Choices

We all are given choices in life, choices on a daily basis. When it comes to food it's no different. How easy would it be to choose to buy something that is so saturated in fat and deep fried so I wouldn't have to cook that night? Then again, it wouldn't be any less easy if I bought a bagged salad and grilled up some chicken breasts to create a healthy and wholesome meal. The past me would have chosen the fast food route. The new me is more conscious about the food I put in our bodies, and even if I decide to go the fast food route as a "treat" now, I realize it's a treat and it's not something we do on a regular basis. Although we never really ate out on a regular basis, we did make worse choices in the past about what we bought at the grocery store.

Oh but it's so easy! Rice or Roni! (Read the amount of sodium, you'll keel over.) It's not that hard to make your own version of Rice or Roni at home! Or how about frozen tater tots full of preservatives and such?? Not anymore. If I want a potato I buy them- you know, the real things. And usually I buy the red potatoes because they are the best when it comes to roasting. What about the storebought coffee cakes?? So easy for breakfast, no? But you could easily make MommyChef's Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake from scratch AND know what is going in your body! (I plan on making this in the next few days!)

I don't know why my mindset has changed. Don't get me wrong, homegirl can still get down on some cake and ice cream, but I'm trying to make healthier choices overall. Cake and ice cream can be left as an every other month treat. Weekends can be saved for pizza or convenience food every so often. There should be a balance of good vs evil, no?

I think what it boils down to is, I'm a step away from Type 2 Diabetes. The excess baggage (weight) I carry I does not help. The fact that my mother has it and it runs on my mom's side does not help. I'm hoping with diet and exercise I can change my destiny and continue to avoid Type 2 Diabetes and learn to live healthy. I lack discipline and what did I say at the beginning of the year? I wanted to change that. I wanted to be healthier. I was great at first, but things happened (an injury, getting busy with life), but realizing that it's not that hard to make easy HEALTHY food and put in at least 10 minutes a day at the beginning of the day for exercise will help one's attitude as well. Sorry if I'm preachy at all, but these are the very things I continue to tell people when they asked me why things changed in my life. I want to be a better role model for my daughter and I want to live longer so I can see her grow up- that is why I do it.

No one told me to do it- no one had to say, "Jennifer, you really need to lose weight" because I already knew that. I've been forced in the past by doctors and even my father at a young age (when I wasn't big to begin with) to lose weight. It's detrimental and until you can realize for yourself that you have to do it because you want to make those changes in your life, it won't work. The worst thing anyone can do is force someone to do something they don't want to do. Yes, it may not be healthy, but you're only asking for trouble by forcing it on someone. It will only backfire in the longrun. The same can be said for quitting smoking. It's not easy to do, and I've fallen off the bandwagon in the past, but committed myself to keeping to being smoke-free for the rest of my life as well. Losing my Grandpa and understanding that he needed oxygen to survive because he used to smoke is what woke me up and made me realize that smoking was a terrible choice and I needed to stop it. I can only hope he's looking down on me and smiling, because he used to beg all of us to quit smoking (many of us have quit as well). It also helps that my husband gave it up before I did. I thought to myself, if I can quit smoking, I can discipline myself to exercise and eat healthy foods as well. And that's where I'm at.

I will happily report that I have seen some progress since I started my exercise program over a month ago- my upper body has much more strength than it used to and my arms are finally started to muscle up. I can see that my "chicken wings" are starting to sag less as well (thank gawd for that, because these exercises I do- T-Tapp exercises- are pretty darned intense!). I have more stamina and energy than before, which is the best part of it all.