Thursday, February 5, 2009

I Give Up

I'm over it. I'm done. I'm throwing in the towel. I give up...

For years and years and years I've been talking all about how I want to eat healthier, I want to lose weight, I want to do this, that, and the other things about my health. Well, I've had it! I can't take it anymore!

Do not be alarmed! This does not mean I'm reverting back to my terrible eating habits. I'm just going to stop preaching to myself about how much I want to cut back on sugar and then going home and baking cookies. You all know I do it. One day it's "sugar bothers me, it makes me sick!" and then the next day you get a post about the double chocolate chip cookies I baked last night...

Today I want to share with you the ice cream that I've got in my freezer. I want to scream it boldly from the rooftops. I EAT ICE CREAM! AND I LOVE IT! It's ok to eat ice cream and cookies and brownies... practicing moderation however, that's the key. I have to stop this all-or-nothing mentality that I've struggled with. It's just a set up for failure. I know that. I know it all too well. I'm training this young girl on Monday night at the gym and she's asking me questions about what changes she can make to her diet, and she mentions never eating cheeseburgers again. And I say No! You don't have to give up cheeseburgers for life! Just don't eat them every day. Then I think to myself, nice, why don't you take your own advice??? So that's what I'm doing.

Now, about that ice cream. When I was first told to give up dairy, the first thing I wanted to do was find a good ice cream substitute. In all honesty, I don't actually eat that much ice cream, but I do love it so I knew I had to find something I could eat. I initially tried soy based alternatives. I do not like them. I don't like soy milk either. I switched to Lactaid milk and that helped a lot, so I found Lactaid ice cream, and that was good, but they only have chocolate and vanilla. My favorite is mint. (Yes, I just now realized, that I could essentially take the Lactaid and turn it into whatever flavor I wanted with my own additions...duh.)

Last weekend when I was in Good Health I was looking at their selections and I noticed they had a mint ice cream made with rice milk. Good Karma Organic Rice Divine, Mint Chocolate Swirl. YUM! Tastes much more like cow's milk ice cream than soy milk does. This is a very viable substitute. I'd rather use this than lactose free cow's milk too. So that's exciting. I keep it in the freezer and when I feel the urge I just have a spoonful and that's perfectly fine for me. I see on their website that they have mudd pie, I must find this next!!!

The stress of trying to be gluten free, dairy free, low sugar, low grains, more fruits, less junk, eat better, sleep more, exercise more, stop stressing out... it's making me more stressed than ever!!! I want to enjoy my life, not waste it stressing about all of the things I should be doing. Life's way too short to live that way. If I died tomorrow, I know I'd wish that I had not stressed so much about eating those muffins for breakfast every day this week. My health is serious business, I know that, and I'm not abandoning it, I'm just making other parts of my life a priority!


Liz said...

Moderation is key, you got it straight.

As far as ice cream goes, I like the rice-based stuff too, but I'm obsessed with Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream. Their soy-based stuff is decent, but the coconut milk ice cream is heavenly AND they have mint chip. They also carry a coconut milk, gluten-free cookie dough ice cream that's amazing.

Good Health carries them; the cookie dough kind is in the gf section, the other kinds are in the regular freezer section AND they make coconut milk yogurt which is the best dairy-free yogurt I've had to date. I only buy the pain kind though because the flavors are loaded with sugar.

P.S. Missed you last night!

sallybranwyn said...

oh dear god, mint ice cream! I can't have soy, so the soy ice cream is out for me. I need to try both the rice one and the coconut one. Possibly both tonite. :)

Thanks for the news ladies. And also, I'm with you, Jen, once you say something is forbidden you crave it like crazy and make yourself miserable.

A fresh baguette: case in point.

Jenny said...

Yeah I'm about ready to set out in search of Rice Dream Mudd Pie!! Yeah, saying something is forbidden is like saying YOU MUST EAT AS MUCH OF THAT FOOD AS POSSIBLE BEFORE YOU "GIVE IT UP". It never works.