Friday, 30 March 2012 - 12:11 pm
Hi. My name is Lecinda and it has been four hours since I last consumed sugar. I have an addiction to sugar. I am addicted to dead food.
I am having a series of food epiphanies. I mentioned in my last post that I have recently been struggling with my energy levels {and my weight}. I’ve been consistently late to work every day for about four weeks now, and it’s getting out of control.
I can’t put my finger on when specifically, but this week I decided enough is enough. This is crap. I am dull. My hair is limp. My skin is oily. I am tired. I have no energy. I am overweight. I am unhealthy. I am miserable about my body. I’ve stopped exercising, I’ve stopped taking vitamins, I’ve stopped cooking…I stopped taking care of my body and it has been fighting the fight all on its own for too long now and it’s starting to give up.
Life works in funny ways and I can’t help but see things as signs, so when the lovely Becky at Seductive Mania shared this post today about the video Hungry for Change which is currently being offered for free on their website, I chuckled and thought I’d give it a go. Basically, they are trying to sell juicing as a new diet. I’m not sure if I buy it, but I want to give it a go. Regardless of whether juicing is it for me or not, it made me sit up, think and realise I need to do something about me and my choices about food. I need to eat healthier, which means less sugar and more nutrients. Way more nutrients.
It’s not about calories or losing weight, it’s about being fit and healthy. For life. I want to glow! I want to shine! I want my hair to be healthy! I want to enjoy exercising!! I want my fingernails to be strong! I want my eyes to sparkle! I want to feel good! I want to look healthy!
My body is crying HELP.
I am going to listen.
I took so many things from this video. I learned that I need to stop thinking ‘I want to have this but I CAN’T’ to ‘I CAN have this but I don’t WANT it.’ The mental mind shift I had from CAN’T to DON’T WANT was unreal.
I DON’T WANT IT ANYMORE.
Like Joe Cross said in the video, my biggest problem is that I don’t want to change what I put in my mouth. That’s crap. How do I expect to be all of the things I want to be if I don’t make that change, take that step towards Mother Nature, towards healthy food and away from scientifically engineered, processed, dead food.
I love sugar.
It’s going to be so hard.
Something they said in the documentary is that processed, refined white sugar is the cocaine of the food industry. I wouldn’t go that extreme, but I think it’s slightly similar in that it’s a substance manufactured and processed on a large scale, and is scientifically proven to be addictive.
Now I learned about a year ago that even if something says fat-free, you need to check the ingredients label and the breakdown of energy/fat/sugar. So many people don’t know is that fat-free products are loaded with sugar, and that unused sugar is pretty much immediately converted into fat, which is then stored in your body in all it’s favourite hidey-holes, like your thighs, bum, boobs, stomach, arms, face, neck…basically anywhere.
Sugar only ever makes me happy for a short time, before inducing cravings, making me feel like crap and adding to my weight pile. Sugar only ever causes a chain reaction of eating more sugar. I am basically starving myself to death on dead food, because I am not getting to nutrients my body needs to repair itself, to deal toxins, to help maintain a healthy body weight, to ensure I have a healthy immune system. I am not eating food, I am eating “food-like products”.
Dieting is also not the way for me. I’ve always known that dieting is a short-term solution and that I need to make lifestyle changes but I have not wanted to change what I eat. What I wasn’t thinking of, is the millenia that our bodies have had to adapt to hunter-gatherer methods. Eat to gain weight to survive the famine that was surely coming. Now we are eating, but there are no famines. Instead, we are placing our bodies through “induced” famines {read: dieting} which is telling our bodies that when we stop we need to put on more weight to survive the next famine.
I have been receiving Bowen Therapy/Massage for a few years now due to a really bad back (I have a small birth defect, so I can legitimately say that at the tender age of 24), and now I have moved to Melbourne my Bowen Practitioner is also a Naturopath, who is trying to get me to come in for a Naturopath consult, and have some urine and saliva tests done to look at my hormones, acidity, pH etc to make sure I’m eating what I need to. That was another huge mind shift, because all this time I have been so confused and struggling with food and weight, not realising that I was trying to manage my body without working with it. I’m seriously considering having it done, just so I can know that I am doing what my body actually needs, instead of what I think it needs.
