Seven years isn't really that long...

Seven years in the making my health is finally my number #1 priority, as it should have always been but I guess it's better to figure that out at 41 instead of continuing to gain 10 lbs a year and having a heart attack at 50. My life could have taken a very different path had I not changed the course. I feel I now have a true understanding of what being in good health feels like and it feels amazing! Now all I want to do is to help all of you feel this way. It has taken me 7 years to dump almost every toxin I ingest or put on my body (ok, so I’m not a natural blond so you’ll have to forgive me for that). I am convinced the closer you live to nature the better you feel and the happier you will be. Now if I could just stop throwing away plastic. The steps should be small and almost unconscious. I started with quitting smoking. However, without cigarettes, I needed something and that something was beer. I gained, lost, gained, and lost 40ish pounds over the 5 years after quitting. Beer's fault…not mine. Along the way, I realized that my body felt better by cutting out soda, fast food, boxed food, hormone-laden meat and dairy, sugar and finally alcohol. Most of this was done with great ease and not consciously. Quitting smoking and sugar were the hardest. Had I ever done meth I would compare the addiction to sugar and cigarettes to that, only without the face picking. They are fucking hard to quit. And the excuses on why you can't or won't are endless. Smoking calms my nerves. I have to have a cigarette when I drive or I would wreck my car and die so I might as well smoke. My coffee would NOT taste good without a mouth full of tobacco smoke! 
And sugar is even harder. It is EVERYWHERE! It is in EVERYTHING! And it is a helluva lot more socially acceptable than smoking. You don't even really have to make excuses about why you can't quit sugar because it takes a lot of work to get it out of your life. A lot. And then there is the physical addiction and withdrawals and severe cravings. Can you imagine someone that keeps a jar of cream cheese frosting in his or her nightstand drawer? Me either. The more you use the more you need. Sugar is no longer a flavor enhancer. It is the primary flavor of the American diet. We wake up to a cup of coffee filled with coffeemate, mocha or a milkshake with coffee from Starbucks. And a donut because they are so good and you just can't help yourself. And the you wonder why you are dragging ass and starving at 10 am. It is a viscous cycle and so hard to break. It took me over 2 years. 

To be continued...

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