Let me clear the air by first saying the title of this post is not questioning if you should eat or not, starving yourself is NEVER the answer. Even if in the short run it delivers results, the damage you do to your body for the long haul will eventually manifest itself and it is not pretty, it WILL come back and bite you in the butt, if not by weight gain it will be by screwing with your metabolism and the healthy and proper function of your internal organs (proven science here people). That is why you will never hear me promote something like the HCG diet. Someone mentions that diet to you I want you to tuck tail and run, get as far away from that stuff as possible. People doing diets such as the HCG are literally starving themselves (500 calories a day sometimes for more than 45 days) and yeah we have all heard of such huge successes stories I am sure but most of the people I know who have done it end up gaining all or most of the weight back almost immediately or over the span of a year or two. Thus is the result of fad diets. Dieting is not just about losing weight, imprint that in your mind right now, it is not all about weight loss. People who do HCG and starve themselves may be losing weight but is it healthy? What about organs like your heart and brain that depend on a certain amount of healthy fat to function normally? These are things to consider whenever we are putting food in our mouths or restricting calories.
To eat or not to eat is rather a question you should ask pertaining to individual items every time you go to put something in your mouth. For example your hubby brought home a box of donuts and plopped them on the counter. You are starving and while talking to him about his day you walk over and help yourself to a donut or two because they are just so dang good, and after all you deserve it right? I know I am not alone when I admit I was not, and still am not always, a conscientious eater. But if you choose to think about every item you put in your mouth down to taking a bite of an ice cream sandwich you can easily change your eating habits. Instead of just mindlessly grabbing the donut before you put it to your mouth ask; To eat or not to eat and WHY? Why do I want the donut? Is it because I am hungry or do I have the munchies or am I just craving sugar or is it just because it was there? If you analyze your thoughts process a lot of times you will come to realize that your reasons for the donut aren't the best and while you sit there like Jekyll and Hyde contemplating a donut soon enough you will drive yourself crazy and realize that donut is just not worth the insanity. lol All joking aside if people truly pay attention to the items they eat it really can open up their eyes not only to their REAL caloric intake but to the quality of those calories.
This is why I am a HUGE promoter of keeping a food journal and I encourage everyone participating in this Fit at Home Mom program to keep one. A food journal is simple, find a note book and commit to writing down EVERYTHING you stick in your mouth. If you breakdown and eat some potato chips then count them and write: 13 potato chips. It may seem a little over the top but if you want to change your body a huge part of it, if not most of it comes from what you eat. At the end of the day if you analyse your journal you can begin to see where you maybe did not make the best choices and then plan ahead for the next day of what you can substitute. If you make decisions ahead of time when it comes time to make the choice it is so much easier because you have already made it. When I first started this method I would even write down how many calories things were, so if I grabbed those 13 potato chips I read the label to see how many calories 13 chips would be. It did not take long to see how quickly I could push past my daily caloric intake or how quickly I would reach it and still be hungry.
I am not here to tell everyone what foods you should all have in your homes but I will tell you that when I made the decision to only do all natural and organic foods in my home for my entire family I really no longer had to keep a food journal. A lot of people say, well I can't afford natural and organic (not everything in my home is organic but everything is at least natural) but you would be surprised with a little bit of effort how affordable it is. I feed a family of 7 all natural and organic on a budget of $200 a week for grocery or $1000.00 a month, this is my food budget. But keep in mind I am feeding a family of 7 three meals a day including snack( I pack my husbands and kids lunches). Now we don't all live in the same area and so resources play a huge factor in this, however I imagine that everyone has access to a place with fruits and vegetables. My fridge is FULL of fruits and vegetables! My pantry has things like whole wheat products, beans, quinoa, whole wheat flour and stuff like that. All these things are full of fiber, and vitamins and minerals and will leave you feeling full and your body will be energized. Obviously I do A LOT of cooking and baking because I have mostly ingredients and not packaged foods (I have some just not a lot)
Now am I saying I NEVER have junk or a treat. Nope actually yesterday I made chocolate chips cookies for my family and I ate one,(okay two)! I do not think you should completely deny yourself everything, it will leave you feeling depressed but keep in mind that if everything is done with moderation it will lead to a healthier you.
