I have decided that Friday will be my official weigh-in day.
The reason for this is two-fold. First, I am working towards becoming less scale-obsessed and more focused on how I feel at the end of the day. Secondly, I chose Friday because I can usually stay on track all week and give a little bit on the weekends. Last weekend, as you may recall, I indulged a little much and ended up gaining back some pounds. Post-morning potty break on Friday, I stepped onto the scale again to see what a week of hard work and diligence had gotten me, and was pleased to see 241 under my feet once again. Back to my post-detox weight! I won't lie, I did a little jig in front of the mirror. It was nice to know I had hit my baseline once again, especially since the Mister and I were heading out on a weekend getaway after work.
Friday afternoon I finished up with my last client, we packed the Pathfinder and journeyed to Mountainland (read: New Hampshire) for a weekend with my family. We try to make it home once a month or so but it's been since Christmas so we were well overdue for a backwoods country mini-vacation with shoddy cell service and relaxation a-plenty. And food. LOTS of food.
My mother is a saint who raised not only her own two wild women, but my twin step-brothers as well, who will be graduating from high school this June. As we have established, I love food. I always have, and mealtime was where I really packed it away. My sister has always been more of a "grazer" so she never really ate much at mealtimes, but man - could she destroy some snacks! Whole boxes of Cheez-its and bags of chips would enter her childhood bedroom and never return on a daily basis. After we had grown up and moved out, my mother most likely breathed a sigh of relief - two less bottomless pits to feed. Unfortunately, she hadn't experienced a growing teenage boy before, nevermind two at the same time, and when puberty hit my brothers it hit hard, fast, and hungry.
It was all my poor mother could do to keep food on the table. Loaves of bread, sleeves of cheese, chips, cookies, crackers, Little Debbie Snacks (a staple in my household) all demolished within days of coming home from the grocery store. Not to mention that my 250+ pound, 6'2" stepfather was also putting a dent in the weekly grocery haul. It still amazes me to this day that she could not only buy enough for everyone, but more than enough, and all for under 200 dollars a week.
Our typical dinner table growing up included a protein (usually whatever was on sale) one or two bags of steamed veggies, a rice or noodle side, two pans of quick bread (banana, pumpkin, etc.) or cinnamon rolls (my brothers have an unhealthy obsession with the orange glazed ones) and some kind of homemade dessert and/or ice cream. There was always enough for an army, rarely any left over, and if you didn't eat within 10 minutes of sitting down you missed out on seconds.
Based on this, is it any wonder that when I began cooking for myself, a whole box of pasta seemed logical to cook off when making spaghetti? Or that I would purchase 10lbs of chicken at one go and expect to cook it all at once? Clearly, there was a learning curve, one that I think I took going 99mph and crash landing down a rocky ravine that ended in wasted food, time and money. Unfortunately, realizing that bread, cheese, and carbs should not be the main staples of my diet is a learning curve I've taken at a snails pace with a flat tire and the gas light on.
At first glance, my mother and sister both commented on my smaller frame and healthy glow immediately. My mother asked me about my eating habits, what I'd changed, what I "could" and "couldn't" eat ( "whatever I damn well please but I have been making healthier choices, Mom!") I brought along my "smoothie box" full of chia seeds, flax, raw cacao powder, and various other ingredients to give my mother a smoothie lesson, which my grandmother also go in on when she stopped in to visit. I made healthy choices most of the time when we went out for lunch or dinner, and when I chose to order onions rings instead of salad, I wasn't gripped with deep-seeded guilt and disappointment, especially because the rest of my meal was pretty on point.
On Sunday night, before we trekked back to the Green Mountain State, my mother was in the kitchen making a huge meal for all of us, as she usually does when all of her kids are home. A steaming hot Shepard's pie and a huge loaf of crusty garlic bread sat on the stove when she was finished. I grabbed a family sized bag of broccoli from the freezer and steamed it up, and we all sat down as a family and enjoyed the food and the company of each other in hungry silence.
The food is always my favorite part of going home. Nothing brings people together like food, and there is nothing like a home-cooked meal at the hands of my mother. The difference was this time, I had normal, human-sized portions of Shepard's pie, a whole lot of broccoli and one slice of garlic bread. I ate until I was full, not stuffed. I drank a lot of water and ate slowly. I didn't deprive myself of sharing in the moment with those I love, but I did not allow myself to gorge and then fall into the self-loathing vortex a half hour later. Definitely a small victory for me, but an even bigger victory lay in the way that my family took a general interest in my new lifestyle and were able to see results, both in my body and in my overall demeanor.
The biggest victory of all for the weekend was that the Mister and I picked a wedding venue and a date! It's absolutely perfect, as you can see here , and we could not be more thrilled to finally begin the meat and potatoes of wedding planning and start watching it all come together. I am, of course, the most excited to start looking for "the dress." The best part? I know when I find it, I will be slipping into it with a lot less effort and a whole new world of confidence.
(PSST!!! Want to start your own journey to a healthy, happy you? Email LisaRenee at yourfountainofhealth@yahoo.com to recieve a FREE E-BOOK complete with 9 LIFE CHANGING SMOOTHIE RECIPES! It's free, it's fabulous, it's delicious... and did I mention it's free?)
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