Oh! Oh! Valentine's Day Is Right Around the Corner!

Yes, Valentine's Day is coming up next! It's our next "special occasion". It's seems like we just celebrated the New Year, my birthday, a family marriage and let's not forget the "Super Bowl"! It's always something; isn't it? It's just another day in our lives that is celebrated or centered around food! I'm not trying to be negative; I am simply stating facts. I happen to love food and I adore candy but common sense tells us we have to become accountable at some point or we'll look just like our grabby Octopus with no control over our eating habits. Our eating habits will control us if we allow them to and if we "choose" to not become accountable.

When I had my "Aha! Moment" a couple of years ago, I soon thereafter began to set up my healthy eating pattern in order to lose weight. I knew it couldn't be a "diet", so I didn't go out looking for the latest or greatest "diet". I knew it couldn't be a pill; it had to be a transformation, a way of life. It had to be "profound", I love that word! I also instinctively knew I had to create my own healthy way of eating.

It was then that I began to immediately notice all of the "special occasions" where high fat or sugary food items came into my life. I was amazed! I had to put my foot down and not allow these things into my home or at the very least keep them out of sight while I was setting up my healthy pattern of eating. Let me tell you, it was not an easy thing to do but boy, was it enlightening.

Before, I looked just like that grabby Octopus! If food was in sight, you had better get out of my way and clear a path. I was like a football player going in for the recovery of a fumble at the Super Bowl!

Heck, my kids used to say things like, "If you want some of the bread pudding Mom just made, you better get it now before she wolfs it down!" I laugh, because my children have a warped sense of humor and I don't know where they get it from! Wolfs it down is something my eldest daughter made up and she still jokes about it even now after I've lost the weight and become fit. I have to admit, it is quite funny but sadly most of all it was factual. I did "wolf down" pretty much anything I wanted for a period of 18 years! I wolfed down the peanut butter fudge that I said I made for my children as a treat but I ate half the plate before they had arrived home from school. I wolfed down this special ice cream that I love whenever it was in the house. I can go on and on, I was pretty good at wolfing things down, let me tell you!

Yes, I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. That's why it was at first difficult for me to attempt to set up a healthy eating pattern. I had to work against the grain in order to break the cycle of eating that had been a part of my life for almost two decades! As I state in our book "Tame Your Inner Octopus", I can best compare to it to taking away a bottle from a baby. For many people, food represents "comfort". We reach for it, all throughout the day, without a thought, out of habit and it soothes us temporarily. Going over our proper intake for the day on a continual basis also makes us pile on extra fat and this makes us overweight or obese and that's far from being comforting or soothing if you stop and think about it.

It didn't take me long to realize how many "special occasions" or reasons I had for eating things I shouldn't have been eating. I was shocked to tell you the truth because I had never realized how many obstacles are in the path of trying to eat in a proper manner. It's no wonder why approximately 68% of our nation is overweight or obese. It's the reason why so many people can't stick to a diet or the proper way of eating. There are too many "special occasions" right around the corner!

Let's take a time out, no pun intended and realize that the average woman is supposed to ingest around 1,800 calories each day while exercising on an almost daily basis. We can't afford to go "off track" on every single occasion that high fat foods or celebrations come into our lives. We have to be choosy; we must be accountable and we have to aim to eat within that 1,800 count each day. If we're trying to lose weight we need to be in the area of 1,400 calories and no lower than 1,200 as a woman.

The healthy pattern of eating that I set up close to two years ago has been my salvation. It's my day to day game plan. It's the healthy eating pattern that I revert to after eating "off track" for special occasions in my life.

Right now, when you get a chance, please take the time to get a clear picture of how many times "food" comes into play in your life on a daily basis. It could be an advertisement on TV, in a magazine, or on a billboard. It's downright shocking that so much emphasis is put on food on a daily basis. You too will be amazed if you do this for a week or a month.

This realization was one of my biggest "Aha! Moments".

We simply cannot eat like the grabby Octopus and expect to lose weight or maintain our ideal weight for life.

Have a great day!