I've had a lot of questions (and praise from my amazing followers!) lately about how I lost weight and learned to be healthy. The first thing I have to say about this is; Thank You! Thanks to all of the people that I love dearly (mainly my husband) that put up with my cooking trials, with cutting out all the "bad things" from our cupboards, and mostly for him loving me everyday regardless of how I have ever felt about my own self image.
I've never been what I would consider big, but I have had some periods where I knew that I was bigger than I was comfortable with. I grew up being super athletic, we hiked every weekend, I played about 10 different sports before and after school, and was involved in several high caliber sports teams throughout my teen years. When I moved away to go to university I played rugby, and was still fairly active, but I also had a fairly sedentary part time job, and couldn't always afford the healthy, and wonderful foods I had grown up with. As many 19-year-olds might do when forced to live alone, cook their own meals, while taking 5 classes, many with labs, working 20 hours a week and trying to keep up a social life and still get passing grades, I found the most amazing thing: The Frozen Pizza. It took virtually no effort, no time, and I still got full every day. I found may days to consist of:
Breakfast: 2-3 cups of STRONG black coffee, usually chugged lukewarm, sometimes followed by two spoonfuls of last nights dinner and a sip of juice.
Lunch: nothing, or whatever was in my bag, but most likely FREE cookies/muffins/donuts I found on campus
Dinner: something quick, such as pizza, KD, grilled cheese, frozen chicken & frozen veggies (with salsa & melted cheese) along with a slew of other not so healthy items.
I was still working out a whole bunch thanks to my rugby team, but wasn't eating the way I had always eaten, and it was certainly starting to take a toll on my body. I found myself buying things I had never before had in my life, poptarts, fruitloops (it may have fruit in the name, but they are certainly anything but fruit!), microwaveable lunches... It took a couple years of this food abuse before my body finally said "Enough!", but by that point it was too late. I had started working more and running less, gained 25lbs, I couldn't run 10km anymore, and none of my pants fit. It was a typical "Freshmen 15", that happened to occur in my third to fifth years of university,and was a wee bit more than 15 pounds. My first reaction was to just be bummed about the whole thing, and buy new pants. Which is exactly what I did. I rationalized, that well, I wasn't that big, and I really was busy, and that this is just one of those things that happens with age. In this time I also broke my leg twice and managed to tear a couple of ligaments in my ankle, so I felt that running wasn't something that I could do anymore. That thought made me sad, since running used to be my first love, and the thing that could take away any bad day. It wasn't until I extrapolated how much I would weigh at 30 and 40 (based on how much I had gained per year since I was 18) that it really hit home, that I couldn't keep going how I was going. So I saw a surgeon about getting my torn ligaments fixed, and vowed that I would never be as unhealthy as I currently was again.
For me the biggest part about getting healthy was to set a goal to get healthy, and not worry so much about the pounds. I see so many women focused solely on losing weight; to the point that they forget about getting healthy and do nothing more than limit their fat and calories. I know a few girls who have successfully "gotten healthy" by chain smoking, drinking coffee and eating french fries. Unfortunately, just because you can fit into size 2 plants does not make you the model of health and fitness. The time I decided to get back on the fitness wagon somewhat coincided with buying a wedding dress. This was mostly a bad thing, because initially I spent more time fixating on waist size rather than health. I was determined to fit into the dress, and for a few months struggled to just be healthy, and fixated on the scale. It wasn't until after the wedding, when there was less pressure to fit into the dress that I really worked on being healthy. For me this meant several things; diet, exercise and mental well being. When it comes to health our minds can be a powerful weapon, or our own worst enemy.
The first thing I started doing was tracking what I was putting into my body. There was several reasons for this:
1) To find out what I really was eating
2) To find out when I was eating what I was eating
3) To start working on how to count calories and change my diet
Firstly, I was surprised how often I was idly eating. A few crackers when I walked by the kitchen on my way to take something out of the freezer for dinner, some candied nuts from the dish in our living room. A handful of chocolate chips while thinking about homework and so on. Although I was mostly eating good, healthy well balanced meals, it was the not so good stuffing my mouth without thinking about it that wasn't helping.
