Falling off the Healthy Eating Wagon

Healthy Eating

I’ve been on a wellness journey for about 3 years now. It’s not always easy, and food is always the most challenging aspect for me. Recently, I’ve had a setback when it comes to healthy eating.

I wish I could say it stemmed from a certain incident, like my car accident, but in reality, it had been happening gradually for a while. While my accident, and the stress that came with it, didn’t help, ultimately, I can’t blame it. It’s all about me.

I’ve been lacking motivation in all areas of my life lately. I think I’ve been a bit overwhelmed, and when it all gets to be too much, I tend to do nothing.

However, I’m determined to make some changes, like writing more blog posts, and getting back to healthy eating.

Some Background

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably already know this part of the story. So, feel free to skip a few paragraphs.

If not, here’s a little review.

I’ve always been relatively active, and up until college, I could eat whatever I wanted.

During college, I gained the freshman 15 and then some. I ate anything and everything, plus add in a little (or a lot) of drinking, and you get the picture. I was definitely heavier than my high school days, but wasn’t extremely unhealthy or overweight.

After college, I started paying more attention to what I ate, but never did lose everything that I gained. I still kept active by dancing and working out, but it wasn’t ever enough to lose the weight.

Then, I got married and got pregnant. I actually lost weight at the beginning because I was so sick, but then made up for it by eating everything in sight at the end. I had read that breastfeeding would take the weight right off, but that definitely wasn’t the case for me. It made me starving all the time, and as a new mom, I just ate whatever was put in front of me.

When I got pregnant with the twins, I was still hanging onto a lot of that weight, but again was so sick at the beginning I lost weight. I had to force myself to eat during my twin pregnancy, and was very conscious of what I ate. I needed to focus on protein per my doctor’s instructions, and those babies sucked everything right out of me.

When they came unexpectedly early, the stress, the pumping, and more stress helped me gain a bunch more weight.

It wasn’t until the twins were 3-years-old that I finally was able to focus on myself and my health…and it wasn’t good. I had high blood pressure and just felt terrible. I started a nutrition program where I ate 2 shakes a day, plus counted calories. It was really the first time I ever kept track of what I put in my mouth.

It worked!

The shock of seeing how many calories I was actually eating, helped me get on track. Don’t get me wrong, it was not easy.

I was hungry a lot of the time, I missed junk food, and it was hard to make the smart choices. But, I also started feeling better, my clothes started fitting better, and my health improved. No more high blood pressure!

It took a long time for the weight to all come off, but when it did, I felt really good about myself. I did a Whole 30, got into the gym habit, and was finally the weight I’d been using on my driver’s license all these years.

The Slip

Once I got familiar with the calorie counts in things, I stopped keeping track. I knew basically how many calories I needed each day to maintain my weight. I also liked eating many of the same things over and over.

Like I mentioned before, it’s not one incident that derailed my healthy eating. It was a slow process of adding snacks here and there, having a couple of drinks, and eating late at night. A busy schedule, stress, and just life took my focus away.

Now

Even though I haven’t gained all the weight back, and it may not even be apparent that I’ve gained weight, I’m not feeling good about myself again. I’m just not feeling good in general.

My clothes don’t fit like they did, and I don’t have energy at all.

I’m still working out (because I love it, and it’s my “me” time,) but when it comes to weight, it really is mostly about what you put into your body. Or at least it is for me.

I go to the gym at least 3 times a week, and I work hard. It just doesn’t make up for all the extra junk I’ve been putting into my body, and the bad habits that I’ve been accumulating lately.

So, I’m putting this out here to make myself more accountable. I want to get back to eating healthy, having more energy, and having my jeans fit. It’s not about a number on the scale. I haven’t even stepped on a scale for over a year.

It’s all about how I feel, and I just want to feel better.

So, I’ll be giving you updates when I do my goals each month. If I find certain foods/recipes that work well, I will share them. I’m also going to take some before and after pictures.

I”m still debating if I’ll share those.

Let me know if you’re interested in following along, and if you want to join me on my new healthy eating journey. No special products, no special diets, and no magic pills. Just renewed motivation, and better choices.

It’s not going to be easy, but I already feel better by just writing these words. Who’s with me?