The Nutrition Journey I Chose

I started the Paleo lifestyle with my husband (hereafter referred to as "Cyclist Spouse") in August.

Now, I can tell you a lot about dieting and weight loss.  I can tell you what anyone with an ounce of common sense knows, and what a large number of my generation is experiencing: If you are a high school athlete, and eat a Standard American Diet, and then continue to eat said diet after ceasing to be a high school athlete, you Will Have Health Issues.  My obsessive personality has also lead me to research.  And research.  And research.  And research.  And research.  And eat a snack.  And research. . . .

I've done Weight Watchers, Mediterranean, Gluten Free, Jillian Michaels, and Advocare, all with some amounts of temporary success.  I can honestly say I feel better doing the Paleo lifestyle than I ever did with the rest, but I'm hitting the exact same roadblock with it that I hit with all of the others.  15 pounds down, and my self control is waning.

Anecdote: I stopped by the local cupcake shop to pick up cupcakes ordered for a recent work thing.  I had been given a business check to pay with, but I found out when I got there the shop doesn't accept business checks.  However, "I'll take it this once, Leslie.  You come in all the time, so I know it's clean."

So, there you go.  I won't tell you exactly what happens when I go to the cupcake shop, but I can tell you I have never once left with only one item, and it's rare that I share.

So here I am at a the edge of the same cliff.  I usually fall over, gain the weight back, and start over a couple of years later.  I don't want to do that this time.  I want to walk away from the cliff.

My sister is a Zeal for Life consultant.  She had been harassing ( love you, sis!)  me endlessly to try this stuff.  She posts stuff all the time on Facebook and tags me in it.  (I mean, how do you block your own sister? I can't do that.  She posts embarassing pics of my nephews.)  I am REALLY not a fan of supplements, or anything artificial.  I also try to stay away from soy, dairy, grains (you know, the Paleo thing), and I truly didn't believe it was any different from Advocare, Herbalife, Shakeology, or any of the rest of it. But, I finally gave in and went to a presentation with her.

The testimonies I heard shook me to my core.

People with Rheumatoid Arthritis, like my sister, with no pain.  A woman with blood clots. who was a breath away from having her leg amputated, walking around with no clots.  A woman whose father, before Zeal, was another zombie in the Alzheimer's unit of his nursing home.  After Zeal, he is the most lucid one in the place.  A woman with heart disease, who was in a wheel chair, on oxygen, on the transplant list, who is now doesn't qualify for a transplant, leads water aerobics, and takes low impact Zumba classes.

These people were not on a DVD.  These were real life people from Pampa Freaking Texas.

I couldn't help but think that I had to try this stuff.

The Zeal Wellness fits right in with Paleo.  I was kind of iffy about the Weight Management System, but I figured it wouldn't hurt me to try it for a month.  So here we go.  I'm two days in.  We'll see what happens from here. 

Leslie's Inaugural Post

Welcome.  You can read about the purpose of this blog here.  The general idea, though, is two women are blogging about the journey of taking back our lives.  I'm one of them. We have different reasons why, and different ways of going about it, but we are doing it together, and that's what matters.  You can meet the co-host of this comeback here (insert link).  :)

Here is a little more background on me.  I am a pretty intense person who struggles with anxiety and a tendency to analyze endlessly without acting.  I have been diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia. In other words, I'm excessively sleepy, but there are no obvious reasons why, so they've given up trying. (I'm sleepy enough to almost be narcoleptic, but without enough textbook signs to earn the diagnosis.  No, I've never fallen asleep in the middle of executing a bowling ball).  I've been pregnant 4 times, and I have one child.  (I'll let you do the math.)

The struggle with these things has slowly permeated every area of my life over the last several years.  I struggle to find the energy to care properly for my family and my home.  I struggle to get everything done at work with the level of quality I desire.  I set high expectations for myself and regularly fail to meet them. I'm stuck in a cycle that leaves me exhausted, frustrated, and disappointed.  I rarely leave my house except for work, and even getting off the couch is a battle for me.  I want to be one of those people that gets out of bed and starts her day as soon as she wakes up.  Yet, here I sit, at 10:30 on a Saturday morning, still in my pajamas, watching my child dance to Just Dance Kids instead of dancing with her.  I find excuses not to meet up with the regular girls' nights that are available to me (the standard one being exhaustion.)  I have stopped reading, writing, going to the gym, playing softball, playing volleyball. . . all things I used to enjoy immensely

Over the last year, particularly, I've found myself in and out of some dark places.  But, over the last year, I've also discovered I have all the support I need to get out of these places.  This blog, for me, is about ending the efforts to do it alone and take advantage of the support available to me. 

So, let the journey begin.  If life were easy, we wouldn't have comebacks.