Vacation ends Monday!

Vacation was fun, but it's DONE!

As the hubster and I headed back toward North Carolina after a 12-day dream trip out West in September 2011, he sighed deeply and patted his "big white belly," as he is fond of calling it, "Well, vacation ends tomorrow." We had been repeating a variation of this line each time we sat down to a sumptuous meal on our trip. It was our justification to indulge just a few more days, with the "end of vacation" and the push toward a healthier diet looming ever nearer.

Once we were home, there was always an excuse to eat more junk. The hubster would flash me his mischievous look and say, "Well, vacation ends tomorrow." This continued through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's--you know the drill.

Yesterday, he patted my "side meat," as he likes to call it, and said, "Girl, we gotta get healthy!"

I just looked wryly at him and reminded him, "Sunday is Super Bowl."

He grinned like a possum and declared, "Well, vacation ends Monday!"

Let's face it. There is ALWAYS an excuse to eat junk: somebody's birthday, a baby shower, a holiday, a big sporting event. There will ALWAYS be an excuse to eat junk.

 I have some twisted thought process going on in my brain that I've got to eat that double chocolate birthday cake while I can get it, that I might not get homemade peach ice cream ever again, that Reese's peanut butter cups might be discontinued or something. My family jokes that I, who certainly never lived through the Great Depression, have a "depression mentality." (You know--can't waste anything, have to save everything, better eat good food while I can get it.)

But truth is, if there's not peach ice cream next time, there will be chocolate. If there's no double chocolate cake at the next bridal shower, there will be Dewey's sugar cake or something. For all of my life, there has been good food around for special occasions. If I pass on the lemon pound cake today, you can bet your aunt Annie's alligator there will be lemon pound cake again one day.

 It's not that I'm so worried about losing weight, although I have gained a lot of poundage since tying the knot with Superman. I, who weighed 104 when he met me and 114 when he married me and had often weighed in the 90's even after having four kids, am now up to 126 in my heavy winter clothes. (The hubster weighed 128 when I met him; he's up to about 210 after these idyllic years with me--ha ha!)

But weight is not the primary issue. I am, in fact, more worried about being healthy. I am convinced that Daddy was right--we are what we eat. How can I build good, healthy cells with Heath toffee ice cream, Doritos and Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls? We wonder why our society is suffering with more and more cancer, heart disease, arthritis, etc. Perhaps we should examine the SAD facts--SAD being the Standard American Diet.

Today I sat in the First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall for the family lunch after my great-aunt Lola's funeral. As the luscious meal wound to a close, I looked down at my plate with its mound of creamy banana pudding, a generous slice of chocolate chip cookie cake and the biggest piece of German chocolate pecan pie that I could find at the dessert table.

And I exhaled a resigned sigh, thinking to myself, "Vacation is over in two days." And I was actually glad. Let the healthy eating begin!

Here is a video by a doctor that talks about how she reversed her multiple sclerosis by changing her diet. My dream is to do what she did!