My Struggle With Food

Well, here goes. The embarrassing post. 

I've always had issues with food. When I was only 8 I would go to the kitchen and cut off chunks of cheese to eat in my room when I was depressed. Or sneak chocolate into my bedroom and hide bags of cookies from my mom. When I was in middle school I'd be the one kid having nachos for lunch every day instead of the salad the cafeteria also had. In high school I'd get excited when we had after school activities, because it meant I'd get to eat at McDonalds or Pizza in my break between school/said activity. 

I'm not sure when it started, but I've always associated junk food with comfort, and the LACK of junk food with torture. Whenever I "dieted" I felt like I was dying. If I tried to eat all veggies and meat and cut out carbs I would convince myself I had a headache and it was "unhealthy to not eat carbs" and I'd stop the diet after a day or two. 


This is why I've always been overweight. Last time I decided to lose weight, 7 years ago, instead of learning to enjoy healthy foods and exercise, I starved myself for 6 months, lost 70 lbs. And gained everything back within two years. Thanks to my amazing Coach Amber I've learned to disassociate food from emotions. Or I've learned that I need to do that. It's still a struggle every day for me. I've gotten SO much better. I actually enjoy healthy foods now, there's fruits and vegetables that I LOVE. But if something bad happens, I have a fight with someone, or I get depressed or stressed? About 1/3 of the time I still reach for food. I know 1/3 of the time is better than 3/3, but it's still not good.

Today is a great example of this.
I went to see a patient who lives in a facility. I've had a really, really stressful last 10 days and was pretty much feeling over everything. I was grumpy and tired. When I got the the facility, I discovered they were having a bake sale to raise money for some cause. I got to my patient's room and saw that she had bought two (HUGE) cinnamon rolls, and told me one was for me so I could have had breakfast with her.
Of course, I'd already had my Shakeology for breakfast. But, I told myself "you've been working so hard, you never eat crap like this anymore, you deserve this" and ate the whole thing. 
Of course, now I feel guilty (which is BAD, guild is another EMOTION and the whole point is to NOT ASSOCIATE EMOTIONS WITH FOOD).


This is the kind of thing I struggle with every day, but I feel like I've made so much progress in the last year. A year ago, I wouldn't have worked out today. Or I would have been like "meh, I already had a cinnamon roll, what the heck" and gone through a drive through and gotten a burger and fries.


Instead, I came home after work, did an extra workout (today was supposed to be a rest day), and started cooking a healthy dinner. 


It's progress, but I still have a long way to go when it comes to food.


I leave you with a few words of advice. Set small goals for yourself, and reward yourself when you hit the goals. But NEVER reward yourself with junk food. As my coach Amber says "Don't reward yourself with food, you're not a dog"


Thanks for reading!

Day 1 - Here Goes!

FOR THE NEXT 30 DAYS, ANYONE THAT SIGNS UP FOR SHAKEOLOGY HOME DIRECT GETS A FREE GIFT!

Day 1 of healthy eating/workouts is going well. I did my Les Mills Pump pump revolution workout, which kicked my butt! I had my Shakeology first thing this morning, which set off my day right. I'll be mentioning Shakeology and Beachbody a lot in my blog, so I'm going to explain Shakeology today. Shakeology is a nutrition take I've been taking every day for the last 8 months, and it has made a HUGE difference in my life. After taking shakeology for just 3 months my cholesterol went down, my thyroid went up (i had hypothyroidsm) and I was able to get off blood pressure meds. My doctor was impressed by my results, especially considering I didn't really change much else about my diet and didn't really exercise regularly (apparently I have to change my life in baby steps). When I first ordered shakeology I thought, wow, I can't believe I'm paying so much for a SHAKE. A lot of people  think that same thing. Well, here's the first picture I saw that convinced me to give Shakeology a try:

                                                                  


It really is that simple. If I was willing to spend $7-$8 a day eating a burger and fries for lunch, why NOT try shakeology instead? If my DH spends $4 a day on a latte, can't I spend $3 a day on a shake that will give me all the nutrition I need? Shakeology calls itself the Healthiest Meal of the Day, and it's not kidding. Here's Shakeology's nutriotion compared to other popular shakes:

                                                                       



So, once I heard Beachbody has a bottom of the bag guarantee, I decided to give Shakeology a try. And I've been a convert ever since. I lost a total of 12 lbs in 3 months by doing NOTHING else, just having Shakeology every day. This is a product I REALLY believe in, and the reason I became a Beachbody coach. So, if you want to learn even more about shakeology, or give shakeology at try, feel free to order from my site. Remember, Beachbody will let you finish the WHOLE bag of Shakeology. If you decide you don't like it, they'll give you a full refund. And I'll help you GET that refund quickly. I promise, though, once you try it you'll be a convert too!

MY SHAKEOLOGY PAGE


This is my blog for today. I promise tomorrow I'll post about my personal struggles :-)

Time To Get Serious!

Well, for the last 8 months or so I've kind of been half-assing the weight loss thing, and kind of just coasting through the beachbody coaching thing. I've been either good at working out but not at healthy eating, or good at healthy eating but not working out. Two things happened this past weekend that made me realize I need to REALLY take things seriously. One, I saw how much fun my friends were having at Beachbody's Coach Summit. Two, I sponsored a second Coach under me into the Beachbody family. I realized now I have two goals - the first one is to get to Summit next year, and be in EXCELLENT shape when I go. I want to be at my goal weight/fitness level at Summit 2013. I also want to be a good example for the coaches under me. If I want to make this business work, I have to be a true product of the product, and I"m finally ready to do it!

I'm currently in my last month of my all-time favorite Beachbody program, Les Mills Pump. I'll be uploading my progress pictures. :-)