Choices

For me making the choice to take care of myself first hasn't been easy. I guess I'm a people pleaser. I needed to do my major shopping. I had a limited budget. My family hadn't seen me since December. I go home to visit and have little left to buy groceries. Though I missed my family it was more for them than for me.
Choices. I choose a trip home instead of taking care of me. I'm determined to change my life. Making better choices isn't always easy, but that's the only way things will change. You have to do something different to get different results.

Keeping It Real

So I have been having a hard time lately making changes to my diet. My boyfriend and I live together and he refuses to change his eating and doesn't encourage me. (I know what your thinking. lol) He cooks for me often and has offered to prepare the foods "healthier" for me. His idea of healthy is not what I feel is best. I still have yet to do my major shopping to stock my fridge of better foods. I plan to do this starting tommorw. I am also considering green smoothies to make breakfast easier. I saw a pin on Pinterest on making smoothies and freezing them. I thought this was awesome because my major problem is food spoiling. I seriously need to cook everything once a week to freeze and seperate to eat through the week. I've found a few post on how to start your grocery shopping. I think it depends on your personality, budget, and whats important to you on how you want to do it. The most important thing is to buy healthier foods regardless of how you buy it. You know what you can and cannot do, but I say as long as it's not processed you are off to a better start. How to shop paleo links Whole 9 Life (The method I plan to use) Balanced Bites If I find more I will add them. Here is a link to starting low carb if you are not ready to go paleo. Livin' LaVida Low Carb

Quick Meal Ideas - Mason Jar Meals

So I was looking through Apartment Therapy (my fave site) and saw a post on making mason jar meals. They are cute and earth friendly because the jars can be reused and won't stain like plastic. If jars are not convient for you you could always use what you have, but I thought it was a cute idea. One of the comments was from a user who said they was paleo. After looking at their site they cook various meals and not just paleo, but whether you eat paleo or just making healthier choices I think the recipies look good. I'm going to try one or two out and post my results in a few days. Here is the link for the other site Big Red Kitchen that has some great recipies to choose from. Let me know if you try any out and how it works for you.

Why Paleo?

Why paleo? Well it started out of curiousity and frustration. Not that I have tried every diet out there, but enough that I know they aren't working for me. At least not anymore and not long term. I was frustrated with counting calories and all the tracking. I feel that is not how people should be living. I shouldn't have to spend all day writing down my foods for the rest of my life. I don't want to do it. Well my place of employment offered a free seminar from Nutrition Weight and Wellness. It was so eye opening. The speaker broke it down and explained how our bodies react to certian foods, what we should eat, and what not to eat. I was excited. It made sense and seemed easy enough to do, but how do I start? I then found their podcast Dishing Up Nutrition. Fantastic! More help and information. I wrote down everything that could help get me started. I even started drinking only water and (because water only for me is kinda difficult) almond milk. I plan to eventually cut out the milk too. I also switched to butter. Also where I could I made better food choices. No bread, no corn, no rice, nothing fried and cooked in vegitable oil, more eggs, beef, fish, and vegitables. I changed what I could. It wasn't perfect and in 2 weeks I lost 5lbs. That may not happen for everyone, but it was encouraging. I was even more exciting. So I started looking for other podcast to listen to. I then found Livin' LaVida Low-Carb with Jimmy Moore. It was fantastic. He had so many guest from various backgrounds to share experiences and facts on eating low carb/paleo. From there I found other blogs and podcast to EDUCATE myself. That is the key to weightloss or better health. Education. Once you know what choices to make and what to buy it becomes second nature and you start doing it. I find myself going ok I'm going to this place I can eat this, this, and that and I'll be ok in a pinch. At the grocery store that same thing. You will naturally begin to make better choices. Everything is a choice. So listening to one of Jimmy's podcast he was speaking with Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon(Listen Here). In a few words the conversation was about finding a health role model. After listen to a few of Jimmy's podcast I started looking for African American's who eat the same way. I didn't find any with blogs or podcast. I then reached out to Jimmy to see if he knew any. He only knew of one, but that's a start and encouraged me to start a blog. I had been thinking about it and after finding there was possibly only one blogger I decided to do it. So I hope that answered the question. Probably not, but that's why I am trying paleo. I've tried many other diets I figured why not try paleo. It is the opposite of what we are typically are told to eat, but if typical makes me fat then why not try the opposite. If you find another African American who is paleo please share. Please also follow Michelle's Low Carb Lifestyle

Welcome

Well I guess many years has lead me to where I am now, but I will keep it as simple as possible. I don't want to bore you. I'm hear because I needed to change my life. I am over 100lbs overweight. In the last year I was put on high blood pressure pills and my cholesterol is borderline. There is family history of heart disease and diabeties. I am only 32 years old. I spent my 20's fat and unhappy and I don't want my 30's to continue on that path. I'm young and I should be enjoying life and not worried about my health. I move 2000 miles away from home because of work and I needed to learn how to take care of myself. My Mom passed away at the age of 69 in 2010. The last 6 months of her life I was her full-time caregiver while working full-time. Though I had some help from my siblings it was still very stressful. While caring for her I neglected myself even more. So after she passed I decided to move. I had to get out of there. I've been in my new city for a year and still not caring for myself. I met people who were concerned about hanging out and dating and though I do want to date and one day get married my greatest need right now is being healthy. I didn't do that though. I made the mistake of dating and continued to neglect myself. I can't do that anymore. I thought other people would care for me. That is how I was raised. That's not how it is. I am learning the hard way. If I don't do it for myself no one will. So that is why I am here. I am going to chronicle my journey learning to eat healthy and get healthy. This isn't about losing weight. That will happen naturally from eating foods that are better for me. I am using this blog to share my journey and hopefully encourage other people, women, and especially African Americans to change their eating habits and become healthier.