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how to find the best deals for summer vacations

How to Find the Best Deals for Summer Vacations

By: Claudia Looi

“Lost $416!” Monitoring air ticket prices is almost like the stock market. I don’t get it right all the time when it comes to purchasing airline tickets. Have you? My husband and daughter said, “Just go make more money and recover from the losses!”

You see I had been looking at ways to get the cheapest and best airfares to St. Petersburg Russia with a stopover at a European city. Icelandair came into the radar during that research with a price of $574 per person. Not bad because Lufthansa and some of the American carriers were offering over $1,000 without any free stopovers.

On a busy content writing day while doing research and writing for a client on Tips to Buying One Way Tickets to Europe the price on Icelandair was $470 from Boston to St. Petersburg. That was an incredible deal and I thought we might have to travel from New York City to Boston to save a few dollars. Curious, I checked for pricing from New York City and it was $470 too.

I patted myself on the back and said good job. The air miles we accumulated will cover three tickets instead of two. Which means for a family of four we would pay $470 for airfares from New York City to St. Petersburg Russia with a stopover in Iceland. St. Petersburg is our final destination in Europe. We will start our overland tour from Russia through Mongolia and China.

Did I take advantage of the price? Unfortunately no. Why? I was procrastinating and ended with a $574 ticket per person two weeks later.

If you are like me – you love sweet deals for leisure and pleasure. The question is where and how to find the best deals for summer vacations. Here are 4 ways that helped me save money:

One: Credit cards reward points
Credit cards can be your tool to saving money if you pay off every month without owing a penny. When the kids were little we had a ToysRUs credit card for free toys. Now we use cards that offer “no hassle miles” rewards.

Capital One Venture One card has no annual fee; no foreign transaction fees and you earn 1 ½ miles per dollar on every purchase. You can use the points to fly with any airline, stay at any hotel, any time. When you open a new account you immediately earn 20,000 bonus miles. Check it out here.

The Business Gold Card from American Express OPEN offers up to 75,000 Membership Rewards points redeemable for up to $750 in gift cards at select stores after you spend $2,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months of card membership.

You get 3 points on airfare purchased directly from airlines, 2 points on purchase for advertising in select media, shipping, gas and more and 1 point on other purchases. Points can be used for flights, hotels and vacation packages through americanexpress.com/travel and there are no blackout dates or seat restrictions.

There is an annual fee after the first year. American Express has a variety of credit cards. Find out more here.

We have used airline miles from American carriers for air tickets and hotels. And credit card reward points for airline tickets. Do your homework and find out which card suits your needs.

Two: Sign up for alerts and newsletters
I subscribe to a few alerts and newsletters from various travel websites. Travelzoo.com, airfarewatchdog.com and booking.com are three of my favorites.

For example, airfarewatchdog.com sent me an email this week with a list of best airfare deals from New York City. I’ve been thinking about going to Bermuda and the fares have been favorable for the last few weeks. Look at this:

Hamilton, Bermuda on American Airlines is $339 per person round trip. That is an amazing deal. If you are thinking of going to Manila Philippines, it is $931 per person on China Southern Airlines.

Travelzoo.com sends me weekly emails on the best cruise, flight, show, hotel, dining, and tour deals from different travel companies to anywhere around the world. This week I received a few amazing deals.

This looks like a really sweet deal for someone living in Vancouver or Northwest United States (taken from Travelzoo.com):

Norwegian Cruise Line’s last-minute 7 nights Alaska cruise offered by cruise.com. We love Norwegian and I would grab this deal immediately if I had no prior tour arrangements. Imagine $299 per person for an oceanview cabin? I’m sure you have seen deals like this but when you get to the site, they are usually higher than advertised!

I’ve used and subscribed to Travelzoo.com since their first email over a decade ago, and their deals are genuine. Since this is a last minute deal, it means you have to be flexible, act fast and are able to travel on the dates given.

