What has been working: Trying to live a normal life while making as healthy of choices as possible. What this means:
Learning what it looks like to eat well. Generally, for me, this entails:
- No processed snacky food
- No dried/boxed or fast food meals ever
- No white bread, rice, crackers, processed cereal, etc.
- No potatoes
- Almost no super sweet fruit (bananas, pineapples)
- No candy, cupcakes, muffins, brownies, cookies
- No sugary coffee, pop or cocktails
- No sitting around and binge eating a bowl of salty buttered popcorn the size of a kiddie pool just to numb the pain (I kid, or do I)
But it might be better to look at a typical good day:
Egg whites with vegetables and a bit of cheese for breakfast
Coffee with a no-cal sweetener (I KNOW) and lots of skim milk
A couple 16-oz glasses of water through the morning
Some combo of celery, pea pods, or grape tomatoes, plus a string cheese, a hummus snack, a Laughing Cow light wedge, a guacamole snack, or a spoon of nut butter at around 10:00 a.m.
3-5 ounces of chicken or pork tenderloin (we'll cook it at dinner the night before), plus a cup or two of mixed vegetables and sometimes beans for lunch, with a glass of water, at around 1:00 p.m.
Sometimes (ok, usually) another cup of coffee in the afternoon
Another couple 16-oz glasses of water
Sometimes an apple or a pear or more raw vegetables with cheese/hummus/guac for an afternoon snack at around 2:30 p.m.
Sometimes a bowl of kale salad (the pre-bagged kind from Costco is my favorite, and sometimes I add a few craisins and pumpkin seeds and/or crumbled feta) with some sweet poppy seed dressing, or a couple slices of turkey lunch meat, or a string cheese as an after-work snack at around 4:30 p.m.
And then dinner is always 6-10 oz. (a ton) of lean meat (chicken breast, pork loin or tenderloin, beef sirloin, or 93/7 ground turkey), usually cooked on the grill in some way (or a roast, or a stir fry, or stuffed peppers or a meatloaf), with a whole ton of fresh steamed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans or asparagus), OR roasted vegetables (brussels sprouts, zucchini, summer squash, mushrooms, onion, rainbow bell peppers, whatever we have), or sauteed spinach or cabbage. It's so much protein and so many vegetables. A few times a week we add brown rice. On other occasions, we have a bit of whole wheat pasta, but not as often anymore. I have Crystal Light, water, or sometimes diet pop or red wine with dinner.
And then, some time before bed, I get to have a treat. It's almost always a mint chocolate chip Yasso frozen yogurt bar. These are the best things in the world.
And in there, we fit in special meals. We have traveled on road trips a couple times, and we've managed to maintain our progress by ordering carefully and being prepared. We make plans to spend one meal, or one day, choosing to eat outside of our established meal plan (Valentine's Day dinner at a steakhouse we love, or our good friends' wedding celebration, for instance). We'll indulge for that day or evening, and we'll eat the desserts and drink the booze too, and the next morning, we'll get right back to it at breakfast.
I'm repairing some damage I did at that wedding, but it shouldn't take me too long if I keep living right.
Oh, I'm trying to incorporate exercise and meditation into this, too. I'm trying hypnotherapy also. It's actually been a real benefit. I've learned that no one program or product that exists and is bought and sold on the diet market is the single right one for me. Following South Beach perfectly, or Weight Watchers perfectly, is not my answer. I've also learned to step back from competition with others (including my husband, who is wildly successful at melting pounds away). And I've learned to think through my choices -- love myself more -- and actually see myself as a successful, fearless person who isn't terrified to fail. And I've learned that I don't have to be perfect in order to deserve self care. And if I'm not perfect, I also don't deserve punishment. All of these are kind of major revelations.
So I'm not tracking points (though I did rejoin Weight Watchers one day, and I bought a 3-month plan, but I didn't like it, and now they have SO MUCH of my money), and I'm not counting calories on MyFitnessPal, and I'm not allowing myself to obsess. I can't. I'm just trying to go moment by moment and make the choices that I deserve to make. That's it. I don't meditate every day and I definitely don't exercise every day, but I am going to get better. And I'm going to do OK!
