I Refuse.

Considering the title of this blog, I am assuming most of my audience is (or will be) female. With that in mind, I figure I'm allowed to talk about girlie issues like food, weight, insecurities and the like with you. If you are opposed to such posts then feel free to skip this one and come back tomorrow. However, being that I am a girl, and you probably are too, then you probably understand where such issues come from, and likely struggle with them as well. So you should keep reading.

That being said, I am definitely one to follow health blogs like the Fitnessista, Meals and Moves, and Priorfatgirl. I am fascinated by their journeys and equally fascinated by what they eat for breakfast...lunch...and dinner. I'm continually baffled by the Fitnessista's ability to workout multiple times a day with a quickly growing baby bump, and find myself rooting Jen on as she fights the good fight to make it to the gym and eat right. It's a battle we all face, and I can't help but want her to win. It's unfortunate I am not always so kind to myself.

As a young girl with *apparently* so much time on my hands, I do my best to eat well and exercise often.   The eating well part isn't as new as the exercising part, but eating well gluten free started around the same time I finally jumped on the exercising bandwagon. I am not perfect, no human is (a lesson I am being reminded of often these days) but I really do try.

Me, without a care in the world. 

I grew up in a family of eaters. We love food, we love making it, we love feeding others and ultimately love pretending we live in the Little House on the Prairie. No seriously, I think my family would choose that life any day if the adjoining spouses weren't so weirded out by the idea. Anyways, we love food and aren't afraid to say it. Then there is the whole low iron, low blood sugar thing we just can't keep up with. We don't just need food, we need food. Try to make yourself sparse if you're ever around us the hours before Thanksgiving dinner--K?. Who thinks 3pm is a normal eating time anyways??

Both my parents have struggled with weight and health issues, honestly...for as long as I can remember. My dad didn't take care of himself and reaped the consequences when he suffered a massive stroke leaving him paralyzed on half of his body with semi-significant brain damage at just 47. My mom on the other hand, she's also struggled with weight, but managed to get it under control as a byproduct of managing her Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Me, annoying the crap out of my sister. 

The older we get the more we've learned about good and bad foods, trying to incorporate more of the good, and modifying the "bad" to at least be homemade from scratch if we are gonna go there. Afterall, everything is better from scratch, right? Something about being able to pronounce the ingredients I think.

All this to say, I'm pretty sure my parents passed some eating issues on to us kids, not to mention all those food commercials and ads calling our names. I don't blame them. If anything I am learning from them (how to incorporate the good, and not do the bad) so I am grateful for that. But as a young girl, single and child-less as I am, I decided today that I refuse to pass any insecurities or food issues on to my future children, or anyone I cross paths with until then. I refuse to abuse my body nor my mind in anyway. I will not let my insecurities get the best of me. And I REFUSE to pass any issues I have to my own kids. If that's not reason enough to get my ish together, then I don't know what is.

AE