Day 1 of the rest of my life

I have heard that it takes 31 days to create a new habit or break an old one. I wouldn't know if this is true yet, as I have never taken on a 31 day challenge and actually completed it. The last 2-3 months, I have tried to finish an exercise challenge, you do a little bit every day. But so far I have not stuck with it. Starting out well is sooo easy for me, it is finishing well that is so hard for me. Even while doing projects in life, that seems to be the way for me. When in college and I had a paper that was due at such and such a time, I would go and get some research done on it right away. Then I would put it off until the last minute and have to finish on the night before it was due and stay up late getting it done. You can't stay up late fixing what you have eaten all day. But you can start with the next time that you go to put food in your mouth! That will be my goal. I will strive to think about what I am eating and WHY I am eating it. Like last night. After the baby took FOREVER to go to sleep, all I wanted was some comfort food. I wanted chocolate ice cream. My hubby choose to get some chocolate peanut butter ice cream on our last shopping venture together. I got out two bowls (put a brownie in the bottom, two in mine) then put in the ice cream. I ate ALL of mine, and ohhh...it was SOOO yummy. Then hubby didn't want the rest of his and so I felt no guilt in eating the rest of his as well. Not that I NEEDED it. Oh no....I sooo did not NEED it. But it was soo yummy and soo comforting to eat this yummy chocolate and peanut butter ice cream. I just added it on to the rest of the desserts I had had that day. I already spoiled the day, why not the night as well? But yeah...I need to really stop and think about what is going into my mouth, and why. One thing that I have been working on is to not snack when making hubby's lunch in the morning. Snacking while making his lunch still counts and adds that many more calories to my day.
So today has gone pretty well thus far. Started out with my 25oz of water before eating breakfast. Drinking water before eating helps to jump start your metabolism and get your body ready to process your food! :) Breakfast was yogurt, berries and grapes and a slice of whole wheat toast with some margarine. Yum. I didn't quite get a snack in, so next up was lunch and for lunch I had a salad. I must say I am pretty proud of myself as much of the veggies that I bought are disappearing from the refrigerator. So that in and of itself is just about a miracle from this last week.


11/29/14
Well, this post never made it up the day I was writing it. The day before Thanksgiving. Now Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it is two days past Thanksgiving. I can't remember what I ate that night for supper. Thanksgiving I ate a breakfast of eggs, broccoli and tomatoes. Snack was pumpkin bread. Then a turkey dinner for lunch. I had some pie a few hours later. I must say I didn't eat nearly as much as I would have when I was younger. I think I ate a little more than I should have, but I wasn't terribly stuffed, and in a few hours I wasn't sick to my stomach as in years past. I was happy with that! For dinner I had breaded chicken, taco salad and sweet potato casserole. Overall it was a lot better than it could have been, but I'm sure there is room for improvement next year, or at the next holiday!
I cannot remember how I did yesterday at the moment :( . Guess the loss of memory comes with having young children! ;) And today I tried to get back on track, but missed breakfast, so I started with a snack of cheese and almonds, had a later lunch a YUMMY salad! And I have fish to cook for dinner. I will have a snack a little later. We'll see how that goes. So much for writing every day! ;)

Middle of the Night and Awake

Well…it is 4:25am. I don’t usually do this (get up this early when something is on my mind) but since I was hungry and I KNOW that I didn’t eat so well, I got up to have a pear and “write” down some thoughts. I recently completed a 5 day challenge to “Eat Clean.” I did AMAZING at eating well and eating the veggies in my fridge (still have some in there! ;) ). What this entailed was to not have refined/processed food, skip the sugars, less dairy than I was used to. There was a menu and grocery shopping list that I fully intended to follow. I purchased most of the veggies on the list and was a little (ok, maybe a LOT) scared that I would waste a LOT of it. So after making this huge purchase of veggies, I decided to start the challenge a few days earlier to “practice” eating well before I actually had to! (yeah, what can I say, I’m a little weird! ;) ) So I practiced, and I wasn’t perfect, and even when I was eating clean for the challenge I didn’t always follow the menu and did sometimes have one dessert (or more, clears throat) a day. BUT for the most part I did pretty well. I even lost about 4 lbs or so to get closer to my goal weight! Score!!! But the three days after the challenge, I went almost right back. Not too soon. The first day I did pretty well, the second day I made a dessert “for my hubby” but that didn’t stop me, and the third day I was eating all kinds of desserts at all kinds of hours. I must also say that one reason I was trying to eat well is because I am a nursing mom at the moment, and I was thinking that sometimes I was eating certain things with caffeine in them too late for my son and it seemed maybe he was actually being bothered by it. So even before the challenge came up I was trying to be really good with when I ate certain desserts etc. Well, during the challenge I was to take pictures of my meals, or at least post what I ate, and to eat every 2 ½ to 3 hours. So I kept pretty good track, most of the days. Of course some days were crazy here and there schedule wise. But I tried to do pretty good, but alas, without the accountability I just slid back into old habits. That is why I am here now. I want to live a healthy life. I want to eat healthy foods. YES I want to be able to eat desserts, but I would like to try to limit them to 1-2 per day and not give in to my cravings to eat just because they are there and they taste ohhh sooo good! I want my kids to eat healthy because they see me eating healthy! My daughter actually tried some new foods and ate them and seemed to like them because I was eating them and she wanted them off my plate. So yeah…I am started this blog thing (not that I am one who writes well at ALL!) to be able to have a way to be accountable to my food choices. I may just write about a bunch more things on here once I get going…and I have NO idea how to set this up…I am just typing in word to get it down on paper before it goes out of my head and I don’t do it. And ohhh….my pear is just amazing and soo juicy, mmm! So here goes to healthy eating for the rest of my life…hoping this helps!

Joy