My new dietary endeavor feels about as difficult as hiking a snowy mountain in flip flops.
I’m a horrible eater. I believe in dessert before dinner. I find it difficult to eat vegetables without making the face your 2-year-old makes when you give her broccoli for the first time. And I’m ever-so-slightly addicted to Diet Coke.
My children complain so much about my Diet Coke habit that I no longer keep it in the house. Rather, I stop by a liquor store every day, pick up a can of Diet Coke and slide a dollar to the guy behind the counter. He asks no questions, which is just the way I like it.
“You’ve got a dealer,” my friend Jackie said when I told her about my Diet Coke outings. “Yup,” I said, without feeling the least amount of guilt. Because when it comes to food, I don’t do guilt. Rather, I have the opposite problem: forgiveness.
“I totally deserved that chocolate cake,” I’ll say to myself while scraping the last bit of frosting off my plate. “I deserve another slice, too.”
While I don’t feel guilty about the way I eat, my dietary habits have resulted in me feeling less physically vibrant than I’d like to feel. I’m tired much of the time, and that bothers me because there are so many things I want to do—if only I had the steam. So, in an attempt to regain some energy, I’ve decided to make some dietary changes.
Keeping it simple
I’m not trying a specific diet. I’m not joining a group. I’m not downloading an app. Rather, for the next two weeks, I’m just going to try to make one big change: eating mainly whole foods.
I expect to complain a lot. I’ll try to keep it to myself, but I may not have enough willpower left to stick to my no-complaints intention, so my apologies to my friends and family in advance.
As for exercise, I don’t believe in hard core. I hate going to the gym, and I’m not planning on exercising so much that I hurt myself or am so exhausted that I can’t exercise the next day. I’m pretty much going to continue what I’ve been doing for years–walking five days a week and doing a gentle hatha-style yoga class twice a week. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the different styles of yoga, hatha is essentially one step up from sleeping.
Today is day one. I’ll weigh myself just to get a baseline. And while I’d be delighted to lose five pounds over the next two weeks, I’m only 5’2″, so five pounds in two weeks is a bit of a stretch.
I’d like to say that I’m excited about the next two weeks. But honestly, I’m kinda dreading it. I’m only writing about it because going public may help me follow through with this dietary change.
If any of you would like to join me in this endeavor, or on any self-improvement effort you choose, I’d love to have the company. Please leave comments here–I promise to cheer you on and to listen to your complaints. And I’d appreciate it if any of you threw me some extra love for the next few weeks–I could use the support.
It’s day one. The rest of our lives starts today.
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We often use the epitaph “rest in peace” when referring to those who have died. It’s a lovely thought, and one I think we should extend to the living. What if “live in peace” was what we all wanted for ourselves and for others?
