Lifestyle Changes

I said in my last update post that happened to just be a few hours ago that we had decided to make some lifestyle changes in our household. This was honestly a pretty easy decision for us (okay, me) to come to because I knew where we were was NOT where I wanted us to be long term, but when we were both working full time outside of the house on top of all of the other various life things that had to take place, I just didn't have the time or energy to put in to making a change. When I ended up becoming a housewife, I had the time, energy, and capability to make the changes I felt necessary. This made such a huge difference, that it's hard for me to even put it all into words in this post...seriously. But I will give it a good try so that maybe, just maybe, someone else can get some inspiration from us!

My biggest thing was changing our diets. I had and have very specific plans in mind for how I planned to feed my family, including my future children and the way we were eating was NOT part of that plan. We were going for what was fastest, cheapest, easiest, and not even worrying about the health factor. Why? I have no idea, except I think time and energy was lacking. Plus neither of us was deemed "unhealthy" so we just went along with how we had been through college and didn't worry too much about it. Sure we ate veggies and didn't have meals that consisted solely of french fries and pizza, but we didn't worry about balanced meals, or even particularly healthy meals. We just used common sense to guide our choices.  That had to change at some point though, and I decided the time was now.

This was actually a fairly easy transition for us. Neither of us have a dislike of healthy food, or vegetables, or fruits. We aren't picky eaters and we were both raised to eat generally well. But we had to find a way that worked for us as a couple. One thing that made a big difference was that now I had the time to make a 45 minute meal instead of a 10 minute one, and we were eating earlier. But as I have come along in the process, I have found that I could have still fed us that way if I had been a more careful planner and done my prep work. But, oh well, shoulda, coulda, woulda, right? At least we made the changes now.  (I feel like that is kind of a vague explanation of what we did, but I'm still formulating how to really go in depth on our food choices. So maybe I will just keep it vague and then explain even more in a whole separate post later. Okay? Okay, good.)
Making our food choices work for us was actually quite easy, as I said because of our likes and dislikes, but also because we had realistic expectations of what was going to happen. I knew for a fact we were not going to go gluten free, or vegetarian, or vegan or any of those other "completely cut out X" lifestyles. We just weren't. Neither of us was willing to completely give up what we love because we weren't at a point where we felt it was necessary for our health. We wanted to be able to continue to enjoy our fast paced, 20-something, lifestyle and attend family parties with all the Italians, and not worry too much about what we ate. We wanted to continue to have friends over almost every weekend and feed them things that fit with our plans but weren't so healthy or uncommon that other people were turned off. (Yes, we really do have people over almost every weekend..remind me to write a post on that sometime....) I knew that I was still going to meet my best friend for Starbucks at least once a week, probably twice, if we are being honest, so I was not about to go extremist and change it. *Let me just say, so no one gets their undies in a bunch, that if you made a choice to go anything free, that is great for you! I by no means think that is bad or unintelligent or negative at all, that's between you, your family and your doctor. I am saying what works for us, and none of those work for us, so therefore didn't happen.* So we picked the things we weren't terribly attached to and changed them. Here's a bulleted break down...easier to read that way.

• We started picking turkey instead of beef for things like burgers, lasagna, tacos, you know those items that have a ground meat. We didn't notice or car a difference and were cutting back on red meat. We still eat some beef, but made a leaner choice for the things that we really weren't going to notice a difference in. Also turkey sausage is totally delicious in many things and we grew to love it in our lasagna and pasta.
• We started using quinoa over rice or pasta in many side dish situations. It's really becoming popular for its health benefits and it's really yummy. We really love it's flavor and have found multiple recipes and situations in which we prefer it over rice or other grains. 
• We cut back on caffeine. I am an addict, no doubt and I cut it way way way way way back. It was hard for about a week and now I feel AWESOME without it.
• We cut back on wine. Neither of us were drinkers, but would have wine on weekends occasionally, we pretty much cut it back to almost never. Super easy for us to do, and makes us feel good that we can say we did it :)
• We switched to organic for most things. I was very skeptical, but decided after some research that it was worth it for certain items, and while I may not notice a "difference" in us due to this, I think health wise it was a good choice for us.
• I started reading labels. And holy crap was I amazed. It's crazy how just paying attention can make a huge difference. By doing this I have done a way better job balancing our meals and we have both felt way better health wise.
• We eat less sugar. Again, not that hard, but I stopped buying cookies to pack in work lunches, etc and we just eat a little sweet thing instead. (Like those snackwell cookies or a 100 calorie pack of chocolate covered pretzels. Enough to satisfy without going overboard and it's awesome)

Now on to exercise.  This was really a spot we were not great about. I mean, my job involved some running, walking, etc but it was by no means a work out routine. We started walking together on weekends, and eventually for me this turned into during the week either alone or with a friend, which then morphed into jogging, and into going to the gym. Now I get in some form of exercise at least 5 times per week and feel AMAZING. I ended up losing a dress size and while I'm not 100% where I want to be, realistically I'm in a good place and am happier with that. I am also really happy with the routine we have and the overall benefits it's had not only on our bodies but on our minds. I am so much less stressed, anxious, control freakish, etc because I'm getting fresh air and exercise. It's amazing when I am started to get stressed to just go for a jog or even a walk and get rid of it. Not to mention my bum thanks me for making it a more reasonable size :)

We made a few other changes as well, but I think that is all better in another post. This was already kind of a mental explosion in the form of a blog post, so it's probably better I don't go crazy.

So overall I think the biggest thing I can say as far as words of wisdom if you want to make a lifestyle change in the nutrition/health department is do what REALISTICALLY will work for you. Don't make a change you aren't willing to stick with for a very long time and find ways to make it work within your lifestyle. If you know you like to go out on weekends, find ways to make that work better,like ordering a lighter dish, or keeping it to 1 drink, or keep your weekdays really structured so the splurges aren't as bad. Find exercise that you will actually do. If you don't want to run a marathon, don't make that your goal. Find ways to make it fun and a motivation for you to do it. (Bikini season anyone?) And have REALISTIC expectations of what your body should be. Don't try to force yourself into an unhealthy weight or diet. That is not healthy or okay and will not be good in the long run. And don't be hard on yourself when you have an off week. You WILL get back on track and YOU will reach your goals. :)