Last year was a hard year and it took its toll on just about every area of our life. Personally, the place it took the biggest toll was in the health department. Slowly, slowly I started to let go of many of the healthy eating habits that I had worked really hard to incorporate into our lives. There just wasn't enough time for everything and it was easier to buy a box of cereal and a loaf of bread at the store instead of finding the time to make granola and bread. Facing the fight that accompanied the insistence that the children eat fruit with lunch, just wasn't worth the effort. Rationalizing food choices, to the point that ketchup and french fries became servings of fruit and veggies, made its way into my thinking. I can give you a million reasons why I got lazy, but the truth of the matter is that I just got lazy and I let things slide. And slide they did.
Well, it's a new year! And it is time to start clawing my way back to healthy. A few years back, when I started this health journey, I lost over 20 pounds (YEAH!) then last year I gained it all back (BOO!). The worst part is that when I eat crap, I feel like crap. So why do I do it? Because it's easy? Because at the moment of consumption the food tastes good (if not real)? Because I am too tired, stressed, whatever to think about food?
The worst part is that I LOVE to think about food. I read cookbooks like novels. I can waste a whole day perusing cooking blogs. I get giddy when I put a well made meal on the table. A new recipe makes me dizzy. The happiest birthday in my recent memory was a few years ago when I made dinner for about a dozen and a half of my friends.
There are not many domestic areas in which I can say that I truly excel. I'm a crappy housekeeper. Sometimes I think my house looks like an episode of Hoarders. More often than not, my kids have to go searching laundry baskets for clean jeans. I perhaps yell too much and do crafts with my kids too infrequently. However, there is one thing that I feel like I am really good at. I am a damn good cook. It goes against all my upbringing to brag on myself like that, but it is the one area of my life in which I feel like I am on pretty safe ground to compliment myself.
Today it hit me like a ton of bricks...I am too damn good a cook to eat this crap!
So today we get back to clean eating! We get back to whole foods and real ingredients. There will be more homemade items and less processed food. There will be food that tastes good and makes me feel good. No more excuses!
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