My Daughter's "Other" Mommy

More than anything else I loved the idea of no foods being off the table. (Pun!) In no way would my life be worth living if I had to renounce the pleasure of a warm chocolate chip cookie for the rest of my life. My God! I'd probably snap and kill someone! I could eat whatever I wanted, but with the knowledge of how my daily calorie allowance would be impacted as a result. That lead to the habit I continue with today, if it's just not that good I'm not going to eat it. Why waste the calories?

Forty pounds and several years later I find myself a respectable 130 lbs for my 5'4" frame. I haven't attended a WW meeting in ages and no longer count calories or do food journaling. I may need to return to that again, but for now my healthy eating habits have become a seamless part of my life. I learned I was an emotional eater and after I got that under control much of the rest kind of fell into place.

Just remember that lifestyle change is HARD. It is TEDIOUS. It is FRUSTRATING. Most important, it is SOOOOOO WORTH IT!!

I also want to point out that I don't believe in one size fits all solutions. We all have different challenges and motivations. I did Weight Watchers because I liked the social support and let's face it....I'm more than a little competitive. Still, there are plenty of different plans out there that encourage lifestyle change and sensible weight loss. Beyond that I also believe most of us have been info bombed by the weight loss industry enough to know the nutritional difference between a turnip and a Twinkie.

If I had to choose just one piece of advice it would be this; What Voltaire said in the 16th century remains true today. "Perfect is the enemy of the good." I have nothing but admiration for those souls among us who can up and quit smoking, lose 80lbs, run marathons, and subsist on nuts and berries. OOOODLES of respect, honest. I just don't happen to be one of them. Are you?

So maybe don't shoot for "eating healthy" instead try "eating healthier". Likewise don't reach for "being thin", at least not until you've given "being thinner" a good hard workout. If you, like me, don't possess the determination of a trappist monk, try for one or two small lifestyle changes. Maybe cut out the soda and chips, maybe no eating past 7 pm. If you can handle that for a while, add another small change to the others. Just don't give up and for heaven's sake, forgive yourself when things don't go just perfect. This is what helped me but I'm no expert, just a former fat mommy.

If you need a place to start, you might try looking at Christine Miller's post on the Mediterranean Diet. This diet has been shown to be healthy in addition to having possible anti-inflammatory qualities as well. Another terrific site to visit is the USDA's Food and Nutrition Information Center.

I'm working on another post I hope to have up next week on exercise and RA. I don't know about you, but I think exercise can be even more of a challenge than diet when you have RA.  In the meantime, if you had to suggest a diet resource or even one small lifestyle change that helped you, what would it be?