It's True: "You Are What You Eat!"

For my entire life I have heard this simple catch phrase: "You are what you eat" but until I began my journey to a new me I never put two and two together, until now.

If you think about all of the food that is available for us to consume in the world that would be an astounding amount of choices. Here in America we have an abundance of grocery stores, farmers markets, fast food chains, restaurants, and  a million other places to get food.                         

I have spent the last seven months thinking about how it was that I got to be morbidly obese and there are a few places that I liked to visit previously that came vividly to my mind.  If you have ever driven by a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop and seen the neon  "HOT" sign on and not been tempted to turn in you don't know what you are missing!  Well here is a little confession about those tempting hot sugary treats.  When I would drive by and the HOT sign would be lit up my car seemed to go into auto-pilot or something/  I would find myself turning into the parking lot and up to the drive thru window to order not just one or two doughnuts but an entire dozen!  I would not stop with just one but I would down two or three of them and then I would be on such a sugar high that it would take me several hours to come down from it. 

Another down fall for me was driving by my favorite ice cream place.  Brusters Ice Cream Shop.

They to have a drive thru and my car once again seemed to know it's way there.  I mean look at the logo, doesn't it just beg you to "treat yourself"?  Well that is exactly what I would do.

There was no "Being Good" and getting a sugar free scoop in a cup.  No way! It was two big acoops of full fat, full sugar in a waffle cone!  Who knows how many calories that I was devouring but I was loving every minute of it.

Both of the places above were just a few of my favorite places.  I look at them now as not  "eating places" but "Cheating "Places"!  That is how I have now started to think of them.  Because you see I was enjoying my sweet treats while driving in my car by myself where I thought no one would ever know.  But unfortuately for me, everyone knew because they could see the evidence of my sneaking around and eating anything and everything in sight.  On my journey to a new me I realized that I was sneaking food, but in reality I was cheating myself by eating all the wrong things.

Do I ever think about or crave the sweet delights of my past?  YES!!!  But is it something that I indulge in?  No I have not.  The closest that I have come to falling back into the old habit was a few weeks ago, my family and I went to Brusters Ice Cream in Anderson, SC and I enjoyed one small scoop of Fat Free - Sugar Free chocolate caramel ice cream.  It tasted so sweet and creamy and I ate it very slowly so that I could remember what it tasted like.  I also believe that there is something to be said that I went there with my family.  It was not in private, it was not "on my way home or to church" it was with the people that I love and care about.  I think it made it that much more enjoyable.

I guess that is the difference now.  There is a way to enjoy some of the sweets that I was passionate about in the past, except now I do it in moderation, and I always count the calories. I try to never eat sweets by myself, but always enjoy them with someone else.  My journey to a new me is not about depriving myself but becoming a healthier me and I believe the old saying is true, "You are what you eat!"



Be very careful of the drive thru at Brusters Ice Cream Shop. 

You may only be fooling  yourself into thinking that the calories don't matter.

Remember, you are what you eat!