bacon

this is my post about eatting healthy...can't you tell?

I think that in general if you mention eatting healthy most people think of weight loss, dieting, denying yourself the foods you want and other forms of torture. 
I counted calories when I was trying to lose weight after having Layla, my second baby.  It was awful!  I measured everyting I ate, I could tell you that 1 grape has 4 calories and would count out 25 everytime I was going to eat them.  I didn't pay attention to my body, to my hunger...I felt like I was starving myself and I was losing half a pound a week.  I wasn't nourishing my body, I wasn't giving it the fuel it needed to get through the day much less exercise, oh I still exercised but I was so drained.  I think my body started to go into starvation mode because I was eatting 1200 calories, going for a 4 mile walk everyday and getting an hour of exercise and seeing very little results.  After a couple weeks I was so hungry for junk that I started "saving calories"  My thinking went like this, chicken breast has 150 calories and that piece of cake has 150 calories then I'll skip the chicken, thank you very much!  By the end of my calorie counting I was eatting mostly empty calories, I even tried to make myself throw up once after I ate 3 cookies.  I was unhealthy and had spent a summer losing 10lbs in one of the worst ways possible.  I was at my goal weight but at what cost?  I was weak, I was what I now know as a thinfat. 

I vowed to never do that again! 

So a couple years later when I had baby #3 what was I supposed to do?  I went back to the healthy eatting that we did during my pregnancies.  I focused on eatting as much healthy food as I could and letting myself have a treat if I really wanted it.  I stocked our house with fresh produce, lean protein sources and whole grains.  I thought about the foods I really love(thai food!) and I used them to inspire some of my dinner creations.  Stir frys and asian soups both loaded with veggies became my favorite.  And salmon! oh how I love the fatty flavor of a good piece of salmon.  I was eatting right!  Feeling good!  I had the energy required to take care of a house full of kids and I was losing the baby weight.
I discovered that I feel amazing when I get a combination of cardio, stretcing and weight lifting.  I switched my exercise routine from mostly cardio with a little yoga and weights to a ton of weights 15minutes of stretching everyday and around 90 minutes of cardio a week.  I had to start eatting more to keep my weight from going too low.  I found myself eating 2 dinners, one full of good carbs before my workout and one full of protein after.  I am loving the way I feel and the way I look.  I want to tell everyone I know to put down the "diet food" to stop dieting all together.  Eat food that your body can use, give it fuel.  Don't waste your time putting in hour after hour on the treadmill or the elliptical and ignore the benefits that strength training and stretching offer you.  I have never been in better shape, I have never felt better.  I don't deny myself the foods that I want but I know how gross I feel after a binge at the thai restaurant.  This weekend we had thai food, ordered pizza and had pancakes and bacon  for breakfast, I feel bloated and nasty but I enjoyed every bite and know that one day of eatting right and I'll be back to normal.