Most everyone knows about our decision to start running at the beginning of this year, and you probably know our family struggles with weight issues. The running triggered something in this family that I hope never dies out. A strong desire to be healthy. It has been a roller coaster of "stuff" with running and eating habits all year long. The two never seemed to match up, we were never exercising AND eating right. Obviously the two together work best :).
We have made a lot of life style changes this last year. Slowly, one step at a time, trial and error, starts and stops, failures, and victories...we have learned a lot. Some of the things we have done are.. take out processed food from our diet (almost completely, you may find a few things in our pantry but not much), making most everything from scratch, adding lots of veggies, some fruits, and low fat meats, buying organic when it is on sale and we can afford it, eating more fish and chicken and less red meat (I love red meat so it will never leave our diet completely), we have switched from white bread/flour/pasta to whole wheat and whole grain and very few carbs in a day, drinking way more water, and running (not so much lately), zumba, Just Dance (don't laugh it is a great workout!!).
We love to find and try new recipes so this year we have not given into "diet food" salad and bland stuff. We have really enjoyed searching for and trying new recipes and we will just keep doing that. We have realized that to make lifestyle changes, not go on a diet, we had to find foods we loved to eat. We have not made all these changes at once, but little bits here and there and it has been a lot of ups and downs.
Last week I stumbled upon a blog (http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/what-i-miss-from-135lbs-ago/) about a college girl who lost 135 #s and she loves to cook. Obviously we love to cook (and eat) so I was intrigued and decided to read some. The blog post I read was about what she missed from being overweight and what she love about being 135#s thinner. I never had thought about anything good about being overweight and it made me think. I obviously have a long way to go to be where I need to be HEALTHY (not skinny), but I decided to write what I miss about "not giving a crap" about what I eat, and what I look forward to about being in better shape.
What I miss....The simplicity of processed food, just grabbing something and heating it up. I get tired of cooking all the time. Chips, oh my word I miss chips!! Pizza. Eating out (we eat out some but not like before). Eating out at a buffet and eating till I thought I might be sick (ok maybe I don't miss that one a whole lot). Diet Coke. The comfort from junk food, especially if eaten while watching a chick flick.
What I don't miss...Hating myself for every bite of junk I ate, feeling sick from eating so much crap, the sadness that comes with comforting myself with food.
What I am looking forward to....being healthy, being off meds, being able to run without wondering if it will kill me, being fit and healthy as a family, being able to look my girls in the eye and know I didn't make good choices for them early on but we changed it together, shopping in the cute clothes department.
You should read this girls blog she puts it so much better than I and I can so relate!
I am not to the "healthy" point I want to be at yet, but I am healthier today than I was on Jan 1,2011 even though I am not a whole lot skinnier (13#s down and a WHOLE lot more to go). My goal is a healthier Landess family and a little skinnier wouldn't be so bad either!
No comments:
Post a Comment