I was told a few years ago that due to health problems, my body would likely not be able to withstand a full term pregnancy when I do have children without needing bed rest for the last month or so and/or a wheelchair (I have joint problems, mainly knees). I was also told that I'd be in a wheelchair most of the time by the time I was 40 if things didn't improve. My diet wasn't helping and nor was my lack of constructive exercise.
At the time I buried my head in the sand and carried on living the way I was, planning to go travelling for a few years and so on. Broke up with my boyfriend (who I was supposed to travel with) in May 2011 and that spurred things on tbh.
At first I planned to do a long stint travelling, then I started seeing my best friend and by September I'd moved to Brighton with him and realised that I couldn't carry on the way I had been, especially now I was with somebody who I did want to settle down with.
I had no clue where to start but we moved into a vegetarian household, for me it wasn't a problem but DP was a full on meat eater. We both had to make huge adjustments to our diets and after two/three months of really struggling with food we both have ended up eating quite healthily. Once I started to get more energy, both from the improvement in diet and working part time (working full time drained what little energy I had from other health issues) I decided to do something about my joints and started by finding a climbing partner in May this year through the go girls group on meet up.
Sorry for the essay! It's been my life changing and attitude changing that has made me realise how important it is to be healthy so that I can lead a healthy life with children later on :) Talking to local MNetters at the meets has been a huge inspiration for me as they're all so interesting and knowledgeable and happy to listen to me rant as I try to work out what to do! Having supportive and food-knowledgeable bosses has helped (I'm a nanny), one set bought me a slow cooker last Christmas which has been amazing, best practical present ever! We've only made stews/casseroles in it so far but you can use them for anything, we plan to make a variety of soups in ours next year!
I've experimented a bit with alternative grains and flours as the children I work with in one job are grain free, I love using coconut flour and think it's well worth the expense! I use kara coconut milk instead of normal milk as I prefer the taste sometimes too. I've dropped a lot of gluten and dairy out of my diet by accident too but I realise now that too much gluten or dairy makes my gut go funny so I only have it a couple of days a week now (again by accident!), but if I'm having either in excess like my favourite lunch of cheese and a nice, freshly baked bread I'll avoid it the day before and day after.
I slip once a month or so. I'll go into Holland and Barretts and buy a load of veggie jelly sweets to eat in one sitting. Or eat a whole pack of dried mango in one sitting. But I don't see it as failure to be healthy any more, just me being human! I also listen to my cravings more, work out what I'm craving and work it into my meal as I now see it as a way of my body telling me what it needs, rather than stuffing my face with it!
We have a flexible menu plan too, we'll plan a weeks worth of food and that will last three weeks as we'll make something else with the ingredients if we fancy it and leftovers last us an extra day or two or our housemates will offer us food. We plan to be a bit firmer with the menu planning next year as we still don't get as much fruit and veg as we'd like!