Food Revolution

April 2009, I learned I was clinically obese, 100 pounds overweight. I had been a college athlete, a field hockey national team member in my teens, how could this happen? I had let the stress and the demands of having four young children, one with a severe disability and a husband who works in a demanding career overshadow my health. I had let myself go and suddenly I was told by my doctor how serious a problem this was.

I had a choice to make. Do I continue on this path of self destruction and obesity leading me to diabetes, heart disease and cancer and a promise of an early death? Or, do I dig down deep, fight hard to lose weight and get fit?

I Chose the fight. That is when I registered for the Disney 1/2 marathon, joined the most incredible and supportive running team, Team Allears and began to exercise and run.

April 2010, one 1/2 marathon, one full marathon and several 5k's, a 10k and other races later, I went back to see my Doctor for my yearly physical. I felt fit and wonderful, but recognized the little voice on my shoulder that had been nagging at me mile 18 to 26.2 during the Boston Marathon. The voice had been saying in an annoyingly naggy voice similar to the way mothers say, "I told you so". "You are carrying all this extra weight and it is slowing you down because you did not eat properly"

I had worked out frequently the past year, changed my eating habits slightly, but had not lost a significant amount of weight. If I was lighter, I would run faster, it would be easier, I would be healthier. In my mind I thought I had lost around 40 pounds and was slapped in the face when I realized I had only lost 20 pounds.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????

How could this be possible? I run hard 3-4 times a week, I run for hours at a time. My doctor was proud of me and told me not to give up and to keep working, he told me, "You have the exercise part down, now you need to work on the diet. He told me to really think about what I was feeding my body. Keep fighting.

I walked out of the office and starting thinking about what I eat. I usually ate scrambled eggs with cheese and coffee for breakfast, a sandwich of some some sort for lunch, and for dinner takeout, often. I really had not been eating well or making smart choices, I would eat off the kids plates, I would regularly eat chips and salsa, Chinese food at night or pizza with my husband was typical.

On a side note he never gains weight. GRRRRRRRR

Ok focus back to me.

A friend of mine had been telling me about Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution after I had inquired online about what the school lunch Maxi Cheese Stick was all about. I started watching his show and it changed the way I look at food. As a family we have not been eating food, we have been eating processed crap. We have been drinking milk with hormones, we have been eating meat and eggs treated with hormones and antibiotics, we eat too much sugar, too little food.

A few nights later, I attended a presentation given by Juice Plus. A supplement you can take as adults and give to your children. They pick the fruits and vegetables straight from the vine and flash freeze and compound them and put them into gummies for the children and capsules for the adults. When you take them it ensures that you and your children are getting the 7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily that your body requires. It is FDA approved and endorsed by Dr. Sears and countless others.

A few things stuck in my head as I listened to this presentation.

1. I have not only been doing this to myself, I have been feeding my children in an inappropriate way, by serving processed food at home with too much sugar and corn syrup. I though we had been eating healthy since they did not have sugar cereals and pop tarts, but you would not believe what corn syrup is in.

2. This present generation of children have a shorter length life expectancy due to improper nutrition resulting in earlier onset of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

3. The number of Young children being diagnosed with Diabetes under age 10 and obesity by age 12 is alarming.

4. An enormous amount of money is spent every year trying to find ways to cure cancer when in fact the only way to really cure cancer is to work on prevention.

5. I learned that corn syrup is a processed form of sugar that is dangerous to the body and that since the body does not know how to digest it, it stores it as fat. White flour has no nutritional value. Anything with hydrogenated and trans fat is unhealthy.

I decided at that point that I needed to start my own personal food revolution. It is no wonder why I have not lost more weight, I had been exercising, but that is only one small part 80% of weight loss is what you feed your body, your nutrition.

When I decide to do something I usually go hard core, I came back that night determined to make some serious lifestyle changes.