can be reached by phone or social media even if they are physically far away. There are few things as comforting as talking to somebody who loves you and is willing to stand by you no matter what problems you are facing! Sometimes I still catch myself eating when I should be praying or phoning somebody, but I have gotten a whole lot better in this department and it’s my goal to someday master that completely!

Social eating can also be really challenging when a person is trying to maintain a figure because sooner or later almost everyone finds themselves at a wedding, birthday party or holiday event where cake and other special foods are being served and it’s both pleasant and polite to eat some of it. Do you want my advice on how to handle that situation? I say, “Go to the event, eat the food and enjoy yourself!” Of course I would also suggest that you use some common sense about how much you eat of everything, but if the only time you eat  high-calorie items is when you attend a special event like a wedding you probably are not going to gain so much weight that you can’t easily re-lose it once the day is over. Of course, if you are a busy and successful professional wedding planner and eat wedding cake at every wedding you plan for somebody, you may run into some difficulties, but for everyone else the occasional sweet treat at a special event is nothing to worry about.

I have also learned that exercising regularly is extremely helpful when it comes to keeping the weight off.  Now, I understand that every person reading this has their own situation to consider, but in my case I have found that if I don’t schedule doing an exercise I enjoy almost every day, I am going to start gaining weight again. I am 5’2” with very tiny bones and my natural metabolism is extremely slow. In order to kick my body into high enough gear to stay in shape I need to exercise at least a couple hours most days.  On the other hand, I have a couple friends who very seldom exercise and they never gain an ounce. This does not seem fair, but it’s the way it is! Someday when I get to heaven I hope to ask God about why he made people so different in this regard, but for the time being I find it better to stop wondering about things like that and just get moving!

Fortunately, I have discovered there are several exercises I really enjoy. My favorite is fitness walking. I do it with a friend whenever I can, but I also walk alone outside or on my treadmill. There is also an exercise bike in our house that I have just started riding on a regular basis and I enjoy using that too. My secret for enjoying both of those machines is that I never get on either one without bringing along my little CD player that also has a radio in it. I love playing music while I exercise, because it not only makes the time go by fast, but it also can inspire me to exercise more enthusiastically. This is especially true when I am on the exercise bike. Fast music really helps me move my feet!

I also have a gym membership and I enjoy going down to the gym and lifting weights once in a while. My goal is to go down there a little more, but I am still figuring out how to work that into my busy schedule. When I figure that out I will tell you all about it in a future post! Meanwhile, I am happy to say that it looks like “the new me” is here to stay!

I have found the whole process of transformation from my initial weight-loss to my current maintenance program to be much more fun than I ever thought possible during the 32 years that I struggled with obesity. I wish I had started this program a whole lot sooner! Of course, one of the reasons I have been having such a good time was that I designed my own weight-loss plan with the intent of enjoying it. This was especially important during the first thirteen months when I was losing the weight initially.  I ate only healthy foods that I wanted to eat and did only exercise that I liked to do.  I share my whole program in my upcoming book, No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds Without Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How You Can Too! This book contains my personal story, lists of recommended foods, 30 suggested meal combinations, insights on how to succeed, poetry just for fun and much more! You will be able to order this book from Amazon.com and other stores starting in either late August or early September of 2015.

The Power of Positive Shrinking: How an Upbeat Attitude Can Help You Lose Weight — April 25, 2015

This picture of me with the "Before" photo that I use when I do motivational speaking was taken by my father on April, 24, 2015.

The Power of Positive Shrinking: How an Upbeat Attitude Can Help You Lose Weight

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There are many names for a cheerful outlook. Norman Vincent Peale called it “positive thinking”, my parents called it a “good attitude” and a famous song referred to it as “the sunny side of life.”  The truth is that whatever name you give it, a positive attitude can do wonders for any weight-loss program and often makes the difference in whether or not a person is successful in reaching their weight-loss goals.

Recently I lost 159 pounds in fourteen months and I have to say that one of the most important things I did to lose the weight was to believe that my goals, though large, were completely possible to attain.  I actually think this attitude was even more important than the food I ate, the exercise I did or the weight-loss and nutrition products I used, because even though all those things made a huge difference, I would not have made it through one day of my program if I wasn’t enjoying it!

