How Healthy....?

With the stall on losing baby weight and a baby I want to be able to take great care of, I've been thinking a lot about making some healthier lifestyle choices. The big question with doing this is precisely how healthy I want to be. At first glance it seems like a no-brainer: as healthy as possible, but to me (with my talent for over-analyzing) it is a bit more complicated than that. When it comes to working out, it's easy to set goals. If I get in a good 20-30 min workout 6 days a week, I feel fabulous...and not just proud of myself, I really feel a LOT better physically than I do if I don't work out at all. So naturally my goal is to work out every day...or almost every day. Some days though, the laundry or the dishes are just too overwhelming so I sacrifice my work-out for my sanity and that's ok, I'm slowly getting better at balancing it all. But the really the hard part is food.

I LOVE to eat. I love steak. I love lasagna. I love love love chocolate. If there are chocolate chip cookies in the house I consider myself to be showing great restraint if I only eat 5...before dinner. I'm not that crazy about vegetables. I prefer to eat bread...and oreos...and granola bars...and cereal that's fortified with extra vitamins and minerals...and all of these things I love are, by and large, NOT good for my body. I want to fix this...mostly.

I haven't read the book Eat to Live. I want to...but quite frankly, I'm terrified of it. I'm afraid I won't be able to make all the changes I need to in order to be really healthy - to be the best mother and wife I can - and that I will subsequently spend a lot of my time feeling guilty; which I don't need. I am also not sure I want to eat only to live. (I don't want to live to eat either) I think there is great joy in cooking, eating, and sharing something that tastes absolutely amazing. Although I have found some very tasty vegetarian dishes, not one has measured up to steak, manicotti, or chocolate chip cookies.

So...for now, here's my plan:

1.  make green smoothies. They are delicious and I don't mind loading them up with Kale or spinach. At least I'm getting more fruits and veggies than I was! (probably a 150% increase with one drink)

2. search for and try meals that have little or no meat and lots of veggies. Save and repeat the ones we like.

3. Break my addiction to processed sugar/foods (ok, I'm actually still working up to this one. It's the most daunting of them all and will probably require a couple months of something drastic)

4. Focus on helping Lucy learn to eat right by feeding her a variety of fruits and veggies and avoiding processed sugar as much as possible.

That's it for now. Hopefully in the next several months I will be able to report that I am no longer addicted to sugar, that at least 5 meals a week consist primarily of veggies, and that my extra weight is melting away as Jason, Lucy and I eat healthy and get plenty of exercise. Maybe I will also be able to report that I have read something by Dr. Fuhrman. Maybe. We'll see!