You Are What You Eat

We've all heard the phrase, "you are what you eat."  As a kid, we used to make jokes about it.  Nutrition didn't mean anything to us.  That was something my mother took care of insuring that I ate a well balanced meal.  Entering high school and college I fended for myself a lot.  I still attempted to eat well.  I think working at Wendy's helped me the most in staying well balanced.  Wait...what?  A fast food restaurant kept you eating well?  Yes.  Because I primarily ate chicken (which wasn't processed garbage like most fast food places), salads, and baked potatoes.  Of course I had my share of burgers but since I was a closer, we often took home the left over salads that were otherwise going to be thrown away at night.  This kept me fed throughout my summer employment.

As a married adult, I enjoyed the art of cooking and make quite a lot of recipes that I thought were healthy but also witnessed the weight gain on my husband and more than my share.  Add to that time and a reduced metabolism and one day I woke up and realized...I'm fat.  Ok...I prefer to call it fluffy around the edges.  In a previous post I mentioned how my BMI is still in the healthy range and, aside from a thyroid that flares up and wreaks havoc with my moods, fatigue, etc. if I don't eat the right combination of foods, I am still classified in the "normal" range when fully dressed.  In reality, I am carrying my fair share of weight, and am borderline to "this is not a good thing for you."

Two weeks ago I started eating better (which is taking it's hit on my pocketbook), and exercising.  Last week I started using Tony Horton's newest workout routine, P90.  As with all new things, there is an adjustment period.  I don't know about you, but I am a creature of habit.  Once I get set in my way, adding something new to the routine causes chaos and I do not like chaos.  Give me the boring and the mundane...I've had enough chaos with work, I don't need that in my personal life too.  But, I did it anyway.  I introduced something new to my daily routine.

As expected, last week was more than an adjustment.  And it also seemed to be the busiest week i have had in a long time.  It seems like I haven't been home for more than a handful of hours at a time and getting anything accomplished was a struggle.  Though my workouts were hit and miss (if I'm going to be completely honest), I was successful in maintaining my 6 Day Shred Diet (for the most part).

And here's where I screwed up.  With the 6 Day Shred, the diet had decreasing caloric intake and was geared with all healthy food.  It's intent is to shred your diet of the nasty chemicals we eat on a daily basis and get your body back on track.  Well...I didn't plan my snacks appropriately for the days I worked and I started having strange hunger symptoms I haven't had in eons.  Luckily, I was able to snack on a few peanuts to get me through but by the time I got home, I was sick and wasn't able to do my workouts.  Long story short, I need to schedule and plan better meals/snacks for my weird retail schedule.

Despite the hiccups, the week went well.  I avoided eating garbage food and I threw in a few workouts if not a full week.  My jeans are looser and that makes me happy so I consider this week a win!