Throwback Thursday: Me, My Shopping List, and Total Failure

This is an old post I came across when I was wasting time on the internet cleaning out the closet, and I thought I'd re-share in honor of "Throwback Thursday". (It's a new thing I'm going to try for awhile, just roll with it.)

The funny thing is I'm pretty sure I could have re-written these exact words today. Just insert another baby and you'll pretty much understand what I've been going through recently.

Why is it that eating healthy and exercising is so hard? I used to think it was simply a matter of not having time, but I'm beginning to realize that it's more of matter of self-control. I like unhealthy food, and I want to eat what I like.

But this body isn't my own. It belongs to Jesus. And the food I eat needs to bring Him honor and Him glory, not me. So I guess it's time to break-out the chocolate frozen yogurt again...

Or better yet, maybe I'll just eat a banana.

***
Since having Rooster, I've been slacking off in the kitchen.  It’s partly because I just don’t have the time that I used to, but mostly it’s because eating out or eating not-so-homemade and no-so-healthy food is just easier. However, after a devastating day yesterday (oh yeah, major meltdown in the “I don’t have anything that fits!” department) I realized that we are going to have to start eating healthy again, and at this house healthy eating begins with me and a shopping list.

So in the spirit of making a positive change, I planned out four new healthy meals, wrote out my grocery list, and right after lunch Rooster and I headed to Wal-Mart. It was not a good trip. My list was unorganized, my baby was fussy, and worst of all, I couldn't find four of the essential ingredients on my list.

And of course without those ingredients (Italian turkey sausage, sesame seeds and sesame seed oil, and carrot juice) I couldn't make any of the things I had put on my menu for this week.  None of them!  

(By the way, if you one of those people who are laughing right now because you think you know exactly where those things are at Wal-Mart, call my husband so he can go pick them up.)

I got to end of my shopping list with a cart full of groceries and came the sad realization that I still had nothing healthy to make for supper. Talk about frustrating! But with Rooster getting hungry, I had no choice but to check-out and come home.

I remember a couple years ago when I first went on a health food kick and stopped cooking with Velveeta all the time. It took me months to get comfortable cooking good foods. We made small changes, I lost weight, and we were healthier, happier people. 

Around that time I started trying to run for exercise. I practiced for three months before I finally ran a mile. I was so excited! (I mean after three months I was pretty sure it wasn’t ever going to happen.) All of those changes took time. I guess I just thought that once I figured out how to do those things, I could check them off my list. I had arrived at healthy.

Of course, then I got pregnant and everything changed. I started eating ice cream and pizza again. I broke a two year fast from Taco Bell all for a mexican pizza that wasn’t even very good! I am not the veggie loving, {almost} runner I was 9 months ago. But I desperately want to be!  I want to be myself again, and not the myself that keeps using a baby as an excuse to eat cheese dip.

All this to say, despite my frustrating trip to Wal-Mart and my failed attempt to try new healthy recipes, I am still going to make a change. Tonight instead of drowning my sorrows in a bowl of ice cream, I’m going to go with chocolate frozen yogurt.

Small change. Big Success.