There has to be room for cheating

Seriously.  I mean it when I say I want to be healthy.  I do.  I want to try my hardest to eat good live food (live food meaning having lots of vitamins in it).  I strongly believe that if you focus on that, your body will get where it needs to be.  It has no other choice.  Along with eating good live food, water...this is also an important factor.  Even though I know all this, there has to be room for some cheating.  I have been on some strict diets in the past.  I mean super strict and though I have lost weight and it seems like things are going well, I get to a point of melt down.  I binge and when I mean binge that is being kind.  So I have learned that there has to be room for cheating.  With that, you have to know yourself.  You have to be responsible for cheating.  Responsible cheating, moderation, portion control. So that being said, as you can see according to my ticker above, that I am 8 lbs down.  Yay me! Also, I know that this is going to go slow and so I need to be patient.  So here is what I made the other day.

This is what it looks like.  Pizza that is made from a cauliflower crust.  It really is good.  I mean don't get me wrong.  I love the yummy greasy fatty pizza just like the next person, but as substitutes go, this isn't bad and full of lots of vitamins.  I usually grate up a couple of heads of cauliflower and make a ton of crusts to freeze and then when I want one, I pull it out, put sauce, mozzarella cheese and a few slices of pepperoni and cook for about 12 min. in the oven and walla!  The sauce is diced tomatoes blended up with a few of my favorite spices. I will put the recipe for the cauliflower pizza crust under my recipe page if anyone is interested.

Changing old habits

Changing habits is hard.  Especially when the habit you are trying to change is something you really like.  Day 2.  How's it going?  Well, for the most part, not bad.  Of course I always do well the first couple of weeks.  Ask me that in a couple of weeks and the answer might be a different.  That being said, how do we change habits?  To put change in your life, I suppose you add new routines through out the day and stick with them.  Replace one routine with another.  I suppose our brain needs to be persuaded.  So then how do you persuade your brain.  Rewards.  Your brain reacts to rewards.  My habit I am trying to change right now is unhealthy snacking.  I have learned that I like to snack.  It isn't always the big meal (though I am a sucker to eat out and be social with friends), but the many different little snacks.  I love gummie bears, red vines, chips, nuts (the honey roasted kind), fruit snacks, candy corn, Swedish fish, crackers and most anything I can put in my hands and snack out of.  So now how to change this habit and make the change a reward.  The trick is to be able to see what the consequence of the habit is.  Is it a good consequence or a bad consequence?  My brain might say "yes, I can already taste it."  Then my brain begins to reason and says...what about the consequence?  So the trick is how to make my brain realize that the bad consequence is really not what I want.  I need to look for the good consequences.  So how do I make the good consequence out weigh the reward I think I want to the reward I need?  This is what I am working on right now.  Motivation.  That is my reward.  Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going.  My motivation needs to be that I want more energy, I want to feel good every day, I want the headaches to disappear, I want my back to stop hurting after how many years, I want to feel like I am in my twenties, I don't want to have limitations, I want to be happy with myself.  These are all good rewards.  So, I am telling my brain, by staying away from the unhealthy snacks, that all these motivations are possible and obtainable.  Now to just believe it.

Lettuce Wraps

Mmmm.  Lettuce wraps.  They were excellent.

Ground Turkey ( or lean ground beef)
3 cups of shredded cabbage
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons packaged szechwan seasoning mix
(though I just used a stir fry seasoning mix which called for the soy sauce in it)
Add any additional water
Lettuce leaves ( I like Romaine, but you can use iceberg)

Get a wok ( or non stick pan) very hot, cook the meat and break it up into very small pieces ( I sauteed onions in olive oil in wok before I added the turkey) When it is no longer pink, add the cabbage and pour the sauce over mix.  Continue cooking on high heat just until the cabbage starts to wilt.  You can sprinkle red crushed pepper on it.

Here we go again......

  This is me and this is my new start.  My name is Julee and a few years ago, I documented everything and made it into a blog for everyone to see.  Something about making it public helped me to work hard.  Well, I lost about 60 lbs and I started to really like myself again.  Well, guess what?  Like many others, I took a step backwards.  OK, I took a lot of steps backwards.  Does that mean I didn't learn anything?  No, I don't think so.  I learned a lot, especially what not to do.  Well, I am back up there in weight once more and I have tried and failed more then once.  Thinking this morning of when I succeeded, I remembered I had this little blog.  I decided to wipe the posts clean and start again once more.  This time, I will focus on health.

Health vs. looks.  Are they one in the same?  Some say that they don't care much about how they look and that they just wanna be healthy, but if you wanna be healthy then don't you wanna look good.  Looking good only shows that you are indeed healthy.  So, yes, I wanna be healthy and yes, I wanna look good.  They really are one in the same. Many years ago, Dr Phil (which, btw, I really have no interest in) said many times,  "You are fat because you wanna be"  I have thought about that statement many times.  Though I see what he is trying to say, believe me, I don't want to be fat.  I have never liked the statement one bit.  Just because we are, does not mean that we wanna be fat.  I mean really, let's be honest, who really wants to be fat?  Some might say, they like food too much to care.  Others might say it is just too hard.  Some might really just be happy with themselves on the surface.  Some have lost the will.  I know I feel like all this sometimes.  But believe me, if you are overweight, it really is a symptom of being unhealthy and it won't be the last symptom.   I do though, want to be healthy. So, instead of focusing on wanting to be fat or not, lets focus on wanting to be healthy.  When we are healthy, then we look good.

Now, this is not as easy as it sounds.  Just like one who is trying to stop smoking,  you need lots of support, will power, advice, knowledge, reflection and most important....DESIRE.  I hope as I once again go on this journey that you will all join me and celebrate the successes that I have.  It won't be easy but it will be worth it.  Now these posts will be my thoughts.  I am not trying to preach to anyone.  I am just putting my thoughts into writing and sharing.  If you have advice, recipes, quotes ( funny or inspirational), Internet sites or any other helpful knowledge, please share.  I would love to hear it.  I will also share my knowledge as well.   I am so excited you will be with me once again on my journey to not just watching my butt shrink, but to a better healthy lifestyle.