It's Here and My Stomach is Already Growling

The new year is here. It's 2012. I'm sure I'll keep writing 2011 when filling out forms until at least February.

My biggest challenge, and the biggest challenge for my husband, is going to be our eating and health habits. We started before the new year and cleaned out the house of all the crappy foods...chocolate bars, cookies, etc. Except for some cookies for Marshal that we won't eat.

It's going to be a HUGE challenge. I've never eaten well...even as a young kid I didn't like veggies. I had an aunt and uncle who tried to force me to eat raw carrots and I showed them...I puked all over them. My grandpa tried to make me eat a mushroom once. Same result.

I don't eat lettuce, tomatoes, onions, or pretty much any "weird" vegetable. This makes cooking a big challenge. I will eat cooked vegetables like cauliflower and carrots. I'll eat corn and peas, which are starchy veggies and not as good for you. I will eat green beans if cooked a certain way (i.e. with butter!).

Fruits are pretty much a mystery at our house. I like apples but only from the Farmer's Market and they are seasonal. I will eat bananas but I don't like them. The smell of banana makes me kind of ill so I almost have to hold my breath when I eat them...but they're easy to eat on the run.

So the first challenge will be to find healthy foods that I will eat. I've been trying to find recipes but most of the ones I like are heavy in creams and calories. There is a salmon that I LOVE from Schwans but it's over $27 for four pieces of salmon and we just can't afford that. So I need to learn how to season and cook salmon fillets.

Eating healthier isn't just about losing weight, even though hubby and I need to do both. It's about feeling better and having more energy to keep up with our little man. The older Marshal gets the more we'll be having to do with him. If I'm aching and moving slow now I'll have no hope in the future. Plus my health is already starting to suffer from the excess weight.

My goal in sharing my struggles here is to keep myself accountable...even if no one reads my blog. At least if I'm writing it all out I'll be accountable to myself. It's not going to be easy. It will be painful. And it's going to require a complete lifestyle change.

Wish me luck!