Nutrition

I have started to love cooking again, and have tried so many great new recipes and foods.  Just tonight for dinner I had brussel sprouts, which I had never even tried before.  It is amazing how quickly my pallet for taste has changed.  I now crave veggies and can't wait to try new things.  A very interesting this I learned lately that I wanted to share with you is about hunger, or what we think hunger is.  Often times when we are so unhealthy as I was you think you feel hungry all the time.  So what do you do?  You eat all the time.  But when we are not healthy and uneducated about nutrition the thing you don't realize is that the reason you are hungry all the time is because you body is craving nutrition and hoping that maybe this time you will give it what it needs.  It is kind of a vicious cycle.  You eat crappy food, you get hungry, you eat more crappy food, which still doesn't make you feel better.  When you are eating healthy foods and giving your body the things it needs it doesn't trigger those fake hunger pains.  My body feels so much better after eating so healthy for the last month.  I feel stronger and more able to do the daily things I need to get done.  My kids are even starting to like eating their veggies.  

Another interesting point that was made at our meeting on Thursday night was that all of these processed foods we eat, are essentially non-foods.  They are processed SO much that they really are not even food anymore.  Think about that for a minute.  My challenge for everyone is to add more natural whole foods into your diet this week.  If you get hungry between meals choose a healthy snack.  Take the time to give your body what it is really looking for, and I promise you will start to feel so much better.

Staying positive during challenging times

So today I am learning how to turn a hurdle into a blessing.  This morning was my weekly weigh in, and according to the scale, I am up 2 pounds for the week.    Of course I am disappointed by the number and a little discouraged, but thanks to my awesome life coach Becky Sampson, I am learning how to push past this and turn it into a positive rather than a negative.  During our morning call this morning, she taught me that it is important to not get attached to results.  Instead focus on measuring my activity, and the results will happen.  I had to take a look at my activity from the past week and see what I can improve on for this next week.  In looking back, I am happy to say that I didn't cheat on my food at all, but I could have tried a little harder to be more active in my daily life.  One area that I struggle with is the amount of time I spend on Facebook.  As much as I love all of you for your encouragement and support, this past week I have realized I have been relying on that a little bit too much.  Another thing Becky told me this morning was that it is none of my business what other people think of me.  That has really helped me get over this hurdle, because one of the first things I thought when I got on the scale this morning is, what a disappointment I am to those who are supporting me.  I felt like I let everyone down including myself, and I didn't think I could face that.  I have done a lot of thinking and writing in my journal today and have come to realize that it is all OK.  I can allow myself to stay in this place for as long as I would like, but the longer I focus on it, the more the negativity in my head will expand.  After years with a head full of negativity I realize that is not a place I want to go.  So I am releasing these negative thoughts and moving forward to greater things.  I was never told, nor did I expect this journey to be easy, but I have learned through the help of my amazing husband and awesome support group that I can make it through anything.  I am still so much better off than I was a month ago, and yesterday I fit into a pair of jeans that didn't fit last month, so there is still reason to celebrate.