Facing the not so sweet truth

For months, I have had a lingering guilt about some of the things that go into my mouth. More specifically, my daily habit of drinking sugar free beverages has had me worried.

Crystal Light, and other similar drinks, have been a very happy addition to my life as I continue my attempts to shrink myself. These are sweet and satisfying and make water so easy to drink in large quantities. Sometimes when I want something sweet, I can satisfy that urge with a yummy passion-fruit drink or with my all time favorite half tea/half lemonade Wyler's drink. MMmmmmm.

But as I have learned more and made attempts to eat healthier over the past two years, my guilt about these drinks has deepened. I know they aren't healthy. I see in the list of ingredients all the chemicals that I cannot pronounce. The list is long and those weird unpronounceable ingredients cannot be doing my body any good.

I have tried in so many areas of my life to curb the unnatural. We buy almost all organic fruits and vegetables and the processed foods we do buy have less or no soy or corn additives. This is HARD to do sometimes as the kids have what they like and I have what I like and this country doesn't produce many foods on our grocery shelves that DO NOT have these ingredients! When possible, those processed foods are also organic. While this endeavor is expensive, my hope is that it saves us money on health care in the long run (especially for my girls).

The natural alternatives to artificial sweeteners, like the Splenda I love in my coffee include honey, stevia, coconut palm sugar, and a few others. These are expensive and don't all work well in coffee or tea, two of my favorite "sweet" drinks.

So why have I been so unwilling to shake this beverage habit? Honestly, I have been scared. I enjoy my routine and it is part of my routine. I am a creature of habit and wen something works, it is hard to "fix" it. I know myself and know I have a terrible sweet tooth. These drinks have tempered it and kept me satisfied. My weight loss has been so great and I am scared of going backwards. That is a very real fear in my mind since it has been such a long and slow road to where I find myself now.

Regardless, I have committed to myself just a few days ago to STOP, cold turkey. I knew if I tapered it off, I was KNOWINGLY continuing to poison myself. After I hopped on Facebook and read this article, I knew that I really had to stop ignoring this bad habit and bite the bullet!

I committed--that day--to NOT drink anymore artificially sweetened drinks. This meant no more Wyler's, Crystal Light, Zero brand colas (like Coke Zero, my absolute favorite soda), and no more Splenda in my tea and coffee. That last one is a toughie since artificial sweeteners are found anywhere you buy coffee and natural alternatives are not.

So far so good. It has only been four days, but it has been a challenging time. I bought some tea infused with Stevia and some plain tea to brew and have on hand at home, a habit I abandoned years ago that I need to get back to. I have been making homemade lemonade for the girls with honey as a sweetner, but that won't do for me as the calories are too high. I can sweeten my drinks with the Stevia I bought and tried. It has a little aftertaste that I am getting used to, but it does sweeten quite well. I have been having it in my coffee and drinking the tea with nothing added thus far. I have been drinking more plain water, but will be changing that as soon as I go buy another pitcher.

Two days ago I went for a much needed massage and was given a glass of water to drink. It was SO GOOD. I asked what was in it, and was told it was infused with lemon and orange. It was SO delicious and sweet! I guess it depends on the fruit you use, but I am going to start to make spa water for myself at home. I need to buy another pitcher for this and will be trying the lemon/orange combo myself since that is the best fruit infused water I have ever tried! I am not a fan of watermelon and never really appreciated cucumber or herb infused water. This citrus was delicious, however, and I am looking forward to having it on hand.

So the moral of the story is that change can be hard but we don't know what we are capable of until we try. We all know this, but taking the first step can be hard and intimidating. Making all the right changes at once is too hard and sometimes sets us up for failure, but taking baby steps makes it slightly more doable. We can improve ourselves at any age, with a little bit of effort, and some improvising and good old fashioned problem solving. You find alternatives and find new ways to treat yourself.

For me, this sweetener piece of the puzzle was one that I ignored and tried to avoid for a long time. I have been putting so many other healthy habits into my daily routine and mastering them one at a time, so this change was just the next in a long list of changes I have been making. Had I tried to start exercising, cut back on portions, avoid sweets AND artificial sweeteners, avoid processed foods, become a vegetarian (mostly), and switch to organics (while bringing my kids along for this ride at the same time), it very well may have proved to be too much at once.

The changes have been gradual and many of them are second nature now. I cannot imagine life without these changes in place and know that I am better for them. There are more yet to make, but if I keep putting one foot in front of the other, and not punishing myself for moments of weakness, it is just a matter of time before I am happier and healthier for it!

Beginning a new chapter...and options

I haven't taken the time to discuss a recent decision that I have made that will mean a new chapter in my life, but today is the day!

Starting on the 16th of July, I will be starting a year long certificate program through The Institute of Integrative Nutrition (INN). I couldn't be more excited about what the future may hold for me.

