Just an Author Trying to Get Healthy in a Fast Food World

After one year of following Burton Nutrition (and changing my life) I am down 33.5lbs and lost 4 inches off my waist. At first that didn't seem like a lot to me, but then I realized that I lost and KEPT OFF those pounds for a YEAR. Now that is a big accomplishment for me. I've been on numerous diets. I tried the Curves diet after my son was born. At first it was fine. But the cooking special meals became tedious, and once he started to crawl there wasn't a lot of time. I lost 20lbs then gave up, it got too hard to keep it up. Those 20lbs returned once I added the carbs back into my diet. Same with every other diet. But when I did calorie counting ones, cell phones weren't a thing, so everything was calculated and logged on paper. That got tedious too. Again, I gave up and gained it back. But with Burton Nutrition, they lay a plan out for you, and you are on your own. I WANTED to see what this plan was all about because the "Coach" was my favorite Soap star ...

Down another pound. I am the lowest I have been in maybe 5 years? And it feels damn good. One pound might not sound like a lot, but it really is. It doesn't just mean 1 more pound lost, but it means all the other pounds I've lost have stayed off. It means that I can have a day where I eat something I enjoy, like a cookie (or two) or a cinnamon roll, and not dive off the deep end and eat that way for every single meal. It means that I CAN DO THIS. And that is everything. I was supposed to have my physical earlier this week, but the office had to cancel. Is it weird that I was actually looking forward to it? And I was disappointed when it was cancelled? Is it even weirder that I ENJOY stepping on the doctors office scale now? Instead of fearing how far UP she will be moving the weights I am not eager to see how much lower she has to move them since my last visit. I am proud of my accomplishments, and I should be. I am learning how to live healthy. It's not a diet, and I...

When Burton Nutrition claimed that I needed to drink 6-8 (it may have even been 8-10, but I rarely manage that feat) glasses of water a day, I laughed. Yeah Right... Up till that point I had been lucky to drink 3 glasses daily. But I was drinking coffee with creamer and pop like it was water. (fyi, that doesn't count, apparently. lol) But I was jumping into this thing with both feet, so I bought the special water bottle with the BN logo on it, and that silly logo gave me the motivation daily to not only drink my water, but to stick to the eating plan. And by eating plan, I mean cutting back on the carbs and sugar, and upping the protein. And what I learned about the water was - it helps!! If you drink the 6-8 glasses of water daily, you don't want to snack so much. At least I didn't. (and even Weight Watchers tells you to drink water to curb your appetite...) Once winter hit, I stopped drinking so much water, I don't really know why, I just didn't want it. Mayb...

Why we call it learning a Healthy Lifestyle Because sometimes as adults we need to re-learn how to eat correctly. Just because we eat what we like doesn't mean it should cause us to gain 10lbs like it's nothing. And trust me, I've been there. Learning to eat healthy means making good choices every single day. It's not a diet. It's not never eating a piece of bread again. It's just making good choices. In the last year I lost AND KEPT OFF 30lbs. That is the big part for me - keeping it off. I wanted to lose 50lbs, and that didn't happen, but I kept off all that I lost, and I have to see that as a positive. I kept it off eating stuffing at Thanksgiving. I kept it off eating cookies and potatoes at Christmas. I kept it off over a bad three weeks in February that happened right at Valentine's day (so there was chocolate in the house, which we never have in the house). I was depressed and sad, and I ate. I ate EVERYTHING I could find. I wasn't proud ...

The thing about eating healthy is you learn how to eat. I will be the first to admit, when I moved out on my own, I no longer had a parent telling me what I could and couldn't eat. And I didn't cook, lol. Yes, you can eat chocolate cake for breakfast. But after I began to really watch what I was eating, I realized just because I "can" eat something doesn't mean that I should. And just because I'm not eating it doesn't mean that I "can't", it just means that I choose not to. Anyway, after moving out, I literally ate fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was having fun! And I gained like 20-30lbs in the process... Those bad habits started to follow me. If I wanted to eat something I just ate it. Now I'm thinking before I eat. But I still enjoy things I like. I like to go out to eat, and like most people, I enjoy a good appetizer. But limit those nights out to 2-3 times a month, instead of multiple times a week. Even over t...