Healthy Snacks

I've been experimenting with some different healthier snacks.

Made from almonds and brown rice, these are pretty tasty.  I have tried the sea salt and nacho.

I have not tried the sweet potato but I do not like anything sweet potato.  The veggie ones are good but I'm not sure exactly how "healthy" they are

I have tried blueberry and strawberry.  The strawberry ones are a bit too seedy for me but I like the blueberry; also good frozen.  good source of protein and natural sugar.

I've never liked almonds but they are so healthy I bought some cinnamon sugar ones and I do like those but obviously they are covered in sugar so I decided to give these a try.  I couldn't even eat one pack, yuck!  I gave them to Ben and will be sticking to my sugar covered ones.

Clever marketing

I was all gung-ho about being more careful with avoiding high fructose corn syrup.  I wasn't really sure where I got it in my mind that it should be avoided.  But I'm guessing that I noticed some items had labels on the front that said NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP so I would buy that brand just for that reason. (For example, I buy Hunts ketchup instead of Heinz).  Today I went to the store and read labels carefully.  I had to buy Honey maid graham crackers instead of great value.  So I came home and decided to do a simple google search on why I was supposed to be avoiding high fructose corn syrup.  I read 3 or 4 articles and basically discovered that high fructose corn syrup is no worse than sugar.
I guess when they first started using it in foods, people started getting fat.  They were most likely getting fat from eating too much junk food/sugar!
So I guess I don't have to give up my fat free catalina dressing, mayo/miracle whip, great value graham crackers, and spaghetti o's (not that I ever eat those, and my kids rarely do, but we do have some in food storage)

Day 3

3 days in, I slipped up a little bit.  I ate about 3 too many brownie cookies. I was doing so well too. Oh well, Gotta just pick up and keep going.

Goals

I recently read a good book called The Belly Fat Diet.  I liked a lot of the tips and science in it, but the whole diet itself was just too restrictive to me.  As much as I want to, I can't eat broccoli all day and be happy.  I do want to pull some things out of it to try.  I also read a book that basically just lists a whole bunch of foods that will speed up your metabolism.  Now I am never going to like sweet potatoes, but I figure I can focus on the foods from that list that I do like and maybe try some new ones.

So here are my goals:
water!
eat more veggies
eat fruit
be more careful with sugar
watch out for high fructose corn syrup
count my calories with Myfitnesspal
exercise
eat every 3 hours (to keep my blood sugar more even)
eat more of the foods that will help my metabolism (I'm learning to like almonds!)
eat a bit of protein with my fruit

Not impossible right??

Let's talk Food

So here I am today. (up to 165 pounds again) and here are my problems.
I have little self-control. (at least when it comes to food)
I'm an all or nothing kind of person. (if I mess up my diet by eating an extra cookie, I tend to stuff myself with whatever else bad for me since I already messed up that day)
I eat when I get depressed.
I eat when I get bored.  (I eat when I'm not even hungry just for the sake of something to do)
I enjoy food, especially dessert. (maybe I'm one of the last on the planet)
I don't love veggies.
I can be pretty lazy.

So, I have a lot of emotional problems, and they have to do with more than just food, and they don't make a lot of sense.  For instance, I have had friends and heard of several people going on a restrictive diet of no gluten, no sugar, no dairy.  So I went into a depression and ate and ate and ate, which explains my recent weight gain but why??  I really struggle with people refusing to eat a certain food that I like, like it hurts my feelings. For example, soda.  If someone cuts soda completely out of their diet and refuses to drink it, it makes me feel bad.  So Weird!!  It makes me feel stupid for liking it.  And I do like soda.  I don't have a problem with it though, as I don't drink it very often.  Every once in awhile I do crave a mountain dew or diet dr pepper and it's a little bit of a pick-me-up if I drink it.

So, I don't want to go on a super restrictive diet; I still want to enjoy the foods I like (like chocolate and soda). I don't want to avoid sugar at all costs but I do want to be more careful with it and feeding it to my kids.  I want to feel healthier and get my family to appreciate being more healthy without taking away things that we enjoy.  I love to bake cookies, cakes, brownies, muffins for my family!  So I still want to be able to do that occasionally.

So basically, I started this blog as a way to document my journey to see if it works.  To maybe look for new ideas and review products and share recipes.

The history

I decided to start a new blog because I have A LOT to say!  I have had this huge struggle with food lately!
First off, let's start with a little bit of history.
I'm 5'8" so fairly tall.  I've always had eating problems.  In high school I weighed less than 100 pounds (89 to be exact) I didn't obsess about food at all but in my mind I didn't look right; I looked overweight.  I skipped a lot of meals but that was more a social thing than a "concerned about weight" thing.
Before getting pregnant with my 1st child, I was up to a more healthy 145.  Again, I thought I was pretty overweight.  I only gained about 22 pounds the whole pregnancy and was able to lose it all afterward, but of course my body had changed and I looked different.
1 gall bladder surgery and 3 kids later I had a real problem.
Prior to delivery of my 4th child, I was over 200 pounds.  Unfortunately for me, my baby only weighed in at 5lbs 10 oz.  So I had a lot of weight to lose.
Although I had tried many times to eat better, I officially began my weight loss journey almost 4 years ago after the birth of my 4th child.  I weighed in at 185, 5 weeks after she was born.  We moved to a new house and along with it came a new lifestyle.  First of all, we had stairs, so I was now running up and down the stairs all day.  Secondly, we moved into the boonies with only one car that my husband needed to commute to work with.  I had to get my kids to school witch was a little over a mile away.  So I was suddenly walking over 4 miles a day to get them to school.  This, along with nursing a baby (burning all those calories) is how I was able to lose 37 pounds!  I got as far down as 148 and kinda got stuck for awhile.  With the cost of moving into our first home, we also didn't eat out as much, but other than that I didn't change my eating habits enough.