Eating better

Over the last 18 months, I've made a lot of steps in improving my health and wellness. It started when I had my hysterectomy and realized that so much of my pain was gone and I realized I wanted it all gone and I wanted to feel as good as a woman my age should feel.

My biggest issue is one I know a lot of us battle... I like love food. Bad food. Oreos. And cake. And dry Cheerios. And a whole slew of things that are not in my body's best interest for me to be stuffing in my face. I didn't want to give it up. I looked good in my clothes so I felt good about myself and I wasn't gaining weight, so I didn't care so much that maybe I wasn't in a healthy weight range for me. It's all okay as long as I look good, right? Wrong. And it bit me in the rump about 6 months ago when Amelia started having major developmental issues.

Now we know that it is Autism and Sensory Processing Disorder, but back earlier this year we just knew she wasn't sleeping more than 5 broken hours of sleep in each 24 hour span and that the hours she was awake was filled with screaming fits like we had never experienced with our other two children. The stress and the lack of sleep combined caused me and the husband to start packing on the pounds. I gained 38 pounds in about 3.5 months. I was already about 25 pounds heavier than my optimal weight for my body type. 63 pounds. That's more than Asher weighs. I need to lose a whole child!

I'm now a week in on the hardcore lifestyle change after starting it slowly in other ways before going all in. I'm down 6 pounds already and I can see the shift in my body starting. I know it is a long road to do this the right way, focusing on my health not just my looks. It scares me. I don't want to be fat, I don't want to be unhealthy, I don't want to die young because I can't keep from shoveling junk into my mouth, but I fear that my resolve will flounder. I'm cutting carbs, eating whole real foods, and upping my water intake. I'm also replacing 1 meal a day with a protein shake that I add some banana and spinach to, mostly because I totally suck at eating breakfast and this gets me a good way to start my metabolism and my day.

I'm not giving up coffee. I can't. I will give up everything else before I will give up my coffee. I don't *need* it for the caffeine, but it's one of those things that I just really love and when you're giving up so much that you love, you gotta give yourself a little something to hold on to and that is my coffee! I am cutting my sugar that I put in it and I bought organic unrefined sugar and trying to limit myself to 2 cups a day.

Working out is my next big step. I need low impact and something easy to get me back into it slowly. I have fibromyalgia, so hardcore working out is just not in the cards, but I need to get myself into a fit and healthy state so that I can keep up with my kids! So tell me, what's your favorite work out? Comment below and hook me up with something fun, under 30 minutes, and not too hard but will push my fitness to the next level.