Don't Stop Believin'!

I think I give up too easily.  Not always, and not on everything.  Mostly just on eating right.
21 day cleanse?
After about 5 days, I realized that H and I can't afford to eat Paleo right now because it's just too expensive to keep lots of meat and veggies in a house where 2 people eat 5-6 times a day.  Our budget was crying when I tried to figure out how to afford good groceries.
Walls like this really bum me out.

So it's now almost 2 weeks before the "big day" and I'm not at my goal weight/body type.  I'm not even close.  I wish I could blame it all on not having money for groceries (Um, have you noticed how processed foods are a million times cheaper than healthy foods? What's up with that?!) but I have to admit that I've been unmotivated for getting my butt to the gym lately.  With H's new night-shift work schedule, I have a hard time sleeping alone in the house, which means I'm exhausted by the time 7am rolls around and end up sleeping in for a couple extra hours instead of putting on my running shoes.  Yes, I'm lazy.  I suck.  Moving on.

Thankfully, even if we can't eat strict Paleo, we can eat following The Abs Diet.  Pre-Paleo, we were eating following TAD and it worked very well for us.  In fact, the only reason we switched to Paleo is because H wanted to eat even cleaner than we already were.  TAD is very similar to Paleo, except it allows for low-fat dairy, whole grains, and other healthy carbs in moderation.  So for the past couple weeks, we've been following TAD more than Paleo.  H first turned me on TAD when we first got together about 4 years ago, and he had already been following TAD for about a year.  He had the books about it, which I read, and it makes sense.

If you want a healthy and in-shape body, you have to put good and healthy things into it.  Bad things = bad body.  Duh.  Seems simple.  I'm not going to lie--it's nice to have whole grains and low-fat dairy again.  Don't get me wrong; we aren't going crazy with it and having oatmeal, bread, potatoes, and cheese at every meal.  But we're not afraid to have a little cheese on our salads, brown rice with our stirfry, or a small bowl of oatmeal in the morning. 

I've also started keeping track of everything I eat.  This is something I haven't done in about 5 years, when I lost a bunch of weight back then.  It really keeps me focused when I see exactly how much I've eaten throughout the day and it makes me second guess eating that handful of pretzels or ordering dinner in instead of making it myself.  Today, I planned out all of my meals and stuck to them.  I almost gave in and hit up a drive through because I've got a bad cold and didn't feel like making anything to eat, but instead I went home and stuck to the plan.  And now, after having stuck to my eating/meal plans all day, I feel so good!!  I"m so proud of myself for not giving up and for staying strong. 

I believe that I can do this.
I believe that by the time I move back to my parents' house in June (after H leaves for OSUT) I will be down to my goal weight.
I believe that once I'm at my parents' house, I won't start eating unhealthy and I won't stop working out.
I believe in myself.
I believe in my goals.