Changes

I want to talk about changes.  I've read a few diet books.  Ok a lot of diet books.  And blogs.  And articles.  And websites.  Ok I've pretty much read everything on the internet about diets. 

Some things stick with me.  Like the drink water thing.  I tried it, and it has really helped me.  But what has occurred to me most regarding "diets" are the changes any particular diet asks you to make.  Let's see if you've heard of these

• Cut carbs
• Count calories
• Don't eat out
• Cook every meal for yourself
• Never eat anything out of a box
• Don't drink alcohol! Ha!
• Don't eat, dairy, meat, whatever

These sound familiar?  When I read the "don't drink alcohol", that one usually makes me laugh out loud, put the book down, and pour myself a glass of wine!

Sometimes my glass is a bottle.  Served with a side of cheese.  Oops!


Back to the topic.  If you look at the above list, don't they all seem SO dramatic?  I use the "diet" word on this blog because it makes sense to me, but I really think about it as adjusting your diet (as in what you eat everyday) not "going on a diet" which implies you're doing it for a finite period of time.  Is it reasonable to think you will never again eat a carb?  Ha ha I could barely get that sentence out!  Of course not!  Or if you have never cooked before, you're not all of a sudden going to become Betty Crocker and start cooking homemade meals from scratch!  And never again will you have such a hectic work/family/wine tasting day that you don't drive through a drive thru, or eat a frozen meal.  You get my point.  So what I believe is you need to have a balanced diet, maybe set a few ground rules.  And try to be as good as you can, say 80% of the time!   Because after all, you need to shift your diet, not go on a diet.  You need to change your habits, because your habits are what got you over weight.  Here's a list of things I try to do, I call them goals, and some definite rules




Goals

•  Try to limit carbs- whenever I have a choice between bread or no bread, I always try to say no to the bread.  Try.  It's hard.  I love bread.
• I keep a food journal, I don't always count the calories exactly, but just seeing what I've eaten that day helps me see if I snacked to much, remind me if I had an unhealthy lunch, to keep it healthy for dinner, you get the idea!
• Always drink alcohol, but try to watch what I drink.  Mai Tai's are my favorite, but unless I'm in the Caribbean, I literally never drink them anymore, they're just to calorie packed.  So I always stick with wine or light cocktails.  And i love this trick!
• I really really try to not eat any prepackaged food.  But, and that's a big but, I LOVE to cook, it relaxes me, it's my hobby of sort, so you need to figure out what works for you.  The nice thing about prepackaged food, is you know exactly what you're getting in terms of nutrition, the bad thing, often times there's not a lot of nutrition and they're packed with fake chemicals and preservatives.

 The things I Never Do, these are now just lifestyle habits.

• First, these aren't really rules, just things that work for me.
• Never eat fast food.  I've personally just learned that I always feel like crap after eating it, so unless I'm on a country wide road trip, which hasn't happened yet, I don't eat it.
• Never drink soda.  I stopped drinking soda in high school.  Now I've lost the taste for it, it just tastes awful to me.  And soda is one of those things, that I believe, has no redeeming qualities, so I just avoid it.  Every once in a while I'll have a diet sprite, but that's it.
• Never eat the whole meal at a restaurant.  Ok probably not never.  But those portions at restaurants, depending on the place, are just way to big!  And no I don't every ask for the box right away, because I feel like a dork.  But I do usually cut the meal in half and just tell myself I'm not eating the other half.  Plus I always tell myself, if I don't eat all of this, I get to enjoy it twice.  It also makes the meal cost half as much, and I'm cheap, so that works really well for me! :)

 My Always Do's

• Always drink water
• Always look for substitutions and places to cut, either the portion size or a salad instead of fries.
• Always try to make healthy choices, like I wrote at the top, bread vs. no bread.  I just always keep my goals in mind and it helps lead me down the right path.

Now, I'd love to hear, what are your goals, Never Do's and Always Do's??