The most exciting part is that my journey will continue. For about two years I have been on a quest for knowledge regarding health and wellness. I have been trying to better myself and be a better mother to my children and wife to my husband. Learning on your own can be lonely, slow going, and frustrating. I look forward to becoming a part of a learning community that will speed up the process of acquiring knowledge for me.

This is a big turn for me in many ways since I have been teaching college courses for about 15 years now. TIME FLIES! I love teaching and I do think I will do that forever, but what I teach I think will change or become less limited. How did this change of course happen? FAST!

I have been feeling off for some time now. For over a year that I can recall, I have been feeling tired and unhappy to some degree. I have been noticing differences in the students I teach and enjoying my work less and less. I am good at what I do and I do have highlights and good days, but they are less frequent than they used to be. I have been wondering where life would take me, and open to change, but very unsure of which way I would end up being pulled.

I have read books and watched documentaries over the past two years during my search for more knowledge regarding health and have felt passionate about what I am learning. I have tried to become healthier and more active and feel good about what I am trying to live and learn. I knew this was something I cared about but knew I probably would never want to be a personal trainer. I often thought, "Someone needs to teach classes on this stuff!" There was so much to learn but it is all spread around from many sources and sifting through it all takes a lot of time and dedication. I also have felt someone needs to bring all this information to young people who can benefit from it the most.

Then there was an unexpected development.

A few weeks ago, after watching an installment of HBO's Weight of a Nation (on demand), I noticed the various people speaking who are playing a role in trying to make changes in our communities. I wondered what I could do to help and to teach people. I thought about how much I care about these issues and how much I want to contribute to finding solutions to the problems we are facing with America's declining health.


The next morning, I googled "health coach" and to my surprise, there were a number of results! I started a two-day research-a-thon, learning more about what this title meant and reading about what they do and where people were trained. I read about what was studied and looked at programs. I found there were nutritionists, holistic health practitioners and many others who were contributing to helping people to learn more about treating themselves well. There were people dedicating their lives to helping people help themselves. They helped them overcome illness, fight disease, lose weight, improve their quality of life, reverse diagnoses, and helped them feel better.

People who studied in these areas went into many different fields, actually. Some continued their educations and some did go on to be health coaches. I went to websites to see what people are doing now. Some are food company owners, authors, teachers, or in other areas where they are spreading "the word" (of health and wellness). The options seem to be many. Then were were some people who just learned for the love of knowledge and to better themselves.

I don't know which of these paths I will eventually follow, but my guess is that my love of teaching will somehow be paired with this new found passion for health. I will find a way to teach what I am learning and living. I think it is a natural fit with the journey I have been on with Weight Watchers, too. I have learned a lot and want to share so much with others. I am hopeful that my path will become apparent in the next year while I am learning at INN.

So in a couple of weeks I start again as a student. It will be interesting, juggling the kiddos out for summer, my teaching, and finding time to read and do what I need to for classes, but it will be worthwhile. With any luck, this all ends with me in a new career, happy and successful. That is the best case scenario. The worst case scenario would be that I learn a whole lot more and am enriched and able to serve my family better with what I learn.

How's that for a win-win? :)

Life slows down...for now!

Wow.

It has been a crazy busy few weeks! Thank goodness it has all come to an end. :) I took a short term position that ended last week and this weekend we had a little get-away trip and Father's Day, so we were VERY busy. Let's catch up quickly.

The temporary job was teaching kids 14 to 17 years old to prepare them for an exam in writing/sentence skills. That took it OUT of me. Each day I came home to so much grading because I was meeting with four classes each day. That is more grading that I am used to doing since I am used to fewer classes that are longer. These classes were shorter, but between 20 and 25 students a piece. My wrists paid for all the grading by hand AND email messages I had to send out nightly. That left little time (or ability) to blog. :)

Then this weekend we had a short (one night) get away to Lakeway Resort and Spa. What a fun time! Family and fun and LOTS of pool time. The kids had so much fun and Josh and I are a little bit burned, but all in all, it was well worth it. We slathered the girls in sun screen so they are good but both got such pretty tans. They tan gorgeously!

It was a big weekend for Elena as she learned to hold her breath under water and she went down the big water slide. LOVED seeing her so adventurous. I am glad because now I know she's ready for swim lessons. We are going to put them both in lessons in July.

This weekend also got me stoked about our upcoming Vegas trip. Josh has been once before but I have never been and the girls haven't either. I'm doing some online research now to find a hotel.



During the past two weeks, eating on plan and fitting in exercise has been extremely challenging, but I think I did pretty well. I didn't do as well as I would have liked to have done, but well enough to lose some more weight and to bring me VERY close to a goal. I am hoping in the next week or so I will break through this huge barrier. Serious, big, and important goal. I am excited that I am THIS close. Once I do meet that goal, I will be shouting it from the mountaintops (virtual ones, of course)!

NOTE: It isn't an end point, but a destination I have wanted to visit for a LONG time. :)

This week I want to get into a better schedule, hitting the gym a little more regularly and focusing more on resistance training. I have started to work that into my routine, but not regularly yet. I hope to change that.