My new goal

I'm about to get very honest here. Hold onto your hats. So I have almost exactly 6 weeks until my family's reunion beach trip, and although the shoreline of the entire Gulf Coast might look like a crime scene by then and much of our week-long vacation spent in our condo or at the nearby water park (I'm hoping for the best and planning for the worst), I WANT TO GET IN SHAPE! For a lot of women, getting married sort of automatically plants another dress size on you, especially if you have an excessively hungry husband. But I've put on a few more beyond that this year when I was sick, strangely and constantly hungry, and not doing much physically - boy will I be prepared when I get pregnant! So now I'm thicker than I've been my entire life and ready for the old me again. (On a side note, it's funny that I crave the "old" me like I have ever been truly skinny. I vividly remember high school and even college days when I felt out-of-shape and wishing I were just a little thinner. Why can't we ever just appreciate where we are??)

With this as my motivation, not to mention my still-lingering gallbladder disease which makes eating anything high fat cause me a LOT of pain and grief, I'm ready to get down to business. My plan? Clean foods. The Clean Diet to be exact. It's not a diet plan so much as a way of eating. It consists of eating foods only at the freshest, most natural and unprocessed way to get it. What I like about it is that I don't absolutely have to count calories or fat (but I do for my gallbladder), sugar, or anything. The idea is that if you're eating foods the way nature intended them, you're going to fill up (key term here) with only healthy food. It's just common sense.

I'm also going to start running again. I'll hate it for a week or two, but I'm gonna do it....and I'll learn to love it again. Running is like that. You have to earn your relationship with it.

Other than saying I'm sorry for how long this post has turned out, I need a favor from YOU! That's right, I need the 3 or 4 of you reading my blog to help keep me motivated. Any encouragement, support, or other comments other than "oh, you're beautiful the way you are" would be appreciated. Gracias. Oh, and one more thing. If you're on a diet, you should try this recipe that my mom invented. I'm just sayin'...

Banana Chocolate Shake:
1 cup frozen, peeled banana OR 1 fresh banana and 4-5 ice cubes
1 cup low fat milk
2 Tbsp cocoa
2 packets of Equal or other sweetener
1 tsp vanilla

Blend until smooth. Rich, satisfying, and oh so guilt-free.