The "Perfect" Diet – Can you relate?

When I was younger I was always skinny. I could eat ANYTHING I want, and never gained weight.
It was actually to the point where in my early 20’s I was taking weight gain and going to the gym so I could gain weight and muscle because I was tired of being so tiny. I always thought curves were beautiful.
Fast forward to when I hit 25 – my metabolism went out the window. I had horrible eating habits, and had never thought to change them because I was always thin. But when my metabolism slowed, my body started quickly changing. I had worked for so many years and had children at a young age so I never had time to cook, or so I thought. Instead I would eat out, go to restaurants, the drive thru. You name it. And if I had a choice between grilled and crispy? Oh, it was always crispy! Hands down!

On our wedding day my husband and I were the heaviest we had EVER been.
When I got those wedding pictures back, I was so unhappy with them. I had envisioned my wedding photos differently and it was a wake up call. I had to do something.
A few short weeks after we got married I was laid off from my job. All of a sudden I was a stay at home mom. We discovered we were pregnant a little over a month later, and it was a high risk pregnancy. I was bedridden so I couldn’t look for work at all. I became a Stay at Home Mom by chance, not choice. Through that, we had to change our spending habits. We couldn’t eat out as much, grab a pizza after the boys’ football practice or some burgers after their games. I was no longer getting home at 7pm from work and exhausted.

That’s when my life changed. That’s also when I started getting creative in the kitchen on a budget and when my passion for cooking and baking emerged.

My husband and I both lost weight just by eating home cooked meals. He lost 40 pounds and I lost 25.
In April 2011 our second child together was born, and 2 months later I had to have my gallbladder removed. At the time I ate well, didn’t eat anything too disgusting. No soda, little red meat etc. But looking back, it was probably all those years of fast food and sodas I used to eat from my early teens all the way to my late 20’s It does catch up to you. I’ve tried various diets, the shakes in the morning and afternoon and working out like a mad woman. I lost weight and got in shape, but I was always dizzy and feeling nauseous during workouts. You can’t continue like that forever, and I didn’t. So I would gain it all back, and then some.

Now, I’ve come to realize the best way to get healthy (for me, at least) is home cooked meals, as little preservatives as possible. Healthy portions, and colorful food. Usually colorful food means you’re getting a lot of fruits and veggies in there with your proteins and starches. I still indulge, but now it’s just one cookie instead of 5. And you know what? I can eat like this the rest of my life with no problem. And to date I’ve lost 29 pounds since April. That’s after that original 25 pound weight loss!

Healthy Choices are always smarter than a fad diet! Check out this humorous video that illustrates what we all know — a healthy choice doesn’t have to mean a painful choice!

 Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts are my own.