Ever have one of these days???

You know the days… You don’t want to cook, or clean, or go to work… you just want to stay in bed, eat ice cream and not wake up until tomorrow? Have those days been increasing in number? Have you ever stepped back and wondered why you feel this way?

I have a couple of theories. One is the sun. It’s just not as abundant in the winter as it is in the summer here in America… plain and simple. The sun, is a mood lifter. It provides us with Vitamin D. It makes me personally giddy. I live in sunny Southern California, and I even feel the effects of less sun during the day. My house get’s dark earlier, and so does my mood. I have to make sure and drink my coffee in the sun, in the morning so I can feel the warmth, and the essence that it provides.

Less sun also makes us want to eat more. It’s a primal thing. It’s chilly, or freezing if you live anywhere but here, and that makes us want “comfort food”. You know what I’m talking about… Mac N Cheese, Stew, Casseroles filled with butter and cheese… all the stuff that adds width to the hips and sludge in the arteries. Here Theory #2… What if we REWIRED our brains to think of “comfort food” in another way. What if comfort food ACTUALLY helped us FEEL comfortable? Wouldn’t that be a great thing?

Being Italian, my comfort food has always been Spettini orPasta and Meatballs and sauce. Yours would be something else… we all have our favorites. Be truthful with yourselves… after you eat those things… do you feel sluggish? Too full? Weighed down? Spongy? I did. I remember feeling swelled up, like the blueberry girl in Willy Wonka.

In the past 6 months, I’ve learned to fill myself up on loads of tasty, healthful foods, WITHOUT deprivation. I can eat an entire table of food in one sitting, and NOT feel too full or bloated! HOW? I eat the rainbow, and don’t eat processed foods anymore… at all.

Someday, do this on your kitchen table, and report back how you felt… it’s pretty eye opening. Go through your cupboards and take out EVERY SINGLE thing in there that isn’t healthy, isn’t whole, and isn’t good for you or your family, and place them on your kitchen table on one side. Get a calculator and add up all the calories you’d consume after all that food was eaten. Or the fat grams… or whatever… but remember you have to multiply the serving size, so it’s not just what the box says, it’s the calories or fat grams per serving times however many servings in are the box/container. Yeah.. I KNOW!!!

Then go and get the lean meats, veggies, fruits,… all the good stuff, and write down all the fat grams and calories in those things…

See what I’m getting at? What you’ll find… is you GET TO EAT almost an entire TABLE FULL OF GOOD FOOD FOR THE SAME CALORIES AND FAT GRAMS as just one box or bag of the poison stuff! Did you see it?

Those chemicals in the processed food, the partially hydrogenated this or that, the MSG, disodium phosphates, palm kernal oil… ALL THOSE thing affect our hormones, our moods, our ability to think, to even digest food!!! I’M GUILTY!!! I used to eat those foods… all the time!!! The absolute WORSE PART??? I FED THAT GARBAGE TO MY FAMILY…MY KIDS… it’s like I was killing them slowly!!!!

We have stopped the madness. We are all better off for it. My mood swings aren’t as volatile. I sleep better. I FEEL clean and clear in my digestive system… know what I mean?

It’s a great feeling. I wish I had known about how great this feels earlier… it would have saved me a lot of grief, pain and weight gain… but I’m here now… and that’s what important.. I can’t change the past. I choose to look to the future… I hope you do too.

Your health is your most important commodity. Without it, nothing tastes as sweet, feels as good, runs as fast, or is as rewarding. We OWE it to ourselves to be the best we can be… at this moment, and looking only to the future. What’s in the past… is GONE… forget about it. Make changes today and it will benefit you 30 days from now…

We can change our moods and how we feel by what we eat. Isn’t that amazing? It makes perfect sense doesn’t it? Start learning about everything you put into your body, and your families bodies

As Mothers and Fathers, we need to help our kids make the right choices...it’s never too late.