Confessions

It’s been a long time since I've written in this blog.  Since last spring my goals for “the good life” haven’t changed but other things got in the way.  I completed my Couch to 5K program but decided that running wasn't for me, leaving me to find some other activity that I would like.  At the same, maintaining my weight loss was SO HARD.  I’m pretty convinced that losing weight is easier than keeping it off.

Fast forward to today, I've gained all my weight back thanks to getting off the structure of Weight Watchers and struggling to find the time to exercise and an activity that I enjoy doing.  It’s all about priorities, I know, and mine started to shift to the point that taking care of my health became less important than other things.

It may be cliche, but it’s a new year and I want to start it off on the right foot.  Before the holidays I started to feel a food hangover, too much of the wrong stuff and hating that I was gaining the weight back.   I knew that during the holidays wouldn't be the time to change any habits instead I’d been researching so when life was back to normal I’d have a plan for change.

My goal is really about being healthy.  This means a healthy weight and healthy body (via regular activity).  I don’t have a number in mind for how much I should weigh, I’d just like to fit in to my clothes the right way and be in the normal range for my BMI. 

Part of being healthy involves the food I’m eating.  With Weight Watchers the structure helped me lose weight and make long-term changes to my food choices but I've still been eating too much of the wrong stuff including processed foods, additives the wrong kind of carbs (I love bread).  My recent conviction has been to eliminate the unhealthy chemicals from my food and eat in a way that’s better for me long term.  I’m currently surrounded by several pregnant women and becoming more aware of the food in our diet that isn't ok – if we shouldn't eat foods because they could affect the development of a baby, why should we eat them at all?

After looking around at different eating plans I found Paleoand Whole30 (super strict Paleo for 30 days from the Whole9 program).  It’s based on eating responsibly-raised meat (free range, grass fed, no antibiotics, etc.), good veggies and fruit.  That eliminates so many of the unnatural ingredients that I want to avoid and all processed foods.  The challenge will be that dairy, grains and legumes are not included in the plan.  I’m not nearly as articulate as the pros when it comes to explaining all the science and nutrition info for the plans (like don’t you need milk for healthy bones, why no legumes and grains, how different foods effect your body chemistry and can help or hurt your system) so check out their sites for all the details.

I’m lucky that Ben wants to do this with me; he’s always been healthier than me and has some stomach issues on occasion that should be helped by a change in diet.  This weekend we've been purging and splurging – getting rid of the foods we won’t be able to eat anymore and enjoying our favorites before we have to say good bye.  It’s amazing how few of our current foods remain in the kitchen after purging – we had way too many processed foods, added sugars and grains of all sorts.

I’ll use this blog to post about the journey of eating differently – not just to lose weight but for total health.  I’ll also share about my quest to find activities that I like so I can exercise regularly and not hate it.