Ok, so yes, I love food and I also love to cook :) But I realized when I started down this road, that I had to drastically change my relationship with food. Yes, I said my relationship! It was that serious! I've tried diet upon diet upon diet. The biggest downfall for me was that I felt deprived..."well, no I can't eat that"...HATE IT! I like to hang out with my friends and I don't want everyone to feel like they can't go somewhere because of my diet. So I wanted to do something where I felt like I really had the option to eat what I wanted.
So like I've said before, I will tell you what has worked for me. Being the analytical head that I am, my trainer knew just how to get me lol! He had me to start writing down every single thing that I put in my mouth and the calories associated with it. Lord, I wish I could find those papers. I gave up beef and pork almost 5 years ago. So I was only eating chicken, fish, and turkey already and I thought I was a pretty healthy eater. WRONG! I was consuming almost 3,500 calories a day!!!! What in the world???? I was flabbergasted! You notice that most food have a label that tells you that you should eat between 2,000-2,500 calories per day right? Most people ignore it....I know I always did. Well those little papers were a huge wake up call.
So I discussed my little papers with my trainer and he encouraged me to reduce the amount of calories I was eating per day to between 1,600-1,700 calories per day. Um folks, that's about HALF of what I was eating before. I thought I was going to be hungry all the time and the first few days, I WAS!!! But eventually my stomach got used to it and I realized that everything that I needed to survive could be contained in that 1,600-1,800 calories per day. I can basically eat anything I want as long as it falls within that calorie count. Considering that the real good, yummy stuff is more calories, I definitely have to be MODEST, but if I want a cookie, I eat it lol! Then I found an iPhone/iPad app that I could use to do my tracking electronically and I was in business!
I'll use a few more of my posts to talk about how I've done this food thing, but that's the starting point. Interested in the app I mentioned, search for MyFitness Pal on your iPhone or Android mobile device. You can also access it online by visiting www.myfitnesspal.com. You can set up your profile on there and even input your food there and it will sync with your app. Feel free to add me, my screen name is ahall0510.
Thanks for reading :)
I am on myfitnesspal as well (blessed91299). I had myfitnesspal since it first became an app and I tried it by myself and failed miserably. I tried. With one of my friends and we were doing great and then a relapse happened. Towards the ending of last year I tried it again and I found a lot of great people on there. In beginning I hated the accountability because some people would really check me and chew me out about what I ate but over time it has gotten better. Just like you I wasn't paying attention to labels. It is a task trying to stay within calories restrictions. I had to give up some foods and others I just eat it in moderation.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your thoughts on protein shakes? My trainer recently told me I need to start drinking them and I've tried in the past but never developed a taste for them.
Great post!
Rochelle
I approved your friend request. Thanks for the add. I don't make my food diary public...just FYI. Mainly because my trainer is one of the "friends" and I can't have him all up in my business lol. Anywho, thanks for the topic of my next blog (I'll post tonight)....protein shakes...love to hate them...lol.
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