I Need Your Help

Hi All,



I am still doing my skinny jean queen thing, and the treadmill and the TV are still going hand-in-hand. If I keep this up and go easy on the ice cream sandwiches, I will be ready for a two-piece by summer. So hang in there -- it can be done.  My "secrets" include:  always eat breakfast, drink lots of water, avoid fast food, cook dinner for yourself, become a salad-eatin'-chick when you eat out (go easy on dressing though), eat fruit over snacks during the day as much as possible, and walk as much as possibly can.  That's all I am doing, so no diets or extreme behavior, just lifestyle tweaks you can live with.

Okay, on another note...  You all know by now that I am 44, right?  Well, as a part of my mid-life crisis, I have decided that I would like to be a talk show host as well as a writer. So I just auditioned for a talk show host spot on the Oprah Winfrey Network. It was kinda fun, but nerve wracking because it couldn't be longer than 3 minutes. I can barely say anything in less than 3 minutes!

Anyway, it is a vote-based contest, so if you could check out the following link and vote, I would really appreciate it:

Carolyn's Audition: Carolyn Gray's Secrets of a Skinny Jean Queen - OWN TV http://myown.oprah.com/audition/index.html?request=video_details&response_id=1965&promo_id=1

Also, please pass this along to anyone you know who might want to help. Thanks so much!

Take Care,
Carolyn Gray

Fit Exercise in Wherever You Can!

Hi All,

Hope you had a great week.  I did even though my boys both have sinus infections, so trips to the pediatrician and pharmacist were regular stops this week.  No complaints, but I will be glad when everyone can breathe clearly, and there is no coughing during the night.  :-)  I think the middle of the night coughing from my younger son might be one of the reasons I was very tired this week, but I still managed to strike a few poses (can you tell I am enjoying my 40's):

Speaking of my boys, they had flag football games tonight (one is playing the other is a ref), which means that I was stuck at a field about an hour before the games started.  So I am very glad I had the foresight to put on shorts and bring sneakers before I went to the game.  Haha!  So instead of just reading my book and sitting around, I walked for about 40 minutes (there was a track/trail around the field).  Afterwards, I wound up talking to another mother who was complaining about the 15+ pounds she put on recently because she does not really like to exercise.  So I told her to bring her shoes next Friday.  If we are forced to come to that field every Friday night for the next few weeks, why not get some exercise, right?  I think so!  Maybe you can find ways to squeeze exercise into your busy routine.  If you do, fitting/staying in your skinny jeans will be a lot easier!

Would love to hear how you fit more exercise in.

Until then, have a great weekend & be blessed!
Carolyn Gray

More Weight Loss Advice from Secrets of a Skinny Jean Queen®

Hi All & Happy Friday,

I am getting ready to turn in for the evening.  I am actually sad to go to bed on Friday night.  It is my do-whatever-the-heck-I feel-like evening, and I love it!  I encourage you to find a few hours each week to do the same.  It helps you destress and reduces the need for emotional eating.  During this time I decided to share more videos on my Youtube channel (eformationqueen): http://bit.ly/aKcRjW and on my Facebook fan page: http://bit.ly/dj73Ss.  I am really excited to share information taken from my life as well as my new
book/baby:

Secrets of a Skinny Jean Queen®: A 7-Step Guide to Help You Eat & Act Like You Have Some Sense.  It is available on Amazon, http://amzn.to/cmrE4V or on my website, http://www.carolyngrayinternational.com/.  So far the feedback I have received has been really good, which has inspired me to share some of the tips in the videos I started producing over the last few weeks.  If you get a chance, check them out, and let me know your thoughts! Also, let me know if there is anything I can help you with in your quest to reach and maintain a healthy weight for life, which is philosophy of the Secrets of a Skinny Jean Queen® brand.Well, looking forward to continuing to share and serve with my message, and I hope you are blessed by it!

Best Regards,
Carolyn Gray (aka The Skinny Jean Queen)
P.S. I am wearing the same outfit as I wore on the cover back in 08/09.  Yeah!  My skinny jeans still fit!  These are actual "Skinny Jeans", created by Catherine Hart (http://www.skinnyjeans.com/).  I love the way they fit!!!!!!!

The Role Sexual Molestation Plays in Emotional Eating

Hi All,

It's me, Carolyn Gray again...


Of course most of you visiting my blog are used to my smiling face, but what some of you may not realize is that there are things, secrets, that I hide behind this seemingly, ever-present smile...  One of those secrets is something that you will find in my book, Secrets of a Skinny Jean Queen®: A 7-Step Guide to Help You Eat & Act Like You Have Some Sense -- it is one of the first times, I shared with a large number of people the fact that I was sexually molested when I was nine.

