Veggies & cats. Not on the same plate.

Lunch!

I've really been doing well with my new healthy eating.  Trying.  Really trying.  But apparently things don't turn around immediately.  WHY NOT!!???

Ahem.

I thought I would give you a cat update since I have refrained for a while.  You're welcome.  They are all fine. The end.

That's pretty accurate, really.  Norah (of the spine and kidney problems) is still getting fluids and meds every day, but she's eating and playing and jumping onto and off of furniture again.  And she can get away from me when she sees that bag of "plasma-lite" come out!

Jake is good, she's at 1.5 units of insulin a day and she's been eating really well and even socializing (read - demanding to sit on my lap) more than she has in a long time.  Riley is Riley.  He's old, he's crabby, and he's a man cat.

Speaking of which - I need to go tend to the inmates in this asylum.  You'd think I'd at least work off a couple pounds chasing Norah - whoops!  There she goes!

Consider me intervened.

I'm not a drinker, I don't do drugs or even smoke cigarettes anymore.  But I needed an intervention.

My daughter is a vegetarian.  I swear I didn't raise her that way.  And apparently she and her husband have been trying to eat better, more fresh foods, more "clean" eating.  Yay!  For them, that is.  Ahem.  Last week my daughter brought me shopping in order to help me make some healthy choices and maybe consider some better alternatives to what I normally eat.  We bought things we had to put in bags ourselves, some refrigerated, very little frozen anything.  There were green things in my cart.

Shudder.

This week I ate hummus (which I have objected to for YEARS because of the texture), sweet baby bell peppers (I don't LIKE peppers), kale (didn't even know what it was), radishes, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, and all manner of things deemed to be healthy because they are as close to their natural state as possible.

And I liked it.  WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME????

Tonight I splurged and made homemade pizza.  Dani had picked out some whole wheat pizza dough for me,

so I made pizza with kale, peppers, minced garlic, Parmesan cheese as well as soy "cheese" and a little mozzarella.  Very different for me since there was no greasy pepperoni and the cheese was not piled high enough to cover anything else that might be on it.  And it was still good!  I only ate 2 pieces.  My son on the other hand, polished off the rest.

I know myself well enough to know I will backslide quicker than you can say bigbackside if I try to be extreme about the whole thing.  So I'm not thinking of it as a diet, just as Dani said - trying to think of food differently.

And I won't give up everything I like, just try to find healthier ways of eating them.  Like my latest favorite ice cream (I'm still in shock because it's not chocolate) Blue Bunny Birthday Party - it's awesome.  Still eating it - just changed my portion size to a custard cup.  Wow.  That custard cup looks huge in the picture.  I swear it's not!

Coincidentally, I got results back from blood work I had done a week ago, my cholesterol is high, triglycerides, etc.  So it's time to make a change.  Wish me luck!

And thank you Dani, for loving me enough to be gentle and for not shoving me into this.  I love you Honey!

It's getting a tad bit easier. Really.

I have been writing a lot more on my 'Fat' blog than here lately. I'm sure it's because I have been insanely intense about trying to change my diet, forever. Let's face it. I grew up on Beefaroni, Mac n' cheese and tomato soup. After my parents divorced when I was 11 and it was pretty much just my mom and me, I ate what was available and what I wanted. My mom didn't get home from work till 7:30 in the evening and I was hungry way before that. So I would eat a can of something, make a box of something, or every once in a while I would broil a thinly cut steak. No microwaves back then yknow. Although I did eat frozen dinners, the ones that were in the foil trays. There was always a little cobbler or muffin or some kind of dessert-like portion, and you can imagine where the vegetables went. Not in my mouth, that's for sure. A lot of the time dinner was simply a Velveeta cheese sandwich on soft white bread with mayo. Mmm-m-m . . .

Every once in a great while my mom would leave some instructions and I would make a pot roast or some spaghetti with meat sauce for the the two of us. But that was rare.

And there was always chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup in the house. Always. That was a food group all it's own in my house. Funny thing, I didn't really develop a taste for ice cream until well after I moved out of the house.

Today I posted about how I have been opting for natural foods, fresh foods, and God help me - even raw foods, over folded spindled and mutilated foods. I have been able to talk myself out of stopping on my way home from work and getting something to eat that's bad for me, and to enjoy the sweetness of a date or a cherry instead of a candy bar or donut.

There is very little doubt that I will continue to eat some of those bad things. I have not totally converted. But if I continue to eat the good things the majority of the time, having something bad now and then isn't going to be so bad. I just cannot allow myself to get to the point of being diabetic with high blood pressure and heart disease because of my weight. It's simply not acceptable to me anymore. If I end up with any of those things - I at least want to know it's not because I couldn't make myself get disciplined about what I stick in my mouth. There are other ways to develop those conditions but in my case - it's my weight. It's not a symptom of something else, it's the cause of things I am teetering on the edge of having.

This is the first time ever, that I feel like learning to eat in a healthy way is within my grasp. Of course it's always been out there. Obviously. But this is the first time I think I may be able to do this. And I'm kind of amazed!