Eating Clean.....Again.

Like a lot of moms my diet has slowly deteriorated over the years since becoming a mom.  Ok, fine - it was always bad. But, summer of 2011 I started eating better, doing these diet drops and then after I dropped 73 pounds (for real) I started working out 4 or 5 times a week and "eating clean."

In layman's terms, eating clean means that you don't eat anything with chemicals or preservatives.  That's the short version, if you ask an eating clean guru they can give you a 24 hour lecture but basically it boils down to: if it's not natural, don't eat it.  I ate this way for 6 months and felt AMAZING.  I had tons of energy, got up almost every morning at 4:30 to work out, had some sexy muscles in places I had never had muscles before.  It was good.....and then.....

I can't say I got tired of healthy food or hungry for a burger with actual buns - no, it was much more complicated and lazy than that.  This June my husband went on his annual "man-trip" with the guys so the kids and I had 4-night-long slumber party in the living room.  We swam in our pool until after dark, stayed up until 11 or 12 watching kids movies, ate pizza and ice cream and every day was "no pants day" (an actual holiday, feel free to click on the link and start celebrating it yourself!). 

It was literally the worst 4 days of my stomach's life.  By then though, the damage was done.  Once you eat delicious, bad-for-you food you want more, and more, and more.  Until it's the end of September and your pants are too tight, your body is sluggish and you've forgotten the number on your gym membership. 

I finally decided enough was enough....again.  After 2 days of detoxing with lots of water and clean eating I have realized how bad I really did feel, how much drive-thrus were really costing me!  I went back to the gym on the first day and after an hour I felt like a large, sweaty hippo.  I used to feel great after a workout - like I could kick some mugger's hiney if he tried anything on my way out to the car.  Instead, being rolled out to my car sounded like a great option this weekend and unfortunately drove home the proof that I had backtracked too far to be able to make any excuses anymore.

So - here I go again.  I'm counting calories, paying attention to sugars and fats, avoiding anything processed and hopefully breathing with my pants buttoned again. I highly suggest trying a week of eating clean.  It might just change your life or at least your waistline!  Full time is not for everyone but a clean week every now and then might remind us that a lot of the food that we put in our kid's tummies is filled with so many chemicals you could use it as rat poison.  To quote the awesome kids show Yo Gabba Gabba:  "So yummy for my tummy....so yummy, so yummy....NOT."  Okay, Okay, I might have added that last part.