8.16.2008

Being Transparent

I married the kindest, honest, God-loving man 10 years ago.
I've given birth to three amazing, healthy, adorable boys.
I have the dog of my 'dreams'.
I may not live in the best, biggest house...
or drive the best, hottest mini van (LOL!)...
or go to Disney World every year...
BUT...

It is time for me. Period.

I've put my health on hold, so to speak. After giving birth to Anakin, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), had infertility problems, weigh problems (on top of my already bad eating habits) and depression.

I'm done having kids. It's time to face the facts that I am waaaaay overweight and my health, although good - my doctor even went as far as saying that "you are healthy", I feel like crap!

So, I did something about it.

I started looking at what I was eating and drinking. I know what's bad/good, but I was choosing to do what 'felt good' because it made me feel better. Whatever. That's not true. I was feeding my depression...making me feel even more depressed and eating more. I know that's insane, but so many of us do it!

So, I just stopped.

I stopped drinking Coke. I stopped using regular sugar (which I use Splenda when I drink/cook, but didn't watch what HAD sugar in it), we have almost stopped using Splenda and we're switching to Stevia and Isomalt. We're eating Soy products, more veggies (we were good about it, but now we're even better), eating FISH (I cooked and ate my first piece of fish last night - well, David grilled it, and it was amazing), watching butter and bread products closely. We're eating more organic, more whole foods...

We're changing. We're not perfect. We aren't trying to change anyone else...and yes, we'll still eat out, eat popcorn at the movies and take the kids to get donuts (I took Tristin and Paxtin this morning, I got coffee, they got the donuts and everyone was happy!) and good Lord above, we'll still get Tobin's pizza! Our favorite.

This week, without exercising (which will start this next week), I lost 4.2 lbs. Whooohoooo! I am ready for "me" to come back. To shed this extra person I've been carrying around for the past 4 years.

I am ready to show my kids the real Keela. They only know the Mom who is sad, tired and depressed. Well, that's not totally true. They see a happy, fun Mom too, just not as much as I'd like them to. KWIM? Also, I'm ready to face having to change the things I feed my kids. Anakin has always been interested in the info on the boxes of stuff he eats. As soon as he could read, he was reading them. The other day he asked for fishies (Goldfish Crackers) and wanted to fill a huge cup full. I got the scale out and we measured a serving size. He was SHOCKED! It was about 1/4 th of what he wanted! You know what...he was happy with the serving size. That's my goal now, is just to make them aware of what the size is and then go from there. I've already taken Pop Tarts away (on a daily basis) and the sugar filled snacks (you know, the stuff they grab whenever they are hungry - Ding Dongs, etc.) and they only have cheese crackers, fruit snacks (which will be switched to something else soon), Fishies, cheese sticks, apples and other fruit.

So, if you've made it this far through my post, thank you. ;) I'll be back with updates and more layouts soon. Have a great weekend!

5 comments:

Karlise said...

Congrats Keela!! I know you can do it this time. I'll tell you what I've found is Organic PopTarts at Costco and Organic whole wheat or cheddar bunnies(SuperTarget) that are just like goldfish that my boys love. The poptarts still have plenty of sugar but I don't as guilty letting them have one once a day or every other day or so. I also found Stretch Island fruit snacks which they love. Email me, I'm sure I can give you some more suggestions if you want.

Hanne said...

Way to go Keela! I will be cheering you on!
We have taken away all sugar foods on weekdays - poptarts, candy, pop, sugar juices, sugar cereal etc and they only get to have those as treats on the weekend. It works great. Kids really adjust well to those things. Now, if I could adjust like they did!
Keep it up Hon, I am proud of you!

Lindsey said...

Way to go!!! You have taken the first step and it just gets easier from here!

One of the eye opening things for us was the serving sizes. I started measuring EVERYTHING and was amazed at how decieving packaging can be.

Good luck and let me know if I can help!

Working Mama said...

Hi Keela,

I read your blog through my friend, Karlise's blog...so sorry to jump in! We did this earlier this year. There were lots of little things that were going on with my husband & my health (now that we are in our 40's those things happen you know!) and some things I noticed in my oldest son that "could" be food sensitivies. So we went cold turkey as a family - it HAD to be a whole family thing for it to work. No processed foods. No wheat, no gluten, no artificial sweeteners, no refined sugars (white/brown), no soda, no alcohol, no dairy - we use Ghee, which is butter with the milkfat removed. It put a lot of pressure on me to cook from scratch more - but once I made a new routine (I have a menu I rotate through) it all fell into place. I make my hubby's lunch for him to take to work, I make a hot breakfast for everyone every morning, I make lunch to send with one son to school. It has been well worth it. With just these dietary changes alone my husband dropped his bad cholesterol 75 points. Our health improved incredibly. Good luck to you - it does make a BIG difference and we need to make ourselves a priority too.
Andrea

Anonymous said...

Good for you Keela. I hope you are able to meet your goal. I am so glad you are doing this for you. I look forward to hearing your progress.

Stephanie