To prove this is genuine here is a screenshot of the deal from cruise.com. It was available at the time of writing:

The Norwegian Sun takes you from Whittier Alaska to Juneau, Sawyer Glacier, Skagway, Ketchikan and Vancouver.

If you don’t like cruises, in the same email was a 4 nights stay at the Jewel Dunn’s River Beach Resort and Spa with round trip airfare for $629 per person. You save 65% in this all-inclusive seaside resort in Jamaica. Yes! Jamaica and all inclusive means all meals are included. (From CheapCaribbean.com)

Three: Drive or fly
For those who prefer to travel locally there are ways to find out if driving or flying is cheaper. All you need is the right tool. TravelMath.com’s cost to drive or fly tool will show you how. For families in Washington DC wanting a summer vacation at a Miami beach or a Miami family wanting to visit Washington DC, all you need is to type in these cities here.

You will get a fly or drive score depending on the number of people in your family. A lower score means it is cheaper. This is an example for a family of four from Washington DC to Miami:

This score takes into consideration time spent on the road, wear and tear of your vehicle, fuel efficiency and more.

The score changes if there are only three people in the family. It is almost the same price for driving and flying.

Four: Hotel or apartment rentals
I love hotels but when it comes to saving money for a large family, renting an apartment is the way to go. Prior to traveling to South America, I had only stayed in hotels while traveling. I remember needing to get two rooms for our summer vacation in London when the kids were 11 and 8 in 2006.

Now with peer-to-peer rentals and the share economy concept, vacationers are able to save more money on accommodation. You can check out airbnb.com, booking.com and nyhabitat.com. Airbnb.com is our favorite. We have used all three while traveling in South America and now in New York City.

NYhabitat.com caters to New York City, Paris and London apartments only. Bookings.com has a variety of hotels, apartments and bed and breakfast places around the world. AirBnB.com is available worldwide and has shared rooms, private rooms or the entire place for rental.

We have rented a houseboat in Brooklyn through AirBnB.com for two weeks. That was one of the greatest experiences in New York City. You can read it here. For a little over $1600 our family of four stayed for 13 nights in the houseboat. That is around $400 per person for 2 weeks or $31 per night in New York City!

While writing this article, I found an apartment at the Miami Beach for eight nights that accommodates 8 with free parking, a fully equipped kitchen, free WiFi, washer and dryer, air conditioning and more for $1672 through AirBnB.com.

Multi-generational families, friends or business associates can get together for eight nights at the beach for $209 per person ($26 per night per person). If you cook all your meals in the apartment you’ll save more.

Screenshot taken from AirBnB.com.

These are just some of the ways I get my savings for summer vacations and traveling around the world. I have a lot more!

Think you can’t take a summer vacation? With research, flexibility and an open mind, you may just find the best deal and enjoy the best summer vacation the whole family will talk about in years to come. Don’t forget to read our eBook on Your Guide to Staying Healthy While Traveling with Essential Oils (currently in the eBook bundle sale- 4 eBooks for $9.97)

And that’s the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind. ~Dave Barry

Note: None of the above links are affiliate links, which means we are not compensated for recommending these websites and their services.

Claudia Looi is a content creator and freelance writer, world traveler, mom of two teens and wife of a traveling nurse. She and her husband sold almost everything, and have been traveling and embracing a ‘nomadic’ lifestyle since February 2013. You can find her at http://travelwritingpro.com/

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to diagnose, prescribe, treat or cure any illness or disease. It’s strictly for informational, educational, or entertainment purposes ONLY. The products I talk about are not meant to diagnose, prescribe, treat or cure any illness or disease. Any information I give you about them is for informational or entertainment purposes only. They have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA. Please seek the qualified health professional of your choice when making health decisions for yourself, your family and your pets.

