The Darker Side of this Delicious City

Here in New Orleans, you don't need an excuse to party.. really, everyday seems like a party.  We revolve through the seasons slightly different from the rest of the world.. no spring, summer, fall nonsense here.  No, here we have Crawfish Season, Festival Season, Football Season, and Mardi Gras Season.. and damn if there isn't about 10 billion reasons during each of our seasons to indulge.  Whether it means scarfing down a delicious bowl of Crawfish Monica at Jazz Fest with an ice cold beer, or attending weekly beer filled crawfish boils around the city throughout Lent, or Mardi Gras... well the indulgence of Mardi Gras has a category all of it's own.  Weeks of non-stop drinking and partying and indulging in King Cake, then the final 5 or 6 day finale where you crawl to a halt on Fat Tuesday.

But we New Orleaneans don't really need a big event to indulge... You've got to sit out on the front porch in the evenings and enjoy a cocktail or two... lazy Sunday Brunches with Bloody Mary's.. gatherings of friends around the BBQ.. or a Dacquiri down by the Fly on a sunny day.

Here the food is delicious.. but oh so very non-healthy.  Fried Shrimp Po-boys...Alligator sausage..Ettoufee...Gumbo...Red Beans... everything with white rice.  The problem is as delicious as NOLA food is, it's generally brown.. no color...(except Crawfish of course)... the food groups are rice, sauce, meat... poor vegetables are reduced to getting a Po-boy dressed.. with a tiny lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes.. or corn and potatoes in your crawfish boil.

I love this city!  I do!  I love the food.. the relaxed attitude most people have.. the yummy beverages and the non-judgemental attitude of people.. but health wise.. this city is a train wreck.

In the 3 years I've live here I've gain....40 pounds!! Holy Shit!  It's insane! Ludicrous! Ridiculous!  Now, I'm not going to just blame New Orleans food, no, for me it has been a multitude of things.  For starters I've been in an incredibly stressful job, teaching inner-city kiddos at a school still trying to figure out what the hell it's doing.  Then I've been dealing with a shoulder injury for the past year and a half that has left me unable to do a lot of regular exercises and forced to take prescription pain killers to sleep through the pain every night.. and lastly.. I've just gotten lazy.  I love partying.. having friends over.. hosting football parties, summer parties, Oktoberfest parties, holiday parties.  This is nothing new.. they didn't call me the "party princess" in high school for nothing, but now the party is starting to catch up to me in a bad bad way.

Well, today marks the beginning of a new venture of mine.  Recently I've decided that I cannot deal with being unhappy and unhealthy anymore, and it's going to take a whole lot of work on my part to change my life... especially here in the Big Easy!  I have to figure out a way to exist in this city and regain my healthy lifestyle as well.  I'd be fooling myself if I made some dumb pact to quit partying and indulging all together, but I'm going to have to figure a way to balance a healthy lifestyle with all the joys living in the Big Easy has to offer.

So first step to this journey was remove the biggest source of stress, my job... and check... I did!  Well, at least I took a big step in the right direction by finding a new school for next year that seems to be much better organized, supportive, and much less stressful.

Next I had to deal with my shoulder, I couldn't live on pain killers forever, and I want to be able to exercise and be active again, so April 20th I finally had the surgery that I've been putting off far too long.  I'm currently about 11 days post surgery, and I'm starting to feel better already.  I truly think that with physical therapy I'll be back to my old self in a month or two.. Hooray!

Then, I had to get back into the swing of things that make me happy.. my garden looks great, I've started making wine, I'm reading, I'm writing, and I'm looking into doing lots more crafts, maybe even some that could bring in some extra income.

Finally, I have to lose the weight... and after a lot of thought.. I decided to get a little help.  I've tried diets in the past, but I just seem to get frustrated with them or give up on them.  So, after seeing two of my best friends have incredible success with weight loss recently, I followed their lead and went to an Aspen Clinic today.  Now, medical weight loss.. I'm sure many people might say it's not healthy or it's cheating or whatever.. and if you think that.. good for you.. but I know myself.. and I know I need a kickstart to get my ass up and running again.  I've got a plan to not just take pills, but change the way I eat, drink, and exercise.. The pills are just a boost, the lifestyle change is the true thing that will give me success.

So, here goes nothing... I've got a lot of work to do.. but I think I'm definitely headed in the right direction.. me and this city can live harmoniously.. I've just got to control the beast that is living Toooooo Easy... in the Big Easy!