**This post is part of the Get Real series. Please remember that this is meant as a learning community. We know that many of you are passionate about what you do and we want you to express that, just please do so in a way that will be an encouragement and aid to others making a transition. We want this to be a “safe space” for participants to learn. For that reason, we reserve the right to delete any comments that are not handled in this manner.
We thought it would be nice for us to ask someone in the Get Real community to share with you their experience each month with the challenge! Someone different than our blog partners, someone who is in the trenches with you and doing this right with you! This month (and perhaps more to come) Annette Davis of Fit Moms Fit Kids Club has recapped her month. Please comment a recap of yours or link up a blog post recap if you have one! We want to hear about YOURS too! And make sure you are pledged as you will be getting an email on February 1st to find out if you are continuing on the this journey with us.
Hi Everyone. I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Annett Davis. I’m what one reporter called a slash. I’m an Olympian/pastor’s wife/homeschooling mom of 2/entrepreneur/blogger/speaker/and there are probably some other things I can’t think of right now.
Even though I still play professional beach volleyball, you may be surprised to know that I’m probably a lot like most of you. I don’t have it all together. I don’t like working out. I don’t like eating right all the time. I love to bake. I love to eat (I’m a self-proclaimed foodie). Most importantly, like you, I don’t have a lot of time.
Okay so now you know my secrets. Why am I here?
Because I know I can do better.
Long story short, my dad was also a pro athlete (he played in the NBA) who died a few years ago due to his third heart attack. He suffered from type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure, and lots of other things. Everything that happened to my dad was preventable. He only had to make a choice to do two things… eat right and exercise. Unfortunately, he made his choice to do better too late.
After the sadness and anger wore off, reality set in for me. Even though I am a professional athlete, I had been living the same unhealthy life as my dad. If I didn’t change, my choices and my life would mirror his. Over the past two years, I’ve been taking baby steps to get real. I was so excited to hear about the Get Real Series, and knew that I needed to participate in order to continue to get rid of the very things that took my dads life. So, here I am. I’m taking this journey with you, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly with you. We can do this ladies!
Week one we were to clean out our pantries. I can’t tell you how many prepackaged processed foods were in my pantry, but let’s just say I can’t count them on both my fingers and toes. I thought I was doing pretty well until I read Lisa’s Real Food Rules! The good thing is that I’ve learned that old habits can die, and I am determined to kill them. 🙂 The biggest issue in our pantry is the snacks. Being on a budget I wanted to use up what we have. I’ve been doing that so I’ll have a “real food” pantry by next month. I can’t wait until all the junk is out.
Week two was great for me. I had some Aha moments. I think I’m turning into one of those “food label freaks”. You know the kind that looks at every label in the store. I LOVE it! It shows that I’m now thinking more about my food choices. I don’t want cereal with 20 ingredients in it, half of which I cannot pronounce. My favorite part of week two was when Lisa talked about one of her food rules, “If you want junk food, make it yourself.”
I’ve taken this to heart. I’ve been making muffins, zucchini, and pumpkin bread from scratch. I know it doesn’t sound like “junk,” but it is a sweet treat for me. Don’t worry I’ll make my own cookies, and cake and eat them too! If I have a craving for something sweet, I’ve decided that I need to make it myself to cut down on eating too many processed treats, or sweets period.
But, I have to admit I did have a few slip-ups. My husband likes to bring me a candy bar and cookies from our local bakery sometimes to show he loves me (and satisfy his sweet tooth at the same time without feeling guilty). This is one area where we’ll need to tighten up.
source: Amazon.com
On to movie week. Food Inc. is probably my favorite movie about food. I had seen it before, but for this series, I watched it again. I was just as fired up as I was the first time. Learning that cows and fish are being fed things that by nature they should not be eating was upsetting. The fact that regulatory agencies were involved with food organizations they are supposed to scrutinize was disturbing. It made me wonder what they are protecting more, us (our health) or their wallets?
The illusion of diversity in the grocery store made me wonder about the products I buy and which companies really make them. Chicken breasts being “designed” by food scientists to be twice as big, and birds raised in half the time as they used to was scary to see.
All of this and a lot more made me yell “What the heck is going on?!?” I truly believe, like the film says, that when we buy things we are voting for what we want in our markets. I’m sure I will watch this about once a year to remind me why I’m making these choices.
Week Four, Sugars. Out of all of the weeks, this one has been the toughest! I realized one day that whenever I say I cannot do something, that there’s an underlying issue stopping me. One day I said, I can’t give up sweets. Right then and there I realized I was addicted to sugar!
This month I lead my readers on a juice cleanse, which helped me to reduce my sugar intake drastically. If I hadn’t done this, I know my sugar intake would have been through the roof. I eat less sugar now, but my sweet tooth isn’t completely gone. Because of this series, I have read about sucanat, and will buy some this week. I’m also going to take my kids on a field trip to a honey farm to buy some raw honey.
My sweet tooth usually cries out to me after I put the kids down for bed. Usually, I have a cup of tea and a sweet treat. I’m going to keep drinking my tea, and (I can’t believe I’m going to type this) only eat sweets on the weekend! 8 teaspoons or less of sugar a day??? I can do it, right?? I’ll let you know.
Happy to “Get Real” with you! Until next time, blessings!
Annett Davis is an Olympian, happy wife, and homeschooling mom of 2. She blogs over at Fit Moms Fit Kids Club which is all about informing, inspiring, and empowering moms to make fitness and good health a way of life for themselves and their families.
January Week Five Action Item:
Each week we will try to give you some simple action steps to put this journey into practice. It is important that you start this journey by understanding yourself, your goals, and perhaps your obstacles.
- Write a summary of how you are doing with the challenge thus far (post in comments, link to a blog post, or post on the FB Fan Page). You can cover any of our focus areas for the month:
January Get Real:
Please take a moment to thank our guest authors and sponsors by clicking over to their sites and/or liking them on Facebook and/or Twitter.
Guest Author – Lisa Leake of 100 Days of Real Food
Sponsor: ZipList – One pledged Get Real participant will be winning a $200 Visa Gift Card to help them restock their pantry! ***This giveaway is now closed.***