Progress

It's been well over a month since I wrote this post about my body and how I didn't like it anymore.

As far as "living French" goes, well...

I can't say I've followed every single idea the book suggests.

After all, I'm not in France. There are so many things she talks about that would only be possible if you were living there or in a very large city in the US. I don't live either of those places, so unfortunately I don't have the huge variety of fresh produce available to me at all times. It is much better in the spring and summer and I've been working hard to try and get a new variety of fruits and veggies into our diets.

I have always been good about making sure when I make a meal I get the vegetables in there too. If it were up to Andy he would only eat meat, potatoes, corn and cheese. The man loves cheese more any anyone I've ever known and he eats a lot of it. So it's up to me to make sure his digestive system doesn't revolt and I've spent the better part of our nearly four year marriage tying to pump fruits and vegetables and beans into him to try and balance everything out.

So not much has changed there except that I'm trying to branch out from the comfortable norm we've been in. We find a favorite veggie and we stick to it for way too long. Now when I go to the grocery store I try to buy at least one new thing. Lately I've been trying to talk Andy into brussel sprouts. Apparently he had a bad experience in daycare when he was little and he hasn't touched them since. If you  have a recipe that will knock his socks off (or just get him to put one in his mouth) I'd be much obliged.

I do still bake. Not nearly as much as I had been. I stopped for a long time, and broke down this last week. Baking is something I enjoy so much. I missed spending time in the kitchen making things that looks so pretty and taste so good. Sure I cook dinner, but I don't get the same kind of high with that as I do with baking. It's a stress reliever for me, so I can't just cut it out of my life entirely. Also, I don't believe in low fat dessert, so if you came here looking for recipes I'm afraid you're in the wrong place. I work hard exercising and eating a certain way to make myself healthier and if I want to indulge myself with a full fat chocolate pecan pie from time to time then that's exactly what I'm going to do. I don't believe in changing who you are in order to change how you look. 

But I do love fruit. That's another thing I've been encouraging Andy to eat more of. I've always loved fruit, and all I have to do is keep some in the kitchen and I'm guaranteed to eat it. Andy isn't quite as enthusiastic, but if it's the difference between eating a full dinner and only eating part of one he'll eat the fruit. As the best fruit months are upon us I've been offering a fruit more and more in place of a vegetable for our meals. In fact, we're grilling chicken tonight and some grilled pineapple kabobs sound mighty good right about now.

Also, when I've been exercising consistently I crave the water and acid that so many fruits offer.

Which brings me to my next point: People, I'm living proof that you don't need a gym membership to get in shape and lose weight.

I've been running and I also started the 30 day shred at the beginning of May.

Running is something I was doing before. I had just gotten out of the habit with the onset of winter. I'm back up to where I was when I quit last year. It feels good to be running again. I enjoy doing it alone and though some days I feel like I'd rather die than take another step, the end of the workout is always so gratifying.

The shred is something that I had heard a lot about and one day when Andy and I were in town I found it for only $9 so I conned him into buying it and doing it with me. He did the first two days and then quit. I think he assumed I would do the same so it made me feel pretty good today when he told me he was proud of me for sticking with it.

We both notice a change in my body. He's started making comments about how my waist is smaller and how he can see some definition in my arms that wasn't there before. It's one thing to notice it yourself, but it's so much better when other people start to notice all the hard work you've put in, especially your husband.

I still don't own a scale and have no intention of buying one. So I can't tell you how much weight I've lost. I can see it and feel it in how my clothes fit. Every day I feel stronger and I have so much more energy. All those things together is worth it. I feel like people put too much emphasis on the number, so I'm just cutting that out of the equation.

I do have a goal though. Andy's grandmother's birthday is in the middle of June. She will be 90 years old and we're having a party. I have an outfit picked out. The shirt and shoes are new, but the pants are some that I've owned for a couple of years. The pants have snap buttons and when I first started this they would pop right back open as soon as I closed them. I tried them on last week and they stay closed now, but only with a tremendous "suck it in" effort on my part. I have a little less than a month to get in those pants. I'll let you know if it happens.