The good, the bad and the real with my Diet

 

This post is one of those posts that just kind of happened.  I’m sitting here, in between tons of errands I’m trying to finish before vacation next week, trying to get all of these thoughts down, while I’m in the zone.  Warning, this might get lengthy, emotional and maybe a bit boring to some of you who are only here to read about beauty information.  Don’t worry, I’ll be back to that soon!  This is just important for me to talk about on my blog, since it’s about me and well, I hope that this inspires and helps someone else.  There aren’t a lot of pictures with this post, this is just me being open, honest and doing some writing! 

I use the word “diet” not so much in the terms of what I’m doing to lose weight, although I’ll talk about that later, but more in a sense of what food is going into my body (or not).  Talking about my health and weight has been the absolute hardest for me to be open and honest about it on here, but I don’t want it to be.  My entire life I’ve been rather closed about my issues and I feel like the time has come for me to just lay it all out on the table.  After all, we’re friends, right? 

The truth is, I love food.  Not in some crazy way, but I love cooking and I love the entire dining experience.  I think it’s not uncommon for us to associate good times with the art of eating.  To me, it’s the time when I get to sit down with my family and friends and just relax and talk.  With crazy schedules and such keeping us apart, going out to dinner or even preparing dinner at home has always been a social event in my life.  However, things needed to change.  

I would never say that I ate completely unhealthy.  Well, not in the past couple of years anyways.  Since I’ve “grown up” and started realizing that this whole “adult” thing is for real, I’ve taken a good,  long hard look at my health and I realized some time ago that it was time to get serious.  I guess I never got serious enough.  This time I wanted it to be different.  I wanted to take it 100% serious and figure out if the food I was putting into my body could make that much of a difference for me and my health.  

I’ve been open and honest about my struggles with Infertility, but there’s more.  I’ve been on Blood Pressure medicine for at least 3-4 years and I was also recently diagnosed as Diabetic.  Now with my PCOS and Hormone issues, I had been in the Pre-Diabetic category for some time, but hearing them say that I was actually Diabetic scared the shit out of me. It made me realize that even though I thought I was doing the whole healthy thing just ok, I needed to do more.  I don’t want to be on tons of medications and I want to feel the best that I can.  That doesn’t mean I want to be a size 2 because while losing weight is important, it’s not the biggest motivator in my decision to change my diet.  I just wanted to cut out the crap.

 No alcohol, no processed foods, Diet Coke’s had to go, limited fruit,  nothing white (breads, flour) very limited dairy (Grass-Fed only) and an emphasis on eating high-quality meats and vegetables.  Could I do this??? That was the question I kept asking myself 23 days ago, but here I am.  I’m still surviving and I can honestly say that my body is responding to the changes.  Not only have I lost weight, but I’ve lost inches off my body as well.  My Diabetic numbers went back down to Pre-Diabetec!  My Glucose readings went from 95-180 to now a steady 70-85 for the most part and my Dr. had to adjust my medications I am currently taking because the doses were now too much!  Also, here’s where it gets a little TMI, I never ever had regular periods. They were pretty much non-existent thanks to my PCOS! Now, just 23 days into this, things are getting back to normal.  Slowly but surely! I’m sleeping better at night (no more hot flashes, yet) I feel like I have a little bit more energy than I used to and I used to have issues with my stomach and they are pretty much non-existent anymore. 

So a lot of you are probably wondering what I’m eating.  Am I starving myself? Heck no! Although I will say that I do have to snack and make sure that I’m not going without eating, which is something I was so bad about before.  I’ve cut out refined sugars from my diet, I’m increasing the amount of vegetables that I’m consuming and having them with every meal.  My water intake has increased by a lot! I used to eat a lot of fruit, which isn’t bad, but the amount of sugar I was consuming from just eating fruit was crazy.  I only have “treats” at night and they are not like the treats I was used to having before.  The meats I’m eating are high-quality, grass fed, organic meats and I’m adding fish back into my diet a lot more than I used to.  With my juices that I’m having, I’ve added ingredients like Coconut Oil, MCT Oil, Spirulina Powder, Chia Seeds, Flax Seeds, Hemp Seeds and so on.

I’m putting in a lot of real, whole foods into my body and so far, it’s working.  I started this out as a 30 day type deal.  To see if I could even accomplish something like this and so far, I’m a little over half way into it and I don’t plan on stopping.  Have I had “cheat meal?” YES, but I didn’t beat myself up about it.  Rob and I splurged the other night on a cheeseburger and I had a small piece of peanut butter pie.  One night I had three squares of pizza and a huge salad.  You still have to enjoy life and I try to not make myself freak out if I have one indulgence every once in a while.  I just keep going and keep reminding myself that what I’m doing is doing SOMETHING to my body.  Hopefully, I can keep this up and make some other changes in my life.  Who knows what could happen honestly.  

Here are some things that I learned that have made a huge difference:

1. Quit looking at the scale.  Try on your tightest pants and keep trying them on and you’ll notice a difference, even if the scale isn’t budging that week!
2. Eat when you are hungry! You don’t have to starve yourself!! Just keep snacks on hand (that are healthy) and you’ll always be prepared!
3. Get plenty of sleep and drink lots of water! It makes such a difference in your skin and the way you feel! 
4. Don’t be afraid to try new things!  Some of the foods that I have been eating, are nothing that I’d ever thought I’d enjoy.  Be adventurous, but it’s ok when you don’t like something.  An example? I don’t like cooked spinach, but I love raw spinach.  When I have eggs, I’ll just have the spinach on the side and not cooked in the eggs.
5. No matter what anyone else says, YOU have to want to make changes in your life.  You have to be the one who wants to take the first step in the right direction.  You are in control of your life and if you aren’t ready, you won’t follow through with it.  Do it at your own pace and slowly, you’ll start to notice results!  
6. Support is important! You have to have people on your side who you can talk to and who will be there for you! Find support, even if it’s an online support group! 

 

This is a journey for me.  For the first time, I don’t have a real end point in sight.  I don’t have a magic number I want to be at and so far, I don’t plan on stopping.  I’ve got a vacation coming up that I plan on eating and not stressing out if I have carbs or cake, but I know when I come back, I’ll be right back at it again.  I think the thing I’ve learned the most from making these changes is it’s so important to make yourself happy and to not stress about every little thing.  I’ve got some new goals set for myself and one of the things that I’d like to start doing is incorporating more exercise into my lifestyle.  Maybe even try new classes that I’ve been curious about! Go for more walks outside.  I just want to be more active! 

 

*****I actually wrote this post about two weeks ago.  Since writing this, I’ve actually been back to my doctor and am happy to report that my Glucose Levels have gone down even more and they are to the point that if I didn’t have PCOS, I would 100% be able to stop taking my Metformin.  However, since I do have PCOS, I do need to continue the Metformin for the mean time.  My Blood Pressure numbers are back to the lowest and best they’ve ever been.  Changes are happening people and it’s exciting!!!****

 

I’d love to share some recipes with you guys and show you an example of what my daily diet is consisting of if you’re interested!!  Comment below and let me know if you’re in a similar situation or if you’ve made some health changes yourself!