Question 16. How do I Know What Diet Is Best For Me?

I absolutely love this question, Y'all if you notice in my disclaimer I tell you in every post that I am NOT an expert and this question will help u understand more why I say this.
All people are different and that's the beauty of the world.  With that being said when you feel like it's time to take the step into diet world first things first.. Talk to your doctor.. Make an appointment with your family doctor if you have one. It's very important to get some imput from a professional. If you don't have a doctor then I am going to suggest research,  research. Don't be afraid to read everything about what intereast you and read all reviews.  Read what people have said about it that have tried it just like this blog you're reading right now.
I haven't been lucky enough to have a family doctor over the last 6 years so I picked back up on a diet I did about 8 years ago that I know works. I did this as well as I added a treadmill to the house. I literally took my kitchen table out of the house and replaced it with a treadmill. 
Every day I have made it mandatory to walk no less than one mile. Now I have kept that up but I have been very slack in the food area.  I will post of that in another post for 2017..
Please just keep in mind that before you do anything at all please if it is possible, consult your doctor.

Question 15.. How Often Should I Work Out?

Working out was at first something I hated doing.. I hated it so bad.. However I also knew it was something that had to be done.. I started out honest to gosh with the minimum of just walking.  I walked three miles and I did it at least two times a week. Now I workout every day. Now to answer this question.  Ideally we should do some kind of exercise every day but that may not be possible for every one so I recommend you set yourself to a schedule that works best for you. Three days a week is where most people are comfortable.  If you have any kind of cardio equipment in your house then u have no excuse..  If you don't and you rely on going to a gym then this is when u work out a schedule that best fits you..
Please know that I am no expert I am simply sharing with you what has and is working for me...if you have any questions or comments about the blog please send them to divatammy93@gmail.com..

Question 8~ Will U Share Your Fritata Recipe.

I got an email asking me about another recipe.. My fritata recipe.. well it's funny because I honestly just threw this together as a trial and error just looking for things that were high in protein and healthy..
You can pretty much do this to suit your taste but this is the final recipe I came up with.
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 small red onions, diced
1 1/2 pounds sliced mixed mushrooms (about 8 cups)
2 pints grape tomatoes, halved
1 pound spinach leaves, torn into 1-inch pieces I used frozen and squeezed out all the water
3 1/2 cups egg whites
8 ounces creamy goat cheese
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
2 large green peppers diced
This recipe yields me enough to get 24 1 to 1.5 cup servings..
I am in no way an expert, I am simply sharing with you what is working and has worked for me..
If you have any questions or a success story u would like to share please shoot me an email
divatammy93@gmail.com
I look forward to hearing from you

Setbacks, Frustration. Don't Dare Give Up.

How many of us start things and then just stop?? How many new years resolutions have been just dropped. Forgotten. Trust me when I tell u I have been there. I have done it. 
I have stopped and started diets so many times I loose count. One thing u couldn't call me was follow through.. well, in the last 9 months or so I have gotten better at it . No not anywhere near where I want to be. But I am definitely getting better. I have made myself commit to a stricter diet and I have also made myself commit to a 2 mile walk and a 30 min circuit of exercises that I do daily... Please know that this in no way is or has been easy because I will be the first to stay in bed and think no.. I watched a pretty cool chick the other day though that said.  "If you have time to sit and think about how not to do it, You could have done it already ". So please y'all..Don't Dare stop. You got this... Get up and move.. anything is better than nothing.
I am in no way a professional and don't claim to be. Just sharing what has,worked and is working or isn't working for me and maybe touch someone somewhere...

She is why.. ❣❣❣

I Keep A Strict Schedule . 📆🗓

The biggest thing for me in the very beginning was timing myself of when you eat. I wasn't used to sitting down, stopping what I was doing to actually pay attention to my eating. I was a grab and go, some sort of junk snack and maybe actually eat a real meal for supper. That would be meal of some kind of fried, Southern casserole, drowned in butter fatty something. Well this is a whole new lifestyle change for me and now that I was set to a 1200 calorie a day diet, I had to plan meals, snacks, prep times and all of this. I was excited and couldn't wait to try. My OCD makes me a chart maker and a timer setter so that is exactly what I did. I have stated in a previous blog that if you are going to be a breakfast eater it needs to be within the first 3 hours of getting up in the morning. I chose a protein shake for breakfast and for lunch so that makes those two areas easy.
Check this out. Now I'm not saying that these are times you should use, these are just the ones that work best for me.
6am- breakfast shake
9am-high protein snack
12pm-lunch shake
3pm-afternoon high protein snack
6pm- high protein supper.
Now here is where I usually stopped. Ideally three hours later you're supposed to have one more snack that is high in protein. I'm usually early to bed so I don't eat that late. I've had people ask me what I use for snacks. Well that's a good question. I keep them higher in protein than carbs so I am always carrying something like beef jerkey, almonds, quest bar. Things of that nature. And I always have water with me.
I hope this is useful. Please feel free to leave comments on my blogs I love your feed back. I also appreciate the questions I have received so far. Please if you have something you want to know shoot me an email.
divatammy93@gmail.com. 