People like Oprah and Mo'Nique made it more comfortable for me to speak that part of my story.  Surprisingly I didn't even tell my mother until four years ago, when I was 40.  However, she doesn't remember now that the book has come out, and she, in anger, has said that if I didn't mention it years ago, I should just be quiet about it now...  I don't think so.  I think I have been quiet far too long.  I have no vendetta's against anyone, and I do not publicly name names.  I just want to get rid of the secret and be free from it AND I WANT TO LET OTHERS DEALING WITH THIS KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT ALONE.

Based on this picture, would you have known this was my story?  If you would not, then imagine how many other people who you might have no idea are suffering in silence, too ashamed to admit to this?  This is why I applaud Oprah & Mo'Nique for bringing this out in the open.  It is about time...  So many of us think our abuse of food, alcohol or drugs is just coincidental, but it is often tied to "what is eating us".  For some, the shame, guilt and hurt of sexual molestation is what is eating us, which is making us eat everything in sight.  Don't you think it is time for us to get "stuff" like this out in the open and start the healing process?  I do...

Be Blessed,
Carolyn Gray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1QwEnmcBys
http://www.carolyngrayinternational.com/
http://bit.ly/dj73Ss

Like Michelle Obama Says, Let's Move!

Hi All,

Happy Spring and Belated Easter!  I hope everyone is well and enjoying the warm weather.  We have almost been having a heat wave on the east coast, which I am loving because it gave me an excuse to get my sundresses out early.  In addition to being a Skinny Jean Queen, I am also a sundress diva, so I have just as many sundresses as I do skinny jeans.  In fact, my husband jokingly calls me Doris Day!

 

So sundress diva and Skinny Jean Queen by day, but dinner cooker, homework checker, task manager, delegator/doer, and treadmill walker/TV watcher by night.  Since I last posted, I have finally reached five miles in 60+ minutes.  I also jump rope, do push-up/planks, a little core work and light stretching -- all while I indulge my reality and nonsense TV obsession (e.g., Celebrity Apprentice, Idol, Dancing w/ The Stars, Lost, V, etc.).  My new motto:  The treadmill and TV go hand-in-hand. 

However, the thing that requires the most discipline is to make sure I am dressed and ready to go after dinner.  You must do the same...  Don't worry about what you wear, just get your butt moving.  Like Michelle Obama says, "Let's Move!"  So that's what I try to do...  However, today I was struggling to find clean outfits, so I put on the first thing I could find:

  

What an appropriate outfit for a Skinny Jean Queen! Regardless, why must I exercise? I wish I were naturally thin! Why is anything good always something you have to force yourself to do????

  

Even with the prospect of watching TV, I still don't wanna get on the treadmill.  So I have to counsel myself and keep going even when I don't feel like it... I know exercise is in my best interest, but do I really have to do it???? Of course the answer is yes!  So let me start moving before I change my mind!

 

Okay...  I am starting to feel better.  I do enjoy walking with a little jogging thrown in.  I think it helps me

not to go crazy under the mom/home pressure.  See, just thinking about it, I am looking less and less crazy!

 Yes, I can do this!  After all, I am the Skinny Jean Queen (see the crown on my shirt), and as my son said, "Exercise is a part of my job!"  So as long as I am able, I will accept the First Lady's challenge:  "Let's Move".  You should too!  Your brain, heart, lungs, joints and muscles will thank you!

So how are planning to move more?  I can't wait to hear!  Let me know!

Carolyn Gray

What's New With The Skinny Jean Queen!

Hi All,

Today I did something really cool.  I did a blogcast with Stephanie Fink of the blog  http://www.encouragedinheart.org/.  We have similar messages and very similar senses of humor.  It was such a pleasure to meet her and be interviewed by her.  I can't wait to read more from her blog!

Here I am today...  Some people may wonder why am I always dressed up in my posts.  It is because I am a chronic overdresser, and 5/6 days a week you will find me dressed like this or in a similar fashion.  So believe it or not, I am not dressing up for the pictures.  As I told my son, "this is just how I roll!"  :-)  This is good because when something like an interview or event comes up, I am usually dressed and ready to go!  Fortunately I enjoy dressing up.

