After dragging Lori on a mission through Amherst and sending my former boss on hunts for it when he was travelling, I have in my possession a jar of Barney Butter.
It’s kind of amazing brilliant. Seriously the best almond butter I’ve ever had.
It has lived up to the bloggy hype and I think I’m going to need to ration it so that I don’t eat the whole jar by the end of the day weekend.
I am a very happy girl.
I’m a gluten free, vegan, Weight Watchers Leader, holistic nutrition student with Crohn’s Disease. 
Like when we’re making plans to go out.
Or talking about what I do in life.
Or even just choosing a restaurant.
And in all honesty, how do you come off telling someone all of those things without sounding just a little nutty? (Especially when you go on to tell them that you even write a blog about the whole thing??)
I always took for granted that Joey met me the week I joined Weight Watchers and embraced my changes in eating as they happened. In dating new people, it has been an interesting experience to get to explain all of these things to people without the same background knowledge.
How much is too much?
In my meetings I always joke that I tell everyone in the world that I’m on Weight Watchers. I have always been a very open person and I’m pretty transparent about the fact that I’m gluten free and vegan and that I make these choices as a result of having Crohn's. (heck, I write a blog about the whole thing, don’t I?) I recognize that not everyone is as open as I am, and that my candour might be a little much for some, but I like to think that if someone is going to want to date me, that they will embrace everything about me. And if not, their loss.
Communication is key.
Now you might not want to come out and tell the person within 4 minutes of meeting them that you’re trying to lose weight (or vegan or whatever), but you also want to be honest about who you truly are. Your personality is going to be part of the reason that they want to date you in the first place, right? So don’t act like you’re ashamed of losing weight or love of exercise (because you’re making a healthy change in your life!) or the way you eat (because it works for you!) or how you live your life (because you’re trying to be the best you you can be!) There are maybe some things that can be saved for date #2, 5 or 12 (I try to skimp on the details of my Crohn’s diagnosis…) but I strongly believe that communication is really important
So, um, what do you eat?
If I haven’t scared someone off with my list of things I don’t eat, I make some suggestions on places to go and so far I’ve found people to be very accommodating and willing to try new things.This is awesome, because I’m not going to want to date someone who doesn’t “get it” and badgers me into a steakhouse or an all-you-can-eat buffet because Fresh or Live or Lady Marmalade doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Doing Weight Watchers? Maybe Jack Astors and the 51-Point “Grilled Salmon Provencal” might not be the best choice. Vegan? Barbarian’s steak house isn’t gonna work. Gluten free? No thanks on the all-you-can-eat-white-pasta. There are casual ways to make your opinions known and be confident enough to suggest places that will cater to your needs, so you’ll have one less thing to stress about on your date.
Now what?
So you’ve gotten past date #1.
You enjoy this person’s company.
Date #2 or 4 or 7 is on the horizon… what do you do?
Just be yourself.
In everything that I’ve done in my life, this is probably one of the greatest lessons that I’ve learned whether it be on a date, a job interview, an audition or in life in general. Your personality with all its quirks and nuances makes you unique and with the billions of people in the world (and 2.5 million people in Toronto alone) it is going to stand you apart from the crowd. If you’re hiding part of yourself because of how you think this new person might react, it will probably just come back to bite you in the butt, and why would you want to waste time hiding the “real you” whilst getting to know this new person anyway? If they’re worth your time, they will be understanding, making them even sexier than they originally appeared.
So before you date me, you should know that…
I’m just me.
Take it or leave it.
How have your lifestyle choices impacted your dating life? Single peeps – how do you tell new people about your dietary/food/etc. choices? Coupled peeps – how have your significant others dealt with any lifestyle changes you’ve made? What words of advice would you offer to anyone who is in dating land and disclosing things like losing weight, veganism or other lifestyle choices?
I was killing a bit of time in Indigo the other night (before seeing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which was awesome!) and couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the number of diet and nutrition books that the store had on its shelves. 
The experience brought me back to the simplicity of a great Michael Pollan quote:
”Eat good food. Not too much. Mostly plants”
What else is there beyond that in food land? Obviously lifestyle choices, behaviours, feelings, emotions and exercise are all going to play into a healthy lifestyle (which is why I still love Weight Watchers after 4 years of following the program) but I’ve realized that the gimmicky stuff doesn’t turn me on, nor do I believe that it has staying power. Lately I’ve just been trying to listen to my body and nourish it the best ways I know how:
See this sweaty (but smiling) face? 
Attack & Flow on Sunday
a run on Monday
Boot Camp on Tuesday
Bellydancing on Wednesday
Attack & yoga on Thursday
I even went back to Attack & Flow yesterday in addition to all of this. I don’t think I’ve ever been so active in one week!! It’s so unlike me, but I’m loving it. I think it might be a new trend.
Coupled with numerous check-ins with this lovely lady:
I pretty much rocked this week. This Ashley show is serious business and as a result I’m feeling amazing. Love the feeling of accountability and looking forward to another awesome week! 
Ladies & gentlemen (Gentleman? Are there guys who read this blog?) Welcome to Post #300. 
Some things that I’ve learned along the way…
I often walk away from my Weight Watchers meetings quoting things that my members have said, revelling in their wisdom and shared experiences. On Saturday one of my members said [after talking about choices she had made during the week] “It’s the ____ show and I’m in charge of my choices”. It really resonated with me because I’ve been f---ing up the Ashley show something big lately and I need to step up my game and be accountable for my choices. I have learned way too much and worked too hard to backtrack and I’m not a particularly passive person in ANYTHING that I do. After all, my motto for 2010 was "Go big or go home", so here goes nothing.
This means that May is going to be a month of me holding myself accountable to my choices with food and activity. Lindsay and I have been sending one another nightly accountability emails for the past few weeks and her support is really helping me to stay on track. On Sunday I hit the gym for BodyFlow and my first ever BodyAttack class in an effort to kick start my week with a healthy dose of exercise. I LOVED BodyAttack!! I will definitely be doing this class more often. After doing Boot Camp for the last 8 weeks, I felt confident in my ability to do a lot of the moves (including lots of push-ups on my toes!) and enjoyed the energy of the instructor and participants in the class. I will definitely be doing Attack again.
And more FIT CHICKS.
And more bellydancing.
And making good choices with food.
And being kind to myself through talking about my feelings, journaling, spending time with people I love and getting enough rest and “me time”.
These are all things I can do, and I’m excited to do them.
Here’s to post #301 and beyond!!
