Why so many preliminaries?

Perhaps you're frustrated with me that in all my posts so far, I haven't just given out a "thou shalt not" list. And when you ask David or me, generally we don't just jump into the "eat this, don't eat that" kind of answer. There are several reasons for our approach.

First, I'm a teacher. It's more than just my job; it's who I am. So it's the angle I come from, that I want you to genuinely learn these health principles, as we are learning.

Secondly, it fits in with where we're coming from, as our story illustrates. We feel very strongly that the reason we've been able to make the changes we have, and relatively easily, is because we took the time to gain the knowledge about the WHYs behind the rules. It's not a list of rules, and I honestly am not tempted much at all by a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Sure, it tastes good, but my second thought is: pure sugar, white flour, and grease. Eew! It doesn't look as appetizing any longer. Fried chicken: not appealing. Processed cheese: no thank you! But we used to eat all of those things. We don't feel deprived in not eating them, because we know we're actually 100 times better off if we don't. But that's because we've learned. So we can tell you, don't eat this, don't drink this -- but we believe you have a hugely better chance of being successful if you understand WHY the "rules" are what they are.

And lastly, related to that, we genuinely want you to SUCCEED. We want you to make some life changes. We want you to change your MIND. We want you to be weird! (After all, look where being "normal" is taking us!) More on being weird later. And ultimately, let's make the other guys be the weird ones, and change everyone else to where WE'RE the normal ones!!

So we've been hesitant to just hand out answers. We want to give you encouragement and help you know where to find the answers, but we think it's important to do some research on your own. So hopefully you've been doing that some. Now I plan to lay out some of those specifics, and maybe generate some opportunities for some questions.

Healthy eating!
Aleecia