Eat To Live, Not Live To Eat

...because we should ALL be comfortable in our own skins!

Anyway...

A few day ago, I said to Jeremy,

"I think homeschooling is going to make me skinny...I'm too busy to eat."

I don't remember his response.

Probably because my brain was all muddled from lack of calories.

Great for me! Bad for baby...Last year when I was losing weight, Jeremy would joke that my milk turned powdered (TMI, yes, but funny as heck! You can't tell me you didn't laugh just a leetle...) and he'd make a "PFFF!" noise when we would talk about it...*sigh* I love that silly man....

So, instead of watching what I am eating, I'm not watching what I'm eating, and at about 3 PM every day, I'm wandering through the kitchen wondering why the hay I'm so hungry.

I'm trying to be better. No powdered milk for baby. I actually have to tell myself, "It's okay to eat that vegetable soup, but you should probably add some bread for stamina."

So, health is on my mind much of the time (probably because I seem to keep having the same cold or cough over and over and over and over...yes, yes, yes, Mom, I AM taking vitamin D).

So, it piqued my interest when I was reading the news yesterday about this guy. To sum up, in case you don't want to read his entire blog (no, I didn't read the whole thing yesterday afternoon and sit back in mixed horror and delight at what this man is trying to accomplish...), he basically went from being totally ripped to totally fat in five months. On purpose. He wanted to know what it was like, and hopes to inspire people on his journey to fit again.

At first I was like, WHOA! Why would somebody eat an entire buck of Kentucky Fried Chicken (drooool) JUST to prove a point (Drew has challenges every week, and one was to eat an entire bucket of deep fried chicken, and all of them are specifically designed to make him gain weight)??

It's brilliant if you think about it (the idea of experiencing something that troubles many of us, ie. weight issues, not the eating of a whole bucket of deep-fried death...although...that sounds pretty good right now...and, really, my ethics tell me that I don't need to do drugs to understand what they will do to my body. There are enough billboards around here with people on them with severe meth-face that there is no guess work on my part, but I digress...).

I mean, now he'll actually be able to empathize with people, and he's inspiring people all over the place.

But... (there is always a but)

I thought, "Gee, I bet God isn't too happy with what he is doing to his body...I mean, a WHOLE bucket of KFC? Eleven corn dogs? Fifty chicken nuggets????" And I wagged my finger at him and said, "Shame, shame, shame on what you do! Your body is a TEMPLE, man!"

But...(See? There is always a but...)

Then I thought, "Gee, I bet God isn't too happy with what I have done and am doing to my body." And visions of chocolate binges and unrestrained pringle consumption danced in my head (Drew talks about pringles in his blog...it was all so oddly familiar...).

It's not so fun when you realize you're doing something that's a no-no.

It's a challenge to turn food into a tool, not entertainment (or comfort). I can't tell you how many times I have wandered around my kitchen in panic looking for a quick fix (NO, I am NOT talking about last night when I resorted to eating white baking chips, peanuts, and some questionable ice cream....).

Our recent problem at our home has been eating out all the time. Yes, it's convenient, yes, it's easier, but man...it's a total blow to the bank account and the waist line.

And besides...there is only so much Del Taco or Panda Express you can eat before it all starts to blend together in one big ol' mass of beans or rice.

And I could just do that at home.

For cheaper.

And it's healthier.

So, I'm going to cheer Drew on, but only for the SECOND half of this challenge. It will be fun to see him get healthy again.

I mean, I almost gagged just reading about the chicken nugget challenge, and I LOVE chicken nuggets.

LOVE.