A New Way to Eat

I mentioned in a previous post that thin is a choice and a lifestyle. I don't want to have to think about my eating choices (i.e. be on a diet) every day for the rest of my life, in order to stay at a size I feel comfortable in. I want to have healthy habits in place so I don't have to think about it. For example:

• Eat more whole grain: whole wheat bread, brown rice, oatmeal, and whole wheat pasta.
  
• Eat more fruits and veggies. I try to prepare two vegetables with every dinner. Dr. Phil's suggestion was to divide your plate: FIll half your plate with non-starchy veggies, 1/4 of your plate with a starchy carb, and 1/4 of your plate with a lean protein.
• I drink only water. I don't like milk, except on cereal (or with ooey-gooey brownies!!), and I don't think diet soda is good for you. We have juice occasionally, but I try to serve fruit instead.
• I am off sugar right now, but it's mainly so I can keep nursing Evy. (I was feeling the thrush sensations I'm all-too-familiar-with return.) My ultimate goal with sugar is to be satisfied with a small, occasional treat. I love them too much to think I could give them up completely. I used to avoid sugar all week and let myself enjoy them on the weekends. That worked for me for a while. Eliminating any sugar from your diet will benefit you and your waistline, not to mention your overall health. When I'm off sugar, my stomach feels so much happier, my brain feels clearer, and I feel more energetic.
  
• Check out the following list from Dr. Phil's book. The point of this list, in my view, is to see that the small choices we make every day can have a big impact on our long-term weight maintenance.

• Have a plan: a substitute food or activity for a weight-gaining behavior. For example, low-fat popcorn instead of chips. Brush your teeth to avoid night-time eating. Chew gum, go on a walk, take a shower, etc.
  
• Allow yourself that occasional splurge. I ate pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. And not just one piece. If I never splurge, I get bitter and then I rebel. This is not a diet. This is my life, and I want to eat sweets. They just need to be in moderation. I'm still working on the moderation thing. And probably will be forever!
  

Most importantly, don't try to tackle it all at once. Pick one habit you want to implement, and work on that until you're pretty good at it. Then pick another one to work on. If you try to take on too much, you'll get burned out and discouraged.

Scribbit wrote a fabulous post about her healthy-lifestyle tips here.

Get-Real Weight

I'm a fan of Dr. Phil. I was even on his show once. Well, I was in the audience and they showed my picture twice, and that's as close to being on his show as I ever hope to be. Unless, of course, he's giving me a week-long spa vacation in Hawaii for being such a wonderful person.

His book, "The Ultimate Weight Solution Food Guide" has what I consider the most reliable Body Weight Guide I've ever seen.

Most Body Weight Charts I've seen say that as a 6' tall female, I should weigh around 150-160. After I had JuJu, I worked hard and got to what I felt like was a great size and weight for me: 170 and a loose 12. That's my goal now, and even though I'm 6 pounds from that weight, I'm a size 14, so I still have several inches to lose.

What's your Get-Real Weight?

Granola

Erin asked for my unsweetened granola recipe. A few months ago, when I was trying to find things to eat that didn't have sugar, I looked online and found recipes made with apple juice concentrate, dried fruit, and artificial sweeteners. On a yeast-free diet, at least in the beginning stages, you aren't supposed to eat sugar in any form, including fruit. So I just made my favorite granola recipe and omitted the sugar. I posted my two favorites here and here. In the end, I started adding just a little sugar, up to about 1/4 of the total sugar. I will never make it with all the sugar again, though, because I prefer it with less.

Off Sweets?

Lara the Lazy Organizer suggested we go off sweets together. Which I was already sort of planning on doing, thanks to the thrush symptoms I've felt the last few days. Blech. Ick. Ugh. Argh. Grrr.

I hate being off sweets. I feel so deprived. Then I rebel, and it's not pretty. The thing is ... I feel so in control when I'm off sugar. It's almost like I can think more clearly. So why I wouldn't want to feel this way all the time, is beyond me.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a list of some of the foods I ate that helped me make it through the 2 months I was off sugar this summer.

• Celery and natural peanut butter - yum
• I learned that when I was craving sweets, it was usually because I was hungry. So I would eat a sandwich, or a breakfast burrito, or any type of substantial meal (not snacky) and then I wouldn't be hungry, and the craving was more or less gone.
• If I felt really deprived, I would "splurge" with a Whopper Jr. It filled me up and was tasty, so I felt like I was spoiling myself.
• Plain Cheerios with vanilla soymilk. When you aren't eating sugar, the 1 gram of sugar in Cheerios tastes plenty sweet. And the vanilla soymilk tastes sweeter than regular milk. (I'm slightly lactose-intolerant, and I just prefer soymilk now.)
• Almonds
• Rice Crackers with Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese

The thing is, I was eating lots of things considered "high-fat," and maybe not recommended for weight-loss, but because I had to cut out so many things (thanks the yeast-free diet I was on) I was losing weight like crazy.

From the middle of July to the middle of August I lost 10 pounds. In the second sugar-free month, I lost 8 pounds. And then, the thrush was gone, and I more or less plateaued for 2 months. Because all of a sudden I allowed myself to eat all the usual snacky things that I enjoy.

The trick is to have foods that you love on hand for when you get a sugar craving. Drink some water. Eat some real food. Take a shower. It will pass. At least that's what I'll tell myself as I dive head first into a yeast-free diet again. Argh.

Keep On Keepin' On

I struggle to remember that even when I have a rotten weekend such as this last one, that it's not as if all my efforts for the past several months are lost. So I ate a few hundred extra calories. Maybe even 1000 extra calories. So what! I don't beat myself up, I don't even try to "make up for it" at the gym. I just keep on keepin' on. Measuring myself tonight was very encouraging. Even though I ate like a not-thin person this weekend, I have worked hard and am still slightly smaller than I was a few weeks ago.

Keep on keepin' on!

I Choose Thin!

I am a very judgmental person. Sometimes when I'm in the grocery store and I see someone who is grossly overweight, I can't stop myself from looking in their grocery cart!! (Will you still be my friend now that you know one of my sins?) And 99 times out of 100 it is full of soda (diet or regular), boxed foods, frozen meals, and sweets. And then, just to be judgmentally fair, I sneak a peak in the carts of thin, in-shape people. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies, high-fiber cereals, and whole-grain breads and pastas.

I have thought a lot about this strange "coincidence" I've found at the grocery store. Thin is a lifestyle. Dieting doesn't work. Consistently choosing THIN is the only way to be so.

Here are a few of my THIN mantras and rules:

• Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.
• In the words of my friend Caryn: "it helps if you get used to eating foods that aren't super yummy for most of your breakfasts and lunches. They're still good, just not taste bud bustin' good ... it's not like we entertain ourselves with a daily trip to Disney land... so why would we dazzle our taste buds at every opportunity? If it's delicious, I want to eat MORE of it!" One thing that I eat is oatmeal for breakfast. It's not "taste-bud bustin' good", but good enough, and it's good for me. I put as little sugar as I can stand, and add lots of cinnamon and nutmeg (which make it taste sweeter).
  
• Sweets are an occasional indulgence. Key word is "occasional".
• If I goof up, even numerous times over a few days -- like this Halloween weekend -- I start over right away! Or maybe a better way to say it is "I keep going with my healthy lifestyle" -- since I'm not on a diet, I'm living! And if I want to be fit and thin I don't wait until "next week" or even "tomorrow", I start over keep living the vida THIN right away. "That KitKat (or 5, or 10 mini KitKats, as the case may be) was divine. Yum! What healthy meal should I plan for dinner?"

I choose thin!