Things I am going to try
- Avocados
- Juicing
- Detoxing, by eating more green food, nuts and vegetables
- Eating more vegetables and fruit
Things to remember
- I can run, but I cannot hide from the fear of changing what I put in my mouth.
- The simpler I eat, the healthier I become.
- I want to glow. I want to shine. I want to sparkle with life.
- I can have it, but I don’t want it.
- Get more sleep! 7 hours minimum, every night.
- Learn to bake with less sugar.
- EAT MORE NUTRIENTS!
Things to avoid
- Sugar filled products.
- High fructose corn syrup
- Aspartame
I’m always skeptical about those kinds of website that advertise products in that way, but after reading Becky’s post I decided to watch the video anyway and I am so glad that I did.
This week has been particularly difficult because we have had so much birthday cake! Going to need to do a lot of research on sugar-less or less-sugar baking in the future!
People deal with worse every day. I should be able to do this. I didn’t think I was that person who couldn’t control what they eat, but I am, and that’s just not good enough. Time to spring clean my life with some motivation and inspiration.
As I write this I’m dead tired, but I wanted to get this out before I forgot it all when I slept, so now I’m going to hit the Publish button before I chicken out and go and get some zzz’s.
Happy Weekend everyone!
Thursday, 29 March 2012 - 11:52 am
It’s been a big couple of weeks here in Camp BB. I’ve been struggling with my energy levels (by not sleeping or eating properly), which has seriously upturned any work/life/play balance I had going on. I feel sluggish, tired, moody and not motivated or inspired at
all. Anyway, here are the results from Week 3 and 1/2 from FatMumSlim’s Photo Challenge
The last ten days have been full of greeting new friends and welcoming them to Melbourne…
…knitting new beanies…re-discovering cool street art…looking forward to the new April Photo A Day challenge…buying ski gear {and saving ridiculous amounts of money!}
I’m on a mission to get my body back into shape, get some more sleep every night and start exercising. Stay tuned! Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!
Saturday, 24 March 2012 - 3:02 am
I hope you this helps you find some new awesome bloggy-friends!
Enjoying the Small Things
Kelle is by far my favourite blogger. I love checking her blog and see what’s been happening in Kelle’s world every time she updates. Kelle has two beautiful daughters, and the love she has for them just oozes out of every photo and every blog post. She has this amazing and unique ability to make me feel like I am part of her family, and I leave her blog feeling all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Her writing is open, honest, inspirational, warm and funny and she takes beautiful photos of her girls. She lives life to the fullest, and inspires me to do so every day. I am addicted to this blog, and I can only hope I will be as awesome a mum to my children as Kelle is to her girls.
Edenland
Eden is a crazy-awesome, amazing and courageous fellow Aussie chick, and she’s funny, and so unbelievably honest. I always love reading her posts, whether they are dark and gloomy or sarcastic and witty or happy or crazy. She went to Africa for World Vision, and I get the feeling that it seriously changed her life in ways I’m not even sure she knows yet. Eden is pretty freaking awesome.
Raising Master Max
Cherie is Max’s mummy, another fellow Aussie, a beautiful girl, inside and out. The love she has for her son shines through every word and photo, and she is incredibly sweet. Go and say hi!
Aloha to Angie on Maui! Angie and her husband quit the rat-race a few years ago to move to Hawaii. I look forward to her posts because they usually always calm me down, and remind me to take a breath and slow down. Both her and Kelle inspire me to make more time to just jump in the car and watch a sunset, to appreciate life in all it’s glory. I will always be grateful to them both for introducing this idea to me and for showing how fun and easy it is.
Fat Mum Slim a.k.a Chantelle, lives in Sydney, Australia and I really do love her blog. She created the Photo A Day Challenges I’ve been playing along with this year, and it has been so much fun building a community of friends and fellow bloggers who are also playing along. I love her photos, and the way she styles them on her blog, it’s so colourful, bright and happy!
