You ARE What You EAT.

 I couldn't believe more in the title of this post. Our bodies reflect everything we put in our mouths.You can see the reflection of how you eat:

• In your complexion, is your skin full of elasticity? NO? you might need vitamin C. Do you have clogged pours? Try drinking more water

•  In your liver, have you ever been told you have a fatty liver? I have. Have you ever seen a c-scan of a fatty liver? I have. Have you ever been told your liver looks beautiful? I have! Have you ever seen a sonogram of your beautiful liver? I have! Obviously I've been on both ends of the spectrum here. So what changed? I learned that as a filter for our body, our livers were not made to filter processed food. they are made to process clean food. By cutting our all of that fake processed food my liver became beautiful, whatever that might mean to a sonogram tech...haha
• Your ability to build strength and lean muscle mass is directly affected by how much protein you are feeding your body. Do you know how much you get on a daily basis? This past summer I was working out a lot but not really progressing, it wasn't until I kicked up my protein intake that things started going the right direction.
• Your mood. If you are eating a lot of sugar you are probably running some pretty high blood sugers and there is also a chance you are crashing then having low blood sugars. I know way to much about this subject. When I used to run high my symptoms would be, rapid heart rate, sleepiness, irritability. when I ran low, cold sweat, confusion, nausea, irritability, the shakes. Now that I have cut our most sugar, and processed carbs my glucose levels are much more stable and I don't have these sypmtoms near as much...hardly at all.

So the reason for all of this? Well, really it's my motivation to stay on track. I am in the second phase of my weight loss journey. The first phase was the year immediatly following the gastric bypass when I lost the 120 lbs. That left me at the weight of 176. Which is much better than 296, for sure. However that still left me with about 30 more lbs to lose. All was going really well until this past September. I had maintained the 120 pound lost + lost 3 to 5 on top of that. But then my life got crazy, well actually nothing really changed, but my head went a bit awry. Because of that I ended up having a nervous break down. I wasn't hospitalized, however I could probably have been. When this all happened I was pulled off medicine, new meds were added and my eating habits became a way to cope with all of the changes...oh and I became super anemic and ended of haveing IV Iron therapy 10 times. So I was looking for food to help soothe me and give me energy. BAD! BAD! bad. Over a matter of weeks my weight ballooned up 20lbs. As depressing as that sounds, I am stuborn, and resolved to finally kick that 30lbs PLUS this added 20LBS.

I am still crossfitting like a maniac but, I have added extra cardio in. This will help me gain strength by buiding muscle which I need to burn more calories. I have also hired a nutritionist, which is NOT cheap...but I figure I'm worth it. It's been 5 weeks that I have been working with him and we are still trying to figure my body out but things are looking good. The hardest part of the last 5 weeks was Superbowl weekend, reference the pictures below:

 This food is what is leftover from the party and there is still so much more, but you get the idea. I have really had to dig deep by remembering what my goal is, how I want my body to look and feel, and remind myself how much I am investing and have invested in my physical activity and my nutrition. I don't like wasting money!!

So I leave you with these steps I found to help you dig deep to become healthier and happier by getting on track, starting today. We are all in this together!!! ~E