I Just Want to Eat Cake!

It's 9:42 and I am finishing my first cup of iced coffee. Guess what! I want cake, chocolate to be specific. Who doesn't want cake this early in the day?!?!

Once upon a time, I was a sophomore in college and took a nutrition class. One of the few things I remember from that class is our professor talking about the importance to keeping a food log. If we wanted to improve out eating habits, whether to lose/gain weight, we needed to take a long hard look at how we ate. After a few weeks of logging food choices, you a feel for you habits. Another thing we were asked to do is think about why we eat the things we do. Is it thought out? Is it out of convenience? Is it based off of craving? What it is?

Over the past two weeks, I have been keeping a log of what I eat on a daily basis. It's not pretty. To begin with, I don't eat enough. Did you know that not eating enough can be just a damaging to your body as eating too much? I never really put a lot of thought into that until now. Seriously, I hardly eat throughout the day, if at all. I can tell you when I do, I stuff my face. That's not pretty either. I think the worst part is, I have a TON of amazing recipes. I enjoy cooking. Yet, I'm not taking advantage of that.

Yesterday morning, I sat down and made my menu for the week. This week was all my planning. Next week, the boys will help. The boy will have the opportunity to learn how cook more than ramen noodles and mac n cheese over the course of this adventure :) I hope over time, that we establish a sold habit of meal planning and cooking together.

To give you an idea of how badly I've been eating, or not eating, here is the last few days of my log.

 Isn't this ridiculous? As you can see, coffee is the main component of my diet.  This morning, however, I stuck to my meal plan (day 1 woohoo) of oatmeal, a grapefruit, water, and coffee.

Monday morning I will begin with the fitness portion! Everything has to start on a Monday! Didn't you know?!?! I want to create and establish lifelong habits. I don't want a 30 or 90 day program that leaves me hanging at end. I don't want to "finish" and gain all my unhealthy habits back. There are lots of programs out there that work great for people, some of my close friends included. They just aren't for me. It may be that I don't have the motivation to keep up with them. Whatever the case, the advantage to having figured that out is that I have plenty of fitness dvds and protein powder to last a few months. I will be taking what I've learned from some of these programs along with what I learned in my own experiences and research to find a good fit for me. I want to eat right but also be able to enjoy the food that I love, within reason!

Like I said before, this is going to be a long process. Probably an ugly one too ;) I'll be sure to post any amazing recipes that I come across along with cool fitness video that I may like. While I finish me coffee, I'll be dreaming of the chocolate cake I may treat myself to in the next few days.