disclaimer - i had intended on posting more frequently than i have been on this food journey but just finding the time has been difficult. hopefully i'll do better. (:
this past weekend was awesome! i was coming out of a rut of not getting my butt to the gym and completed a double whammy on saturday with strength training at 7am with my fitness ladies group which we celebrated with post-workout protein shakes afterwards before going back and surviving the intense charity bootcamp luka @ vigor ground hosted.
my mini-victory was being able to finally lift the barbell over my head for a squat thrust! may sound lame since it's only 45 lb but i just didn't have the upper body strength i used to have anymore. since the beginning of our 12 week fitness program, i used dumbbells of 15 lbs or 20 lbs (per side) to do my squat thrusts while all the other ladies used the barbell with extra weights! i felt defeated and weak but i had to remember it's about progress, not perfection. any-hoo, during our complex between exercises, one of the fabulous ladies i work out with and am inspired by, jojo told me that i can tackle the barbell today. i told her i would try on the last set, just to see what my progress was. i'll admit, i was getting nervous as i approached my last set and was almost tempted to chicken out and grab the dumbells i've been using. then jojo saw me and said "jessica, you're going to lift the barbell!" since the barbells had extra weight on them from the other ladies, i went to our coach mz. dee and asked her if i could try the barbell today. she quickly gave me a hug and said that i was cute for asking and helped me get ready. deep breath in and with my core engaged, i did it! i lifted the barbell for my squat thrusts to finish the set and the ladies all cheered me on. definitely my mini victory!
food has always been and will always be a part of my life. somehow i have a complicated, confusing love/hate relationship with it. as a kid, i loved (and still do LOVE) to eat, a lot! i would remember having a can of soda a day; eating multiple fried eggs with rice for breakfast; having a cup-of-noodles for lunch and having our typical chinese dinner with homemade soup, entree and rice. my weaknesses included butter popcorn, super nachos from school, and those salty, crunchy dorrito chips! yum!
as i began my journey into the "real-world" after graduation, i found out that metabolism slows with age and having a job sitting at a desk 40 hours a week ultimately leads to weight gain. with all those work potlucks, team lunches, holiday parties and vending machines, my first year on the job gifted me with 15 pounds! i would mindlessly munch away without giving a second thought to what i was putting into my body. clothes didn't fit and i was just unhappy. i would compare myself to others around me or in the media, questioning why couldn't i be as thin/skinny as them.
in an attempt to be "pretty" (read thin), i would try numerous fad diets. from the usana 5 day reset, to the advocare 24 day challenge, i would see temporary results but the weight lost would bounce back with a vengence! juice cleanses and smoothie challenges were only short-term fixes as i couldn't stay away from meats, rice and junkfood. i was frustrated, disappointed, mad and just plain confused! i didn't know what to eat anymore or how to eat... this is where redeeming nutrition comes into place.
after a couple posts by a facebook friend showed up in my feed about how her health has been transformed just by the way she was learning how to eat for her body, i pm'ed her to ask for more information. she referred me to andrea @ redeeming nutrition and i became curious. i decided to follow redeeming nutrition's fb page for a while to see if what andrea was posting was something i would be interested in learning more. after a couple months, i finally decided it was time i did something right, i had to make a change for myself and for my life.
i contacted andrea and met with her last night. i completed a extensive health questionnaire before our visit and brought a food journal of 3 days of what i was actually eating to our visit. we discussed my health profile and andrea asked about what i wanted to achieve. i told her i was tired of trying diets and wanted to know how to eat again. after she listened to me ramble on, we decided that for the next three months, i would focus on eating less sugar and trying to get my digestion back on track. i felt hesitant in myself but i was tired of making excuses. i knew i had to do something. so here we go, this would is my journey to better, healthier eating!
