 |
|
Join
the Something Uncomfortable movement
on Facebook:
|
I
recently had a friend tell me that she wants to overhaul her eating habits. She
is overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to start. We are meeting next week so she
can pick my brain and ask me questions about what I have done to get where I’m
at.
 |
| Lt: Summer 2009, almost 1 year after baby #2. Rt: Oct 2012 - 15 mos after learning how to
eat right, exercising regularly and improving my overall health. |
Obviously,
I’ve been thinking a lot about it and thought it might be helpful to come up
with my top five things that I have changed in my diet that have led to a
healthier me.
- STOP DRINKING SODA. It’s poison… glorious, tasty, addictive poison. I drank 2-3 Sam’s Club cups of regular Cherry-Coke for years. Oh.my.goodness!! I get the “need” for the bubbly. But it’s so not worth it. Most soda contains artificial food coloring. The bubbles bloat you. Caffeine can cause breast tenderness and other problems. Of course the calories in regular soda are just stupid crazy. In general, it’s definitely NOT making you feel better or live healthier.
- COUNT CALORIES. There are NO quick fixes to weight loss and maintenance. It’s all about calories in verses calories out. If you want to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. If you want to maintain your weight, you must burn the same amount of calories that you consume. It’s as simple (and difficult) as that. I had no idea how to eat properly until I started using MyFitnessPal. You can learn more about that process here.
- DITCH THE DYES. Artificial food coloring is also poison. It’s made from petroleum. Would you eat Vaseline? Um, no. Right? So why do food manufacturers put petroleum based food coloring in our foods? If you avoid the dyes, you will be eating more whole foods. It’s a win-win situation really. You can learn why we started avoiding the stuff here.
- EAT AS MUCH ORGANIC AS YOU CAN AFFORD. But don’t beat yourself up over what you can’t. Milk and processed snack foods are my top two. If it’s going to be processed, I want it to have as few chemicals in it as possible. And regular milk has hormones and other nastiness in it. God knows, I don’t need any unsolicited hormones going into my body.
- TREAT YOURSELF. Seriously. All this business about not being able to eat fat or carbohydrates or sugar is insane. We need all of that stuff. We just need to know how to eat it properly. Again, count calories and you’ll start to figure that part out. So if you like candy-coffee, like I do… drink it! Or if you like chocolate… eat it! Or if you like holiday cookies… bake them! Just do it all in moderation.
Am
I saying anything you haven’t heard before? NO. That’s because proper diet,
exercise, healthy foods and eating in moderation have always worked.
My advice: take it slow. Tackle one thing at a time. And don’t beat yourself up when you mess up. Life happens and sometime a good old-fashioned binge on M&Ms makes us feel better. Just don’t let yourself stay there. That’s when we get in trouble and that’s why I weigh myself every morning (as non-neurotically as this OCD perfectionist can do it). Monitoring my weight daily holds me accountable and keeps me on track because I only gain weight when I’m not eating healthy.
My advice: take it slow. Tackle one thing at a time. And don’t beat yourself up when you mess up. Life happens and sometime a good old-fashioned binge on M&Ms makes us feel better. Just don’t let yourself stay there. That’s when we get in trouble and that’s why I weigh myself every morning (as non-neurotically as this OCD perfectionist can do it). Monitoring my weight daily holds me accountable and keeps me on track because I only gain weight when I’m not eating healthy.
I hope this helps. And I pray that you will be blessed with good physical health in this new year!
Good post. I started doing most of that three years ago this month. I'm a mid-40's guy who's been heavy/overweight for a decade after being pretty athletic into my early 30's.
ReplyDelete-I wasn't a big soda junkie (and only Diet Coke anyhow), so cutting back wasn't that hard. Today, I probably have 4 or so per week.
-Started tracking calories & exercise on Livestrong (free and available for a few bucks for iPhone, Android and Blackberry). This was, I think, the biggest key to dropping pounds.
-Haven't had a Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, Health Choice frozen meal since 1/10.
-Don't really try to go organic, but do try to stay away from processed stuff. I try to drink less milk, substituting it with Silk (my daughter was allergic to milk, so we'd buy it for her and I just started drinking it, too).
-Haven't given up ANYTHING, just have less of whatever I do have (including alcohol- LOTS of empty calories there, although they can be fun ones). When I eat out, if I'm going to be 'bad', I try to eat only half the entree (and don't beat myself up if I don't).
-Dropped 50+ pounds by that October. I have put about about 20 since (mostly in the last year because I scaled way back on the exercise), and am now on my 'final assault' to drop the last 30.
-For exercise, I mixed up treadmill and jogging outside. I typically did 3 miles and/or 45 minutes 4 times a week. Occasionally I'd do 5 miles.
So, with some dedication, commitment, and an eye on the prize, it's possible to make long-term changes.