Women of Faith: What I Learned From My Aunt Linda

by Claudi 2 Comments

women of faith Aunt Linda

“Aunt Linda died this morning”, my mom said on the phone. What? My mind stopped. I couldn’t believe it. No not this soon. I am heartbroken. “You know there would be no you without Aunt Linda, she is the one who introduced me and your dad”. 10 minutes later my dad calls to tell me the same sad news and later says, “You know if it weren’t for Aunt Linda I would have never met your mom and we wouldn’t have had you.” So I guess I owe my life to Aunt Linda LOL!

Linda Parmley Cole was a tough no nonsense kind of person that I admired who wasn’t my Aunt but my 1st Cousin. My dad’s brother, her father was so much older than him that my Aunt Linda and Dad grew up like brother and sister. She didn’t take any BS and said what she thought. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in February of this year and is gone 3 months later.

women of faith aunt linda

Ironically last night I had a dream I was speaking at her Celebration of Life. It was a Celebration of Life rather than a Eulogy because that is how Aunt Linda lived. If I were speaking I think I would share the following examples and lessons I learned from my Aunt Linda.

1) Family First – I remember when I first heard Linda’s husband Vern talk about our purpose in life “to have and raise kids.” I was a single feminist then and it wasn’t until I had my own kids that I would understand that to be true. Linda and Vern’s life is a great example of a close knit family. They work together and live within minutes of each other. I would eventually mimic that living next door to my mom and grandparents for 7 years and now my husband’s parents. There is a real joy in being close to family.

2) Work Ethic – Linda had one of the strongest work ethics of anyone I ever knew. She was an extremely valuable resource to her company Victory Packaging. A company that when they found out she was sick made every effort to help her letting her work from home, flying her family to California so they could participate in a ½ marathon the company sponsored for Linda.

3) Jokes – Linda was a lover of jokes. When the internet and email came into her life I think she was a little addicted to her email and sending jokes. She loved what she loved and probably made a lot of people laugh with all her Forwards of Jokes. It’s a Parmley trait. Her uncle Starr (my dad) loves jokes too and always made his students submit a joke for extra credit on their tests.

4) No Grudges – Although I don’t know for true I think Linda was the type of person who let things go. She embraced her husband’s children from his first marriage and loved my mom even when my dad and her got divorced. Although I can’t say the rest of my dad’s ex-wives have fared as well with that no grudges thing…

5) Delegate Cooking – I learned this from Linda too. She didn’t cook… I mean she could open a can of soup, make toast and cook on celebrations but she didn’t cook. You would always find her and Vern several nights a week out to dinner, and I always remember seeing her and Vern through the window at the Foursome diner when I would drive by on Friday nights. It seemed like every Friday night there they were. I took this skill to heart and delegated my Aunt Shirley to cook for us a night a week and instilled a Friday night eat out plan in my own house.

6) Celebrate Celebrate – I always remember Aunt Linda’s house at Christmas time and allllll those presents under the tree. I think she loved the holiday and celebrating with her kids and later grandkids. I also think having Linda at a party made it a good one. When she wasn’t at a family reunion or party she was missed.

Every Tuesday night they had an Open House at their home where friends, neighbors and Aunt Shirley would come to visit. Everybody loved it and I have to admit I might implement that fun social gathering at my home too when my kids are a little older.

7) Stay Active – My Aunt Linda was 60 something when she passed. Compared to a lot of women her age, she was in good shape. She was still playing softball last summer and I would guess might have played better than some girls 20 years younger than her. She would go and see the Chiropractor when she needed it, get massages, and come see me for Raindrop Therapies. She also did sun therapy… yes tanning beds but I really think it helped to keep her so healthy this long. I think Vitamin D levels are a pivotal part of good health.

8) Love Your Grandkids – She loved her grandchildren. She loved taking them to breakfast, watching them, buying them gifts for their birthdays and yes spoiling them. My mom took some good lessons from Aunt Linda and spoils my children just like her.

9) Clean Out Your Laundry Vent – Every time I do the laundry I hear my mom’s voice… clean out that Laundry Vent Remember Aunt Linda had a fire from not cleaning out her vent. So I clean out that Laundry Vent every time and think of Aunt Linda. (My mom now says she doesn’t know if that was Aunt Linda or another Aunt, but regardless I like the fact that I will always think of Aunt Linda when I clean the Laundry Vent.)

