Monika Barkley

CLEAN AND DIET FREE

I am Monika Barkley and I am a “recovering” diet-a-holic. I have been clean and diet free since August 15, 2003! I consider myself a diet professional as I have spent 20 years and thousands of dollars investing in every diet plan known to man. I have eaten hot dogs and beets till I gagged or did nothing but drink shakes for weeks. I have joined every strip mall diet center that was in business one day and out the next. My most embarrassing confession is that I actually paid to go to a “Shake and Bake” which was nothing more then a series of exercise beds where all you do is lay there and the machine works off your weight. Once you have exhausted yourself by changing beds you could go to their tanning bed. I have purchased every new magic pill that came out on the market thinking I would go to bed and when I awoke there would be a pair of size 2 jeans under my pillow that would fit my skinny yet magnificently rounded J-Lo butt. 20 years and dozens of diets and pills later the only thing I consistently lost was money. Sound familiar?!

TAKE THE JOURNEY WITH ME

I was one of 13 participants to be selected to participate in Dr. Phil McGraw’s first televised weight loss challenge. The first thing he taught us is that we were not going to go on a diet. He was going to teach us how to change our lives and the weight loss was merely going to be a side effect to the life changing keys that is available to everyone through his book “The Ultimate Weight Solution”. The first thing I learned to recognize was my subconscious stinking thinking I had about myself. As he said the weight loss really did become a side effect to changes that started by recognizing the fact that I had taught myself to be my own worst enemy to learning how to be my own best friend. My life’s passion now is to share with you everything that I learned so that you too can learn to create your own abundant life while losing an abundant behind. My website was created to share all that I have learned, spare you the pain and partner with you on the journey to lifelong leanness. I want you to learn to feel so excited about the uniqueness that is you that you cannot help but share with others as well. Each One - Reach One.

SCALE IT DOWN!

The first step you need to take is to write the word diet on a piece of paper, take it out to the driveway and burn it! Sweep up the ashes and throw them in the trash can. Go into the house and grab your scale, take it out to the trash can and throw it next to the ashes! I have been tied to the numbers on a scale since before the first diet I ever went on. My day did not start until I weighed and then I would be so depressed and defeated I would make poor food choices throughout the day. I would reach the end of my rope, start a new and improved diet plan and do absolutely everything I was supposed to do. I would feel my clothes starting to get loose and I could not wait to get on the scale. Then, when the scale did not read the numbers I thought it should I was devastated and defeated. That was my 20 year vicious circle. My scale was the first saboteur to every diet I went on. I literally ran over it with a backhoe and took great pleasure in doing so! Seeing that I was competing in a weight loss challenge the show provided Tanita scales to us all. We were instructed to weigh in once each week. My suggestion to you is that if you just cannot begin your day without weighing then get rid of the scale. Go to your doctor, family member or nearby friend and use theirs once a week on the same day and preferably at the same time. Also, try to use the same scale because one may not be calibrated exactly like one you are used to using.

GET REAL!

The second step is to set a Get Real goal weight that takes into account your age, your body frame, what you feel is a healthy weight that you can reach and maintain for the rest of your life. You may not be 18 anymore so thinking you can go down to your high school weight and maintain that for the rest of your life is probably unrealistic and you are setting yourself up for failure. I am going to share with you in future columns how to exercise without bleeding from your eyes and how to change your body composition where you will probably lose as many inches as pounds! I may not weigh what I did in high school but I am three sizes smaller! I only lost ½ pound the first two weeks of the televised challenge. Had I been tied to the numbers on the scale I would have just freaked and given up but what the scale did not read is I lost 8 pounds of body fat and gained 7 ½ pounds of lean muscle mass. I went from a size 18 to a size 14 in two weeks!  I say again I WENT DOWN TWO SIZES IN TWO WEEKS YET I ONLY LOST 1/2 LB!!   Sheriff Winders participated in the Sheriff’s Weight Loss Challenge I led in 2005 which is detailed on my website. He not only lost 29 pounds during the 12 week challenge but he lost an amazing 27″ (8.5″ in his waist alone) plus 6.5% body fat!

LET’S TALK

My goal for this column is to interact with you! Ask any question that comes to mind, leave a comment or share a recipe. One of the keys to success is having a like-minded Circle of Support. I want to create a fellowship of those who understand where we’ve been and how we need to get where we need to go. As Dr. Phil says “I WANT YOU TO GET EXCITED FOR YOUR LIFE!”