What's it all about?

Well, here it is Friday again and I'm sitting here drinking coffee (w/cream, lol) after finishing replying to my emails, and trying to think about something to post. I have so much going on, that I could write about, in relation to food, body and thought, I'm in a constant state of overwhelm....seriously! I always have stuff going on, but I have to remind myself the purpose of why I spend my precious time keeping this blog, what is my message? Hmmnn.....transforming food, transforming body, and transforming thought.

Transforming food. I've just, in the past 2 days, started an experiment that I'm pretty excited about! I have kept food journals, off and on, mostly on, for over 3 years now, online and hard copys and I've started to compare where I was 3 years ago at this same exact time, July. It's important to compare the same time of the year because of the types of foods available in the summer months. I found alot of similarities, but the point of the experiment is to identify the differences....mostly calorically, which I knew, but in addition to that, 3 years ago I didn't have my pressure cooker, lol, and although I prepared all of my own foods, same as today, I am a much better and experienced cook, no doubt because I have continued all these years to pratice! One of the most significant similarities is that I still base my meals, first, around vegetables, eating a salad everyday (in the winter less, more like 4 times a week, replacing the salad meal with another soup, or some other hot meal, still based around a veg), in fact I still make a cabbage salad blend of veggies at least once a week, to keep at the ready.

Transforming body. In my food journals I also kept a workout long, not details of my workouts but, just that I did them.....for instance I might simply record the amount of time I spent walking that day, or swinging a bell, not how far and fast I walked or how many KB sets and reps I did. I know I train more and harder than ever these days, but it's interesting how my body has changed in the last 3 years. As I've always said, "The size of my body is determined by the amount of food that I eat, and the composition of my body is determined by my training.", and that's remains to be true! I weigh more, I eat more, I exercise more, I'm more muscular, more fit.....way more fit. I've recently come up with a new training strategy to challenge myself, to make my workouts harder, so I could burn a few more calories to help me get through this time of increased eating. (Spinning is kicking my ass by the way, lol.....I've also changed my KB workouts to increase my heart rate)

Transforming thought. When I worked at my job as a manicurist I had a particular coworker that is overweight say to me one time, "You know the thing I like about you? I like that you always say, 'I'm just one binge away from being 250lbs again.'" And that's the truth. In other words I don't act "high and mighty" because I'm skinny now(skinny is relative, of course, lol, I don't consider myself skinny). Make no mistake, I know one binge can start a succession of binge eating that has no limit. And that's why transforming how I think about food and eating, training, and even how I think about my body is probably the most important part of being able to live the rest of my life healthy and happy.

Action is the most important part of change, but why we chose to act, or not act is the million dollar answer to the question of how does a person finds the motivation to put into action change. And that starts in our heads. Changing how we think, transforming thought, has to be part of the equation. I remember it was a good friend that said to me once, "A persons life cannot change without them changing."....in other words, you cannot do the same things over and over (or believe in the same way over and over),and expect different results (the definition of insanity). I believe it's this victim mentality that places blame on why we get stuck, and why our lives won't change......we have to put into action change, and take responsibilty that we can, we may chose not to, but it's our choice.. She also said to me, "Whatever the mind can believe, it can acheive" (thanks Linda)


I cannot, yet, give up on my blog. I have alot to reflect on, I have alot to yet discover and put into action. I have never seen myself as a victim, instead I believe I'm one of the luckiest people I know! I believe life is good, I believe food is good.....food is life....I believe being in our bodies is good, and to do that we have connect with our bodies through exercise, we have to move them. I believe we are good. I know I am.

Off to Spin at 9:30......