 Now, I do admit that when I first considered starting a weight-loss program I was a bit unsure if I wanted to undertake such a big project, but once I embraced the idea I did so wholeheartedly and never looked back! One of the first things I did to inspire myself to think positively was to write a simple, but powerful slogan that I said over and over to myself and anyone else who would listen. It was: “I am going to eat and exercise like a skinny person until my body figures it out!” I knew that if I was going to lose weight, my lifestyle that had caused me to become morbidly obese had to be abandoned and what better way to do that than to adopt the type of lifestyle that millions of skinny people were practicing successfully?

I also committed myself to the idea that my weight-loss program was exciting and that it was going to be lots of fun to watch myself transform into a healthy woman with a new figure. My program was in no way a punishment for eating unwisely in the past or a deprivation program that somebody else was forcing me into. Quite the opposite!

In fact, as I have mentioned in a previous blog post, I designed my weight-loss program to include only healthy foods that I liked to eat and exercise that I enjoyed doing! For example, I really am not much of a salad eater and I don’t like celery at all, so I decided not to put either of those items on my daily weight-loss menu. Instead, I ate foods like barbequed spare ribs, corn on the cob, apples and grapes!  If you think that sounds like a whole lot of fun, you are right! It was!  I was watching myself shrink and also was walking around with a big smile on my face. I had never enjoyed trying to lose weight before, but fortunately there is a first time for everything!

I tell my whole story about my weight loss and the specific details of exactly what I did to lose the weight in my upcoming book, No Salads Required! How I Lost 159 Pounds without Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How You Can Too! The book will be available to order from Amazon.com and other stores at either the end of August or the beginning of September 2015. I hope that everyone who buys it and tries my program has as much fun as I did!

A positive attitude is also a very important part of keeping a healthy figure once you get one! I have been maintaining my new weight for over a year now and one of the ways I do it is to remind myself of all the good things I enjoy about being thin like being able to easily cut my own toenails, tie my own shoes, bend over without getting nauseous and fit into any restaurant booth or airplane seat I want to sit in without a problem.

This photo of my mother and I was taken just a few months before I started my weight-loss program. I weighed 281 pounds here.
This photo of my mother and I was taken just a few months before I started my weight-loss program. I weighed 281 pounds here.

Now for those of my readers who have never been extremely overweight these little blessings may not sound like much, but trust me when I say that I am thrilled every day to be able to do these things again. I am 5’2” with very tiny bones, yet I weighed 281 pounds when I started my weight-loss program and my hips measured 5 feet around. I understand what it’s like to have a serious weight problem and I also understand that if I don’t keep up a good attitude about living a healthy lifestyle I could end up in that position again.

Fortunately, I am having a wonderful time eating the healthy foods I came to love while I was losing weight and I am  also enjoying learning to prepare new healthy recipes. My exercise program is a delight too. In our house, we have both a treadmill and an exercise bike and I enjoy using both of them, but recently I have returned to outdoor fitness walking. I have a neighbor who I walk with several times a week and we really enjoy both taking care of ourselves and having someone to talk to while we do it. Sometimes her husband joins us and we often see neighbors who are outside walking dogs or working in their yards and we talk to them too. We also often see other neighbors who are fitness walking, jogging or riding bicycles and several of them have told us that watching my transformation and seeing my friend and me walking regularly has given them the hope and inspiration to begin their own exercise program. If this keeps up soon everyone in our neighborhood will have a weight-loss story to tell!

So now I have a question for you: Are you considering starting a weight-loss program?  If you are I want to encourage you to make sure it’s a program that is both based on the principles of healthy living and also one that you can enjoy every day that you are following it  If you choose a program like that and stick to it cheerfully, before you know it, you will not only have achieved your weight-loss goals, but you will find yourself following other exciting dreams as well! What’s next for you after weight-loss? There are all kinds of opportunities that you could use your newly acquired positive attitude to attain. All you have to do is pick the ones you want and go after them until positive thinking and living becomes a regular part of your life. Once that happens you will be able to join my friends and me as we joyfully shout, “My future is so bright, I have to wear shades!”

