Four(ish) Things (a.k.a. Day 1)

First of all, this has been happening a lot lately and I cannot get enough of it!

Granted it's extremely temporary, and only happens when there is entertainment provided via television.

I swear they smiled right after I took that photo. I think the unexpected flash got their attention, causing the "Whaaa?" look on their faces.

Secondly, I went to see Lady Antebellum (as well as Thompson Square and Darius Rucker) and LOVED it. I can't remember the last time I went to an actual live concert at an actual venue somewhere, but this one was very memorable! Great seats, a great friend, and amazing live music! YAY!

Seriously, our seats were awesome.

Darius Rucker! I didn't realize he was the lead singer from Hootie and the Blowfish until after my friend told me, and then all I could hear when he sang was Hootie. It was pretty cool. He even did one or two numbers from his Hootie days. Sweet!

You totally can't tell, but this stage has Thompson Square, Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum on it. They did an incredible number that included all of them. Wicked awesome!

Thirdly, I am on a mission. Well, I'm attempting to be on a mission. One that involves healthier eating. Let me break it down for ya.

My kids eat dessert every day after lunch AND dinner. This is NOT a great habit to get them into (heard of the childhood obesity epidemic in our country??). Furthermore, their meals involve a good 80-90% processed foods with every meal. I mean, I'll add some fresh fruit and/or raw veggies on the side, but the feature is typically a PB&J, pizza, macaroni & cheese, or chicken nuggets with fries.

Mommy of the Year, yes?

((sigh))

It makes matters worse that mommy is typically partaking of the same fare as the kiddos. Healthy? Notsomuch. I've been trying/wishing/hoping somehow I could get the motivation and commitment to eating healthy, but it's never really stuck. I'm really hoping this ends now.

Long story short, I've had miserable, non-stop stomach pains since Sunday. Like the never-going-away-constant-dull-to-significant-pain in my belly. I couldn't help but attribute it to my body finally saying, "Enough is ENOUGH!"

Let's just say I'm pretty sure my darkest moment came Saturday night when my sweet friend and I had dinner before the Lady A concert. Let's just say we shared a dessert (quite likely large enough to serve a small crowd) that consisted of the following:

• A warm banana, encrusted with potato chips and deep fried (yes, potato chips and yes, deep fried);
• Ice cream;
• Whipped cream;
• Chocolate sauce;
• Caramel sauce;
• Strawberries.

Just imagine.

Let me help. Here's a pic from the restaurant's website...

OMG, right??

I was sitting there thinking, I cannot believe I am literally eating a banana that's been rolled in crushed potato chips and deep fried. Tasty and delicious? Sure. Healthy? Not even close.

Anywho, since I've been feeling miserable for a few days, I figure today I would start anew and try to eat only whole foods. I've been very successful -- for a day. We'll see if it can continue.

I know I didn't eat enough today but it's only because my stomach is still pretty upset. But I ate an apple around 10AM, then for lunch it was a few green grapes and the roast beef from Chase's sandwich (Arby's Junior Roast Beef -- he only eats the bread). I ate another apple around 2PM.

For dinner tonight, I made something that we've had often, but tonight I sort of recreated it using only whole foods. We used to do "taco night" with refried beans, loads of cheese, a ton of chips, taco shells, flour tortillas, etc. Not so whole foody, right?

Tonight I made ground beef, black beans (with onion, garlic and cilantro), lettuce, tomato and a tiny bit of cheese, with a side of grapes.

I used a smaller plate to make the portion size seem a bit larger, and promised myself beforehand that I wouldn't allow seconds. This worked out well today, again, because of my poor, ailing tummy.

Yummy, fresh, whole food! What a concept!

I'm already prepared for my late night snack attack (after the kids go to bed, so after 9PM -- the worst time to eat/gorge on sweet foods). Tonight it will be a banana or a small bowl of plain popcorn.

I plan to try to stick to my whole food focus (not diet), but I'm thinking breakfast and lunch will be much harder for me. Besides eggs, turkey bacon and oatmeal, I don't know what other options I have for breakfast (any ideas?). And lunch used to be whatever was quick and easy to make, but now I'm thinking it will involve some thought/planning. I already know tomorrow's lunch will be leftovers from tonight, which I'm super happy about.

I'm also planning to eliminate the desserts and baked goods (insert GASP! here). I told the kids we'd only have dessert on the weekends (Sat. and Sun.) and only after dinner. I think going from 14 weekly desserts to 2 is a pretty good improvement, right?

I will also be upping my water intake tremendously.

I'm pretty picky about food, so I'm not sure how well I'll do expanding my horizons and trying new foods that I previously wouldn't have ever considered. Take, for example, the fact that earlier tonight I quite literally googled, "how to learn to like eating fish." I figure fish is pretty healthy, but oh how I can't stand fish! Have I ever actually tried fish? No. But I don't like the idea of scales and skin and bones. I think I'll make it my goal to purchase, cook and eat fish ONE TIME before the end of 2012. I'll keep ya posted on that one. ;)

How much of your diet is real food vs. processed food? Have you ever wanted to incorporate healthier foods and habits to benefit yourself and/or your family? I would definitely recommend visiting Lisa Leake's blog 100 Days of Real Food for excellent resources pertaining to eating healthy, whole foods. She's got a ton of meal ideas and recipes that I'm certain I'll be referring to often!

My goal is to eat healthier, feel better, and set a better example for my kids (and husband). I'm hopeful that a little bit of weight loss will accompany these lifestyle changes, but I'm NOT making that my focus right now. The name of the game is getting healthy!

((Please note I didn't mention the evil word "exercise" in this post. That was on purpose. Exercise sucks. More on that later.))

Lastly, I'm taking this entire week off from work. It's wonderful! It's like life-before-my-part-time-job-got-in-the-way FUN! LO was VERY pleased to know I'll be home EVERY night this week -- to be able to eat dinner together as a family, to read her bedtime story(ies), etc. She hates it when I go to work but HURRAY for a whole week of family togetherness like it used to be!

Okay, one last thing... Speaking of time off from work, I was off this past Saturday so hubs and I (okay, mostly hubs) FINALLY put another day of work into cleaning up and organizing our garage. I'm happy to announce that ((...drumroll please...)) we can now officially park BOTH of our cars in the garage! Yay! Happy days!!

Okay, that's it for now. No, really. I'm out.

((sorry for the super-long post))

Now I'm out.