2012- A Year of Change

2012- A Year of Change

I am making a conscious effort to utilize my blog as an accountability tool for 2012.

There are many changes that have occurred in my life within the past 2 years. I was laid off from a company where I worked for nearly 8 years. I lost an old friend, but gained an awesome new one. I have grown closer to my husband and family. We have adopted 2 cats (Pearl and Stella).

I have accomplished quite a few things over the past year: I lost 40 pounds (and have only gained about 8 back). I will have my Associate's degree in education by December of this year!

I am hoping that this blog will serve as a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings, as well as keep me accountable to myself and others so that I can continue my journey towards a healthier me-inside and out!

I have joined a side called Pinterest and found a 60 day "get moving" challenge that I am participating in. Each day lists just a couple of exercises to perform. The exercises increase in length and difficulty as time goes on. I am hoping that this gradual progression will allow me to gain stamina and strength and get back into the habit of exercising on a regular basis. I began the 60 day challenge yesterday and will be performing today's exercise as soon as I get off of this computer!

For anyone interested, my pinterest page is here: http://pinterest.com/angyness/

One of the things that I am working on in 2012 is happiness. I think it is such a simple thing that is overlooked. One of my goals is to make time for the things that make me happy. I am trying to get myself out there more and be less of a home-body. But one of the things that I must struggle with is balancing who I am interacting with. The people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on our own actions and I certainly want to keep myself going in a positive direction. I also want to get a good grip on my spending habits and start saving more. I have started using Quickbooks as a means to achieve this.

I am aiming to get back into healthy eating habits that include limiting consumption of meat, reading all packaging and avoiding "bad" ingredients, such as: soy, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, etc. I plan on eating less sweets and cutting back on my salt intake. I want to incorporate more fresh herbs and spices into my food. I would also like to cut back on my carb consumption. I am in no way referring to an Adkins-like change. I have tried Adkins and I felt disgusting on that diet and was miserable. I do not feel it is a healthy way to eat. I had more headaches during those 2 weeks that I have had in my entire life!

I have never felt better in my life than I did when I was eating a vegetarian diet and monitoring my ingredients. I was losing weight and feeling good. I was happy. But after several months of maintaining healthy eating, I had a setback and fell off the wagon. My lower back went into muscle spasms and I had to rely on others to feed and care for me for over a week. I lived off of fast food and quick-fix meals. This is the first step towards a reliance on salt, fat, and carbs. This was in November of 2011 and I have not gotten back on track since then.

I find myself eating out of boredom or depression or as a way of comforting myself. I also find myself eating worse foods; foods that I know will not make my body feel good. I see myself doing it and it is as though I just gave up and don't care. But I know better, I do care! I am just like many other Americans who suffer in silence. Fat, carbs, HFC's, and salt have a hold over me. I have to suffer through the with drawl symptoms that occur when one tries to eliminate these chemicals from the diet. I have done it in the past and need to do it again. It may seem like such a simple thing for so many people, but these chemicals are as addictive for someone like me as alcohol or pain killers are for others.

I know what I need to do, I simply need to do it. Getting back into a habit of healthy eating is not the easiest thing to do; it takes hard work, but the rewards are well worth it. While I do have a goal to reach a certain weight range, that is not my biggest concern. My biggest concern is to limit what I put into my body so that I will feel good and weight loss will occur naturally. Ta-ta for now...I have some jumping jacks and crunches to do!