Food has been something I have
battled for as long as I can remember. As a child, I was super picky and wouldn’t
eat what I should. As an adult I think the opposite started happening. I
stopped being picky and starting eating everything I could get my hands on.
Food became my enemy.
Throughout my adult life I have
tried just about every diet advertised. Atkins left me starving, weight
watchers was far too complicated. I would always lose weight, but that was
always short lived. Eventually I would go into starvation mode or just miss
food and then binge. Quitting the diet led to gaining my weight back plus more.
That cycle continued for years. Then came pregnancy… oh man. Pregnancy led to
gaining 60 pounds. After he was born; I lost some weight, not all. Then came
kid number two. Still carrying excess weight from the first kidlet, I added an
additional 40. Pregnancy left me extremely over weight. My little 5 foot 6 ½ frame
ended up weighing in at a whopping 215 after all the baby producing was done. I
was so miserable, unhealthy and sick.
In past
blogs I have talked about the big epiphany when I started my healthy lifestyle.
At some point I picked up running. Running with all that weight was painful. I
knew I had to do something else. I read somewhere that you can’t out run a bad
diet, true. My eating needed an
overhaul. I started with watching Netflix documentaries. The most pivotal for
me was Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and Food, Inc. I started cutting out
processed foods, anything that I had to take my time to pronounce on the nutrition
label. Slowly, the changes started to happen. Just by cutting out processed
foods I was noticing a difference and it was hard to deny. Clean eating seemed
like the way to go. This new diet wasn’t a gimmick or quick fix but it involved
giving up soda, fast food and processed foods.
At first, oh my goodness I struggled. I had been eating fast
food and junk for so long I had a hard time giving it up. I had rarely ate
fruits and veggies. But, I started small, I began incorporating smoothies into
my daily eating. I hated all things green so I would hide them in smoothies
that contained frozen fruit and orange juice to hide the taste. I don’t know if
I just started to enjoy the smoothies or I was starting to no longer need all
the processed junk… but whatever happened I started to crave healthy foods.
My plate started to look colorful. Now, breakfast is some sort of fruit and
oatmeal. Lunch consists of chopped salads, or chicken, rice and some veggies.
Dinner is usually a food delivery service that delivers healthy ingredients to
our door weekly.
(My lunch)
Now, food is fuel. I want
to veggies and fruits. I want to
try new foods. Food is no longer my enemy. I do admit, I have days where I make
bad food choices but one meal doesn’t make me fat. Indulging doesn’t undo all
the work I have done. I think that’s what never worked for me before. I love
food too much to restrict myself. I eat clean a majority of the time. I always
crave veggies but I eat out sometimes too. All things in moderation.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from trying diets,
different things work for different people. I just wanted to share what worked
for me. Small changes slowly led to a new way of eating. I hope this helps anyone struggling to eat
better. Experiment and have fun with food. But always, eat the rainbow and
nourish your body!
Any questions you want to ask, leave a comment and I will do
my best to answer!