Question 5. When You Began Your Journey What Was a the Hardest Thing To Cut Back On

This next question is awesome because so many things came to mind. But the one thing I kept coming back to was my diet coke. I was a hard core diet coke drinker. Well to me I was anyway, considering that now I might have 1 a week if that... It was hard at first I won't lie. I had done some research on diet coke, it's ingredients and just all the caffeine.i had to take it slow to keep down the withdraw headaches. I had also been doing research on water intake and how much your body should have. Well I found that there are a couple of ideas on this. One being 8, 8 ounce glasses a day. The other is to drink half your body weight in water. Well, for whatever the reason at the time I was so disgusted with my weight that this would mean I would have to have 110 ounces of water in a day.. This literally was how I saw this. That number was huge just like me so I was gonna do it because it was going to help me get my other number down.. Now every day, I drink at least 150 ounces of water a day. I don't even put anything in it anymore. I use to have to add things like crystal lite packs to it because I wasn't a fan of just plane water. But the more I drank the more I just began to leave it plane. And just recently I began to notice I haven't drank quite as much cofee as I have in the past.. I am usually now just walking with a water bottle. And I have also noticed the change in my skin and that is also a good thing. It's just all around healthier for your body not to contain the chemicals of a diet drink and the caffeine in coffee..
Thank you guys again so much for your questions. If you would like so send a question you can do so to divatammy93@gmail.com.  Thank you all so much for your support.

Skin is so much smoother 

Question 2.. Awesome!! A Two Part One

  Question #2
The day you decided to start, how did you go about it?
Did you plan things out or jump in head first?
I can feel my body screaming for all those bad carbs when I try to make that transition. ..thanks!...
Wow.. what a question. An amazing one. Well the day I decided to start came after a new patient appt to a new doctor and finding I had high cholesterol.  I was put on medication and was told the do's and don't's and sent on my way. Well I was on this medication for about 5 days and then my body had a horrible reaction to it. So much so that I was informed by said doctor that I wouldn't be able to control my cholesterol with meds so then I got this list of foods I can and can't eat and all that.
By this time my heart is broken and I'm just beside myself because I know how hard it's going to be to get this weight off. And doing it the right way is gonna be even harder but I knew it had to happen..
Well for the next few weeks I did alot of reading and research of any and all diets I had seen on TV and everywhere else.. A lot of what I did felt like I was getting no where.  Well about 5 years ago I finally had a long hard talk with myself and The Good Lord above and decided I would get started and would just figure it out as I went along..
And that's pretty much what I did for a couple of years and almost even up until now because it is a daily struggle still. I just feel like I am on the right and on a better track to handling it now.
This is the deal. First things first,  SEE YOUR DOCTOR.. Any time you begin any kind of diet please consult your doctor so that u have an idea of what is healthiest and best for you. And what is healthiest weight range for you. From there it's trial and error for you as to what works best for you.
It will in no way tell u that what is or has worked for me is the best to do because I can't do that and I'm not qualified to do so. I am just simply sharing my experiences with you and hope maybe some of them will help you.
Now in all of my research I have found that these are the things that work for me and where I have gotten the best results.  The body needs at least 65 but no more than that to properly burn fat. Now my old thinking would have thrown me into Oh yay I can have some bread, or some pasta. Something like that because it's what I'm used to having. Now check this out.. Complex carbs are so much better and when eaten correctly work amazingly in adeing burning fat.
What are complex carbs u ask? One of my favorites are sweet potatoes. They are so good and can be cooked so many ways. I have included the two pictures, these are two I got off Internet a few years ago and it helped me with the kinds of carbs to use.
But all in all, my real true reason for doing this is the fact that I am a mother, I'm a grandmother.  It's important that I be healthy for my angels.

I hope I have helped answer some questions for you. Please keep them coming. 

divatammy93@gmail.com 

The first pic, BIG NO NO.. STAY AWAY FROM THESE. 

SECOND PIC... MAKE IT YOUR BIBLE

Question #1 Breakfast. How Do You Start Your Day.

I am excited, I have one of my first questions to answer..
1. Breakfast. What do you do to start your day?
This is a great queation. As a rule people say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, how many of u heard that growing up?
I went to a doctor several years ago when I started this what then was a horrible weight loss journey, Who proceeded to shed a little light on this matter for me. Turns out that yes it is an important part of the day if done correctly. Now before u get all irritated at me and ask me when I became an expert, I didn't I have just spent several long FAT years sorting through so much information it almost made me need a steak (ha ha ).
If u are going to have breakfast, have it within three hours of getting up. Also make it the highest meal in protein that day or at least as high as u can..
Whey protein is what I use. Now I'm not going to tell u this is "the best there is" to use but I will tell u this is what the doctor I saw suggested to me. It tastes great and I like it. I have it with a tblsp of pb2 and almond milk..
I also do 30 min of empty stomach cardio first thing in the morning.
This is how I start my 1200 calorie a day diet. High lean proteins with complex carbs..
Thank u guys so much for your participation in this. It's not an easy journey but it's something I had to do. Please feel free to send your questions to
divatammy93@gmail.com and you will find your answers here. 

My First Picture On New Blog.

A picture I took the day I began this journey.

A Whole new Me..

Hey yall, Let me take a sec to introduce myself.  Some of you may remember me from a previous blog I ran called The Diva's Mix. Well for many reasons this blog no longer exists but I have embarked on a new adventure. Many of you know I have tossed around weight issues for a long time. Well this year I have had to actually get serious about it due to health issues.
I have been asked by numerous people what diet I am on, or what I am eating or the exercises I am doing. So I have decided I would find a place that I could answer all your questions and a place I could vent about it being a pain in the butt to do this. Please make sure u stay tuned and if u have questions please let me know and I'll do what I can to answer.. tomorrow will start the post of recipes, and plenty of other things.. So glad to be back.