10) Love God – I live in a culture now here in the South where there is a church on every corner but Loving God and Loving People is sometimes forgotten. Linda wasn’t a churchy, Jesus preaching person but she loved God. Through how she lived her life I know without a doubt where my Aunt Linda is now… she is in Heaven. This is why I consider my Aunt Linda a Woman of Faith. She Loved God and People.

There are many of us who are heartbroken right now with the loss of Aunt Linda but we can hold on to the happiness that she is with Jesus now… Probably making Him laugh by telling Him a joke.

Ways to Create Freedom in Your Life

by Claudi 1 Comment

JoshieWater

Have you ever wished you had more freedom in your life? More vacation days, more time with your family, more flexibility on where you live… or maybe you have flexibility and freedom but don’t have the money to enjoy it.

IMG_20140527_135314_529

Freedom to me means having some control over my time, energy, and resources. It means not being a slave to a corporation, my own business, or my financial situation. It means spending quality time with my family every day and visiting my extended family more than once a year. It means easily investing in the lives of others whether that is a divorced single mom, a particular cause or ministry I am passionate about, and being able to give enough money and or time to make a real difference.

Simmons family

This week some of my good friends and Young Living colleagues came down from NY for a week. We have been having a ball hanging out, making delicious meals fresh from the garden and talking about their future. (The pictures above are from our fun day at the beach.)

See, my colleagues Bryon and Mary Simmons have been an associate in my Young Living business since 2005 and a user of Young Living Essential Oils for several years prior to that. In the past 8 years this couple had 2 children, had a devastating house fire, rebuilt another home, dealt with some health crises, became a Deacon in their church, spent more than 3 weeks a year visiting family, and participating in outreach and mission trips. They did all this and spent a few hours every week creating a Young Living business. They have gotten a commission check every month even when there were times when they couldn’t work in their business for weeks and even months.

The few hours a week they spent in Young Living created a current commission of $300-$500 a month, the ability to write off portions of their vacations with family, and other awesome tax write offs. They recently decided that they are determined to grow their Young Living business and create significant income over $5,000 a month in the next few years so that they can have more FREEDOM in their life.

Although I am not allowed to legally make claims or predictions I KNOW THEY CAN DO IT. They can achieve their goals, dreams and get the freedom they want because they have the right vehicle and team to do it.

So now I want to ask you. Are you ready for more freedom in your life? Young Living Essential Oils can be the vehicle to help you get there. Are you ready to work with a 20 year old company with an established track record and highest client loyalty in the industry?

The first step is to become a member in our Young Living Team. The cost of that is only $150 includes over $300 of health promoting essential oils, products and training. For those of you who are serious about creating FREEDOM in your life like myself and other associates including Mary Simmons then you will upgrade to Health Investor and be required to purchase and or retail $100 dollars worth of Young Living products per month.

I don’t want to mislead anyone. Creating FREEDOM will cost you money, time, and energy. It will take learning new skills, like time management, money management, and home business development.

And I don’t want to mislead you to believe that I take just anyone on my team. We love everyone but only those who are serious about helping others, are coachable, can follow a proven system, and are self motivated get to work with myself or other top leaders.

My team members call me the nicest Drill Sargent they ever knew. I require high integrity and constant personal and professional development of the members I work with. But my team members will also tell you I am one of the most generous leaders they have ever met. I am honest, caring, and determined to help you succeed.

One of the programs I have found to help my team members succeed is Dani Johnson’s First Steps to Success Training. I will be taking a refresher class in July in San Antonio Texas. If you are serious about creating more freedom in your life then I am going to suggest 2 things.

1. Get started with your Premium Start Living Kit and Young Living Membership today with this link. Get your membership before June 1st and get this cool new Pocket Desk Reference a $20 value FREE.