So here is what a day in my food journal looks like -( I picked a random day from a month ago because I am not as consistent with my journal anymore)
Breakfast
Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese
1 cup fresh pineapple
Fresh juice -orange,apple, carrot (I juice these items for my family in the mornings)
2 handfuls of organic carrots
Lunch
Spinach, onion and apple salad with poppy seed dressing
Cheese stick
Leftover 1/2 whole wheat peanut butter and jelly sandwich (typical mom playing vulture and cleaning up what my kids didn't eat, but careful with this cause it can get ya)
apple
Dinner
Cafe Rio Burritos (homemade) - Mine had
1 whole wheat tortilla, black beans, cilantro lime quinoa, sauteed bell pepper and onions and homemade salsa
(I will be giving this recipe this week, so yummy and so versatile and works great for left overs to eat for lunch)
1 small homemade brownie
Some things to note about this day, I did not eat any meat, I am not vegetarian but I do not eat meat everyday. However I got plenty of protein from the beans and quinoa that day. Another thing to do is write down that day if you were hungry and when. I had a smiling face at the bottom of this page which meant I went to bed feeling full. Also it is great to write down your water intake along with it. I no longer do this because I drink between 70 and 90 ounces of water EVERYDAY! I will talk more about this in a post coming Thursday. But keep in mind that a large water intake helps with not being hungry especially when eating all these items which have high fiber.
So for those of you wondering what you should be eating and what your caloric intake should be for losing weight. Well there is not one answer for everyone unfortunately but there are some general guidelines you can follow and then tweak and experiment until you get the correct formula for your body.
Generally when women want to lose weight they should reduce their calorie intake into a range of 1200 to 1600 calories a day, you need to factor in how active you are.Women should never drop below 1200 calories a day this would qualify as starving yourself. (I will do a post on the benefits of intermittent fasting, I do this but it is different then starving yourself) If you make sure your calories are from first fruits and vegetables, then carbs like breads as well as beans and pastas and protein and fats then this will help to keep your calories down. If you always eat fruits and vegetables before anything else you will find you fill up before you take in too many starches or sugars. When first starting to control your eating do things like keep a bowl of baby carrots on the counter or an apple, if you start to feel hungry tell yourself you must eat the bowl of carrots before you get into the pantry or fridge. You will find that if you do this you will either fill up and are no longer hungry or you have satisfied your munchies or you will eat less of whatever you decide to move onto.
I am not an absolute saint when it comes to eating, I fall off the wagon here and there just like the next person but I find that more and more I have less desire for food that is processed or junk or sugary because of how I feel when I eat the right stuff. I also have a much easier time bouncing back after a binge because the binge is short lived and makes me not want to fall of the wagon again because I feel gross. It really is a detox process to get all the refined sugars and starches and such out of your system but once you do you will find the cravings and addictions go WAY down and it make eating healthy so much easier. Now my version of falling off the wagon is sooooo much different then before and people would laugh at what I deem an eating spree
One more thing to consider. It is truly wise to apply these changes not just for you but for your family. I have done the "this is what I make my family and then try and restrain myself to my little salad while I watch them eating cheese enchiladas and cake" scenario. This is difficult and is too hard if not impossible to sustain. But if you change your entire families eating over all the sudden it is not such a struggle to fix dinner because everyone can partake. I had an epiphany when I changed our food over and realized, why would I only eat these things for myself? Don't I want my children to be healthy and NOT have to deal with weight issues when they are older. Why feed them junk now just so they have to eventually diet and change habit's when they are older? Doesn't make sense, yet we do it ALL the time. We diet and refrain from what we feed our family but if we would feed our family healthy portions of fruits vegetables, whole grains and lean protein and healthy fats (you do need fats in your diet especially kids) then we all stay healthy together at the same time teaching our children and particularly our girls what healthy eating is so if they become mothers they hopefully struggle less with the postpartum weight loss most of us do. Save your kids the trouble now and commit your family to healthy eating, your body and theirs will thank you for it!
* Specific diet changes and how to make them for not just you but your family posting next week
No comments:
Post a Comment