Whiffits Diet Enhancers

Before I got pregnant with Noah, I was very skinny.  I may have been a little underweight.  During my pregnancy I gained a whopping fifty pounds.  I was huge; my family would poke fun at my size because I used to be so skinny.  I know they were doing it lovingly, my aunt even commented I finally had a chest.  Now that Noah is six and a half and I am still a little overweight I am self conscious about it. I am sure everyone thinks that I am probably fine, but I would love to lose around fifteen pounds.  My problem is I tend to eat too much. I work from home so I am always eating something. It’s harder when you are at home all day and you have easy access to food all the time.  I guess the term is grazer, but I graze all the time. I learned about a product called Whiffits. It looks really cool because you use your nose to curb your appetite.

Whiffits™ is a unique non-invasive diet enhancer that comes in the form of scented wands. Embedded in each wand is one of three specifically designed scents proven to assist any diet plan you might be implementing into your lifestyle. Many diets can be effective, but the urge to eat fatty and unhealthy foods that you've been deprived from for so long can be overwhelming and counterproductive. That said, just a few sniffs throughout the day releases a unique combination of aroma molecules that trick your brain into thinking you've eaten. The end result: you eat less, save money by not buying food you don't need, and the pounds drop off.

Whiffits™ is for real. The effectiveness of Whiffits has been proven through clinical studies, showing a significant decrease in food cravings and noticeable weight loss. This method has been proven to be successful on its own, but combining it with a diet and healthy lifestyle will only expedite the process further.

The official BioTem Clinical Report confirms the effectiveness of the revolutionary new diet wand with average weight loss of 19 lbs per participant over the course of the study. The study subjects reported an impressive 50% decrease in food cravings within 5 minutes of inhaling the special diet wand aromas. Directly from BioTem's official Clinical Report – "This study conclusively proves that inhaling these specially developed scents in the diet pens results in weight loss without any conscious changes in diet or exercise." Another study – The Role of Specific Olfactory Stimulation in Appetite Suppression and Weight Loss compiled by the Division of BioTem Cytotechnologies– also confirms this information.

"One method which seems promising is the role of olfaction in weight regulation. Specifically, the inhalation of positive hedonic (pleasant smelling) scents has been shown to have beneficial effects on appetite and hunger regulation. This idea stems from everyday observations of how food aromas affect appetite and from clinical observations of how patients with acute anosmia often gain weight. These observations suggest a breakdown in an olfactory satiety feedback mechanism. Also, there are scientific EEG and brain mapping studies documenting the effects of the inhalation of particular food scents on brain wave activity."

I know with Whiffits I would be able to stop eating all day and lose weight in the process. It’s easy, its painless and only takes a moment and I will not have the urge to pig out during the day anymore. 

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Learning how to Drive

It’s time for yet another Sheilacakes confession.  I don’t have a driver’s license.  I don’t mean that I don’t have one because I lost it or it was suspended.  I mean I don’t know how to drive.  I know that is kind of weird. I just didn’t have a desire to drive. I didn’t get excited about getting my first car or anything.  When I was sixteen a friend of mine was in a serious car accident and became paralyzed so, I was not in any hurry to learn how to drive or get my license. Now that I am a mom to a kindergartener, who has all kinds of programs, has to be taken to and from school, and loves to go to the library, it is about that time to learn.   

Here in Florida, you have to take a written test to get your permit now.  I don’t know a whole lot about driving, besides what I learned from riding in a car.  I would probably have to study. I don’t want to have to take it a bunch of times. I don’t have time for that.   I don’t even know what all you need to know for the test.  I have thought about doing private driving lessons.  I don’t want to be a 31 year old mom who is in driver’s education courses with 15 year olds.  They are immature and wouldn’t take the class seriously. I am too old and too busy to have kids goofing off when I am trying to actually learn.  Thankfully, with the internet and sites about driver’s education, I will be in a good place to start looking for a school to attend to be able to drive. My Grandma Rose didn’t drive either. I think she drove once and that was enough for her.  My grandpa always did all the driving and he didn’t mind one bit.

Do you know any adults that don’t know how to drive?

ABC's of Me

I saw this on my friend Paula's blog, Frosted Fingers and I decided I thought it looked fun and I wanted to do it too. I love doing things like this to share more about myself.

Here are the ABC's of little ole me!

A is for alligator. Oddly enough I am really picky eater and I won't eat lamb or duck but I love to eat alligator. 