My future is so bright that I have to wear shades!
My future is so bright, I have to wear shades!
Social Media Mania! — April 22, 2015

Lately I have been learning more about social media than I ever expected to and have been enjoying every minute of it!

Social Media Mania!

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These days I am fascinated with Facebook, learning to love LinkedIn, becoming passionate about Pinterest, excited about email and typing out my Twitter tweets with great enthusiasm! I am also finding my blogging experiences to be both beautiful and beneficial and as a result I am going wild about WordPress!

The reason I have taken such a great interest in all this is that the marketing experts at my publishing company have really encouraged me to promote my upcoming weight-loss book, No Salads Required! on social media, so I have been learning all I can during the last few weeks on how to use the above Web sites to their fullest advantage. It has been an intense and entertaining process, which I know will only get more exciting the more I learn and the more social media sites I add to my marketing plan.

Of course, I do know that all the Web sites I have mentioned in the opening paragraph have been around for a long time and that some of my readers may be wondering why a person my age, who likes using computers isn’t already an expert each of those social media hot spots.

Well, to be honest, I did know quite a bit about Facebook and Yahoo e-mail, because I had been using them both for years, but purely in a social manner. I went online when I felt like it, sent messages, posted a few photos, played some games, chatted with friends who lived far away and basically just enjoyed the entertaining side of social media. As for Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest, I did have accounts on those sites, which I had signed up for at the invitation of friends, but I couldn’t remember any of the passwords I had set up for them. Also, I hadn’t even completed filling out my online profiles on each one, let alone exploring what these various sites had to offer. I guess I just had never gotten around to them. As for blogging, that was completely uncharted territory, but once I started it I wondered why it had taken me so long to do so.

Actually, once I got my business accounts up and running on all these Web sites I immediately understood why social media has become such an extremely popular way to advertise. It allows me to promote my book to potential readers all over the world and to work anytime and anywhere I like as long as I have a computer device and access to the internet. Not bad! Currently, I am using free methods to promote my book online, because I am still a “starving writer”, but as the release date for No Salads Required! gets closer, I may take advantage of some of the more modestly priced social media advertising options just to be sure that I get the word out to everyone I can.

This is a photo from one of my Facebook albums. It was taken prior to my 159 pound weight-loss.
This is a photo from one of my Facebook albums. It was taken prior to my 159 pound weight-loss.

Another thing my internet marketing program has done is give me the joy of reconnecting with old friends and sharing the news about both my 159 pound weight-loss and my new career as an author to people who have not heard the news until now. The best part is that not only are they happy for me, but they can’t wait to buy a copy of my book!

I am also finding out that there is a tremendous amount of helpful information available online for business people and that if I take the time to read most of it I will probably learn just as much for free as I would if I went back to college for a few classes in business.

I think the Web site that has surprised me the most in this regard is LinkedIn. Until a couple weeks ago, I really knew nothing about this site, other than it had “something to do will business”. Of course, now that I have explored LinkedIn a lot more, I realize that saying this website has “something to do with business is like saying the ocean has “something to do with water”! LinkedIn offers helpful information and discussion groups on a huge variety of business topics and also the opportunity for users to put together an online profile that showcases their professional skills, but that’s not all! Linked in is also fun! You can join a discussion groups for humor writers, cat lovers, people interested in the movie industry and groups for almost any other topic you can name. Also, anyone on LinkedIn is welcome to start discussion groups of their own. Not only do these groups give participants the opportunity to have lively discussions on subjects of mutual interest, they also help likeminded people find one another.

Recently, I had the privilege of participating in an amusing online discussion in the humor writers group about forgetting things. I read what the other participants had posted, chuckled and then posted a quote from my paternal grandfather, who said he “didn’t know if his memory was getting worse or his forgetter was getting better!” This post received some very positive feedback from two people I had never met before. They are strangers right now, but someday we may become friends.

I have also had positive experiences with the other social media sites I am using and perhaps I will discuss them in future posts. For now, I will just say that social media has given me a whole world of opportunities that I did not realize were open to me until now and I am very thankful indeed!

Book Update: My upcoming book, No Salads Required! How I Lost I59 pounds without Salads, Celery, Sit-Ups or Surgery and How You Can Too!” will be available to order from Amazon.com and other stores at the end of August or the beginning of September of 2015.