Hello and welcome!

The Flaherty's journey on the road to health and a fun and active lifestyle….

My husband and I both have weight to lose. He has been wanting lose weight, about 40 pounds, I had 30 pounds to lose and I was tired of sleeping in, being tired, sluggish and squishy. The whole day is determined by the morning and the amount of sleep everyone gets. We have 3 kids under 4 yrs and a GSD puppy Diogy. None of them will let a day go by without some play time and a walk. It is vital everyone stays happy, healthy and satisfied as possible.

 I recently read the book "Eat to Live" by Dr Joel Fuhrman and tried some of his recipes.  You get rapid weight loss, you eat tons of food, there's no gimmicks or tools, just lots of vegetables, beans, fruit, and some grains and nuts and seeds. 

 I love books! All kinds of books. I have to be learning something at all times. I'm always thirsty for knowledge. My favorites are Nutrition books, religious books, anti religious books, parenting books, exercise books, self help books and kids library books.  When I was about 9 years old, an old German man from my childhood church told me, you can become a doctor or anything you want for free just by reading books out of the library. That tid bit of advice has changed and continues to change my life. Knowledge and education will change your mind.  When you change your mind, you change your life and your body adapts and changes. Is this all possible from reading? Yes! Try what you read. See what works for you tweak it a little, get creative, have fun with it!  My other recent reads are  "Crazy Sexy Diet" by Kris Karr and  "Thrive" by Brenden Brazier.

 

 These books have a similar message. Lots of Vegetables, whole grains, raw seeds and nuts and legumes. Whole foods, back to the basics of simple from the earth food.
 Some books claim all vegan, some add organic meats. I learned we cant just read one book and think its the only right way. We have to read a bunch and see what works for our own life and see how our own body adapts.... Pick how you like to eat, try out different ways and see how you feel.

The same message I heard in college as I was cramming for my BS in Nutrition Science. I thought I could learn all the cool new health tricks and be super healthy, find the magic food or the magic exercise! It doesn't exist. It can cost you a lot of money and frustration while trying to figure that out! What I learned was the same message we all hear every day from the time we are so young. "Eat right and exercise" Simple right! ..... Right!?.. Not at all! Its hard! How do you do it!? We don't learn it in elementary school! We don't learn it in middle school or high school. We are bombarded with marketing messages and changing information. Pretty packages with confusing promises and bright colors. Not only does it take will power, self discipline, over coming cravings, fighting food addictions to a plethora of over processed junk! Healthy food can be more expensive than processed food and if your not adapted to it, your over stimulated taste buds won't like the natural flavors of whole simple food. It takes time to adjust.

 

 We eat a lot of Salads really BIG ones. We make soups.. Yes, those are big too.  Oatmeal, smoothies full of veggies, Vegetable omlettes...... Lots of whole food. You can have fun with it! I have been taking pictures of all my food. I will be putting them up on the blog and adding kid versions and adult versions. Of course I don't cut out certain things for kids, because their growing, us adults we need to shrink, very different.

Some days are more difficult than others and then I give myself a maintenance day. Life is full of maintenance days and they can be a set back or a break.  Meaning eat more loosely, but don't gain weight. You maintain the weight, by not eating a bunch of junk, just a little bit... so we can pick up where we left off. I have a maintenance week every couple weeks to allow a little break and maintain my kids life and the house and just recoup as well.  "Rest if you must but don't you quit" is a common phrase that runs through my head on these weeks or days. Resting is a good thing. It allows for growth and time to learn some more!
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You can lose weight, but muscle doesn't form or make itself. Exercising is a must. If you want your body to change shape, you gotta put in the time with the exercise. It is important to know yourself and try different things and see how you feel. Don't set yourself up for failure. This is when a maintenance time is necessary to allow growth and change. Figure out your next move.

 This brings us to this blog. It is my hope I can encourage, motivate and inspire anyone who chooses to make positive changes in their life for themselves, their kids and their marriage. We only have one life, and one body so we better take care of it! If we don't no one else will. It is time we take responsibility for our own health and learn how to teach ourselves how to be the healthiest we can be in Mind, body and Spirit! You don't have to be stuck in old habits! Change is good!

I hope you enjoy!