Year One Review

Monday marked a year since starting Eat To Live, and I’ve been reflecting on all the things that have changed in that year. One of the most significant changes for me has been the food that I eat:

Breakfast:
Then: Luna Bar (or two) on work days, egg sandwiches on the weekends
Now: Smoothies with 8oz of spinach with berries and banana on work days, Smoothies with 8oz of spinach with cherries and banana and cocoa powder on the weekends

Lunch:
Then: frozen veggies with sauce, or fast food
Now: healthy veggie soup; usually skip lunch on the weekends because I’m busy doing stuff and don’t want it!

Dinner:
Then: veggie burgers, other frozen junk-vegetarian food, take out
Now: salads with beans and veggies

Dessert:
Then: You name it! Usually ice cream…
Now: raw brownies

I’m not perfect in my eating now, but I have vastly improved. I used to buy fruits and veggies and lettuce and so much of it would go bad in my refrigerator. These days I go through a bag of salad in a day and have to make extra trips to the grocery store during the week because I’m out of lettuce! I used to hardly ever eat fruit – now I eat it every day. Beans – I didn’t have a problem with them before but I didn’t seek them out; and when I did use them I used canned beans. These days I try at all costs NOT to use canned beans.

Getting take out has gone from once or twice a week to once or twice a month - if that.

I used to be addicted to starchy foods – breads, rice, etc and ate way too much cheese and oil/butter/margarine – I still have starchy foods from time to time but I’ve also learned that I don’t really like cheese too much anymore and have realized that I don’t need oil or butter to cook or flavor my food.

Before I thought I knew a decent amount about nutrition, I was so wrong! I think I have learned a lot about what is good for me and what is bad for me and why. But I also have learned that I have a lot more to learn.

Hunger – I used to suffer from toxic hunger so badly; but there were also many times that I would eat or overeat so constantly that I would never feel hunger. These days I don’t feel discomfort when I’m hungry – I just feel hungry – it’s controllable, and it’s nice to actually feel hungry for a meal and also to not be constantly thinking about food when I’m not hungry.

Physically – Well, I’ve lost a good amount of weight. I know if I had been more disciplined over the holidays and during the winter that I could have lost a lot more than I have but it’s ok. I think that I have lost more than I thought that I could when I started this thing. In the beginning I used positive self-talk to create a positive self-fulfilling prophecy. Now – I’ve seen that I am successful in losing weight and I know that I will continue to be and will reach my goal, there’s no doubt in my mind.

I don’t have to shop exclusively in the Women’s or Plus Size section anymore.

I am SO much more physically active now than I was a year ago. There was a period of time when I was in college and grad school that I was very diligent about working out and being in shape, but when life changed and I started working full-time those things changed (and so did my eating habits). When I first started ETLing I can remember being worried about using my treadmill because I thought I was too heavy for it (I still don’t know if I was or not).

When I first started working out I walked 2.5 or 2.7 mph at 0.5% incline on the treadmill for 30 or 35 minutes. Today I sometimes jog (not very fast but nevertheless) at 3-4% incline or walk at least 3.0mph at 12% incline when I use the treadmill, but lately Cammie and I have been taking two walks a day in addition to my workouts with Yourself!Fitness and bike rides with hubby. In general I do about 90 minutes of exercise in a day and really feel like I’m missing out when I don’t.

I can do pushups now, the girly kind – but it’s better than before.

There are so many things that I can say about how things have changed over the last year and why they are so much better now that I could go on and on. Bit I’m going to leave it with this – last year I didn’t know if I could do this and I think I’ve proven that I can. This next year I’m officially challenging myself to do even better than I have in this past year – to be more dedicated to eating ETL foods and to develop myself even more into an athlete, and finally to reach my weight loss goals.