Well, here's the interview:

http://www.encouragedinheart.org/2010/03/10/blog-cast-autographed-freebies-from-the-skinny-jean-queen/

 Even though I was a smiling fool, I think it was good, and I really enjoyed talking to Steph.  Hopefully you will find it entertaining as well.
After the picture, I got out of this monkey suit, into put on some yoga pants and hit the treadmill for 62 minutes while watching The Devil Wears Prada, Lost, What's Love Got to Do With It?.  I reminded myself that the TV and the treadmill go hand in hand, and I felt so much better afterwards!  In case you need convincing, you will too!
 
Best Regards,
Carolyn Gray (aka America's Skinny Jean Queen)

What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas!

Hi All,

I have been away for a bit...  Busy with kids and promotions for my new book, as well as a trip to Vegas.  I went to a James Malinchak speaker's conference at the Green Valley Ranch.  Believe me, this was no ranch -- it looked more like a Spanish mansion to me!  For the first night I was able to get a suite because they didn't have any non-smoking king rooms.  It was the first time I ever stayed in a suite with a pool table, a dining room with seating for 8, 2.5 baths, two baths with flat screens (so four all together), remote control drapes throughout.  Man it was great!  Too bad it was only for one night, but I made the most of it.

It was okay because the regular rooms were wonderful too, so I highly recommend this hotel.  Now regarding the conference, I learned so much my mind was blown.  However, I have a to-do list a mile long, but it's all good.  I guess this is what I wanted, but the best part was that I got to meet Famous Dave (of the barbeque restaurant fame) and talk to him and his assistant about some partnership/sponsorship ideas I have relating to my book, especially since I mention his restaurant in my book.  What a wonderful surprise it was meeting him there:

The next great thing that happened was that Mark Victor Hansen (co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series) was speaking at the conference.  This was great for me because he endorsed my book, and I wanted a picture with him and the book:

I must say this made the trip for me.  To be able to finish my book was one thing, but to be able to get an endorsement from someone who has sold over 150 million books around the world, it is a dream come true.  So that is the good news about the trip, what about the bad news????  Well, you know Vegas is a place of over-indulgence, right?  Well fortunately I don't drink, smoke or gamble, but with me not getting out of my sessions until after 7:00 or 8:00 most nights, I was eating every night after 8:00.  Well at home, this is usually a no-no.  Also, in my everyday life, I very rarely eat burgers and fries, but I had that for dinner twice on my trip.  I also don't eat Snickers bars at home, but on trips I sometimes succumb to my temptation for them.  Well, I had them each night I was there!

Okay, it is not all bad...  I did eat mostly fruit for breakfast and lunch (I took a nice walk to Whole Foods to stock up), but I was really bad by my usual standards.  Also, the other good thing was the fact that the hotel was huge, so I walked a lot, and there were stairs that I could take every time I left a session or went to my room.  This was helpful, but I was still bad, especially since I could not squeeze exercise in as I was adjusting to the three-hour time difference and the late-ending sessions.  Now for the best news?  What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

Well, I am home now, and guess what's the first thing I did?  I went back to my usual cereal with 1% milk for breakfast -- it was so good!  I then pulled some of the homemade vegetable soup (my mother-in-law's recipe) that I put in the freezer before I left.  I usually eat soup before and after a trip to offset any foolishness that may have occured.  I have actually been eating this for dinner for the last three nights with pieces of Jiffy cornbread (made with 1% milk and a little milled flaxseed thrown in) crumbled in it.  Believe it or not, it is so good, especially with pepper and hot sauce added into the mix.  I normally eat a baked sweet potato with this, but I was too tired, especially as I tried to get back in the swing of things with the kids (e.g., cooking for them, practices, trying to get the house back in order, etc.).  For lunch, I have gone back to my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on whole-wheat, low-cal bread (Healthy Life), except for yesterday when a friend treated me to lunch at Famous Dave's (I had my usual chicken salad with one rib -- YUM!).

So I left most of the bad habits back in Vegas.  Now next week, my normal workout routine will resume... On the plane ride back, I did a mini-pass out routine and fell on my knees (a little motion sickness brought on by sinus pressure/congestion).  Unfortunately, they are both sore, so I have a get-out-of-treadmill-jail-free card for this week only.  However, next week, all remnants of my Vegas foolishness will be gone for good!  So, I tell you all of this to say, never feel like you have failed just because you fall off the wagon a bit -- you just start back on your normal healthy routine as soon as you are able, and don't look back!  That is one of the main secrets of this skinny jean queen!

Well, sorry for being so long-winded, but I thought this was important for those who have an all-or-nothing mentality.  Eating and acting like you have some sense is a one-day-at-a-time thing!  So, let's take things one day at a time!

Best Regards,
Carolyn Gray (The Skinny Jean Queen)
http://www.secretsofaskinnyjeanqueen.com/