Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Eating. Everything.


Nowadays, I've been trying to promote healthier eating habits. Posting it, preaching it, researching it...all because in my late 30's I got into my fitness obsession. Lately, I've noticed I'm not the only one. But most people are sticking to their healthy eating. Me? I just mention when I eat good. I can honestly say I don't practice what I preach and I won't pretend and I won't lie about it. Otherwise, my photos would be plastered on these amazing transformation fitness sites like Facebook, Instagram, & twitter. and I won't have fat day clothes where my favorite butt cheek hugging yoga pants with the large fold over band that covers my protruding belly.

I was raised Buddhist, so naturally I ate lots of vegetarian food. But I never considered myself a vegetarian. Everything just tasted good. Meat or no meat, good food is good eats. I had my fair share of eating meat too. I've eaten and tried so many different dishes, that it became a hobby. I wanted to try and taste everything. From pigs feet, tripe, chicken feet, oxtail, thousand year old egg, rabbit, frog legs, alligator tail, blood cakes, etc. This isn't all Chinese food. It's Jamaican, Indonesian, Japanese, Trinidad, Korean, Indian, etc. Different countries eat different things that may be foreign to us in America, but the norm, there. So who's to say it's gross if you didn't try it??? So I ate and tasted and tried everything possible. So there's my history of a foodie. So as I got older, as a meat eater, I slowly started to eating less and less meat. Then I decided, hmm...lets do this. I failed. I still ate chicken, tasted pieces of steak I'd cook for the kids. I was bullshitting myself. After seeing countless documentaries on how our meat is produced, I decided to stick to my guns. The eye opener was "Earthlings" narrated by Joaquin Phoneix. I now look at meat with disgust. It smells good, I can't lie, and I'm sure delicious as heck but no thanks. Being vegetarian also kept me from eating crap I really didn't need to. So when I go out, I'm forced to really think about what I want to eat. I still eat fish, & eggs. I can't go vegan because honestly, that shit is hard. I'll bake or cook vegan for fun sometimes just because I like to prove to my kids that we can eat a fulfilling meal and not have meat. I don't force them into eating vegetarian but I do force them to eat clean. And although they hate it sometimes, they're also glad that I do.

I was never overweight. Except when I was pregnant. I hit my 30's and realized my metabolism left me like my shitty ex husband. Only his was better for me. I met the owner of my gym one day, and it took some convincing before I became obsessed. I want to try everything, yoga, Zumba, pole dancing, CrossFit, running, obstacle racing, boot camp, you name it. Well....except kangoo. That looks dumb. It didn't matter if I'm any good, I just want to know what it's all about.

So if I kept my eating to a minimum I'd actually look like I worked out. But no. So a few months back, I ended up in beast mode. I worked out at two different gyms, 6 days a week. I was eating ok, but I was in awesome shape! Then I suffered an injury. What happens when I'm off track? I eat. What happens when I'm depressed? I starve. I didn't get depressed. So I ate. I gained weight but no one noticed. If anything, they think I lost weight! Thanks people, I lost muscle. Thanks for noticing.
My knee is finally getting better, so watch out world. I'm trying to get back in that frame of mind, but as I was eating my way through healing, it dawned on me.

All this strict eating. Am I having fun???? No. So guess what? I'm not entering a competition to be IFBB. Ever. I do run my races and join challenges so its imperative I stay eating clean. But I'm not going to make it my mission. I want to enjoy, eat, live, smile. Who knows, I say that now, but once I get to working out more, it might change.

There's just sooooo much good food. I wanna eat. Everything. But I don't wanna look like Honey Booboo's mom. So....I think I have no choice. Gym time people. Work hard, eat good, laugh harder. And sex. None of us doing that enough.

Special thanks to a new friend, Jahaira, for making realize I'm not alone & I have a twin.