2. Then consider joining me in San Antonio Texas July 12-14th at First Steps to Success Training.

If you have more questions or maybe would like to interview with myself or one of our team members to see if our Young Living home business is a right fit for you then email us at info@starrhealth.com and request an interview for an associate position.

The Power of Prayer, Praise and Potty Training

by Claudi 1 Comment

potty training

My life has been radically blessed in the last 25 days. Not only have I achieved a 14 year goal in my career but my 4 year old son has finally become Potty Trained.

When you have a baby you expect the next 2 years of your life to be spent cleaning up dirty diapers and poopy messes, but I didn’t realize I would be spending an additional 2 years after that in poopy detail too. I will spare you all the grossness but you can imagine my son is a big healthy eater who is very regular but never went in the toilet. I am very, very grateful for Young Living’s Thieves Cleaner which I needed to use just about daily.

But all that changed about 2 weeks ago when all of a sudden my son was potty trained. On further analysis I realize that it wasn’t all of a sudden and that there were some key things that led to his change of heart. I also realize that some of these same principals can be applied to other difficult situations in our lives too.

So here is my list of Tips for Potty Training and Life:

1) Expectations – Joshua was my first child so I really didn’t know what to expect so I didn’t set any expectations until recently. I also was told “boys” take longer to potty train and I guess I set that in my mind as an expectation.

2) Create Urgency – Because both my husband and I work from home and have a decent income that we could “afford” spending money on diapers there was no urgency to get him out of them. Many moms who I talked to in different financial and work situations had their kids potty trained by 2 years old.

3) Consistency – I admit I wasn’t consistent myself in getting my son potty trained. I would “train” one day and then not the next. Or one week and then let it go the next. I am sure he was a bit confused too with that kind of schedule.

Also downstairs he had a small portable potty but then upstairs he had a little potty seat that goes over the big potty. I found both of these a hassle to clean and they were just gross. So literally the day after I got rid of them he started being fully potty trained.

4) PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE – After reading this quote by Michelle Duggar, mom of the famous 19 Kids and Counting in her discussion about changing and molding a child’s good behavior “praise 10 times more than you correct”.

So I started doing that in a lot of things with my son and wow it really works. When he did have an accident I would do the clean up, make him help clean up and take him out of “fun” for at least 10 minutes so he understood this wasn’t good behavior. I didn’t use words like BAD BOY but rather kept saying where do we go pee pee and poopy on the potty… when you do this it’s no FUN and lots of work for MOMMY which is no FUN…

A side note on this one… some parents told me they spanked their kids when they messed their pants and that seemed to correct the behavior. The reason I didn’t go down that path fully is because I once had a patient who was chronically constipated her whole life. After doing some serious Neuro Emotional work with another doc friend of mine we found a root of that issue was when she was pretty young she had pooped her pants and been severely spanked because of it. Her system always took “pooping” as bad and held it in most of her life, which led to some pretty bad outcomes.

5) Accountability – We started using a potty chart where Joshua would get a star on the chart every time he went pee pee on the potty. Then after he was pee pee trained we moved to poopy stars. It was a visual reminder of his success and progress

6) Reward – At first we did the M&M reward every time he went peepPee on the potty and I quickly had my son addicted to candy after 4 years of avoiding that. Then I moved to SunChips, a little healthier type of M&M and I ended up getting into them… (not good). Then we moved to stickers, and finally now we do a toy prize at the end of a week when we poopy on the potty everyday for a week.

7) Prayer – When my Mommy Helper came down from New York to live here in Florida and work for us, she got more than she bargained for when it came to clean up duty. At least 2 times a week she would get the brunt of poopy clean up mess. So being the prayerful woman she is she started bringing her request to God along with her prayer team. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Joshua was potty trained after that either. Prayer is one of the most powerful tools we have.

So how can you apply these principals to your own life or maybe your own behavior changes?

1) Expect MORE- Don’t use excuses about age, environment, finances, or the fact that most people do _______. Make your own destiny and throw away excuses.

