So some background about me . I was a cook for 10 years and always wanted to be a cook well until I didn’t . 10 years of doing pretty much nothing but eat -sleep-party and cook. In that time my diet went a little hay wire , just a smidgen i swear ! 😉

After 25 the eat and drink what ever I wanted and stay looking slim and good was coming to an end ! Though there was some denial about it for a little while, lets say a few years . I really started to notice my changing metabolism after I left the food world and moved into the corporate world where I did a lot less moving and a lot more sitting.   In this time I also started to notice some aches and pains that were not there before . Yes it was a shock to me too ! I am still in my 20’s why do I have aches and pains ?! I am still inadvisable right?! Not to say over the years that I was particularly gentle on my body. In the midst of all my changes I started to do the thing that I swore I would never ever do .. the D word! ( insert dramatic music here)

Now I know almost every man and women I know has done this at some point in their lives.  I know everyone has seen the commercials and the infomercials , magazine adds etc… look how you want to in these easy steps.

Now being me I decided to go to a naturopath ( now this would be funny to people who know me and the story of when one when I was little told me and my mom that I could no longer have any sugar…. lets just say I decided my world was over …yeah I was just a little mellow dramatic ). So I went to a naturopath in my area and it was good , got some information and started taking some vitamins to deal with my not so great life style ( I was still working in the kitchen at this time). So then my naturopath informed me I had a candida problem …. Okay side note for those who do not know what this is its a yeast that naturally grows in your body but can take over if you eat and sleep badly.

So now I was on a cleanse , never been on one of those before and wow that was a trip! 1 month of no sugar , caffeine , dairy and gluten and when I say no sugar I also mean fruit and starchy vegetables. Now my weight went down and I was sleeping but wow was I miserable! First thing I learned about diets any diet is that your body detoxes like crazy, so all those mood swings and head aches etc, are all the bad going out of your body and well attacking all those who come within 10 feet of you. ( Sorry guys) So yeah did that and then decided that my naturopath was maybe not the right fit for me and went back to eating all the stuff I went off of and put back on all the weight and then some.

So through the years I have tried to cut down on the sugar and starch and increase the vegetables and protein. Fast forward to 6 months before my wedding ….. and like almost every bride I decided I needed to get in shape for my wedding. The dieting began and so did Hot Yoga 2 times a week and going to the gym, plus running. With all this you would think I was getting in great shape. Nope I was losing a little bit of weight here and there but not much which was very frustrating as my husband was doing great and still is! Getting healthy for him was an easy choice and he worked hard as I did at it but like most women with spouses who you diet with know men carry weight differently and loose it faster. (Grrrr right?) Well I lost what I could and worked my butt off while going to lots of food related events that always lead up to any wedding. I had lost 5lbs not the 10lbs I wanted but 5 lbs was what I would have to live with unless I wanted to do a last minute detox! This as I stated earlier makes me grumpy and unpleasant to be around so no.

So now here I am after my wedding 5lbs up from really enjoying myself in Vegas and looking at my body going… Sigh! My husband thinks I am crazy and look just fine, but for me my clothes in my closet are getting tighter and some no longer fit from last year.  This is the diet yoyo that I swore I would never get on but now seem to not be able to get off. I no longer knew what I wanted my body to be. When I was a little girl I was always told I was beautiful , now what your family and loved ones say seems to not hold a candle to the little voice telling you “ your thighs are too big”, “ your butt isn’t high enough” , “ your arms are not quite right” and “ your tummy is not flat enough”. My little demon voice that haunts me daily as I get dressed, examining all these things in the mirror.

Now here the part where I explain that the word DIET is not a bad word, diet is everything you eat and how you eat it, bad or good it’s your diet. Okay so now that we got that out of the way. My diet, how I eat every day needed well still needs to change. No quick fix, no easy out just remembering that taking one day at a time to correct years of being that little girl who crossed her arms and yelled about not being able to eat what I wanted.

Everybody is different, so one thing that works for your friends may not work for you for a number of different reasons. I have tried a few different things that family and friends have told me worked great for them but for me not so much and not because it didn’t do anything at all it just wasn’t a fit for me. So now I am going on my journey to figure out what will work best for me. This is where I go back to basics, look at what will make the changes I want and make me happy. If you’re not happy when you’re doing something well your less likely to keep doing it.

My Back to BAICS

Diet – What changes can I make to what I am eating that will be sustainable for me.

Exercise – A few things I enjoy, so that I don’t get bored.

Mind – Work on new voices and make them louder than the negative ones that yell at me.