B is for Brandy who is my Best friend. 

C is for cupcakes, candy and cookies, I love anything sweet. 

D is for David Duchovny and why won't he love me? 

E is for England where I still have quite a bit of family. 

F is for Family. My family is extremely important to me. We are a tight knit bunch even though we are all over the world. 

G is for God and how much I love him. 

H is for Hawaii some where I want to go. 

I is for Irish and that I am 65% Irish. 

J is for Julie my only sibling. 

K is for the kitchen my favorite room to be in. I love to cook and bake. 

L is for Louise. That's my middle name and I hated it growing up. I used to pretend my middle name was Lynn except my mom called me Louisiana.  I had a lot of nicknames. 

M is for movie quotes and references. I make them all the time.

N is for Noah the love of my life, my sunshine and my sweet son. 

O is for  orchid. One of my favorite flowers. I also really love tulips and different kinds of roses. 

P is for Pepper. I love Dr. Pepper. I'm a pepper are you a Pepper too?

Q is for quiz shows. I love to watch games shows. 

R is for radio and I never listen to real radio. 

S is for Seahorses. I love them. I would love to have pet seahorses someday. Noah always takes pics of them for me. 

T is for travel. I love to travel. It's one of my greatest passions. 

U is for under the sea, I really like sea life. 

V is for Victoria's Secret, one of my favorite stores. 

W is for wandering. I love to just wander around and end up in random place. 

X is for X-ray. I got an X-ray when I stepped on a needle when I was very young. 

Y is for yellow. I can not stand eating yellow candy. Nothing lemon or banana please. 

Z is for is for Zygotes. I love to play scrabble and zygotes was one of my highest scoring plays.

I Have No Interest in Awards Shows

I know that we are in awards shows season and Facebook and Twitter are buzzing with awards talk and who is wearing what. As much as I love movies, which is a lot, I have no interest. I am not really big in to fashion and I couldn't really tell you who's purse is who's. I am not up to date on shoes or clothes so the whole red carpet thing to me is just like whatever. I also think that if a movie wins an award doesn't make it a good movie. There have been great movies that have never won an award or even been nominated.

I did used to love watching The Kid's Choice Awards on Nickelodeon when I was younger. I used to get really excited to watch it and I would be glued to my TV with snacks. My sister and I would watch it together and of course kids were talking about it at school. Other than that I just can't get in to award shows. I wouldn't watch something because it won an award, I would watch it because it looks good. So, during the awards I will be watching something else. They would put me to sleep because I find it boring.

Do you watch awards shows? Why or why not?

College Regrets

When I was in school, I decided that I didn’t want to go to college. I wasn’t really in to school, I liked to learn but I did not like doing homework. I wish that I would have gone to college now. I plan to go to college when Noah is a little bit older. I would love to be a paralegal because I love to research people and things. I also really like learning about law. Ideally if there wasn’t 7 years of school, I would love to be a lawyer, but there is no way I would be able to handle that much time with raising my son. I remember a lot of my friends went to college and they had to take the SAT test. One of my old friends had a SAT tutor to help her prepare for the test. I would have needed some kind of tutoring because tests were not always my strong suit in certain subjects. I wonder if you are an adult, do you still have to do tests like high school students do. If I go to a college where I have to take the SAT test, I will definitely need a tutor.

I have not been in school for a long time now. I loved subjects like biology and history. I am horrible at math though. A calculator is my best friend. I hated algebra. I am still not sure what the point of it was. I can’t remember a time in my life where I did an algebraic equation, not being homework or in school. Maybe I will someday. I kind of regret not going to college but I know that I can still go at any age. There is not an age limit for college. I honestly think it was probably a good thing I am waiting. I have heard many stories of kids going to college and partying away the nights and not really getting the education they were supposed to get because they were too hung over to learn.

Did you go to college? What did you study?

Cpap Masks and Me

I had always seen commercials for cpap masks on tv. I really wasn't sure what it was until a friend of mine's husband had to use one. Thankfully my family has never had breathing problems or sleep apnea so I wasn't sure what it was. I had heard of asthma when I had friends with asthma and I knew about breathing treatments from the days I worked in a daycare. One of the little girls had to have daily breathing treatments. I always thought it made her look like an elephant. She thought it was funny. So, when my friend shared with me that her husband had a cpap mask. It was quite foreign to me. I felt kind of silly asking her so many questions. She thankfully humored me and answered my questions. I can't imagine how scary sleep apnea would be to have. It is also scary for your spouse too. It is important that those with sleep apnea are properly diagnosed by a doctor and get a cpap mask if they need one. It could save their life.

