Hey everyone!

Happy mid-week! Oh my, can you believe how fast the weeks are flying by? I’m not sure about you guys and gals but I’m sure looking forward to cooler days now that fall is descending upon us.

Earlier today I was thinking about what I was going to write about this week when I saw the phrase "Do you eat to live or live to eat?” I want to elaborate on that statement a bit. Like many, for most of my life, I had a passionate, intense love affair with food. Every morsel that I ate, every huge meal, decadent dessert, the pies, cakes, cookies.... I loved it all! Every tasty bite was like a drug to me; the more I ate, the more I craved. Chocolate was my drug of choice followed by the salty, greasy crunch of potato chips and other high-fat, empty-calorie foods. It was euphoric! Then, my high would wane and my cravings would start anew. Oh, what a vicious cycle of eating to feel good, then crashing and having to start all over again.

I soon realized I had an unhealthy addiction to food, all kinds of food. Believe me, I didn’t discriminate. Anything edible was fair game.

Over the years I managed to get a grip on my over eating and lose some weight, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve lost my present body weight at least twice over the years.

As hard as it is for me to write this, I want to be completely honest here. Because I had let my over-eating take control of my life, I felt hopeless and worthless. I really hated the "addict" in me. I remember as a child, my mom saying to me "Why can’t you be more like so-and-so, look at all the weight SHE has lost". Do you have any idea how that made the 12-year-old "me" feel? God love my mom, I know she just was trying to encourage me the only way she knew how. However, she didn’t realize that all she did was make me feel like a complete failure. This, of course, made me eat more. I would raid my piggy bank and go buy not one but two bags of chips and maybe a chocolate bar. Why? Because food didn’t judge me. Food made me feel good. I was emotionally messed up and as a result, my relationship with food was messed up too.

I truly was living to eat.

It took me many years to re-train my mind and re-evaluate my relationship with food. Finding Nutracelle has been my salvation on this diet rollercoaster. I know now why diets never really worked for me. Sure, I would do well for a month or so but then I would wind up feeling deprived. How does one live without a sweet treat? The chips and bars I can live without as long as they are not in my house and readily accessible. However, for someone like me who loves to cook and bake, it was still a struggle to control myself.

With Nutracelle, I don’t have to worry about it. I’ve learned to cook using the Natural Nutralean. I’ve made guilt-free pizza, hamburger stew, hamburger buns, waffles and the list just goes on. I use Natural Nutralean in my scrambled eggs, as a coating for fish, chicken and pork chops. Every scoop of this protein powder contains 10 grams of prebiotic fiber for gut health and 30 grams of whey protein! It literally makes any meal healthier.

I’m also able to make sweet, guilt-free treats. This protein powder is so versatile that you can take an ordinary unhealthy sweet treat and turn it into something healthy and delicious! Take my tarts, for example.

Every summer I make strawberry cream cheese tarts to sell. This is one treat that I simply cannot resist. After the rush of sales was over, I sat down to figure out how I could enjoy the taste of those tarts in a way that wouldn’t do my diet in. Instead of the buttery shortbread tart shell, I made up a batch of Nutracelle vanilla crepes. I made the cream cheese filling using low fat cream cheese and I added a scoop of Vanilla Nutralean. I also added a scoop to the pudding mix. The filling turned out awesome, thicker than I was used to but that was a stroke of genius because it stayed better in the crepe. I use a commercially prepared glaze mix and instead of sugar, I sweetened it with stevia. It too turned out amazing. SUCCESS!

I just can’t believe how easy it was to turn something so fattening into a slim dessert and it looks amazing on the plate! Nutralean adds so much fiber and protein which is so filling that you’ll only need 1 crepe to feel completely satisfied. You eat less, consume fewer calories and you stay full for hours. No more vicious cycles of binging and crashing. I’m in complete control now and that is so, so empowering.

I’m finally eating to live. How awesome is that?

As usual I’ll be posting a couple of photos of my not-so-healthy strawberry cream cheese tarts as well as the newer healthier Nutracelle version!

& the healthier version (even MORE delicious)

 

Thanks for joining me once again and do come back next week!