I'm so full of crap - but not literally

Past posts just crack me up. "Back to the diet", "Back on track", "going nowhere." Phooey, all of it. Here's what it all comes down to....

July 4th. It's hot. I'm cranky. I'm wearing my fat shorts and my fat top that make me look fat. We go to a party and I'm sitting there in all my fatness, when a squabble among the boys breaks out. One is crying, my son is saying "does she look fat to you?" as he's pointing at me. The crying boy is upset because another kid is saying he said I was fat. And my son is defending me. I'm laughing it off, boys will be boys, but it kills me.

July 4th was my Independence Day. Independence from fat, from cholesterol, from not fitting in my clothes. I'm not dieting. I'm Clean Eating. And frankly, it is the only way to go.

If you are unfamiliar with clean eating, think of it this way...you only eat real food. Nothing processed, nothing with more than five ingredients (that you can read and know what they are), fresh from the earth foods or stuff you make with fresh ingredients. It's really that easy. I'm eating fruit, vegetables (which I did before), beans, chicken, fish, turkey, eggs, plain yogurt, no sugar (unless it's organic and unbleached), no soda (which I thought might just kill me, but hasn't) and no white flour. All whole wheat, baby.

I'm making my own tortillas, bread, granola, refried beans, and salad dressings. I use real butter (whipped), olive oil, nuts. It's all such good food (and I eat about six times a day) I'm never hungry. It's amazing. I've never felt like this before. And the positive changes are better skin, no breakouts, almost no migraines anymore.

And I'm 20 pounds lighter. I have more to lose, but it's only been two and half months. I'm not starving myself. I am eating. Oatmeal for breakfast every morning, with various toppings - apples, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, yogurt, applesauce (also homemade), cinnamon - and some eggs whites or a whey/soy protein shake, chocolate flavor of course. I'm eating chocolate, only it's 73% cocoa, so dark and almost fruity. A little square a couple times a week. It's just enough and I don't get that annoying sugar high and subsequent drop. I'm watching ingredients. (What the heck is sodium acid pyrophosphate anyway?)

Now, just so you don't think it's all rainbows and puppy dogs, I have discovered the dark side to Clean Eating. What they don't tell you about in the books. Here's the real reason you lose so much weight...you spend all your time in the kitchen preparing your fresh foods. It's a bit of an exaggeration, and I am getting better at it, but I do spend a lot of time cooking and prepping. I'm standing a lot and using my arms. Quite a workout. There's no time to nibble Pretzel M&Ms (even if I did have them in my house, which I did religiously before the CE takeover). I'm busy. But it's all good. I'll take the busy. You can have my fat.

Starting Fresh - again

Well, that whole diet went to hell. First my back injury. And then Christmas. Darn Christmas with its cookies, cakes, sweets, parties, long holiday breaks. Ruined me. I ruined myself. I just can't seem to get movitated. Even with all the weight loss ads. Weight Watchers. Jenny Craig. Alli. Slim Fast. They are all telling me I am fat and need to lose weight. I have to agree with them. My second chin tells me so. My new size *gulp* 18 pants tell me so.

I am fat.

Even proclaiming that doesn't make anything happen inside. There is no great push to lose the weight by my 40th birthday (which is in 7 weeks, so technically, it would be impossible to do that, unless I was on Biggest Loser. Which I'm not.), or run a marathon by the time I'm 40, or do anything spectacular. I am just living the dream. And renovating my house.

My friend T said I had to share photos of my recent stairwell pantry transformation. Wish I had taken a REAL before picture to show the hot mess that was the top of my stairs. But, I forgot, so you'll just get the before shot of a lovely, freshly painted stairwell. At least my stairs look good. That's a start.

Here's my new plan. I am trying something new each week, something healthy and I will do it for a week and then add a new one each week until, hopefully by the end of the year, I have 50 some new healthy habits. This week, I am drinking a full 64 oz of water a day. I bought a container at Meijer that has exactly 64 oz in it - 8 8 oz glasses of water, the recommended daily. I think I drink a lot of water, anyway, so this is kind of a throwaway. But, for those days that I don't get my whole allotment in, this will help. As long as the kids don't pour water from it. Or my husband.

So, that's it. New plan. We'll see how this goes. Wonder what I should shoot for next week?