We Are Losing It

When they say you learn something new everyday, they weren't kidding! We learned enough in this one episode to get us through the next month, at least!

It was our pleasure to have Summer Maiden as a guest to talk about the importance of lymphatic massages. We learned so much about the process and why lymphatic massages aren't just for post surgery or folks with lipedema or lymphedema. Lymphatic massages are actually recommended for everybody as a way to help rid yourself of toxins that need to drain from your body. It was all very interesting, and we suggest you listen and take notes on some of the info Summer shares. 

A little background on Summer... She graduated from the American Institute of Alternative Medicine in 2005. and is multi-state licensed. She has been an active licensed massage therapist for almost two decades, working with many clients. 

Her extensive training includes specialties in Swedish, Neuromuscular, Cranial-Sacral Therapy, Manual Lymphatic Drainage, Scar Tissue Release, Fertility and pre-/postnatal care, High-Risk Pregnancy care, Infant Massage Instructor, Neonatal Massage, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, Breast Lymphatic Health, and MediCupping™. In addition to her clinical skills, she is an experienced Massage Therapy Educator, Anatomy and Physiology Instructor, and Business Coach. 

With a career that spans almost two decades, she has built a thriving private practice. She has worked in various settings, including physical therapy clinics, fitness centers, corporate wellness programs, doctor’s offices, and hospitals. Upon transitioning to the Inpatient Massage Therapy Department within a local hospital, she specialized in Hematology/Oncology, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CTICU), Heart/Lung Transplant, Pulmonary Rehab, NICU, and Rehabilitation units, treating both adult and pediatric patients with diverse therapeutic needs. 

As a lymphatic drainage therapist, she provides massage to various post-surgical clients, those with autoimmune disorders, and those with general health issues for detoxification. Drawing on her experience working alongside physicians, she founded "My Kneads,” a practice focused on pain management, swelling/edema, inflammation, self-image, and confidence. 

She has released two new books called Flow & Thrive and Balanced Boobs.

You can find Summer on Instagram @waze2wellness and @mykneads as well as her YouTube Podcast Waze2Wellness.

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

December is the month where we struggle the most with motivation. We know this after years of letting it sneak up on us. So this year we decided to get ahead of it.

Justy is cleared to go back to the gym to workout as of December 1st, so what better way to send her off than with a challenge. This challenge will help keep us in line, with a goal in mind. 

If you want to hear more about the challenge, want to join us in the challenge or just want to hear our mindset around how we plan to get through December staying active, you will want to listen to this episode!

Check us out on Instagram to join in the challenge! Our goal will be 25 days with 25 minutes of movement to prepare us for 2025! Why wait until January to get your butt in gear when you can join us for accountability to stay on track?!

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

We had the pleasure of hosting Jamie Mills @thesleeveddietitian on Instagram & Tik Tok for a discussion on body composition. Honestly, that’s the short version of the topic. In reality, we talked GLP-1 usage, baby weight, body scans, and tracking food (or not!). 

As most of you know, we struggle with knowing how much should we be eating to fuel our bodies properly for the changes we want to see. Neither of us plan to enter a body building contest, but we do want to lose a bit more fat while gaining muscle. We tracked food religiously only to maintain our weight, which became frustrating for us. 

Our frustration led to us going back to meal “planning”, vs. “tracking”. We didn’t necessarily count calories, but rather we ate the same foods we usually do, but according to our hunger. To us, this feels easier. It doesn’t feed our all or nothing thinking and it allows us to tune in to what our body really needs at that particular time. 

Come to find out, when Justy went in for a follow up body scan, she had lost fat and gained muscle… all while the scale hovered in a 10 pound range! So in the end, the strict calorie counting really wasn’t necessary at all! THANK GOD!

Tune in as we talk to Jamie about all of this and get her advice on how to handle our hatred for tracking food but still wanting to shed a few more pounds of fat and gain muscle. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you hear!

If you’re not familiar with Jamie, here is a little about her:

• Jamie, also known as The Sleeved Dietitian on social media, is an award winning registered dietitian nutritionist who also had weight loss surgery! After struggling with PCOS and her weight her whole life, she finally decided in 2017 she needed another tool. December 19, 2017 Jamie had VSG. With the help of VSG and GLP-1 medication, she has lost 135+ lbs and has gained a whole new life! After going through WLS herself, Jamie realized how little support there was available for bariatric patients. Since her surgery, she has helped thousands of women learn about nutrition and post op life so that they can be successful long term. Since 2020 she has been supporting people through her T.R.I.B.E. Membership Program, which is a virtual membership where members have access to dozens of nutrition materials as well as 45+ virtual support groups each month led by professionals who have also had surgery. She is also a #1 best-selling author. Her book "The Easy Way Out: Why Bariatrics Isn't Cheating Obesity, It's Treating It" and is making waves in the bariatric community! To learn more, be sure to follow Jamie on Instagram and Tik Tok @thesleeveddietitian and head to her website www.thesleeveddietitian.com for more resources and information on how to work with her. 
• Here is a link to Jamie's Website and TRIBE membership, along with her blog:
   https://thesleeveddietitian.com/the-tribe-membership
• Stay tuned to Jamie on social media as she is launching a killer Black Friday sale! If you’re listening to this beyond that sale, you can still use TRIBE10 to receive $10.00 off your first purchase of a TRIBE membership!