Number 2 on this list was very important. I found that throughout the day I was pretty reasonable with eating. I've never been a breakfast person, and as such I usually just have some fruit, a smoothie, homemade granola or something small. I usually snacked a little between breakfast and lunch, ate a very reasonably portioned lunch and we often cooked normally portioned healthy dinner. However, I discovered that I spent a lot more time snacking after supper than I had though. And it wasn't always healthy snacks. We have always been snack before bed people, and although sometimes it would be healthy cereal with skim milk, it could just as easily be crackers and cheese, or some nacho chips and salsa, or leftover dessert that was in the fridge.
Knowing exactly what I was eating was integral to figuring out how to change was I was eating for the better. The first thing I did was meal plan. Sometimes when you get really hungry its easier to just snack on something easy while you think about what to eat. Whereas when I planned meals it certainly made it a bit easier to eat right most of the time. This mostly included packing my lunch the night before (so I wouldn't need to be tempted to buy something on the way out the door) and making sure there was lots of fresh fruits and veggies for smoothies. Our home wasn't full of unhealthy foods like chips and pop, but there were still some areas that needed improvement.
For all you beginners to dieting, don't think of getting healthy as a diet. A diet is simply what you eat, not starving yourself or only eating lettuce. Think of this change as a lifestyle improvement, one step towards a healthy new you! The trick is to eat REAL food. The less packaging the better. A good rule of thumb, if you can't pronounce all of the ingredients (or don't know what they are) put it back. The less processed a food is, the better it is for you (yes this includes zero calorie sweeteners, they are really no good for you). Another important message isn't to skip fat, just make sure you're eating healthy ones. Healthy fats are the ones that we find in vegetables (think avocado, olive oils) and lean meats, like fish. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having some fat in your diet (in fact its a very good thing when it comes to digestion and sugar storage), just make sure its the right kind. Avoid trans-fats (those are the bad fats) which we find in hamburger meat, as well as hydrogenated oils (like many margarines). They really are just canola oil, which is not meant to be solid at room temperature, so a chemical process known as hydrolysis is done. This basically adds more hydrogen (hence hydrogenated) to keep an oil solid at room temp.
When thinking about foods, keep it real, your plate should be at least HALF vegetables at supper time, and at least half of every other meal should be fruits or veggies. Other than that, lean proteins, healthy grains and some dairy (or substitute) to help keep your bones strong!
I've never been what I would consider big, but I have had some periods where I knew that I was bigger than I was comfortable with. I grew up being super athletic, we hiked every weekend, I played about 10 different sports before and after school, and was involved in several high caliber sports teams throughout my teen years. When I moved away to go to university I played rugby, and was still fairly active, but I also had a fairly sedentary part time job, and couldn't always afford the healthy, and wonderful foods I had grown up with. As many 19-year-olds might do when forced to live alone, cook their own meals, while taking 5 classes, many with labs, working 20 hours a week and trying to keep up a social life and still get passing grades, I found the most amazing thing: The Frozen Pizza. It took virtually no effort, no time, and I still got full every day. I found may days to consist of:
Breakfast: 2-3 cups of STRONG black coffee, usually chugged lukewarm, sometimes followed by two spoonfuls of last nights dinner and a sip of juice.
Lunch: nothing, or whatever was in my bag, but most likely FREE cookies/muffins/donuts I found on campus
Dinner: something quick, such as pizza, KD, grilled cheese, frozen chicken & frozen veggies (with salsa & melted cheese) along with a slew of other not so healthy items.
I was still working out a whole bunch thanks to my rugby team, but wasn't eating the way I had always eaten, and it was certainly starting to take a toll on my body. I found myself buying things I had never before had in my life, poptarts, fruitloops (it may have fruit in the name, but they are certainly anything but fruit!), microwaveable lunches... It took a couple years of this food abuse before my body finally said "Enough!", but by that point it was too late. I had started working more and running less, gained 25lbs, I couldn't run 10km anymore, and none of my pants fit. It was a typical "Freshmen 15", that happened to occur in my third to fifth years of university,and was a wee bit more than 15 pounds. My first reaction was to just be bummed about the whole thing, and buy new pants. Which is exactly what I did. I rationalized, that well, I wasn't that big, and I really was busy, and that this is just one of those things that happens with age. In this time I also broke my leg twice and managed to tear a couple of ligaments in my ankle, so I felt that running wasn't something that I could do anymore. That thought made me sad, since running used to be my first love, and the thing that could take away any bad day. It wasn't until I extrapolated how much I would weigh at 30 and 40 (based on how much I had gained per year since I was 18) that it really hit home, that I couldn't keep going how I was going. So I saw a surgeon about getting my torn ligaments fixed, and vowed that I would never be as unhealthy as I currently was again.
