Eat Your Way To Success
By Missy Wagner
When I first started this journey about 7 months ago, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do in order to lose weight, cut out the junk food right? Wrong. I never truly realized how anal one has to be when making the right food choices when it comes to a whole new lifestyle change. I thought I had it all figured out, but I guess a person never really knows anything and there is always a new lesson to be learned. I had my eyes opened up in complete shock when I was told everything that I needed to do to achieve this. But, you know the saying “Knowledge is Power” and that’s what my ultimate goal was, to take a whole new kind of control over my eating habits.
In order to do this the right way, I had to completely give up everything I loved to eat and everything I craved. I had a bad habit of running to McDonald’s very late at night and scarfing down their quarter pounder meal, which was basically a cheeseburger, some fries and a coke. But it didn’t just end there, I always had to give in and get the caramel oreo McFlurry as well for my dessert. My boyfriend and I basically lived off of fast food because I was always too lazy or too depressed to make anything at home. We loved frequenting McDonald’s or Taco Bell, or ordering a late night pizza. I was also in love with Dairy Queen and their Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard. In order to lose the weight I wanted, I had to give up all of these great comfort foods.
I made an appointment with the nutritionist at our gym and he put us on a very strict eating menu which had all our foods layed out for us for each day of the week. We never had to think about what to make, because it was all right there. When I first started I was put on a 2100 calorie diet. We did this diet for maybe a month or two total and became sick of it, it was too time consuming to make all the foods and neither of us really liked any of it. So, we started to ask our personal trainer for food advice. This is where I really started to notice changes in my weight loss.
I was told to eat 6 small meals a day, about every 2-3 hours apart. The reason behind this was to keep my metabolism burning fast. I have an analogy for you: think of your metabolism as a furnace, in order to keep your home warm and cozy, you need to keep throwing wood into the fire all day long. Same thing goes for food. The more frequent you eat and fuel your body, the faster your metabolism and the faster you burn fat. I was also told to drink between 8-12 glasses of water everyday, which is a hard task for me I must admit.
When it comes to vegetables, the greener they are, the better they are for your body. Things like spinach, romaine lettuce, asparagus, green beans and broccoli are among the better choices. Some vegetables need to be eaten in moderation because they contain a lot of carbohydrates or starches, these include things like carrots, corn, potatoes. Green peas are another vegetable to be eaten in moderation because they contain quite a bit of sugar.
I have always loved to eat fruit, but again, they need to be eaten in moderation because they contain a lot of sugars as well. Fruit by itself requires no digestion. It must be eaten on an empty stomach and given 20 minutes to an hour by itself to simply slide through the stomach. It immediately starts to provide nutrients as long as it is un-impeded by other solid foods. Adding fruit to a stomach with food in it causes it to sit on top, ferment and be very bad for you. Always drink a glass of water before eating fruit and an hour after to rinse the stomach of any traces of the fruit. Different fruits have different rates of digestion with bananas being the longest at about 45 minutes to an hour.
I was also told to eat nothing but whole grains. I absolutely hated the taste of whole grain whole wheat bread, but it has really grown on me since I first started this whole journey. Whole grain whole wheat bagels are really good too with a tbsp of some light cream cheese. Whole grain brown rice is another tasty meal that I really enjoy. You can buy whole grain pasta as well, but I don’t eat it because pasta is high in starch and carbohydrates. Oatmeal is considered a great breakfast choice mixing in some egg whites and some fruit for your recommended balance.
Protein is key when it comes to weight loss and putting on muscle. You can get your daily protein sources by a number of things. Chicken, turkey, fish, tuna, egg whites, omega 3 eggs, turkey/chicken bites, and cottage cheese. Investing in a whey protein powder is a great way to get huge amounts of protein and you can blend it into a shake or just drink it with a cup of skim milk.
Dairy is bad for you if it’s not consumed in moderation. Dairy contains a lot of fat. So if you like cottage cheese, stick to only eating ½ a cup at a time. Or drink a glass of skim milk or have some fat free yogurt. There are some low fat cheeses on the market as well, but again, don’t eat too much.
Your body also needs to eat fats in order to be healthy. Eat foods that contain good fats for your body such as omega 3 eggs as opposed to regular eggs. Grab a handful of mixed nuts, they contain both protein and fats. If you use cooking oil, stick to using either olive oil or flax seed oils.
Limit unnecessary sugars and fats from your diet. These include things like peanut butter, jams, mayonnaise, butter, ketchup, salad dressings, maple syrup. Most of these items are like eating liquid sugar. Use plain old vinegar to add taste to a salad or mustard is a great condiment to add to your meals for taste, it contains barely anything.
Lastly, don’t eat fast foods or processed foods. This is just junk that your body doesn’t need. In most cases, if you can’t pronounce the ingredients on a nutritional label, it probably isn’t good for you, so stay away from it.
Eat Your Way To Success
SW: 261 lbs--Jan 1/06
CW: 148 lbs--Oct 11/08
Goal: 125-130 lbs (18 pounds to go until my 1st goal)
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