This is hard

Hi everyone! It seems like a really long time since I posted here, but with the long holiday weekend that is understandable. My fiancé’s mom actually got married this weekend so we were busy helping/celebrating with his family for most of this weekend. But now it is back to the grind and back to my blog!

I wanted to take some time today and write more of a personal post. I haven’t read any articles or books to comment on today, I just want to talk to you about living life healthier and the impact, both positive and negative (yes there are downsides, but they do NOT outweigh the ups), it has had on my life. I also want to give a little more direction to this blog and give you some plans and actions to help you lead a healthier life. Sound like a plan?

I have not always lived the way that I do now. That can be said for most people, I know. Not many of us have grown up eating the best and most nutritious meals, and that is ok. There is a lot that wasn’t known when I was younger, just like I am sure there will be new things to discover in the future. That being said, I was very conscious of my weight even at a very young age. I didn’t look like most of the girls in my class (mostly because I was going through puberty) and this greatly affected my self-esteem. And that is something I struggled with for a very long time. I won’t go into all the details of my journey, you can actually read that story here.

So how did I end up deciding to drastically change my eating habits and lifestyle? Pretty simple actually, I was done with not feeling my best. I had already established a pretty good exercise routine but still ate pretty much whatever I wanted. I would frequently get tired, have really bad breakouts on my face and back, I had stomach issues, and very little energy. It also took me a long time to recover from my workouts. For the longest time I tried to blame my ailments on everything but my diet, finally I had to toughen up and tell myself if I kept eating like this I would end up in a bad place. So I started looking for a diet change I thought would fit with my lifestyle and I stumbled across an article on the gracious pantry about turning your pantry into a clean eating pantry. The tips and advice she gave seemed fairly simple so I started to look into clean eating. The idea is to eat real whole foods (hmmm where have I heard that before) and cut out all processed, chemical laden foods. I thought, “Let’s do it!” and told my fiancé we should try this eating clean business. He was slightly hesitant (this boy lived on Cheese-It’s and spaghetti, so slightly hesitant is an understatement) but said he would try.

I won’t tell you that eating better was easy or an instant change. It took time and struggle and a lot of willpower. There were setbacks and times where I thought I was being crazy, but once I got past that, it did get easier. I kind of equate it to being an addict. I was addicted to sugar and my processed foods and had to essentially detox my system. It was hard, but so worth it. I no longer crave cookies and chips but would much rather eat fresh fruits and vegetables. All those physical problems are gone or extremely diminished. There was also some negativity from my friends and family. I still get people telling me I need to stop losing weight (I actually haven’t lost weight in months) and I tell those people that losing weight has never been my focus, just living a healthy lifestyle so I can live a long and full life. Weight loss has just been an added bonus. Also once I did change the way I ate, everyone became a nutritionist. Almost everyone I knew would tell me I’m not getting enough protein or vitamin C. Name a nutritional element, and someone would tell me I wasn’t getting enough of it. To tell you the truth, these people got me down for the longest time. I felt like I just couldn’t win, but with the support of my fiancé I realized it wasn’t about them, it was about what was best for me and how I felt. I had to stop trying to please everyone else and focus on making sure I was happy and healthy. Sure, sometimes I still get upset when someone criticizes my lifestyle, but I just step back and realize as long as I’m healthy that’s all that matters.

Why am I telling you all of this? What impact does this have on your life? I have been where you are before. I have had to deal with temptations and negativity from my peers. I have had to man up, step up to the plate, and take charge of my health and I know you can do the same thing. I want this blog and ultimately myself to be a tool for you to use to live healthier. With that being said, I plan to keep posting about new information on nutrition (I’m starting the book The Three Season Diet, so be on the lookout for that) and muddling through all the stuff out there, but I also am going to start posting things you can do to help yourself. Because the reality is that I can’t be with you 24/7 telling you what to do. YOU have to be responsible for you and your life. So I will post recipes, tips, guidelines, and anything else I think will help you along with all the research I sort through. You can do this and I will help, I promise.

Whew! That was a long post but I hope it helped to clarify what I want to do here. And if not, PLEASE let me know. Tell me what you would like to see here and I will do my best to accommodate! Until next time!