Return to a Healthy Lifestyle

I've decided that it's time to get my act in gear and return to the healthy lifestyle choices that I started making two years ago. When I began my quest for ultimate health, the changes I made resulted in a dramatic difference in my overall health and body weight. I lost about 30 pounds and an incredible amount of inches. That was the upside. The downside was that it was difficult to be the proverbial round block in a square hole. In other words, my eating lifestyle changes did not fit into the normal way of eating.

After reading Kevin Trudeau's book 'Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About' (I highly recommend you read this) I came to understand that eating refined sugars, refined white flour and all other processed foods were detrimental to my health and well being. Besides that they were making me FAT!

There were many difficulties that I ran into after choosing this radical diet. Some difficulties were the lack of variety of food choices at the grocery store, restaurants and at friend's and family's homes that I was able to eat and peer pressure.

When I began planning meals around these new choices and going shopping in grocery stores for food I realized that I didn't have much to choose from. Basically, meals consist of meat, vegetables, and salads. It seemed pretty boring. However, I learned to compensate by adding fresh or dried herbs and I experimented with different combinations. I actually enjoyed being creative in my cooking.

The most difficult hurdle to overcome though was peer pressure. When I visited friends and family, the food wasn't always something that I wanted to eat and they usually said something like, "What? If you only eat these things once and a while you'll be fine." What they didn't understand is that I'm a Food Junkie. I am addicted to these foods and when I get started I find it very difficult to stop. Offering me cakes, pies, breads, ice cream, etc. is like offering heroine to a sobered up drug addict. I have to say "NO" to avoid relapse.

Needless to say, I began to say "YES" to some of the bad listed foods and found that, at first, I was able to control myself. However, over time I have put on 18 pounds because the frequency of these poor choices has escalated. I am a Junkie again and I need to 'dry out'. I need to detoxify my body and only put healthy foods into it.

This blog is going to be my journal and outlet for my journey towards total health. I will include details of my struggles and triumphs, photos and web links to places where I have found help. I welcome anyone who wishes to follow my progress and encourage those people to make comments, suggestions and send encouraging words. It's going to be difficult to get back on track, but I have to persevere!