Friday, July 27, 2012

It's starting to affect my kids!


As anyone who reads my Sparkpage knows, I'm here because I have two small children, now 6 and 4, who look to me for their healthy habits.  I realized that while I was really good at teaching them about healthy choices (my oldest has been making her own healthy choices since she was 4) I wasn't LIVING what I was preaching... they watched me sitting at the computer all day, snacking constantly, overeating, and not exercising.

So to demonstrate healthy living to them, I started living healthier.

Today, I just had a powerful example of how my philosophy is starting to affect them.

After a binge-y day yesterday, I've determined that if I snack today, I will eat healthy, and I'm trying to fill myself up with veggies.  I made a ham lavash wrap (cheese spread, low sodium ham, red leaf lettuce, and wrap) and had carrots with it.

Afterwards, I was still hungry, so I grabbed the bag of baby carrots, and have been sitting here munching on them.  They're a rather good batch, and it was hitting the spot.

Well, first my 6 year old snuck up and grabbed a carrot, and ran off, giggling.  I mock-glared at her, demanding to know who told her she could steal my carrot.

So, the little one ran up, and grabbed one too!  She shoved it in HER mouth, also giggling like a maniac.

Then my 6 year old came back, and has been standing here next to me eating carrots.  They've been tag-teaming, and we've almost killed the whole 1 lb bag.

That, my friends, made me smile. And now I'm full, stuffed to the brim with yummy fresh carrots, and my kids are still snacking post-lunch on raw veggies.

That's why I'm doing this.  THAT is why I'm on this journey in the first place. Not to look good in a pair of pants (though that's an awfully nice side benefit), not to wear a bikini, not to make my high school friends jealous, or even to be able to claim that I exercise regularly, or anything to do with me.

It's because of those two little girls, who are going to be battling the entire world around them for their very lives, suffering an onslaught of conflicting images of high-calorie, low-nutrition yummies at fast food restaurants and rail-thin magazine models, too much screen time, sedentary friends and more.  I think they're getting a pretty damn good start, and I don't think I'm tooting my own horn here.  I'm focused 100% on teaching them healthy body images. I focus on my strength, not my weight loss. Eating healthy, not denying myself good food.

And I think I'm blessed enough to be starting early enough that I can undo the damage I've already done with my past lifestyle, and start this journey to healthy living TOGETHER with them. I will get to see them grow into healthy, happy adults, and fight back against the world that is doing it's best to kill them.

Slaying dragons? Child's play. This, this is hard.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Afraid of the bathing suit?

Are you afraid of your bathing suit? 

I think for the vast majority of us, our bathing suits are a major worry zone. It's a high-stress purchase, and many of us flat out refuse. 

Today, I went to the beach. And I want to tell you something I found interesting. Do you know how many perfect bodies I saw while I was out there? We were there from about 1:30 PM until 7:00. 

Zero. Zilch. Nada. There were a few who were slender-ish, but there were no perfect bodies, and in fact... almost everyone was overweight. Two pieces and all. Even those who were slender had bubble butts, or little pooches, or scars, or stretch marks, or any other number of flaws that appear on real, non-airbrushed bodies. 

It was refreshing. There was no need for me to be concerned about my pooch... because there were tons of people there as large or larger, and all that mattered was we were there with our friends and family, having fun. 

So don't be afraid of your suit. You're not some freak of nature, and you won't be the only imperfect one there. In fact, those perfect people? They're in the minority. As in... they don't exist.