The Importance of Life Insurance

Before I was a mom I taught at a daycare. One of the benefits they offered was term life insurance. I was only 19 at the time so I wasn't really sure of the benefits.  I think that i signed up for every benefit they offered. It was my first experience with having my own insurance. I was always on my mom's plan. I had my mom as my beneficiary. It was for 75,000 dollars and only paid a couple dollars for it a pay  check. I teased my mom about her thinking of ways to bump me off like in the movies . My mom would never do that of course.    She loves me and I don't remember using my health insurance more than a couple times during the time I worked there.

You can get a lot of coverage for not a lot of money.  I read that if you are healthy you can get a 1,000,000 dollar policy for five dollars a month. Five dollars a month is like the price of a grande cup of coffee from Starbucks. I always like to compare things like that. If you think about it like that it will be easier to grasp. If I wanted to be like those commercials and pull out my calculator it comes out to sixteen cents a day! You can't even make a phone call or buy a gum ball for sixteen cents. The only thing I can think of that is sixteen cents is a baby root beer at a restaurant I like, which is the perfect size for Noah.  Just think how you can protect your family and provide for them with a million dollar policy for meager pocket change.

Now that I am a mom I realize the importance of having it. 

Changing for the Worst

They say people are always changing. You are a little different every day. They also say that change is good.... I respectfully disagree.  I believe that not all changes are good; some changes are bad, especially when it comes to personality. If there is something you don't like about your personality you change it. Only you have the power to do so. What happens if you change for the worst? What if you change the good inside you? That is where change is definitely a bad thing.  I understand that people grow up and they change but what about the people who have been there from the beginning? I am not saying you should stay a ten year old forever but don't change so much that when you have seen someone it is like a pod person has taken over you.

 I had been best friends with a girl since she was born because our parents were best friends. So naturally we grew up together. We had great times together and some fights as all kids do. We always made up and never held a grudge. We would laugh about the fights later.  So when I went to visit her after we were adults it was very strange and awkward.  I thought who is this girl in my friend’s body? Was I living in the past? Was I crazy? I knew she wasn't going to be exactly the same and neither was I. I thought though she would be the same person inside. I obviously didn't think we would waddle around a pool talking about pancreases as we did before.  I wasn't ready for the shock that someone I had been best friends with for over eighteen years  that we would no longer have anything in common. It was weird and I didn't even wanna be there. I did but at the same time she just was so different that I didn't know what to do.

 I spent my days watching lifetime movies alone and my nights with her friends and boyfriend. She had to babysit an old neighbor who was in high school part of the time where there were like 40 high school kids getting drunk and doing drugs while they were partying. I stayed in the guest room wanting no part of that. I was stuck there. Afraid I would be held responsible because I was the oldest person in the house.     So naturally it broke my heart and all I had was the memories of the good old days of silver mints and float nights and jungle land and random silly pure insanity and I loved every moment of it.  I think in that time we both realized two decades of friendship was over.  It’s just merely a memory of each other.  It reminds me that sometimes when people change it can blindside you and you aren't ready for what will happen.

Choose Your Friends Wisely

I mentioned in my peer pressure post, I would talk about a girl I once knew.  I met this girl when we were in sixth grade and became friends; she was really shy but seemed really nice. Somewhere in seventh grade we weren’t friends anymore.  We both went through school without any interaction, we went to a huge school so it was possible and we didn’t have any classes together. We were never enemies, or got in verbal confrontations, she became a girl I would occasionally hear her name and maybe possibly see her in the hall. We both moved on with our lives and then in 2007 we became reacquainted. At first it was weird, because she didn’t really care for me much, but holding on to something that happened in the sixth grade is just silly. We became friends again; I wouldn’t consider that we were really close. She spent a lot of time with some of my other friends so we hung out. She and I hung out just us maybe three times to this day.  Shortly after this happened we moved to Florida, we still stayed in touch, because I hadn’t seen the big fireworks going off warning me to run for the hills.

I knew she had some issues with her ex, and stuff like that, I could relate to her in that respect. I knew that she was hurting and I wanted to reach out and be her friend. I remember a specific time that she threatened to call the cops on me, because I didn’t agree with the legal advice some lady was giving her. She wasn’t a lawyer, she actually didn’t know what she was talking about at all. So, this girl and I stopped talking, I can’t be mixed up in that. I am a mom and I don’t have time to really deal with this kind of behavior and then she called me. She used her “wounded animal” voice and I stupidly started talking to her again. This time she thought she was pregnant; well she always thought she was pregnant.

