The Dreaded "D" word No More

Happy New Year, everyone!
Looking forward to what 2012 has in store. I am so excited to finally have this blog up and running. It's something I've been wanting to put into place for quite a while now, so this is the perfect time for me to do so!!
It's the time of year when we all reflect on the year that's passed and plan for the year ahead. Every one of us have things we wish to do a little differently so we create our list of resolutions. The number one resolution that I hear from everyone is to loose weight, workout more, and get back on or start a DIET! Yep, the dreaded "D" word.

I remember the days when I tried every diet out there and it didn't take me long to realize I was starving myself, my energy plummeted and I was loosing muscle that I worked hard to build. I lost weight but not the healthy way. Soon, I was OFF my diet and continuing the "yo-yo" cycle that we all get caught up in. No wonder people never reach their goals. There are a million different promises out there, many different paths down "Easy Street" and it's all so confusing. Eat this not that, do this not that and they all contradict one another. It's Easier to just give up thinking this is just too much WORK! I don't have time and I haven't even made it to the gym yet. Yes, a healthy lifestyle is BOTH nutrition and fitness. The two go hand in hand.

The one thing (secret) that I have discovered along this journey to become the healthiest person I can be, and the ONE thing I want to share with you all is really simple. Health isn't obtained through a DIET, it's obtained through a complete LIFESTYLE change ~ Eating Clean and Exercise. Diets have a start/stop~on/off mentality. We are either on a diet or we are not on a diet or we are about to go on a diet which never happens. People think of dieting as deprivation. Most people associate diets with horrible tasting meal replacement shakes or frozen, prepackaged meals that God knows what kind of bad stuff they are made from. No one looks forward to "getting healthy" and who can blame us~life seems so bleak once we think we have to start dieting again. Well, I've got something to tell ya~

When you change your lifestyle...that's it. It becomes a way of life. When we look around at the foods that we CAN eat and not the foods that we CAN'T eat it's amazing at how much we have to choose from. I love, love what I eat and I now understand why people call food beautiful. We tend to make things much more difficult than they have to be because that's what's been driven into our heads about health and fitness. That was until I discovered Clean Eating. Once I figured it out it really became that simple.

I will get into the basics of Clean Eating by Tosca Reno next time. This book really solidified the change I needed to make. I have so much to share with you. I want to pass along to you what I have learned over the years and simplify it a little for ya!! I want you to start looking at your life with a "I CAN and I WILL" attitude.

Food for thought: I want you to really open your minds and start thinking more in terms of Diet vs. Lifestyle change and totally open yourself up to a new approach. I truly believe this is the key to success.