Hmmm.

I'm feeling the need to reiterate what we are doing here. We are not on a "diet" in the typical sense of that 4-letter word. We are changing our eating habits, for good. Instead of restricting ourselves temporarily until we meet "some goal", only to stop the restriction, and possibly regain everything we've worked to lose, we are changing our pantry, our meals, and the way we feel about food. The only "restrictions" we have put on ourselves is, NO PROCESSED FOODS. If it comes in a box, is wrapped in a package, or has an ingredients list, we aren't likely to eat it. That's not to say never ever ever again will I ever have a snickers bar (HA! won't that be a cold day in hell). but now we are thinking more about what we put into our bodies. What's the point of eating crap food if you feel like crap? Its not hard to skip the boxes of sugar cereal in the morning, and the bread with processed lunch meat and fake cheese for lunch with a bag of chips with all the excessive fake flavors and chemicals on it. Its not hard to skip that drive thru window for dinner, when you know that 30 minutes after you eat that, you're going to be bloated and miserable feeling for the rest of the night.

No, its easy to make oatmeal, or cream of wheat (as long as its sprouted wheat flour) or cream of rice, or eggs with bacon and sprouted toast, or an egg omlette with mushrooms, spinach, and green and red bell peppers for breakfast with a cup of coffee. Its easy to have chicken salad for lunch, with homemade vingear and olive oil dressing, or to have leftovers from dinner. Dinner is easy with fish and veggies, or chicken and veggies; we even make homemade stock now with the bones from the whole chickens we buy. We'll have stir fry, and we could have hamburgers if we wanted (and when we get our sprouted wheat flour and can make our own bread, things will get even better. I'm looking forward to trying out a few muffin recipes with fresh fruits, sprouted wheat flour, and honey as the ingriendents instead of the crap in a box).

The point is, we are changing how we eat now, because we don't want to be 50 and so fat and decrepit, we can't keep up with our grandkids. We are changing how we eat now because we don't want our kids to be a statistic of "obese Americans". we want to teach them how good real food is, and how fun growing a garden is, and where food REALLY comes from! Its doesn't come from the golden arches or from the man with a little goatee, it comes from the ground. Its grown in our backyard, we put time and effort into it, and it tastes so much better that way.

We can "cheat" any time we like. Its not a race to get to "50 pounds down" and then I can shove brownies in my mouth. Its an honest to god change of living, and after being on it for so long, and feeling good on it, we may not ever want to "cheat" with the fast food and the processed candy and sweets.