I felt sorry for her, she completely down spiraled from there.  She would meet these guys that were no good, she even went as far as trying to change her ultrasound from the child she miscarried to fake a pregnancy, which she later said it was a miscarriage. I have had a miscarriage and that really upset me and made me very angry. I started ignoring her calls, texts, ims you name it, I ignored it. That was not ok. I found out through mutual friends that she had been engaging in criminal activities. She would call the police at a drop of a hat, and it even got to the point where she cried wolf so many times, the police didn’t believe her anymore.  I was suckered in to talking to her a few more times, I felt bad, I wanted to help. You can’t help someone who won’t help themselves. I honestly still feel bad for her, but my family comes first. I can’t have someone who is engaging in behaviors where I could get in trouble and go to jail or worse around me or my family. I don’t want to be innocently going to the mall or out to eat with her and land in jail for her actions. That is not someone I want to be a role model. I know that it’s her life and her choices but personally, I can’t have that around me.

As I said before, I believe that you have the right to pick your own friends, but be careful and watch out for the warning signs that something might not be right. I would hate for any of you to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and regret it.

The Long Term Effects of Bullying

When you are bullied as a child, it causes long term effects. Those names people call you, they cause long term effects.  You could carry it with you for a long time. It can play a huge part in decisions you make in your life.  It is something that could ruin your life when you are a child or even as an adult. When I was younger in elementary school, I was bullied; I was constantly called names, called weird, called crazy. I wasn’t crazy or weird. I was bullied by classmates and even by a couple family members. My own family members would call me crazy.  My dad’s mom and my aunt would tell my cousin I was crazy.  They would say oh you are in one of your moods.  It really hurt me and it still makes me want to cry to this day. I was just a kid going through a lot. My parents were divorcing and I was just trying to find my place.  I was treated like crap for no reason. I wasn’t a mean child, I was in fact the complete opposite, I was a sweet and loving little girl. 

When I was in jr. high I was made fun of. Everyone knew my name, not because I was popular, because it was some big joke. I am not sure what I did, or said to make everyone taunt me or whatever. I never knew. I was a sweet and loving girl. I had some friends who were nice to me when I was in elementary school and in jr. high, I just don’t know why I was the butt of some joke. I wasn’t doing anything crazy. It makes no sense. I wasn’t the most glamorous girl but I didn’t think I was too bad. I was average in my opinion. I think that bullying affected my life.  I made choices that weren’t smart. I chose toxic friends over and over again.  I just was so used to being made fun of and people being mean to me, that it was normal. I guess I allowed friends to be mean to me and hurt me over and over, because when you have nothing, anything seems better than that and you can take what you can get.

In high school, things got better. I had more friends, granted most of them were not the best choices. Especially my old best friend, she was so mean to me. I took it anyways. I wanted to have friends, so I looked the other way. Even when she and a bunch of people wrote a hateful note to me and it really hurt my feelings. There are many other times this girl has severely hurt my feelings, thankfully she is not in my life anymore. I have learned that there are good friends out there. 

I also think that the fact that I was bullied and called names had something to do with my relationship choices especially my ex-husband, who was abusive.  I am not saying it was my fault because no one deserves to be abused, physically, emotionally, mentally or verbally.  I just think it goes back to one of those things where when you are used to nothing you take what you can get.  I have completely changed my mind set when it comes to friends. I am no longer friends with anyone I deem toxic.  I am so blessed now to have so many great friends, who would never hurt me in the ways I have been hurt before. They love me for me, and I love them for them. We look past each other’s flaws and totally accept one another.

Those names you call others, those mean hurtful words, they do cause damage.  They are more than just words, there is a real human behind hearing them and you are crushing their spirit, self esteem and self worth. If you think that someone will forget about those mean things you said, chances are they still remember, and they probably are still hurt deep inside. They probably still think about you and how much you hurt them. I am sure you are thinking oh they need to get over it, or we were just kids, but really those are excuses. The words will linger for a long time.  You can steal their childhood, or part of their life, because of the turmoil and pain you caused.  You never know what someone is really going through, have some compassion. Teach your children compassion and empathy.  Teach your children to think before you speak or type you don’t want to be responsible for someone else’s pain or worse.