Round 2, Week 1 and why it is easy to eat off plan....

Lets be honest our diet hasn't been as good as it could be for the last week. Sunday was a little bit of treat day for me completing my first round of the 21 day fix. I had a homemade brownie sundae. And maybe I ate a little off plan for my meals Sunday too. Since then,  I meal prepped and I am able eat healthy and on plan at work but I have been struggling at home. Hubby has come down with the crud that they boys had over the last two weeks. While a few dinners were planned and on our plan but we did also pick up dinner a few nights as well. Along with a few evening snacks that I shouldn't have had.  I have not missed a single day of exercise and feel like I am getting stronger everyday but you can't out exercise a bad diet. So while the scale has not gone up it has not gone down either.

The interesting thing I've noticed this week is that with out fail EVERY TIME I slip back even if just for one meal, I pay for it big time. My heartburn comes back with a vengeance.  I feel all bloated and uncomfortable.  I am still  shocked at how crappy this food makes me feel.  I used to live off this stuff and I think was I really this miserable all the time?

An interesting and loaded question. While I knew I wasn't eating the best or healthy that voice inside your head says but EVERYONE eats this way. And if everyone eats this way it can't be all bad.  Yes I was on high blood pressure meds, yes I was on heart burn meds but I told myself these were things instigated by my weight.  And while my eating too much caused my weight gain I have never blamed the food it's self for anything except just the weight gain.  I know that might sound stupid cause I knew some facts about my diet pop and sugar. And yes obesity is an epidemic in America, so why did my mind constantly tell me that it can't be all bad?  And that ladies and gentlemen is because that is what we are being told.

The fastfood icons preach it from roof tops. See it is ok to eat here we have good options.  As they show the salad with the 563 calorie Big Mac.

The diet industry isn't innocent either!  Here are pics from ads for Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig and Medifast.  Can you tell me two things they all have in common?  

Thing #1:

While each of these are very successful diet programs and have helped lots of people. The real problem I have with them, is the way they advertise. All these programs delude the public to thinking that you don't have to change the way you eat.  Come eat all your carbs and foods you love.  Our problem is we eat to much of the foods we love.  Not to mentioned that these foods are most peoples comfort food. I am an emotional eater and it is how and why I am the weight I am.  While I will say some weight loss programs have sections of there programs that try to deal with emotional eating, I believe it is harder to treat your emotional eating when you are still eating your comfort foods.  I've been emotional eating for so long, that my comfort foods always bring a peaceful calm feeling while eating them, even if I am not upset when I am eating them. 

Thing #2:

These programs try keep the point that: food is and should be fast and easy.  People pick these programs so they don't have to think and they can just grab and eat. While I understand being in that place, I've been there. But what happens when they have to eat real food again and rely on themselves to provide food instead of the mail man delivering it to them? Some programs suggest you never stop getting their foods. Even after your at your goal weight. They suggest you keep your new easy lifestyle and keep buying our prepackaged food.  I have witnessed SEVERAL people who have used these programs, some of them even made it all the way to their goal weight, and I witnessed them gain it most, all or more of it back.  If while losing weight you are taught that food is quick and easy and all you have to do is grab and go. You will still need food to be quick and easy.  In this situation most of America will turn to our trusty old drive thru. While we may start by trying to make good decisions but we soon slip back into the fast food hole.

What if I told you I have the secret formula to weight loss and health?  Everyone who has ever struggled with weight has wished there was a magic pill we could take to fix it. We fool our selves into believing we are healthy even though over weight. We've tried several diets work outs and sure we'll lose some but we gain it back and nothing seems sustainable over long periods of time. In the next couple blog post I will be sharing the secret formula. It isn't much of a secret but it is 100% the truth. But just a heads up: there is no magic pill, there is no magic wrap, there is no magic diet, there is no magic cleanse.......