This picture could be taken a number of ways. One could be asking me, “What the hell are you doing? Don’t you know that stuff is crap and is terrible for you?” The other could be wow, she is really enjoying herself and eating what she wants. 

I used to be a food snob. Like really bad. I was super judge-y of how people ate. I couldn’t believe when I would see some people eating fast food or chips or cheetos. It took me some time to quit being a food snob. But now, I am so much more than that. I know that sometimes those foods are what we need to be doing now in order to make progress. I really want people to realize that you can enjoy the foods you love and still lose weight. You really can. I eat a lot of food that people think is bad or not good for me and foods that are not considered “diet” food. I eat cookies, I eat lots of bread. I eat pancakes and waffles. I eat candy sometimes. I also eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and lean meats. I have a really good balance in what I eat. I don’t feel deprived and I rarely feel hungry. 

It has been a little over a year since I started eating macro style, or what I like to call Lifestyle Dieting. This has been such a blessing for me. I was able to lose over 40 pounds and have kept it off.  I have been able to help so many people find their way and navigate their eating and life. This is not a quick fix, but it is the magic pill people are looking for. This is not a magic powder, but it is a magic bullet. If more people would start tracking their food they would realize how much they are overeating. That could start it. That could start the way to weight loss. That could start the way to a healthier life. The awareness of tracking is huge! I don’t say that lightly. It can be life changing. 

So many people say they would never be able to track their food and enter what they eat. I ask those people why not? People complain all the time about being overweight, about not being able to sleep, about being tired all the time and basically about feeling like crap. Well, don’t you think your diet has something to do with that? I mean, seriously, how could it not. 

If you really need to get a handle on your eating, which really means habits and behaviors, try tracking, try coaching. What do you have to lose? The time passes regardless. I say that all the time because it’s true. The time does pass. Pretty soon it’s six months down the road and you wonder why you have gained another 20 pounds. If you had been tracking, you might be saying, I can’t wait to lose another 20 pounds. 

But guess what? It takes some work on your part. It just does. Nothing worth having is easy. You can’t expect to just wing it. You can’t expect to be able to drink and overeat every single weekend and be able to make up for it during the week. You can eat the things you want, just not in the quantities you want. You have to realize that there are consequences to how much we eat. If you’ve read this far, you know there are. We are always looking to make a change. This is a good change to make. This is a good habit to learn. 

Learning about food and portion sizes and actually what foods contain protein, carbs and fats, is a big eye opener for people. So many people just eat. I say eat with purpose. I give you your guideline numbers and you start eating. 

So many people say they can’t. Are you sure it’s because you don’t want to. Because that is what change boils down to. You have to look inside and ask yourself those tough questions. Are you content being where you are or do you want to change? Do you want to get healthy? Do you want to have control of your food? Do you want to have control of your diet?  

This style of eating is a mindset. It’s not about how much junk food or less optimal foods we can stuff down our throats. It’s not about thinking that is a healthier way to live. There is more to living than following restrictive diets. It’s living a life of flexibility. It’s living a life knowing you can enjoy a piece of birthday cake and not feeling that shame, that guilt and that remorse because you ate a piece of cake. That mindset that has been drilled into our heads for years and years. It’s knowing you can do that and then just move right along. It’s enjoying life and living life. This is the beauty of lifestyle dieting. There will ALWAYS be life things that happen. There will always be something that happens. There will always be family things, work things, and just things. That’s called life. Being able to navigate and figure out ways to handle these things is the key to being successful.

Oh My God she fell. Why does that make me laugh? It shouldn’t. She really could have gotten hurt. But she didn’t. 

It was the Euclid house. The brown house on Euclid. I’m not sure how old I was, but my sister, Wendy, was and always will be four years older. 

Wendy always loved animals. We always had a cat. We had a Siamese named Sam. She was a good cat. She had a bajillion batches of kittens. She was a ho apparently. Carousing all night obviously. There were always lots of kittens running around. I seriously think she had 12 batches. 

Wendy thought mice, gerbils and other rodents were cool too. They freaked me the eff out and I wanted no part of them. Gross. She had a white mouse. A lab mouse. I don’t know what she named it. It was small, and white and had beady red eyes. Creepy. 

The Euclid house had a dirt basement. The door to go down there was on the floor of the pantry. Weird. I am guessing it was just a storage/cellar type basement. There were shelves down there. The shelves had empty jars on them. I would have hated to be down there when it was dark. Spiders and bugs and other things I’m sure relished in the environment. 

We were weird kids. We would go down in that cellar and we would open the jars and then smell them. It was kind of game. Weird for sure, entertaining for hours. Sometimes we couldn’t get the lid off the jar, so it went back to its place on the shelf and was never bothered again. We thought this game was hilarious. I also remember playing this game at our great grandparents house in Viborg. Same thing, same outcomes. 

Wendy was a good sister. She was carefree and a rule breaker. She pushed the envelope and the envelope got pushed right back at her. She hated school. She loved life. She loved music, animals and her friends. She loved us too. She looked out for us. She taught me to be responsible and respectful. She taught me to drive a clutch and she introduced me to all kinds of music. Her favorites were Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, but she also liked Simon and Garfunkel and Seals and Crofts. 

Apparently the mouse was kept in the pantry, near food, cause that was a good idea. One night she was going to put her mouse away and stepped into the pantry. I heard some commotion and looked inside. She was at the bottom of the stairs crying and I think her mouse escaped. The door to the cellar had been left open by someone. I swear to God and on a stack of bibles, it was not me!! Seriously, it was not me. 

She didn’t get hurt. That was good. I could not stop laughing. That was bad. I don’t know why it was so funny. I think it’s just one of those things that hits you and you can’t stop laughing. You know the kind of laughing that usually happens when you are in class or church and you are supposed to be quiet, but you can’t stop laughing. You try to hold it in and the person you are laughing with is also trying to hold it in. But you both can’t. You glance to the side out of the corner of you eye and you see the person shaking uncontrollably. Yeah, that kind of laughing. 

To this day, when I think of her falling through the floor to the dirt floor in the cellar I cannot stop laughing. Sorry Wendy, but it really was funny! I don’t know what happened to the mouse either. I think she rescued it.