My Glimpse of the Future

My youngest baby is now 2, yet I still have people (me included) who will blame my weight on having kids. There are plenty of people who have had way more kids than me and they aren't fat. I was getting fat before I had kids, and I've had plenty of time to lose my "baby weight". At some point baby weight just becomes weight that needs to be lost. I believe I have reached that status.

My weight has increased steadily for the past decade. I realize that it will continue to increase with each year as my metabolism slows and my fat ass moves around less and less(boy do I wish I could parlay that into some extra height). Basically if I continue wallowing in my self pity and complaining that it's too hard to make a change, I can expect to be pushing 200 (or more) by the time I've reached my 40's and possibly 300 by the time I'm in my 50's (and believe me I know how real this is...my mother followed this very trend).

So I'd be fooling myself if I thought I would just be THIS weight for the rest of my life if I didn't do anything. Even if that were the case I'd still be miserable. But the reality is each year that goes by our bodies and metabolism become less and less efficient so we will gain weight just because of this (unless we do something to fight it).

I can see my future and cringe at the thought...and yet all it does is make me want to hide under the blankets with a bag of chips =(

My Gestational Diabetes

So I think it's time to give you all a little more insight as to what I'm all about. Yes, I desperately want to get these 50 pounds off my body. However that's not my only focus. I also want to get healthy, maybe more than than I want to be thin. I am a big fan of natural health and a firm believer that we are what we eat.

During both my pregnancies I developed gestational diabetes. That's when my study into health and nutrition began. Diet alone was enough for me to keep my diabetes under control and my babies healthy. That was my first hand experience that our diets and lifestyle (they made me exercise too) have a profound effect on our health.

When I went for my first appointment at the diabetes center, I was told by the nutritionist (who ironically was a lot fatter than me) not to worry as long as I follow the diet. She told me that most people who end up needing insulin do so because they don't want to be bothered to follow the diet correctly. That was kind of alarming, so I made sure to follow the program (and I do admit it got hard at times). I even took it one step further and started doing a lot of research on diabetes and nutrition. The fat lady at the diabetes center told me about eating the right ratio of protien, carbs and fat at each meal and about eating at certain times and such, but she still propagated an unhealthy way of eating. Somehow I just didn't believe that a Sausage McMuffin was a good breakfast for someone who has made themselves sick by eating crap. Oh, they tried to give me the line that it wasn't my fault that I developed diabetes. That somewhere in my family runs this disease and that's why I have it. And so as I ate my first Sausage McMuffin on the way to work I thought, that's a bunch of BS! Even with the predisposition to the disease, I wouldn't have developed it if I had eaten a diet rich in whole natural foods and went for a freaking walk once in a while. It was my diet of refined carbs and junk food and my couch potato lifestyle that made me fat and made my body unable to metabolize the excess amounts of glucose I was pumping into it.

That was just the beginning of my nutritional crusade. After each kid was born I got on my horse to lose weight. Last year I even had a pretty sucessful bout until I fell off the wagon. We'll get to that part of the story in time. I started slacking on all this, so I really let myself slide. I see a difference in my kids too. My youngest (who's now 2) is already developing my bad eating habits and I can't get her to eat any vegetables at all. My mom says paybacks are a bitch...apparantly I was like that as a child.

Anyway, I know that taking in less calories than I burn will yield a net weight loss. That's not enough for me. I am looking for a diet (lifestyle or whatever you want to call it) that will address my body's health concerns and not only allow me to lose weight, but also improve my overall health. So come back and visit if you are at all interested in a natural way of losing weight. I will share not only my personal story, but any valuable information I learn along the way! And of course I would love to hear from anyone else who has information or experiences to share!