There is No Flipping Wagon.

I’ve heard this a lot lately:

“I need to get on the healthy wagon.”

“I really should jump on that wagon again.”

“Oh I totally need to get on the exercise/eating well wagon with you!”

There is no flipping wagon.

You have to walk.  Run. Jog. Swim. Cycle.  Get your ass moving.  Period.

You have to plan. Shop. Cook. Think. Learn.  Eating healthy doesn’t come easy either. I have read a ton and learned a lot about eating healthy in the last 11 weeks.

Don’t tell me you’re going to do it.  Do it and tell me after.

Besides, riding any sort of wagon means you’re just sitting on your butt, not really involved in where you’re going, not driving yourself – just along for the ride.  Wherever that binge takes you, you’re going.  What great adventures you watch OTHER PEOPLE doing on the television, you’re just a passenger of life.  I know this.  I did it for 10 long years.  I know it well.

Something clicked 11 weeks ago.  Something inside me didn’t want to feel like a lump of passenger anymore.  Something inside me didn’t want to wake up with heartburn from a too salty/sweet/fatty diet that was threatening to suffocate me with my own stomach acid in my sleep.

I wanted to be healthy.  Not skinny, not sexy, just healthy.  I certainly didn’t want to fake it anymore with Yummie Tummies and Spanx.  Besides, I had to practically break a fat hip to get into to those things.  Not pretty.  There is nothing healthy about grunting and sweating and having your friend hump you from behind in order to squeeze your back fat into ugly support hose for torsos.

I wanted to run with my kids.  I wanted to be the fun Mom.  I wanted to be more patient, more relaxed.  My kids deserve that.  I deserve it.

I was tired of pulling at my clothes.  I was tired of seeing the scale bob up and down the same 5-10 pounds as my frustration grew and I fed my disappointment with rich food and junk.

I wanted to drive my own wagon, my own life.

So I did something about it.

I made myself accountable.  I recorded every damn thing I eat.  I recorded the exercise I did.  I am still teetering, finding that balance that puts my body into a healthy state of weight loss, averaging about 1.5-2 pounds a week, aside from the last 3 weeks whereby my body has decided to plateau.

I am not giving up.  A plateau is normal.  Imagine a  plateau on the side of a mountain.  A plateau is a rest point before a body says, DING DING! ROUND TWO!  Stay in the ring!

So today I started yet another trial: Hemp Hearts.

I went to one of those granola eatin’/tree huggin’ stores and was given a tub of hemp hearts – you put them on yogurt or fruit (or both), in salads, and there’s a slew of literature and recipes that came with it. It’s high in protein, but also high in (good) fat. I thought I’d try them out on breakfast for about a week and see if that kicks my 3-4 week plateau into gear.

By the way, they taste good – nutty.

The claims online seem a little out of line (1 pound a day weight loss which is crazy high) but I don’t think they are bad for you. My reality is in check – I don’t subscribe to crazy claims but I am trying them out.

Who’s with me?  Try one new thing this week.  A food, a new activity that gets you moving, anything that contributes to your health.

One. Thing.

Let’s rev those engines and drive our own lives.