Learning How to Eat Correctly

I've been thinking a lot about how far I've come in the past year and why I've been able to be so successful.  Bottom line is I was never taught how to eat correctly.  Let me take you back in time.  We moved to Grand Junction in August of 2003.  I have a Weight Watcher booklet from 2004 that puts me at 227 pounds.  What that means is that I weigh less now than I did 13 years ago.  From 2004 on, all I did was gain weight every year.  So how come?  How come I didn't know how to eat correctly?

2004 - I am just now -13 years later weighing less than I did 13 years ago.

Growing up in a family of 9 on a very limited budget, our meals consisted of spaghetti (pretty sure you could make that for $2.00 or less), Spanish Rice (white rice w/tomato sauce and maybe 4 pieces of bacon cut up), Liver (yum), and on Sundays we would occasionally get pot roast.  That was delicious.  I was a busy kid because I swam competitively, but I did try to help out with meals as I got older.  But my contribution would be "pigs in a blanket" (hot dogs wrapped in Bisquick.)  Delicious, right?

I began to gain weight once I moved out on my own AND I stopped swimming/exercising.  I kept eating like I was swimming and the weight gain began.  Then from 1986 - 2003, I lived in a "Staff" situation with a Christian ministry.  What this meant is you could simply go to the dining room for each meal (breakfast/lunch/dinner) and eat your meal.  I NEVER had to cook.

So in the fall of 2003, when we moved to Grand Junction, I was responsible for planning meals, shopping for meals, cooking the meals, cleaning up the meals.  I know that sounds crazy to you all, because you all did this since you were kids most likely.  I was 41 years old and trying to learn how to do this while raising three small children and starting a business with my husband.  I could prepare your income taxes.  I could edit your story.  But I could not cook.

When the kids were little, we practically lived at Lincoln Park pool.  We'd hit Sonic on the way to the pool and McDonalds on the way home.  It was fast.  It was convenient.  But I did not do myself any favors nor did I do my kids any favors.  Anyway, enough about all that.  I'm thinking right now, you are saying "mind blown."

If I would go to Weight Watchers or Nutri Systems or Jenny Craig or Curves or Metabolic Center, no one took the time to help me learn how to eat correctly.  I could buy their products and their supplements and that was the magic potion (so they said.)

Ryan taught me "how" to eat correctly (step by step.)

So this is who I was one year ago when Ryan said he would help me.  I don't really even know if he knows all of that back story, but he does know that I repeatedly said, "You are going to have to teach me.  You are going to have to write it out step by step."  And do you know what?  He did.   He was a 25 year old guy teaching a 54 year old woman how to eat correctly.  He took me to Pinterest and showed me recipes.  He taught me about macronutrients.  He taught me to eat enough - something I still at times struggle with.   My entire family has benefitted from him teaching me.  At first I would make "my" food and then "their" food.  Now everyone eats the way I do and everyone is in much better shape.

Feeling better and better every day!

Ryan and I set a weight loss goal for me.  I am 3/5 of the way there.  I recently approached him and asked if I could come back and work with him exclusively.  (Since October I've been trying to make this work with Golds and with Ryan.)  Ryan said yes, absolutely.  So I have cancelled my NLP membership at Golds.  I still have my basic membership and I will still be there occasionally.  I know I've made tons of friends there and I will miss seeing you every day, but please know that you can still message me, send me an e-mail, and we can still get together for coffee now and again.

You just have to understand that I've never had someone so willing to help me, to be patient enough to teach me, to never talk down to me, and to genuinely want to help me reach my goal until I met Ryan.  I need to do this for me.  One of my 2017 goals is to "fight for myself" more.  I am very much a people pleaser and I am trying to say to myself, "This is what I need to do."  It seems selfish to me, but I know it's right.

I will still be blogging.  I hope you continue to follow my progress and cheer me on.  I will be swimming more at Golds and that means I get to hang out with my swimming lady friends more often.  So it's all good - I hope you see it that way too!