Kicking the junk food addiction

OK, so I admit this may be a little more difficult to kick off the uber healthy eating plan then previously thought. It feels like I’m kicking an addiction. I honestly am struggling to get through the day without having some little bit of utter junk. It’s pathetic. The mind is willing and all that.

Yes, that’s why I haven’t posted anything since my ‘in support of real food‘ post. In short, I’ve not practiced what I preach – yet.

I did also say I’d be honest about cheating. So yeah, I’ve not yet gone one day eating only real food. The weakness seems to be sweet stuff. I’ve not had bread in days, fizzy drinks, nothing particularly fatty, but I have had a Crunchie, some awesome nougat from the market down the street, and there was a box of chocolates I forgot about that of course I came across and merrily sat and polished off the lot with my son while watching movies. It was awesome, but totally counter productive. Oh and I was lazy the one morning and had some sugary cereal and last night I ate a stack of Jaffa Cakes. So, my bane is my yearning for sweet stuff.

It dawned on me however that as with any bad habit you are trying to kick, it boils down to breaking the routine that puts you in the situation where you are giving in to the habit. For me, that means totally mixing things up and making an effort to totally overhaul my routine. The blessing is that I now have the freedom to do that.

Yes I know it’s Friday, and yes it’s a weird day to start a new routine, but I ask you this – who would want to start a difficult task which needs every ounce of willpower on a Monday? Aren’t Monday’s bad enough as it is? Friday is just full of positive energy and can-do attitude. In my mind, the perfect day to make a positive change in life.

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can change today” ~ Thomas Jefferson

In support of real food

This morning Baby J woke up early. And I woke up hungry. About 2 weeks before Easter I started a diet. You really can’t get better timing than that. It actually went quite well up until the Easter chocolate descended upon the house where I found that actually, as originally suspected I have a complete lack of any kind of will power. The diet, of course fizzled to nothing.

But since then I’ve been doing a little reading because there are a shed load of diets out there, eating plans, pills, shakes – the works, and I’ve attempted most of them to no avail. But I think that I may have identified the issue.

There is no point trying to loose weight and be healthy by eating anything that isn’t actually real food. The best definition that I’ve seen was a Facebook comment (I would credit it but I honestly cannot remember where I saw it or what it was in reference to).

“the problem is that we have lost the meaning of what food is. If it doesn’t grow from the ground or come from animals or your Nana couldn’t make it in her kitchen, it’s junk and you shouldn’t be eating it. Cut out the junk, and dieting becomes irrelevant.”

So for me that cuts out all fast food, crisps, chocolate, fizzy drinks, ready meals, cereals, snack bars… I could probably go on.

The other thing was to chuck out the tape measures and scales. My measurement is a pair of jeans I want to fit into, that not so long ago I actually did. There is actually another pair too which is a bit smaller, but I am saving those for my next phase.

I’ve decided to add a new page to my blog which will detail my menu and progress, to see if just sticking to real food actually makes any difference. I have a basic plan that I’m following that isn’t fancy meals made up, or shakes or points, or calorie counting. It’s just me strictly eating only real food. I’ll be honest if I cheat but hopefully the fact I’m doing it publicly stops me.

If you have any input I’m all ears. I’m certainly not a professional, just a woman tired of other peoples ‘tried and tested’ systems. Today could be the start of something beautiful

Stay at home, Mum

Since my last post, I have to say that my life did a little shimmy to the left with a kick in the crotch followed by Ta-Dah with jazz hands. In other words, while it hasn’t been all fun and games, sometimes it takes a jolt to reconfigure priorities and to get some perspective.

I left my job of 4 years, to be a full time mother for a while. I did try the part time thing for a bit after maternity but for one reason or another it didn’t work out. I have to say its weird, but it’s nice. I’m still getting used to it.

Of course focusing on the kids is a pleasure. It’s nice to feel like I’m actually doing something good. For years I’ve been dumping my son one place or another while I jump into the rat race for the day and then pick him up for scraps of time each evening. It was necessary at the time but life changes and I’ve changed. I don’t think I could have been happy then without work in my life, and now working was interrupting my life.

So what’s next? I can’t say that I will never work full time again, but if I do it will be on my terms for my families benefit, not on some bosses terms for their families benefit.