Properly Fueling

I've finally done it. After months, almost years, of being gluten-free, I've finally opened up my heart to whole wheat. It wasn't easy--growing up as a pudgy prepubescent made my transition to high school a wreck of low self-confidence and weight worries. All of this stress put enormous pressure on me to take control of my eating habits; cutting out essential nutrients such as gluten and dairy (I later discovered I'm actually lactose intolerant anyways) for the sake of fitting into smaller jeans. I was a neurotic mess of poor nutritional habits, lacking the proper guidance and caloric intake.

When I got to college, I inevitably found the freshman 15. How could I resist late-night snacks, Papa Johns, and the thrill of baking and treating myself to the other treats my friends were? Having a personal chef for my sorority definitely didn't help matters any, I would go up for fifths and my chef would give me a thumbs up because I was "a tiny girl" anyways (at 5'1, I'm not getting any taller). So I packed on the lbs without a second thought--until I saw pictures of myself and realized, with horror, that I was back to where I started before my health neuroticism.

But none of that matters anymore, because I officially took back control yesterday and toasted my first piece of 100% whole grain bread. Why? You may be wondering. Well, I've been inspired. My amazing, beautiful, and thoughtful twin sister decided to get me the "Insanity" DVDs for my birthday (which are killer, I've been sore for days), and the package comes with an Elite nutrition guide to fuel the body properly. After making my own adjustments to certain recipes, my first "Elite" meal was a complete success and, for the first time, I wasn't worrying about what to eat next because I WAS FULL:

1/2 Turkey Avocado Sandwich with a Cup of Black Bean Soup
1 slice of 100% whole grain bread (cut in half, toasted)
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 slices of avocado (scooped from 1 avocado half, you'll still have 1/2 of it left)
4 Spinach leaves
1 slice Turkey
1 cup Black Bean Soup (Type of your choice)

-KIM