Now v. Then Challenge... EYE OPENING!

I've never started a "Challenge" thread before, so I hope this works!! Today marks my 41st day on my diet and my 41st day on MFP. I've lost 15lbs. I feel good. I'm not as tired (during the day) as I used to be, I sleep better at night (when the baby decides to let me, that is) and I know it's because of the changes I've made.

So, today I had taken some time to look up and log what a typical day was like for me BEFORE changing the way I ate, BEFORE I even gave a *kitten* about what I put in my mouth. What was meant to be "just for fun" turned into a real eye opening thing to do. My diary is public, and I'd like to invite you to see what I was doing to myself just ONE day before I started my diet...ONE day before I found this site and thought to myself, "give it a go and see what happens...nothing else has worked." I can see why now nothing ever worked. I was killing myself and didn't even realize it.

January 24th, in my diary, is logged as truthfully as it can get as to what I had been doing to myself over the last 12 years. It's not EXACTLY what I ate that day because, like I said...I found this site a day later and trying to remember just what you ate exactly 41 days ago is impossible.... but it is typical of what I had been eating like, everyday ...all in one day.

I'd like to challenge you all to do this for yourselves. Go to your diaries and find the first day you started logging your food and go just one day before that to a blank food log page. Think back to what you would have stocked your cupboards with, what you would have bought at the store, the junk food staples that was your "go to" snack...how many servings of that you would eat? how many time would you snack out of boredom? out of hunger? out of depression, sadness? Whatever drove you to that bag of chips, the bag of M&M's or prompted you to visit the refrigerator time after time incase a pie decided to magically appear in there. Did you eat alot of fast foods? What did you normally order? LOG it!!! Just for one day...think back to how you ate before you changed everything you did. It's a day of reflection and appreciation. I am more thankful now to be on this diet than I ever, EVER have been in my entire life. I am not afraid to call this a life changing journey anymore. I can't go back to the way I was eating. It's scary to think I was doing that to myself. It's scary to wonder just how much more time I had on my life card if I hadn't changed that style of eating. Own it and appreciate what you're doing for yourselves now. I did... and I do.