2) Create Urgency – If you are comfortable in your life or situation there is no urgency to achieve a goal. Cut up the credit card, get real about your weight or health condition and do whatever you need to do to create urgency. The most successful entrepreneurs and home business owners were usually desperate to succeed.

3) Consistency is the KEY… – I have an amazing distributor on my team named Kim. She is successful at whatever she puts her mind too and Young Living has been a part of her life since 2006. Her commissions could easily be 10 times what they are now but her pattern of working in her YL business is inconsistent.

She will share it consistently for a little while and then move on to the next best thing then 6 months or a year later come back to it. She loves the product and continues to use them all these years but because she never stays focused on the business for more than a couple months, she loses opportunities and income. Consistency is the key to success.

4) PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE – It works in all areas of life. It’s like watering a new plant. You must praise your progress daily. Even little “sprouts” we call them… they need to be watered everyday.

5) Accountability – Dave Ramsey suggests having an accountability partner in his Financial Peace University and I would suggest it in any long term goal. Someone or a group of ‘someones’ who help lift you up and also tell you like it is. I would also suggest tracking your work and progress will help you stay accountable too.

6) REWARD – All the hard work won’t be worth it if we don’t get the REWARDS too. Set reward system for yourself so you have things to look forward to weekly even. Maybe if you work your home business in the evenings every night you get to watch all your favorite recorded shows on Saturday night. Or if you achieve a new rank in your home business you get to purchase your favorite essential oil with your REWARDS points.

7) PRAYER – The most powerful tool you have. Combined with the 6 positive actions above, it can change your life.

So I hope my son’s Potty Training Success can help you in achieving your hard goals too. Remember, it’s a process. It takes time and it may not turn out exactly as your thought because God’s plan might be different from your plan.

The Dangers of Obesity and Being Overweight

by Claudi Leave a Comment

Dangers of Obesity

In 2008, more than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older were overweight. Of these, over 200 million were men and 300 million were women. 35% under the age of 20 and 11% of these were obese. Fat and obesity is not just in America. It is a worldwide problem!

According to the WHO (World Health Organization) 65% of the world’s population live in countries where obesity and being overweight kills more people than being underweight. 40 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2011. (Source: WHO)

These are facts but here is a story to tell….

Heather Santo’s mom passed away at a young age of 34 from primary pulmonary hypertension. She was overweight and had to wait until she lost 80 pounds to get her double lung transplant. She may have been saved sooner if she hadn’t been so heavy and had to wait to get it off.

Her grandmother (her mother’s mom) died in her mid-50s from having a bad back and being almost 400 pounds. There was nothing physically wrong with her besides being obese. Her great grandmother was in her 80s and was over 300 pounds when she passed away. She had diabetes and was on all kinds of medication.

What does that leave Heather to face if she didn’t take action?

She probably would be in the same path as her mother, grandmother and great grandmother.

Growing up Heather ate a whole lot of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). She said if they purchased KFC’s stock, they could be really rich by now. She grew up with fast food and junk food. She didn’t know how badly she was eating.

She started gaining weight and began noticing her weight problems by third grade. Her family didn’t encourage her to play and anytime she wanted to do any physical activity her family couldn’t take her because they were too obese to move.

Heather didn’t have friends in grade school because she was fat. No kid wanted to play with her. She’d just sit in the corner and pray for school to be over.

It all changed when Heather turned 30. On her 30th birthday while celebrating with her friends at the Hard Rock Café, Heather faced the truth. The tradition and joke for the celebration among her friends is to have the birthday girl/guy sit on a bar stool and receive all the ‘attention!’

Heather was nearly 300 pounds at that time. She was afraid she might crush the bar stool and be embarrassed….

She found a way to escape from that game and began to take a hard look at the state of her health. Her doctor warned her if she didn’t get her act together she would end up dying early like her mother. Her blood work was horribly off the charts.

What is obesity and overweight?

