I took this picture with my cell phone while I was shopping at my friendly grocery store. It’s just a regular grocery store aisle – not the junk food aisle, but rather it’s across from the cereals.

Honestly, what a bunch of junk.

My husband and I were talking about this yesterday. Was the food at grocery stores always so junky? I haven’t added it up, but it seems to me that a good portion of the food sold in grocery stores isn’t necessary or good for us.

Case in point:

• Cookies
• Cake mixes
• Brownie mixes
• Most chips
• Full-fat ice creams
• Canned food full of sodium
• Boxed meals
• Sodas
• Juices
• Fruit chews for kids
• Pop-Tarts and other “breakfast treats”

I understand the need for convenience, after all, we are all busy. But I get frustrated when I walk up and down the aisles and reallylook at what’s on the shelf. I, like most of you, always heard the recommendation to shop the “outside aisles” of the grocery store and avoid the endcaps. I never used to shop on the perimeter of the store because I loved all the “convenience” aka junky foods. I bought Oreo cereal for goodness sakes!

I don’t know why it struck me so intently this trip. I stopped after I took this picture and looked in my basket. My basket was full of enough food to feed the nine of us for a week without putting any junk into it. (I’m NOT perfect – we do eat junk on occasion, but even the little bit of junk we eat is unnecessary.)

When I think about how simple it is to make a salad, grill a piece of chicken and serve some no-sodium green beans for dinner, I wonder how we as a society got so far away from simple, healthy foods. Was it when it huge factories and automation made it easy to mass produce food or was it due to our increasingly busy lifestyles? In any case, it doesn’t take a lot more time to make an easy meal than it does to bake a tv dinner in the oven or prepare a Hamburger Helper type meal.

Am I the only one who notices this? What do you think about when you think about how much food in the grocery store is full of sodium, fat, sugar and void of nutrition?  Diane

By the way – thanks for all your encouragement on my change in posting schedule. It gave me a chance to get around to your blogs yesterday!

I’ve been toying with writing this post for about six weeks now. As many of you know, I homeschool our kids. Right now I’ve got an 11th, 8th, 4th, 2nd and Kindergartener that I’m schooling. My oldest in in college and the youngest is almost three.

Here’s my motivation for today’s post:

Since starting back to school I find it easy to write posts but difficult to get around to visit your blogs – which I love doing. So I’m going to try posting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a few weeks. I think this will give me more time to check in on you and still teach the kids, cook for the family, exercise, run errands and do other things I need to get done.

A few months ago I wrote a post on balancing your life between family, work, blogging and social activities. I think it’s hard to balance everything perfectly – if not impossible.

I hope you will stick with me moving down to three days a week! I would also like to post a healthy recipe or cooking tip on the weekends, if you are interested in that type of post too.

How do you handle your blogging schedule and have you ever cut back or increased? What was the result?  Diane

This picture was taken at Christmas of 1989, right before I got pregnant with my oldest daughter. This was also right before I began my journey into obesity – starting with a 75 pound weight gain over the next nine months. I got this lovely, orange and yellow plaid dress for Christmas. As you can see from the look on my face I loved it a lot. I could only wear it for a short time though because I gained 20 pounds in the first trimester of my  pregnancy.

After my daughter was born, I weighed about 260 pounds and there was no way that size 12 dress was going to fit. I admit to trying it on and getting a bit sad that I couldn’t even get my shoulders and arms into the dress. I pushed the dress to the side of my closet – keeping the maternity clothes front and center. That dress stayed in my closet for years. I moved the dress from one house to the next, just “knowing” that I was going to be able to wear it again.

I looked longingly at the dress for several years. My weight ballooned up to 300 pounds and the dress (and others like it) got pushed farther to the edges of my closet and my mind. Sometimes I’d pull all those clothes I was hanging onto out of my closet and look at them. I just couldn’t imagine I’d ever be able to fit in them again. They seemed impossibly small when I held them up to my big self in front of the mirror. Truthfully, I held up that dress and my hips, shoulders and thighs were all clearly visible on both sides of the dress. But still – I kept it.

After I lost 158 pounds that dress was too big for me. That was a happy day, but within that happiness was a sadness when I realized that I had held onto all those dresses, pants and shirts so long that the styles had come and gone. I had missed entire eras of fashion – some good and some bad.

I read a quote today from Peter Walsh, author of “Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?” He said:

You should have only three types of clothes in your closet — clothes that fit you, clothes you love, and clothes that always bring you compliments.

I wish I had heard that when I was struggling with obesity. I kept clothes that didn’t fit, clothes I didn’t love, and clothes that no one ever complimented. And keeping those clothes made me feel bad, unorganized and cluttered.

Here’s my philosophy now on keeping clothes that don’t fit you. If you are on your way down the scale, save one or two big clothes to remember how far you have come. Donate, throw away or give away clothes that don’t fit you and are no longer flattering. Keeping old clothes often times either gives you something to fall back on or something to “beat yourself up” over.

Do you have old, out of date clothes hanging in your closet? What are you going to do with them?  Diane

(I honestly ate this right out of the pan)

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