Lean In, Drop Off, Get Healthy
Leaning in and dropping off.
One of the things I love about summer is that I have time to do things that are more of a challenge during the school year. I have two big goals this summer (besides have a great time and make the most of every day). One is that I want to declutter my house. Last year with my health issues, things didn’t get done the way they normally do. Then there is the issue of the job becoming overwhelming. Regardless of how my house turned into a pre-quel to Hoarders, suffice to say it needs some decluttering.
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Rocks! |
The other goal I had is to clean up my diet. Don’t get me wrong. I eat a healthy diet overall, but I have some issues I’ve wanted to address. I’ve been dealing with the headache issues for 18 months now and it’s time to start eliminating things from my diet that may be causing issues.
The thing is, I know from experience that I am not the kind of person who can take my life and completely turn it upside down and inside out in one fell swoop. I am a super Type-A personality and that means that if I can’t do it “right” then I get frustrated at myself, which makes it harder to make the change stick. This was how I finally lost my weight; by making small sustainable changes that resulted in weight loss and fitness and health gain.
So what I am doing is Leaning In and Dropping Off.
I am leaning into clean eating. My diet is already mostly clean, but I want to clean it up more. In essence, I want to declutter my diet as I declutter my house. Leaning in means that I am making small healthy changes that will result in a clean diet. It won’t be clean tomorrow, or even the next, but I am hoping that by 2014 will be a mostly clean diet.
So far leaning in means I have:
- Found recipes that are foods that my husband and I already enjoy, but are “clean”.
- Set up simple meal plans with the plan of using them to guide our days, but not as hard and fast “diets”. For example, in the Journey Nutrition site I can click on “Find Meal Plan” choose the calorie level I’m looking for, and add or remove foods I do not want to see in my plan, and then go through completely vitamin and mineral balanced meals and choose them for my weekly plan. I choose meals that are simple whole foods. If it’s close and has something that I’m not eating I just swap that food out for something I prefer or have on hand.
- I have increased my CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) boxes from Klesick Family Farms to once a week from once every other week so I have fresh, organic, mostly local fruits and vegetables available at all times.
- I have started a blog at www.cleanleaning.com to talk write about my ups and downs because I need places to put my feelings and successes.
- Pre-made foods that I bring into the house have only ingredients I can buy at the store. Eventually I want pre-made foods to drop off.
- I am researching ways to make things myself. I already make my own yogurt and bread, but want to learn if I can reasonably grind my own grain and things like that.
- Artificial sweeteners. I am using Sucanat which is simply dried cane sugar with minimal processing. I also am using Stevia that is minimally processed. I knew this would be a challenge because I like good coffee with sweetener, however I also know that this is not the best for my body.
- Because of that, soda has all but dropped off of my diet. I am drinking coffee, tea, and lots of water instead. I love a nice cold fruit infused water. This has not been a challenge at all.
Words to Live By - As I finish off the cereal in my cupboard, that will drop off. I’ve been eating a lot of steel cut oats with fresh fruits and or natural peanut butter.
- Non-organic foods that I can find in an organic form are going by the wayside.