Is your DIET showing?

How true that statement can be!

For me it was the truth for a long time.  

In 2001 I was my heaviest and unhealthiest for two, main reasons:

I ate terribly and I never exercised.  

As I started to eat somewhat healthy and exercise frequently, the weight started to come off SLOWLY.  Before I knew it I had lost 75lbs.

As years passed, my life took twists and turns but thankfully I never allowed my weight or health to get THAT FAR out of control again, 
however to say I was 100% committed to healthy living would be a LIE.

I enjoyed healthy foods but I didn't know my limitations.  

Once I started munching on a healthy snack, I wanted more and more so I now exchanged my bad habit with fast food to a fixation on overeating healthy foods!  

It's important to remember that if we find our healthy balance our weight, mind, quality of life then our body will ALL reflect these positive behaviors!  
It's how our body says THANK YOU for treating it so well and the way it should have been treating all along!  
It's a fact so when someone tells me, "something is wrong with my body, I'm doing EVERYTHING right and not losing weight and my body is not changing AT ALL." 
I have a tough time believing that.  

Clearly my diet was SHOWING whether I wanted to believe it or not.  There it was. I was still heavy, carrying too much weight than my body was designed to carry.  

In this picture below I was a running machine.

 I ran 6 days a week, practiced intervals, long distance runs, ran 5 and 10 K races, etc! I was more active than I had EVER been in my life but I struggled with balance in my diet and it showed. 

This picture below was taken at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon in 2012.  I was around 200lbs, working out 6 days a week YET my diet was a mess.  I ate "healthy" until my boys would have that leftover mac and cheese staring at me in the pot and I'd quietly stick my spoon in, take a bite...and another, you get the idea :( 

My "excuses?"  I had quite a few- Life was my husband and kids (It still is these days but it's a balance of taking care of myself, my husband AND our boys!)  I stayed busy 24/7, teaching Physical Education so eating on the go, munching on crackers and cheese and then Mexican food for dinner was just the way it was.  Trouble is, I wasn't taking care of me.  
It is NOT healthy to consume empty calories throughout the day only to overeat in the evenings before bedtime.  I'd run in the evenings to justify that dinner I was about to consume or had already eaten...it was a race I was NEVER going to win.  

My body could never catch up and I was the reason it wasn't going to win...ME.  I was in control of what I did and didn't do to help it and here I was again, enabling it from what it was designed to do CLEARLY having the knowledge and personal experience this time around but it didn't matter :(

Good news is that a few years ago, I found that balance and I haven't looked back since!

And you know what, IT SHOWS!  

My diet and exercise finally reflect on the outside!  I take care of myself physically and mentally and NOTHING FEELS BETTER!

It's different for each of us but it's important to know that if you're honest with yourself, if you put in the work with your DIET and incorporate movement and exercise, YOUR BODY WILL THANK YOU FOR IT IN A VERY BIG WAY!  Trust it!  It has never let you down, but rather you've probably let it down a time or two. 

Sure there are obstacles we may face along the way whether it is a issue with metabolism, hormones, medications, allergies BUT it does not mean that you start to abuse your body and punish it for these obstacles, but rather you start treating it EVEN better knowing it has to work really, really hard to do certain things.  Why make that process more difficult.  We don't enjoy working harder than we have to, so our body feels the same!  Take care of yourself EVERY DAY, IT WILL SHOW ON THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE!!!!