Brace Yourself

Brace yourself for the secret I'm about to divulge.  I have adopted clean eating.
 I didn't mean to...I really didn't.  It started really small and then just kinda took over.  I'm not really sure what was the catalyst.  It may have been the number I saw on the scale at the doctor or that the summer is coming, but whatever the reason it got real and all of a sudden I was craving better foods.

So in March I decided to start walking in the afternoons.  My sweet cousins were looking for something to do so they jumped on my band wagon and we walked 2-3 miles a day.  Then I decided to kinda watch the foods I was buying.  I started buying more fruit and taking it to work with me.  After a week of preparing and packing fruit for work, it kinda morphed into more salads, and more protein.  In addition to fruit, I started drinking a lot of water.  What I began to notice is I started craving my Diet Cokes and Diet Mt. Dew a lot less.

One week I just decided to set three goals: NO carbonated beverages, NO refined white flour, and walk 25 miles in one week.  I succeeded with those three and so as a treat I got a skinny latte from Starbucks and decided I would give up caffeine.  I would only have it as a treat.  I surprisingly didn't have withdrawals at all.

The next week's goals weren't as easy to set.  I decided I would keep a check on my whole wheat bread intake and try and walk 20 miles.  Those goals weren't tough to obtain.
So each week I try and think about new goals.  I really don't have new and different ones I just try and do something to make the week more focused.  One week I decided I would track my food on an app on my phone and I would start Couch to 5k.  I really have never wanted to be a runner.  I am not athletic.  I have enjoyed checking off the sessions each week though.

When I say I've eaten clean for the past six weeks, I have not been as regimented as I'm sure I have needed to be, but it hasn't been tough.
These are my rules:
I don't eat fast food.
I pack my lunch each morning no exceptions.  (In the last two weeks I went to two conferences where breakfast and lunch were provided.  I pulled out my tuna and quinoa and enjoyed my meal while others dined on Oby's, Taylor Grocery, and McAlister's.)
The food I buy in the store is minimally processed.  I am not ready to harvest my own wheat just yet, or make my own sandwich meat so I buy the best I can find from the research I have done.

I have tried and tried to not write this blog post.  I really hate to put myself out here.  I know by admitting I now am accountable to keep this up.