Christina is the blogger behind Hair Romance, and was probably the first real blog that I followed. The great loves of her life (her hair and her husband) all happened on the one street in Sydney, Australia and I am so glad she fell in love with her beautiful curly hair! I found Hair Romance whenI was struggling with my curly hair, how to style it and what products to use and she is now my go-to for all hair inspiration. She has some great tutorials for both straight and curly haired girls, as well as an awesome 30 Days of Twist and Pin e-book {which I constantly refer to!} and I definitely recommend checking her out
Seductive Mania
Becky is my buddy-blogger. We are both newbies and still finding our feet but she lives with her boyfriend, is a Canadian college student, who so far has had some pretty killer ideas (like her ’9 things I love today’ posts). I think she has some big exams on at the moment but I’m looking forward to her next post and seeing how her 31×31 remix is going!
I Believe in Unicorns
I only just found Ashley at I Believe in Unicorns and she is possibly the cutest thing EVER. I’ve been reading her blog all morning, and I just can’t get enough!
Tim Coulson Photography and Our House This Hill
I have seen the name Tim Coulson and his photos dropped around on a few blogs I follow every now and then, but I never really thought to check him out any further. How silly I was!! I have literally only just found his blog and I am in love. I think I have found my future wedding photographer, I just can’t stop browsing through his profile. Love. He’s a fellow Aussie and from what I have read a really decent, considerate guy. He means what he says when he is a photographer of people. I have been exploring his blog for hours now and I just can’t get enough!
Tim also has been writing a lot about his wife, Kesh and their bun in the oven. I went and checked out her blog Our House This Hill, and I think it is totally awesome seeing and reading about their relationship from both sides. I love both of them and I can tell how much they love and adore each other, which always gives me a case of the warm and fuzzies
Another amazing blog I have found today!! She’s my age but ten times cooler than I am. I instantly fell in love with the bright colours, and pure happiness on this blog. I love that she turned a patch of weeds into a flower garden to brighten her neighbours day, that she dances all day in Central Park for the amusement of others, creates random interactive street art that makes me laugh so hard, buys dollhouses for storage, and is always smiling. I’ve been reading her blog and she makes me laugh out loud in nearly every post. Classic act and I can’t wait to read more about her adventures in New York.
Sweet and Wild
Jackie at Sweet and Wild is exactly that, sweet and wild! She is super lovely and her blog posts are always happy, bouncy and full of love and sunshine. I love it when my reader says she has posted something new! Jackie has also just opened up an etsy shop - sweet and wild stationary.
{these are my favourite photos borrowed directly from each person’s blog, I hope you don’t mind me sharing! If any of the above bloggers ever finds their way to my tiny blog and want me to remove, just let me know
Wednesday, 21 March 2012 - 11:58 am
I think the thing that I am most grateful for in my life is love.
You + Me = Us.
Dan fire-twirling. This was a complete accident, but one of my all-time favourite photos!
We fell in love so quickly and have stayed there ever since.I have believed in love and have been looking for my Prince Charming my whole life, even when I was a little girl. Growing up, I never thought I would be so lucky to find someone as wonderful as Dan, someone who is so kind, friendly, warm, loving, strong and beautiful that he takes my breath away.
I felt like I had known him my whole life, when we had only just started getting to know each other.
I am grateful that he accepts me for who I am, and loves me for it.
I am grateful for the way he teaches me every day how to love and be loved in return and reminds me that together, our world is whatever we make it.
“Sometimes your nearness takes my breath away; and all the things I want to say can find no voice. Then, in silence, I can only hope my eyes will speak my heart.” Robert Sexton
I am grateful for the way he smiles at life {and at me}. He makes me so ridiculously happy that sometimes I just feel like I will burst!
I am grateful I can trust him to always be there for me, whenever I need him.
I am grateful that we can talk to each other. For hours.
I am grateful that we can sit in silence together. For hours.
I am grateful for the way his hugs and kisses are like magic for my heart. They never fail to remind me how lucky I am to be with him.
I am grateful that he continues to make me laugh every single day, and that we are not afraid to be silly together.
I am grateful that we never take each other for granted and always take time to spend with each other.
I am grateful that he tells me he loves me every day, not just through words but by his actions as well.
I am grateful for never going to sleep angry, for his patience in talking to me and calming me down when I am being moody/irrational/emotional.
I will never be able to put into words how much I love you. You are a beautiful person! Thank you for four amazing years and I am so excited for the rest of our adventures to come xxxx
