From Yuck to Yum!
I used to be spend a great deal of time on the road, training educators how to be most effective in the classroom. It was a job I loved and it took me from Hawaii to the east coast of the U.S. Naturally, I spent many hours driving or in the air. When I started counting, I was eating 18 fast food meals on average every week. I was drinking sodas and eating chips and French fries and far too many fatty foods with a lot of unnecessary carbs.
So I stopped. I went from an average of 18 fast food meals a week down to 1 every 2 or 3 months—and that was only a protein-style burger from In-n-Out (no bun). I stopped eating fries and cut cokes from my daily diet.
For two years I chose salads and other healthy foods while on the road. Naturally, I lost weight and felt much better. I saw the documentary, “Super-Size Me” about how a man ate at McDonald’s breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for a month! His health declined, he gained weight and felt awful—exactly my experience in the reverse! It took him years to lose the weight he gained as a result.
After my 2-year run I thought I would try eating a burger, fries and coke from McDonald’s. I took one bite of the burger and gagged. I tried a fry that was tasteless and the soda was way too sweet. I threw it all out, wondering how I had ever lived off of such crap.
Now, with a healthy-food-conscious life partner, my journey toward better living is firmly on track. It’s been almost 10 years since my choice to change my eating habits. With the results I’ve had, I will never return to my former ways. As I write this, I’m looking forward to my Sunday-morning power walk I’ll take later this morning with a friend of mine. We started that ritual about 3 years ago and we’re still going.
See, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! Want to join with me?
