As a child, I lived in a world full of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Never would you find indulgent items like soda, chips, cookies, or dare I say it.... sugary cereal..... in our cupboards. Not to say there wasn't the occasional happy meal or carton of ice cream, but the junk food was kept to a minimum. Maybe it was because I had an older and old fashion mom who grew up post-depression era, who had raised 5 small children as a stay-at-home mom with only 1 income coming in. Maybe it was because as a single mom, she knew she could only stretch the budget so far and needed to get the biggest bang for her buck. Maybe she just didnt like junk food. Either way, I have very few memories of being sick, never broke a bone, and remember feeling great and being very energized for most of my younger days.
Then it happened. I started to do my own grocery shopping. I got a couple jobs in the restaurant business. I discovered the wonders of cocktails and appetizers out with friends. I was a single mother going to school full-time while working at least one full-time job and sometimes a part-time job on top of that. I was on the go all the time and I was opened up to a world of processed sugar, frozen convenience items and high fat deep fried goodness. Looking back I wonder if its a coincidence that I had a cold (what seems like) biweekly for those 5 years after high school. I know the 30 pounds that appeared and disappeared were not. Or if exhaustion and migraines and other little health annoyances here and there were random, or created. But oh how I grew to LOOOOOOOVE those sweets and treats.
Slowly I have made some observations and have been able to directly link up what I am eating to how I feel. I'm not talking about alcohol hangovers, because those are just par for the course. Its become more of a sugary processed food mutiny on my body whenever I go on one of my little "sit by the buffet at the party" type of binges.
I have been working on it one day and one diet at a time, making slow changes so that my family and I all eat as healthy as possible. While I have a pretty good thing going for my children, its easy for mom to sneak in some junk when no one is looking.
Now its on! I am tired of being tired, tired of the sluggish feeling after stuffing my gut with junk, and sick of the roller coaster ride my body goes on after a candy bar gets into my blood and drops my blood sugar like a penny off the empire state building. Not to mention tired of having a range of sizes across my closet for the good times and the bad. I am waging a war against all the unhealthy processed foods that have wreaked havoc on my mothers hard work creating a healthy being, and I am making sure I do my part to keep my children from becoming junkfood junkies too.
