Lifting and Clean Eating, Part II: My Initial Weight Loss Diet

Missed Part I: How It All Began?

Lifting and Clean Eating Part II: My initial weight loss diet

I've decided to split my diet and workouts into "initially" and “currently” because how I started my journey to becoming healthier and what I maintain are quite a bit different. The further along I got, the more I moved into “real” foods rather than the more “artificial” ingredient foods that I started out with. So without further ado, here is how the change in my diet began.

*Disclaimer: this is what worked for me and I'm not suggesting it's the very best way or only way to go about anything, it's just simply what I went through to get to where I'm at today in my diet and workouts.

Before: When switching my diet from "I eat whatever I want whenever I want" to "clean and healthy", I didn't just all of a sudden go cold turkey and start eating clean, unprocessed, real foods. It wasn't ever that easy for me. I had to take little steps, a couple things at a time. I was in this for the long run. It wasn't just going to be a diet to loose weight, but it was about finding how to eat better in a way that worked for me at the time.

At least for me, it would have been nearly impossible to just all of a sudden not eat sugar-filled, salt-filled, and fat-filled foods. I had to wean myself off of them. Here are some things I did to really start on my road to healthier eating:

• I began by calorie counting and reading labels. I had no idea how many calories I was eating in a day until I actually counted them and it really gave me a great idea how to gauge how much to eat at any given meal, etc. I was shooting for around 1200-1300 calories a day to start out. (Click here for a way to estimate how many calories you should be eating a day when loosing weight.)

• I began eating 5-6 times a day. This one is what really helped me the very most. It wasn't that hard when I got to eat something every 2-3 hours. It kept me full and satisfied and I didn't crave bad food because I literally felt like I was eating all the time. (A little more info on benefits of doing this.)

• I started out by using a lot of sugar free/fat free products. While I knew artificial sweeteners really weren't good for me either, I felt that were better than regular full fledged fat and sugar products and also helped wean me off of so much of the real stuff. I pretty much bought everything I could sugar free/fat free.

• I researched ways to boost my metabolism and therefore faithfully did these things: 
  *started drinking a lot of hot green tea and other hot teas (I used Splenda to sweeten)
  * drank only water, tea, and artificially sweetened zero calorie drinks (aka Crystal Light, vitamin water, etc ... I had an occasional diet pop, but kept it as a “treat”)
  * tried to drink water right upon waking up
  * started to always eat breakfast (very important)

• Read a lot about healthy eating online and in my husband's old nutrition textbooks. Becoming more knowledgeable on what those greasy, fatty foods I used to not mind eating actually did to my body and what healthy foods would do for my body was an eye opener.
   
• Started taking a multivitamin every day.

• Despite my best efforts when all I wanted to do was eat more, sugar free gum, water and flavored artificially sweetened drinks became my friend.
  
   

A sample day of what I used to eat in a day:

- Breakfast: a serving of Original FiberOne cereal with skim milk (or almond milk), some frozen berries and some hot tea (I used Splenda to sweeten at the time) with 1 egg and 1 egg white

- A.M. snack: a 90 calorie or a less sugar Quaker granola bar

- Lunch: A sandwich on 45 calorie per slice bread with cut up chicken breast, piece of fat free cheese and mustard with a serving of fat free, sugar free pudding

- Afternoon snack: A serving of fruit with a couple almonds or another granola bar; mini bag of kettle corn microwaveable popcorn (or no butter popcorn) with some tea

- Dinner: A servings of lean meat (chicken breast, salmon, tuna, lean ground turkey, etc) with veggies and a small amount of brown rice or some low calorie soup with a piece of toasted 45 calorie bread with a piece of fat free cheese

- Before bed: A serving of almonds

I was pretty strict on myself at the beginning of all this because I really did want to see results and I knew the more I followed my guidelines, the faster I would see results. My husband was a GREAT motivator at this time, though I often got frustrated and mad at him when he gave me disapproving eyes when I wanted to eat something I shouldn't, or gave me advice I didn't feel like following but that I knew was true. (I needed someone in my life to do that though, or I would have had too much "cheating").

After: It was really tough at times and these changes were not always easy … I understand what it's like to struggle and get mad and disappointed with yourself. And at times I would think, why am I making myself do this?? I don't have to! Buuuuut, I stuck with it! And with a mix of working out/staying active, it did produce results! It became easier and easier to pick less calorie, less fattening foods and I became more and more interested in healthy eating. Once I lost all the weight I wanted to loose and as my knowledge increased, I began making even more healthy changes and far as "real" foods vs. processed and artificial sweeteners vs. "real" sweeteners.

"We are what we believe we are."
-CS Lewis-