All in Good Food

Note: I know this post is very long but I ask that you please take the time to read it through fully so that you can understand me and my journey better.

Ok I said I was going to be honest with these posts about my weight loss and I am. About three years ago I lost my job and subsequently had to change my way of thinking. As I look back I think it was a good thing that happened and possible saved my life. I worked for a health insurance company and ironically the longer I worked there the more weight I gained. I can honestly say it was from the sedimentary atmosphere (I sat at a deck all day), the stress (I had to make a certain production and accuracy amount for my work), the food (my department was always having potlucks for peoples birthdays and the such and the café food wasn’t the healthiest), and taking all of that with me when I left work everyday.

Without making excuses I would say that the time between 2001-2007 was a very highly stressful time for me. In 2001 my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer just before she retired from the same company I was working for. She went on to do fine until early 2005 when the cancer came back and ultimately she passed away in December of 2005.

In 2003 I bought a home at the same time my parents sold my childhood home and moved down to Georgia. I don’t think I was really financially ready to buy the house and subsequently lost it in 2005.

In 2004 my daughter entered her first year in high school. The year started out on the wrong foot. Because of the many school closings in the area she ended up starting school 3 weeks late. Starting out like that in your first year is not good and very stressful. Ultimately she began having anxiety attacks and after hearing about my mother’s cancer relapse she began cutting. In 2005 I began home schooling her for the last three years of high school.

In 2005 I moved out of my home and into an apartment which I can honestly say I loved living in and we stayed there for two years and moved out when our lease was up in 2007. However even though we loved that apartment we still did many things to escape the pain and sadness we had bottled up from prior years.

As well as working in the high stress job, dealing with my mother’s death, and my daughters emotional state I’m not sure how I got out of it with no severe health issues. I guess at the time I was in denial. Yes I went to the doctor for regular check ups but because I did not have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or any signs of cancer I thought I was ok. When I looked in the mirror I knew I wasn’t an ideal weight but I did not see myself actually how I was. I can honestly say by 2007 I was weighing 245-250lbs.

You may be asking well what was your lifestyle like? How were your eating habits. Didn’t you exercise? Well in answer to those questions. My eating habits were awful. I ate a lot of processed foods, fast food and there was a 7-11 right next door to my apartment complex. So you can imagine. Pretty much I would come home from work so tired from being stressed out I would collapse after pulling out some processed food or stopping on the way home for fast food for dinner. I did not begin exercising until the spring of 2007 when we began walking at a park near our apartment, which I enjoyed and wish I could still go there.

2007 was the turning point in my life. In July I lost my job. Yeah losing my job is not the best thing in the world but it was the best thing to happen to me. The day I came home and told my daughter it was like the sun began shining again after a long stormy darkness. I could actually see a bright future for us.

In August of 2007 I spent a month in San Francisco training to be an English Language Instructor and completed the course on my 40th birthday. Just before leaving I knew I needed to get myself prepared for all the walking I would need to do in San Francisco so I began walking every morning as well as my walking in the park and was up to walking about 3-4 miles a day combined. I felt the changesin my body happening and was feeling good.

When I got back home I enrolled in on-line college courses, graduated and received my bachelors degree in 2009 and subsequently began my first blog All In Good Food. I will explain what has been going on with me/us in the past 3 ½ years more in depth in another post because I believe it deserves particular attention to the details in an attempt to maybe help others that are most surely in the same or similar situation.

I must say I began All In Good Food as a result of embracing my love for food and learning how to cook healthy tasty and convenient food. Because during that time I had long periods with no job I had to come up with inventive recipes that I could cook on a very restricted budget. That is were a lot of my recipes on the blog came from.

So when I say that losing my job back in 2007 saved my life I truly mean it. I believe that it forced me to make long needed lifestyle changes that put me onto the path to a healthy, happier life.

Please join me for my next post.

P.S.

I have to tell you that my daughter is doing very well and has developed into a well adjusted young woman. She is 20 years old now and got married last year to a wonderful young man who is in the navy and under deployment at this time. She has a dream of being a musician and has her own blog called Journey To Vaudeville. She is also my partner in the company we are in the process of starting. So she is doing very well.

You can email me at allingoodfood@gmail.com