Diet Pills Be Gone!

I took my first diet pill when I was 13. I forget how I convinced my dad to drive me to the drug store and what I told him I was buying, but I had saved up my allowance money for weeks to buy Dexatrim. This is was in 1993. When the rest of the kids my age were going to pool parties and soccer practice, I was hiding diet pills in my sock drawer. I'm confident that this is how my eating disorder began, but I digress.
I'm sure you're thinking that I should have just tried out for a sports team, or taken a dance class or done SOMETHING active. But I was already too chunky to feel confident doing any of those things, and my family was the opposite of athletic. Literally. The opposite. My dad worked all the time and my mom was way too busy doing laundry, dishes, cleaning and keeping track of 5 kids to have time to lead by example. Its not anyone's fault really, I just didn't know where to start and I was too scared to ask. So I took the easy way out. Or what I THOUGHT was the easy way. Fifteen years later, I'm pretty sure that just taking a walk once a day would have been a shit ton easier than all of the pills, restricting, throwing up, lies, fatigue, heart burn, therapy and medical bills.
(I know this doesn't have anything to do with diet pills, I'll get there, I promise)

It wasn't until my senior year of high school that I started to exercise. Jogging a half mile at first, then three, then ten. I finally had enough confidence to try out for the crew team when I got to college. And I made it. Because I just plain REFUSED to give up. BUt when that year was over and I was at another school, my motivation fell apart and I got lazy. And fell back into my old unhealthy habits. In the worst way. And it took YEARS to come back from.
So here I am again. Yesterday my friend tells me about this diet supplement she knows about that is "supposed to be really great." And then there's the recent hype over Hoodia. These things FREAK ME OUT. I am FINALLY learning that the only way to lose weight is with hard work, diet and exercise. That's it. There really is no magic pill....at least no magic pill that will KEEP weight off.
Its about changing your ENTIRE lifestyle and committing, REALLY COMMITTING to making it happen. Even when you get discouraged and would kill a man just to eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's. I get this now. Its HARD. There are no shortcuts.
So when I read a blog earlier today suggesting a supplement, I was seriously skeptical. This blogger, Ashley, says her trainer told her about Milk Thistle when she was hitting a plateau. Milk Thistle is supposed to promote healthy liver function. (Which is probably good for you boozers out there too). But the connection that I didn't make (and I'm guessing most people don't) is that the liver is the primary fat burning organ in the body and also regulates the metabolism of fat. Sooooo Milk Thistle, if used properly, simply supports the liver, makes sure its doing its job, and (in sum) helps make the body more efficient at burning fat.
*Shout out to Ashley for this info, if she happens to read this*
Sounds really interesting. WHile I have sworn off diet pills FOR LIFE, I can certainly feel comfortable taking a natural supplement to help my liver work better. I mean, I take all kinds of natural supplements to make various parts of my body work better: glucosamine for my knees, acidophilus for my GI stuff...and they all work great. I think I may give this new one a try, too. Finally, a "diet pill" I don't have to hide in my sock drawer!