Living Life

So often when we are losing weight we get so caught up in the numbers on the scale and worrying about how many pounds we are losing and what to eat and what not to eat that we forget that we need to live life at the same time.  After all, if we can't live our lives while we are losing the weight, then there is no way we are going to be able to maintain our weight loss.  You already know I am not an advocate of fad diets, or anything that asks you to replace a meal with a shake or a protein bar or something equally as silly.  I love to eat, and I love to eat real food and I love to eat junk food, and I love to eat sweets! I love to eat out at restaurants and I love to eat at meet ups and I love to eat at church activities and family gatherings.  Fortunately we are at a time of year where there are not too many special events going on where a plethora of food is offered.

I think that if we are so worried about what to eat every second of the day we are missing out on life. Yesterday I got a surprise from a good friend of mine, she gave me these white chocolate covered brownie truffles.  It was an expression of her friendship and the love that she has for me.  Now eating these truffles would totally blow my calories for the day, most likely causing me not to drop in weight the next day.  So what did I do?  I ate ALL of the truffles!  HAhahahahahahahah  And I have to say, they were good.  I didn't even have time to take a picture of them to show you :-)  But that is living life, I don't stuff my face with chocolate every single day (although I would like to and in fact that was my old way of life) but I also didn't throw the whole day out the window either.  I made sure to eat sensibly for the rest of the day and the truffles were a wonderful treat for the week!

It's called living your life because food is a part of our lives and our society.  Food is an expression of love and friendship and community, and nourishment.  We have to build a healthy relationship with food where we are not over indulging every day, but not starving ourselves or missing out on special events.  Eating one dessert instead of twelve.

Matt and I rarely eat out at restaurants, so when we do it is special!  Everyone has to tackle the
restaurant challenge sometime, and how you overcome it will be different from how I overcome it.  Truth be told, I eat out at a restaurant about once a month, so for me eating out is a special event and I don't even care about the calories in what I am ordering.  That being said, if I order a drink, it is a diet soda (or something without calories or sugar in it), and we almost never order dessert or appetizers.  So I am just getting the calories of the main meal, which I am sure is way more than I still need.  But it is a special event, a once a month event so I don't really care.  Now, if you eat out more than once a week you will have to make some smarter decisions with what you are ordering and control how much you are eating because splurging like that more than once a week isinadvisable.  That is part of what we are changing.  We are making changes that we can maintain for life!  We are making changes that we can live with and commit to.  

But I want to live and be happy, not grumpy because I'm missing out on something that looks particularly delicious at an event.  Sometimes we will have to say no, maybe it is your third dessert of the week and it is time to make some sacrifices for your health and weight, but sometimes I just want to indulge my sweet tooth.  And you know what?  Sometimes I do just that.

When I first started this journey I would make a batch of chocolate chip cookies every Sunday and I would eat about half of the cookie dough!  And it was gooooood! I don't do that now, but I do get treats every week.  And some weeks are better than others, some days are better than others.... Heck, some months are better than others!  Make changes, try different things, if it doesn't work, change it again.  It is a learning experience, a growing experience.  We all know what works: burn more calories than you consume.  But just how to do that is the challenge.  I didn't even focus on healthy eating until seven months into my weight loss journey.  I didn't start working on strength training until a year into my journey and an injury to my food forced me to do something other than cardio.  We all want to be at the end of our journey right now.  To have reached our final destination.  I know I do!  I wish I were at my goal weight and had the body of my dreams, but it isn't going to happen until I learn how to create the body of my dreams.  Until I learn how to live a life that balances food, nutrition, exercise, and splurging.  I have come a long way, but I still have a long way to go.  I have more to learn, but I know one thing.  I am not going to stop learning, I am not going to stop living.  Lets keep life worth living!