Looking back

Before I officially begin on my 2007 journey. I felt like I needed to look back at what I had accomplished health-wise. In the process of losing the weight that had me at almost 200 lbs I have very proudly made the following changes:

1. I have switched almost entirely to whole grain bread products at home. White pasta is tasteless to me anymore, I love the nutty flavor of brown rice, I love that same nutty flavor in steel cut oats instead of instant oatmeal. I'm still working on loving whole wheat bread, but I'll still take a good loaf of rye over regular white bread any day.
2. I eat way more fruits and veggies. I'm much more conscious of trying to eat veggies with my meals. I no longer think a piece of bread is a substitute for a veggie. I still have a long way to go on this, but I got my veggie cookbook, so I'm raring to go.
3. I know how to eat healthy even if I don't always do it. Almost always anymore the meals I cook at home are fairly healthy and balanced. I can cook a tasty, low-fat meal that I enjoy eating and get compliments on from guests. I also know the substitutions to make to lower fat and calories, or to just generally make things healthier. The area I need the most work is when I eat out I tend to throw those rules out the window.
4. I know that exercise does shape my body well. I still need to work on being regular with it.
5. I take my vitamins and sneak flax seed in wherever I can. I'm much more conscious about trying to eat more fiber.
6. I almost never eat red meat anymore. I've switched to turkey or chicken in most of my recipes and when I do eat red meat, it's never ground beef, it's usually lean steaks or lean pork chops.
   

I've come a long way from my pizza and mac n cheese eating college self. I do have a few more miles to go though. I've been pretty good the last couple of days (except for that one incident with the pizza hut pizza). I've done my new work out videos 3 of the last 5 days and am about to pull one out to do right now. I've made healthier choices for snacks including whole oranges and apples (oranges have tasted phenomenally good to me lately) and yesterday, though we ate out for breakfast and dinner, I had the fresh fruit crepes for breakfast instead of the belgian waffle and then I didn't just eat lunch because it was time, I had a healthy snack and then just dinner. All in all I've felt better about the choices I've been making, and the scale is making a little bit of headway, but tomorrow is the big day.