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

It feels like just yesterday that Justy was approaching her first round of skin removal surgery! But in reality that was 1 1/2 years ago... and she just had her second round!

Listen in as Justy tells it all. From what she was having done, and why to fantastic care she received all along the way as she straveled to Mexico and back for her second surgery.

Medical tourism is quite contaversial. And we get it, there is good and bad out there! But the same can be said for right here in the USA. Justy also goes into detail about why she chose BC plastics in Tijuana, MX after having several quotes given from doctors around the US. 

If you are on the fence about skin removal after weight loss, or even where to have your procedure done, this is an episode you don't want to miss! We also suggest going back and tuning in to episodes 3 & 4 where we discussed her first round of surgery.

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

I swear we had the slowest January ever... then BAM! It's almost November! What the heck??

Either way, we have goals! We set these goals at the beginning of the year and didn't want to "set it and forget it". Life is lifing for everyone, but it literally only takes a few minutes to take a look at what you set for yourself and see where you stand. 

But this isn't a time to beat yourself up if you're not smashing your goals. Listen in as we talk about what goals we are hitting, and where we are missing the mark. Some goals we've had to pivot and some we had to get real with ourselves and acknowledge we've not given them the attention they deserve. 

So. if you've set goals for this year, this is your friendly reminder to check in on them, reassess and start thinking about what 2025 might look like for you. Lord knows January is knocking on our door already!

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

When we set out on our weight loss journey, the expectation was to lose weight. This was well before we knew enough to realize that it really was going to be a journey of so much more!

Are there NSVs along the way, sure! We can wrap a hotel towel around ourselves. We no longer need seatbelt extenders. We can fit on amusement park rides... these are all GREAT benefits of weight loss. 

But we did not expect our lives to change in other ways. For our confidence to build the way it did. They say you recieve the energy that you put out into the world, and We can promise you that this is true. Once we started gain confidence and believe in ourselves, we grew in a way we could have never imagined!

Listen as we talk about all the ways our lives have changed for the better in this journey to a healthy lifestyle. Let us know if you can relate? Or if you are looking forward to seeing these changes in your life as well?

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

We all know what it's like when "life is lifing"! It seems like there is always a bump in the road throwing us off our game. But what we found is how we navigate those bumps can make ALL the difference.

Listen as we talk through the bumps we know are coming and the ones we don't. Both need to be handled, but may take a different approach. Even the bumps we plan for could pivot and take a turn. 

One thing we know for sure is that we can't let our old all or nothing mentality take over and derail our progress. And we also can't let 1 "bad day" turn into a month or more of us saying we will pick back up tomorrow or start again on Monday.

It's just a bump. So pick yourself up and keep it moving!

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

It's that time of year where we take a moment to pause and re-evaluate our goals for the year. At this point, we are more than halfway through the year! Can you believe it??

If we didn't pause, evaluate and possibly pivot, we run the risk of derailing our progress. And we always say, we didn't come this far to only come this far! We worked our asses off (literally lol) to get to maintenance and a confident state in our life. 

That being said, we took a moment to reflect. If you haven't done this yet, this is your sign to see where you stand with your 2024 goals (or NY resolution). Are you on track? If not, do you need to pivot or up your game?

Listen in as we talk about where we stand and where we want to be!

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

Let's face it, we all get busy and tend to lose ourselves a bit, especially women! We're mother's, wives, career driven, athletes, goal oriented... you name it! When you're trying to spin all of these plates in the air, it's easy to forget to fill your own cup!

We just spent a week together primitive backpack camping in Virginia with wild ponies and mountains. We collected and filtered creek water, cut our own fire wood and got a fire going with damp wood. There was plenty of hammock relaxation, laughs and good conversation. We hiked about 15 miles over the course of 3 days. It was everything we needed to disconnect from the world and truly fill our own cup!

After that, we spent 2 days together at Justy's house where we created some new content, went to the gym together and a lot more good conversation with lots of laughs... cause that's what besties do! 

Listen in as we talk about how we managed to sync our time up from Delaware to North Carolina with 2 busy work schedules and family schedules to work around. When you have other obligations, it's just a bit harder to coordinate. But it's totally worth it!

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!

It's funny how we can go our whole life as an obese person, hating our bodies. Thinking, if only I could lose this weight, I would be so happy and I would look great! 

Well, 100+ pounds gone for both of us, and even after skin removal... we still struggle with body image. For Steph, she has a lot of loose skin on her arms, and her belly apron causes rashes when she exercises. For Justy, she doesn't like her legs and has some back fat that appeared after some regain. 

So it looks as though our original though that all would be right in the world when we hit the magical number on the scale or the perfect size jeans... is a complete lie!

Listen as we talk about our journey with the struggle and what we do to combat it!

Follow Justy & Steph on Instagram, where they share their weight loss journey and road to living a happy & healthy lifestyle.
@we.are.losing.it

If you prefer video to see us talk through our topics, you can watch us on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/@wearelosingit

Show your support by hitting download, like & subscribe! We truly appreciate each and every one of you!!