The day I decided that enough was enough and embarked on this lifestyle change of mine, it was probably an all time low with respect to how I felt both physically and emotionally. As I mentioned on a previous post, I was struggling with low self esteem and feeling like people, especially my customers would judge me because of the way I looked. On top of that, I was also struggling with feeling tired ALL of the time, no energy whatsoever so even the most basics of things would tire me out or leave me without breath. Going to the grocery store, or to the mall, or any activity that required me to stay on my feet for an extended period of time would result in me feeling like I walked around with a knife stuck on each heel by the time we got home. My blood pressure is fine, same with my blood sugar and while my cholesterol and triglycerides were borderline, they were still fine so I really couldn’t say my health was rapidly deteriorating, yet I felt terrible all the time. I’m in my mid 30s now, which isn’t really that old, but it is old enough to know that I couldn’t keep going the way I was before it would be too late. So, while I’d like to say that there was a very deep and meaningful reason behind my decision to change my habits, the reality is that I just want to look better and not feel like shit all the time.
Change, is hard, really, really hard given the kinds of things I like and the kind of work I do where I’m eating out all of the time. Asking for water instead of a coke proved to be very challenging as stupid as that may sound, and everyone who knows me and my baked goods addiction will know how much I’ve struggle not to buy cookies or cupcakes on the weekends. But I will say that once I got into the habit of making better choices, rather than buying on impulse, it suddenly became easier to walk by the cookie aisle or the bakery section at the supermarket and not feel that temptation. I also like that making these new choices made me feel good about myself. Yes, I still like sweets, and it’s not like I have not had any “treats” this past month, but overall I feel great about the kind of food I’ve been eating.
Continue reading “What I’ve learned in the first month of my lifestyle change.”