The WHO’s definition for overweight is a BMI greater than or equal to 25. A BMI greater than or equal to 30 is obesity. BMI or body mass index is a simple index of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity in adults or children. It is the person’s weight in pounds or kilograms divided by the square of his height in feet or meters.

For example a person who is 5 feet 9 inches tall at 169 (BMI 25) to 202 pounds (BMI 29.9) is overweight. At 203 pounds (BMI 30 and above) is obese. For your convenience here are two links to BMI calculators for adults and children/teens provided by CDC:

Adult
BMI calculation is the same for male or female.

Child or Teen
BMI calculation for a child or teen takes into consideration the sex of the child/teen. It is applicable for ages 2 to 19.

Are you overweight or obese?

Do you know what the extra weight on your body is doing to you?

Releasing 10 or 15 pounds will change your energy level, reduce aches and pain and help you to have better mood. Before Heather released the extra weight she was not feeling like herself. She was beginning to believe that she was going to fall into her family’s footsteps – die early or suffer with medical problems and take medications.

These are the things she went through while carrying the extra weight-

1. Put on a smile but deep inside she was miserable with her weight.
2. Lots of pain in her back from the excess weight.
3. Prior to gaining 300 pounds she had a car accident. The heavier she got the worse the pain became.
4. Ankles were weak because of weight.
5. Critical of herself.

It has not been easy for Heather. She was so overweight when she started the journey of eating right… feeling sick, nauseous and threw up a lot while her body was detoxing. It was like coming off of drugs – in this case fast food. She lost 5 pounds relatively quick and took baby steps to shed the weight.

Today she has lost over 80 pounds and is still on her journey of eating right and losing weight. It is not just “losing weight” or “dieting”. To Heather this journey is all about banishing that mindset of being perfect. Instead, enjoy the journey and continue working towards that goal of great health.

She noticed a dramatic change in how she looks at herself now. She feels better every day and no longer needs to lie to herself. Like any change that we embrace, there are challenges.

Heather’s challenges include-

1. Being critical on herself even after losing a large chunk of weight. She had to continually work on herself and her mindset.
2. There were many times when she felt like giving up.
3. She had to give herself grace and know that she will not eat perfectly her entire life. Perfection is overrated.
4. She has to remember to take it step by step and not cut off too much or expect miracles to happen because that will set her up for failure.
5. Keeping up has been an uphill and downhill battle. The entire process has been eight years now.
6. To remember this is not a race but a journey. Rebuilding our body takes time and effort. She has lost over 100 pounds twice fast only to gain it back very quickly.

One great piece of advice from Heather:

This time I’m going to go slow and win – it is for keeps. I’m done playing games and gaining it back. I keep the weight off by going one day at a time.

Are you on a journey to shed some pounds?

Here is Heather’s secret to losing weight, keeping it off, feeling and looking great:

1. To help with keeping her skin from getting saggy, she uses a dry brush and Cel-Lite Magic.
2. Start small. It is a journey and not a race.
3. Drink plenty of water. She uses Slique Essence and or lemon, grapefruit and peppermint every day. She drinks thirteen 8oz. glasses of water per day with these oils. She switches up the flavors of the citrus oils to keep it interesting.
4. Get moving in any capacity possible. She does different kinds of exercises so she won’t get bored- walk, yoga, Les Mills Combat, Rev Abs, dance, Zumba and more. The key is to keep it fresh.
5. Track your food and keep a journal to track your emotions and learn how you relate with food.
6. Get educated and read labels.
7. Keep the weight off by going one day at a time.

Heather is still on her journey. She wants to lose another 60 pounds. She is ready to fight every day to keep it off. She is one of TheTotalWellnessDoc’s group of ladies on a journey to feel better and healthier.

Are you ready to start your journey? Connect with Heather Santo at her website www.santofitlife.com today and get tips and encouragement from her.

For wellness tips from TheTotalWellnessDoc please join our weekly newsletters here.