Two Hundred and Six days - Clean eating, working out, livin' the life

When future archaeologists dig up

 the remains of California, they're going to find all 

of those gyms their scary-looking gym equipment, 

and they're going to assume 

that we were a culture obsessed with torture.

- Doug Coupland

It has been 206 days since I began my journey to clean up my eating habits. 206 days. That’s a lot. It’s more than half a year. I am amazed. I just counted out the days, I have been lax, just moving forward, maintaining the plan, even though this is my favorite time of year to eat.

I love the fresh summer fruits and would eat them all day long if I could. Ripe peaches, lots of them, they smell so good, and plums as well. I love summer fruit and would begin my day with a piece and end my day with one.

 And popsicles. I love strawberry popsicles.  And can eat a whole box.

So I have learned restraint. I only have fruit or popsicles until 2 o’clock.  Then I am cut off. Actually I once got up at six in the morning to eat a popsicle. It was a little different so early in the morning, not sure I liked it.

I think my clothes fit differently now. I think my body feels differently now. I have been following rules to help it be healthy.

And working out a lot. I am feeling muscles in places I don’t think I had before.

Five pound weights are too light for me.  I am working with fifteens now. The twenty pound bar is too light for me, now I am accustomed to picking up a thirty or fourty pound bar.

The one thing I think I have found, discovered and hope to never let go off is my new found discipline. I want to roll it over to other areas of my life.

As with anything, beginning is easy, it is romantic and like a honeymoon.  Then the reality sets in, that a change or whatever it is must be continued to maintain progress. 

And then there are dog days, days when one really wants a pint of rice dream or a vegan cupcake or anything salty or some gummie bears.  I have learned to understand my food cravings and think about what I really am wanting.

I have used food for comfort.  To cover up emotions in situations where I didn’t feel strong enough to express my point of view. The physical sensation of over eating is powerful. It side tracks one from the emotional feelings.

I am grateful that I got this part of myself together.  This particular part of the journey hasn’t been fun for me. Two hundred and six days ago,  I looked in the mirror and realized what I saw didn’t reflect who I am.  Now I have to work on the part of me that let it be okay to be so out of shape and eat poorly.  I am going to start loving that part of myself.  I am going to start making sure I treat myself well.

~ If you don't do what's best for your body, 

you're the one who comes up on the short end. ~

Julius Irving