Skinny Tuesday

I've been getting so many questions about what I'm doing differently...you know, to lose weight and get healthier. It's a question on so many of our minds, especially with the New Year approaching.

So, I've decided to blog about health, fitness, weight loss and the whole shebang on Tuesdays. Not sure how long it will last, but for now, I'm doing it!

As of this morning, I have lost 55 pounds since July. I started out doing Weight Watchers Online (and still am)- but after the first month or so, I noticed that I wasn't really losing any weight because I wasn't really changing my habits.

I wanted to lose weight by eating less of the same foods I've always eaten (chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate)- but that just left me tired, hungry, and prone to "cheating" - and really I was just cheating myself. Seriously.

In order to make sustainable changes, I had to change me. I had to change my assumptions about myself, about food, and about everything. And most importantly, I had to be ready to change.

Getting sick with pneumonia and H1N1 was certainly a wake-up call, not to mention dealing with my ever-present migraines. I was so tired and sick. Sick and tired. I felt old. I looked at pictures of myself, and I didn't like the person looking back at me. I didn't feel like ME anymore.

Something had to change.

The first BIG change I made was visualizing what bad food was doing to my body.

For me, it's not enough to want to be a certain clothing size, or to want to look good. When faced with the choice between size 4 jeans and a bar of chocolate, the chocolate will always win.

I had to make the consequences of bad food real to me. Then whenever I ate it, the pleasure was taken away. That food was robbing me of my health, my vitality, my energy, my life...that food was keeping me fat and miserable...why would I want to eat food that was making me sick?

I started looking online at information about the food I was consuming, and I knew it was time for a change.

One of the BEST things I did was watch the documentary Food, Inc. Watch it and you will never look at dinner the same way again. It is really a life-changing movie, and one I will need to watch again after it's effects have worn off. You can watch it streaming on Netflix. You can rent it from the library. Just watch it!

I also went back and watched Super Size Me again. You can watch it for free on Hulu.com. Yes, I saw it when it came out six years ago. And it's not as good as the movie Food, Inc. But it was still powerful and curbed any desire I have to eat fast-food.

I started read inspiring blogs, like Alicia's Silverstone's The Kind Life. When I was in high school, everyone told me I looked like Alicia Silverstone. As the years have gone by, I realized I was looking less like her- and she was still looking hot! I found her blog online, and started opening my mind to other ways of eating that aren't so meat-based.

I found that I could save a lot of money and feel better by not eating so much meat. So, in the past month or so, I have pretty much cut out meat (which as a hamburger a day kind of girl, I never thought I would do).

I am not saying I'm never eating meat again, but I have found that it is so much better...for myself, for the planet, for my pocketbook...to try new ways of eating.

One of the videos that really changed my mind about this was a YouTube video I saw of Rocco, The Cowboy (from the Dr. Oz Show):



So, by now, I am guessing that more than a few of you are thinking I've gone off the deep end.

Maybe I have, but it feels good swimming in these waters. I have opened myself up to a whole world of feeling healthy, alive, and young again. It's been really wonderful. More next week on Skinny Tuesday - which, as you may have guessed is a play on words from the very fun and festive Mardi Gras "Fat Tuesday"!