When I first started trying to lose weight, I found an excellent app for my phone to use as a guideline and tracker to what I ate: how many calories, fat grams, protein, sugar, carbs, etc were consumed each day. It was free and I still use it. I mentioned it before in a previous blog, but in case you missed it, it is called My Fitness Pal. As a perk, you can also add exercise types done each day and it will keep track of the calories burned. I learned a LOT about food that way. You just scan the UPC of what you are going to eat and it automatically keeps track of the totals each day. You can also enter and save your own recipes that you use frequently or do a search of the online database to find the food you are going to eat.
A funny thing happened when I started using it regularly...I started reading labels at the store. Looking for low fat, low cal, low sodium and high protein foods. My diet subsequently changed for the better. I was always looking to stay at the recommended dietary numbers for the day.
I also started planning my meals. Pre-entering the food I was going to eat for the day so I could make sure I had enough calories available.
Lunch for me became a whole wheat english muffin with either almond butter or peanut butter, 2 hard boiled eggs (great source of protein!), some veggies like baby carrots and hot tea with honey.
Snack became nuts (like almonds) or low fat popcorn or dried fruit like cranberries.
Dinner was whatever I was cooking for the family...spaghetti, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup...but I started buying whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread and the healthier options of groceries.
One thing I have to mention- I never deprived myself. If I wanted lasagna with oozing cheese, I ate it. If I wanted a cookie, I ate it. It was all about moderation for me. I feel that if you deprive yourself, you are only going to want it worse and you wont be successful in keeping your weight off.
When I had my assessment recently at the gym, I had to write down a typical daily menu. My trainer noticed that I havent been eating breakfast. I told him it was because when I got up in the morning, I took Healthe Trim. After that, you need to wait 2-3 hours to eat and with the appetite suppression from the pills and getting busy with the kids, by the time I got hungry it was lunch.
He then gave me this example and suggested that to get body results I want, I should overhaul how much and how frequently I eat:
When a bear gets up in the morning what does it do? It goes and catches fish and gorges itself for the day. What kind of animal is a bear? It is a huge animal. Lots of bulk. Typically pretty slow moving.
What does a Gazelle do? It grazes all day...What kind of animal is it? Powerful and lean and fast.
This was kind of a reality check for me. You always hear that you should eat 5-6 smaller meals a day. "Yeah yeah" I would say...It never really made sense until Eric put it that way to me. 3 fist sized meals with 2 snacks between is what he suggested.
So today I trekked out with the kids to Meijer to get supplies for my diet overhaul. I picked up one of my favorite snacks: Emerald cocoa roasted almonds. A great source of protein and gives me the chocolate that I sometimes crave.
I found a recipe on Pinterest for a "shrek" shake. It is supposed to help your hair, skin and also help you lose weight. It is fresh spinach, banana, frozen mango and frozen peaches. It gets its name because the spinach turned the shake bright green! I plan on having one of those for breakfast. Its also a great way to sneak spinach to the kids too. They love the shake!
I also picked up flaxseed oil to add to some of the Flat Belly shake recipes I found.
I am going to try really hard to graze instead of eating just 2 meals a day and also incorporate breakfast back into my daily routine. I will be very interested to see if it impacts my toning and weight loss goals. My trainer seemed to think it will. We want to keep my metabolism going to eventually get me completely off the Healthe Trim.
So in ending todays blog entry, I decided that I want to try to include fun tips, tricks and recipes I find along the way...
Shrek Shake-
1-2 bananas
1/2 cp frozen mangos
1/2 cp frozen peaches
approx. 2 handfuls fresh spinach
water (just a smidge to help it blend)
ice (if desired)
Really yummy and really filling. I have a small "Bullet" blender so I used 1 banana, 1 handful of spinach, 4 pcs mango and 4 pcs of peach. ENJOY!
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