The Quest for a Superfit Family

I think the first post on a new blog is always the hardest.  Do you just jump right in, and assume everyone knows (or doesn't really care about) the purpose of your blog.  Do you do an introductory post?  Is this probably something I'm needlessly worrying about, therefore I should stop talking about it and just get on with it?  Okay, then.

Being fit has always been important to me.  It's just that sometimes my body didn't show it, because while it was important, it wasn't important enough to make a priority.  As so often happens, after I got married I gained a lot of weight.  Never enough to feel overweight, but enough that I didn't really feel like me.  In my head I was still the same size I had always been, and in great shape.  I was always a little surprised when I looked at a picture of me and I looked bigger than I thought I was.  

  
 
Over the years I've done plenty of "diets".  Plenty of working out.  And I'd lose weight, sometimes getting close to my goal weight, but always gaining it back.  Because I was never really focused on being healthy.  I was focused on being thin.  That never works.  You know that saying, "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"?  That's a load of crap.  If that were true, everyone would be skinny.  If being skinny is your goal, you might reach it, but it's probably not going to stick.

Now being healthy is another story.  A few months ago I stumbled across the paleo/primal diet.  At first I scoffed.  No grains?  No dairy?  That's not healthy, at least according to what we've been told for years and years.  But something kept pulling me back to it, especially to the Whole30.  So finally, at the beginning of April I decided to try it.  Why not give it a go?  I was already close to where I wanted to be weight-wise, so I wasn't looking to lose a whole lot of weight.  I just wanted to be healthier.  I wanted to not have stomach problems like bloating, diarrhea, constipation, etc.  Which I had a lot of, I'm sorry to have to tell you.

I jumped right in, and it sucked.  I felt horrible.  I started feeling depressed.  I was eating really healthy, and I felt worse than ever.  Well, maybe not worse than EVER, but not good at all.  It took a little evaluating and looking for advice on the whole30 message boards, but I figured out the problem.  I was eating too little.  I had cut out grains, dairy, legumes, and sugar, and I didn't really know how to fill that space.  So I was light-headed and foggy, getting headaches all the time.  Once I figured out that and adjusted, I started feeling fantastic.  Better than ever.  And the best part was I knew that I wasn't eating junk, which was what kept me going even when I wasn't feeling well.

And I've made my family make the switch too.  If it's not good for my body, it's not good for theirs either.  The results have been really good.  Here are just a few:

• I've lost 8 1/2 lbs, even though I didn't really have weight to lose. 
• My husband has lost 11.5 lbs, and is almost at his goal weight.
• I have very little fat around my mid-section, which is something I never thought would happen.
• My kids don't ask to go out to eat anymore--they know better.
• My young boys have learned the phrase "sugar is poison for your body", even though they sometimes still have sugar, they know it's not good for them.
• We eat a ton of veggies and fruits, much more than we did in the past.  Snacks around here are no longer fruit snacks and crackers.  We have fruit, veggies, and nuts, and olives.
• I can do handstands and pull-ups.

But are we all as healthy as we could be?  I don't really think so, and that's why I started this blog.  To chronicle my family's journey to becoming Superfit.  We're all like superheroes in training.  We've already got the food part pretty much down, although there's always room for improvement.  But I want to get outside more.  Play, hike, do the kinds of things I would have done when I was a kid.  When exercise wasn't about going to the gym and running on the treadmill or lifting some weights.  It was just part of life.  We played.  Kids don't really play much anymore.  Too many video games and TV (and we're definitely guilty of that).

The problem is that adults who played when they were kids think they've grown out of that.  They've graduated to "workouts".  And with the technology we have today, nobody is moving as much as we should be.  So when I want to go out and run with the zombies, and my kids want to come with me like they did last time, I will say heck, yes.  So I don't really get to jog.  We don't even walk very fast.  But we're out there.  We're moving.  We're playing.

But saying we're going to be a superfit family is easy.  Actually doing it is the hard part.  So that's why I'm sharing, to keep  me accountable.  If you've read this far, thanks, and I hope you'll stick around.