My new life!

Since having a baby in April, I have been determined to get my body to where I want it. It’s going to be a journey! Until I could start working out after my C-section, I came across some information that really inspired me and was exactly what I knew I could do. Everything was making sense. Then, after 6 weeks I got the okay from my doctor and I hired the best trainer in the world. She’s amazing. She kicks my butt. Everything I was reading, and all that my trainer was telling me (as far as food goes) all came down to what my life now consists of.
I like to call it eating “clean”.
This is what this blog is about: My journey to get my body to the best it can be so I can feel the best I can! I am loving the way I am feeling. So far, I’ve lost all the baby weight I put on plus 10 lbs! But I need to keep going…and I’m so excited!!
I have been doing a lot of research, internet searching, and reading, and I am finding out a lot of fun and interesting things. I am not a nutritionist, dietician, trainer, doctor, scientist, professional food critic, or anything with any degree related to food, but I am a stay-at-home mom of 3 kids, and a wife to a wonderful, supportive, and might I add…sexy man! I am addicted to my new passion of eating healthy- real- foods.
I feel like I have so much to share my brain wants to explode. Things that really excite me, and things that really want to make me yell and scream. Some of the things I will be blogging about include: the fake crappy foods that are EVERYWHERE, the preservatives in your pantry that do really bad things to you, the truth about the government and the food pyramid, the truth about sugar, eating natural foods, recipes I love, ….and the list doesn’t really ever end because I am seriously addicted to my new life and I'm always learning something new!
I honestly feel a lot of angry feelings at how uneducated I have been in the food department. I had no idea that it mattered what food was made of…or better yet, that you could actually eat something that was chemically engineered. That’s not food. Who’s been telling us and selling us all this fake stuff? What happened to our world? (we will discuss that later). Just to give you a little fraction of an inch about how sick and crazy some of the crap we call food really is…listen to this:
The wheat bread (that I thought was healthy) I used to buy listed 25 ingredients, one of which is: calcium propionate....just to name one of many weird things that make up this "bread". Do you want to know what that is? Or more important...do you want to know what that does??? I quote: ..."in a small study in children found statistically significant...CP causes irritability, restlessness, inattention, and sleep disturbance in some children." This information was found by googling the preservative. I got that particular information from Wikipedia. And it goes on to talk about the studies with rats...which make it seem even worse. SICK. SICK. That’s just ONE thing in that bread. Do you want to know what else is frustrating…the 3rd ingredient listed was none other than HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. (we’ll talk about that devil in another post).
This kind of stuff makes my blood boil. It’s stuff I find out like this, that just makes me infuriated, and determined to educate myself and everyone who will listen about how we really should be treating our bodies.
The wheat bread I now buy is made with 6 ingredients—all of which I recognize as real food, and can pronounce. They include: 100% stone ground wheat, water, honey, raisin juice concentrate, salt, yeast. That's it. THIS is REAL FOOD! CLEAN, REAL FOOD!!! Ahhhh, isn't that wonderful?!

Okay, so let me explain what eating “clean” and real means to me. I believe that what I put into my body should be as real and natural as possible. Avoiding preservatives, additives, and dyes. The foods I eat consist of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains. That’s it. Real food, the ones God put on this earth for us to enjoy. Now let me explain something else. Because just when you thought life was beautiful with all these nummy foods, the devil came along and gave us sugar. Yep, that white powdery, highly addictive, “dirty” substance. Sugar and I have a love hate relationship. I only love it when I’m eating it. Other than that it haunts my life. It really reminds me a lot of cocaine.

Read this article here to find out how similar they really are.

With that said....everyone has to be a little "dirty" now and then right??? Honestly my husband and I both have serious sweet tooth problems. So this is how I solve that.

I eat "clean" Monday-Friday. It's my job, and I LOVE it. Saturday and Sunday I allow myself a total of 2 "dirty" meals. On my clean days, I don't eat anything with more than 3 grams of sugar in it.

At first, eating this way was hard, probably because my body wasn't used to being treated so wonderfully. But now, my body honestly craves good nutritious food. Real food. I crave fruits and veggies. I honestly believe that this is the way God intended us to eat! To live! I feel so good. And I am passionately in love with real food.
I will be sharing recipes, tips, articles, interesting facts for anyone who is interested and/or shares my passion for real food, fitness, and feeling good!!!

I challenge you to become aware of what you put into your body for a day. And let me tell you when I began discovering all these truths about what I was eating, it really upset me. It still does. I had to change a HUGE part me. I really thought I ate okay. Some of my favorite foods I choose not to eat anymore, but that was a huge step. So remember, if you do decide to join this journey with me, take it slow, and know I understand how depressing learning the truth can be. But, I can honestly tell you, I love my new life, and I love the foods I eat, and the meals I cook..so does my family too!!

Eat Clean and Keep it Real

Jamie