So I’m doing this 30 Day Health Transformation. And today (ugh!) is measurement and weigh in day. The day we all dread. But I have recorded it with photos and with notes and will post it some day….
Why are we all so worried about our weight and measurements? The world has sold us a load of ‘you know what’ to think we should all be thin, muscular, tall. I saw a crazy video the other day of a woman who actually had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to surgically change her body to look like Jessica Rabbit. That might look okay in cartoon form, but she looked GROSS! That’s unnatural and unhealthy!
I want to feel healthy again. I have gone through periods of health and unhealth, and right now I want to sleep better, have more focus, and shed… let’s just say it… belly flab! I don’t really care how much I weigh. I want to be fit and healthy. I want to run up a few flights of stairs without being winded. I want to exercise at my gym, not to be in a competition, but to compete with myself. Mostly, I want health to carry into my senior years so I am not frail and sick for the last 10 or 20 years of my life. Who wants to live longer if you’re sick?
That’s what health and diet mean to me. And if you read my previous post I’ve been a bit lazy. So with my overall health I do want to shed some extra pounds as well. I’ll be having two protein shakes a day and then a clean, whole food vegan dinner. After the 30 days I’ll move into a maintenance program because I don’t like the idea of long term supplements instead of real food. But it’s the real food I need now. So over the last few days I’ve stocked my pantry and fridge with healthy food, I’ve prepped some things in advance, and I’ve cleaned all the snacks out of my house. Those things that jump out of the cupboards after 8:00pm and attach themselves to your mid section: sugary snacks, chips, chocolate. All gone.
But cleaning out my mind has been more important. I’m focusing on food as energy, not as taste, or pleasure, or reward. I went to the gym yesterday and thought the workout was so easy. It wasn’t. They always work you hard at Crossfit. But my mind said I am committed to this and this is good for me, and so it was! My mind is shifting already.
And the funny thing is I love healthy food. I really do! I eat almost every vegetable there is. Okra is a tough one. I haven’t mastered that yet. I love beans and lentils, avocado, sprouts, fruit, and even fermented foods. I love to cook. I love to experiment and try new things. But you know how you take on foot off the path, and suddenly you don’t know how you ended up where you are? I think my foot off the path started when I changed to a plant-based diet. I think I found yummy vegan desserts and snacks, and even vegan chocolate, and thought to myself, “I can’t gain weight. I’m only eating vegetables!” You can be an unhealthy vegan, just as easily as anyone else on any other diet.
So my pantry is clean, my mind is clean, and my eating is clean, too.