Healthy Habits

With the start of the New Year, a majority of Americans have declared to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more or all of the above. I'm one of them .... but my reasoning is slightly different. Sure I want to shed a bunch of weight and look smokin' hot as I approach middle age. However, my goal is much larger then anything of that nature.

Jamie and I have always said we wanted to lead our kids by example. We want to teach them balance. I feel that healthy living is a balance. Unfortunately, when it comes to balance, Jamie and I bring out the worst in each other. We blow it out, live life to the fullest, grab a hold of anything that makes us happy or that tastes good. It has been a fun ride but I'm afraid that journey has to end!

Sooner or later Hassie Clare and Quinn are going to figure out that mom and dad aren't eating all the fruits and veggies that we make them eat. They are going to figure out that we make them a healthy meal for dinner and then we make a "run for the boarder" after they go to bed. Or that we serve them one single scoop of ice cream for dessert on special occasions and then we make ourselves 2 or 3 scoops with hot fudge and nuts. They will eventually notice and start following in our footsteps.

Why would we not set a better example for them? I hope that I can teach them to have good body image no matter how tall, short, fat, thin they are … as long as they are healthy. We have one chance to raise these two precious little girls. This is something that we can actually control. We don't talk about being fat, skinny or the horrible D word (diet). We talk about how fruits and vegetables make our skin and hair pretty, makes us grow up strong and most importantly to Hassie Clare is that they make our poo poo's soft! This is all fine and dandy but Jamie and I have to practice what we preach because they WILL figure it out someday.

So ... to jumpstart my new eating lifestyle, I have jumped on the Nutrisystem wagon. Today is day 3 and so far so good. The hardest part is after the girls go to bed when I'm curled up in my bed watching TV. I think that is when I did my "guiltless eating." Jamie usually joined me. Hopefully these cravings and hunger pangs will pass. Hopefully.

With the Nutrisystem food you eat fruits and veggies so the girls will not notice that I'm eating anything different from them. I don't think we ate that horrible before but our portions were very large and we were way out of control.

Anyway, I haven't had the willpower to lose weight in several years. Wanting my girls to learn healthy eating habits and teaching them by example has given me great motivation. I will not fail at this. I might not be perfect at all times but I will not fail.