For me the biggest part about getting healthy was to set a goal to get healthy, and not worry so much about the pounds. I see so many women focused solely on losing weight; to the point that they forget about getting healthy and do nothing more than limit their fat and calories. I know a few girls who have successfully "gotten healthy" by chain smoking, drinking coffee and eating french fries. Unfortunately, just because you can fit into size 2 plants does not make you the model of health and fitness. The time I decided to get back on the fitness wagon somewhat coincided with buying a wedding dress. This was mostly a bad thing, because initially I spent more time fixating on waist size rather than health. I was determined to fit into the dress, and for a few months struggled to just be healthy, and fixated on the scale. It wasn't until after the wedding, when there was less pressure to fit into the dress that I really worked on being healthy. For me this meant several things; diet, exercise and mental well being. When it comes to health our minds can be a powerful weapon, or our own worst enemy.
The first thing I started doing was tracking what I was putting into my body. There was several reasons for this:
1) To find out what I really was eating
2) To find out when I was eating what I was eating
3) To start working on how to count calories and change my diet
Firstly, I was surprised how often I was idly eating. A few crackers when I walked by the kitchen on my way to take something out of the freezer for dinner, some candied nuts from the dish in our living room. A handful of chocolate chips while thinking about homework and so on. Although I was mostly eating good, healthy well balanced meals, it was the not so good stuffing my mouth without thinking about it that wasn't helping.
Number 2 on this list was very important. I found that throughout the day I was pretty reasonable with eating. I've never been a breakfast person, and as such I usually just have some fruit, a smoothie, homemade granola or something small. I usually snacked a little between breakfast and lunch, ate a very reasonably portioned lunch and we often cooked normally portioned healthy dinner. However, I discovered that I spent a lot more time snacking after supper than I had though. And it wasn't always healthy snacks. We have always been snack before bed people, and although sometimes it would be healthy cereal with skim milk, it could just as easily be crackers and cheese, or some nacho chips and salsa, or leftover dessert that was in the fridge.
Knowing exactly what I was eating was integral to figuring out how to change was I was eating for the better. The first thing I did was meal plan. Sometimes when you get really hungry its easier to just snack on something easy while you think about what to eat. Whereas when I planned meals it certainly made it a bit easier to eat right most of the time. This mostly included packing my lunch the night before (so I wouldn't need to be tempted to buy something on the way out the door) and making sure there was lots of fresh fruits and veggies for smoothies. Our home wasn't full of unhealthy foods like chips and pop, but there were still some areas that needed improvement.
For all you beginners to dieting, don't think of getting healthy as a diet. A diet is simply what you eat, not starving yourself or only eating lettuce. Think of this change as a lifestyle improvement, one step towards a healthy new you! The trick is to eat REAL food. The less packaging the better. A good rule of thumb, if you can't pronounce all of the ingredients (or don't know what they are) put it back. The less processed a food is, the better it is for you (yes this includes zero calorie sweeteners, they are really no good for you). Another important message isn't to skip fat, just make sure you're eating healthy ones. Healthy fats are the ones that we find in vegetables (think avocado, olive oils) and lean meats, like fish. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having some fat in your diet (in fact its a very good thing when it comes to digestion and sugar storage), just make sure its the right kind. Avoid trans-fats (those are the bad fats) which we find in hamburger meat, as well as hydrogenated oils (like many margarines). They really are just canola oil, which is not meant to be solid at room temperature, so a chemical process known as hydrolysis is done. This basically adds more hydrogen (hence hydrogenated) to keep an oil solid at room temp.
When thinking about foods, keep it real, your plate should be at least HALF vegetables at supper time, and at least half of every other meal should be fruits or veggies. Other than that, lean proteins, healthy grains and some dairy (or substitute) to help keep your bones strong!
Who knew? I can't believe you've been 30 pounds overweight since I've known you! I can believe maybe 10. Wow. Well done,you.
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