Know your body and the way it reacts to food. Know your trigger foods.
I know mine. Here's a top 5.
5. French Fries
4. Buttered Popcorn
3. Pasta
2. Cheesecake
1. Lay's Potato Chips
I look at this list and the first thing I notice is they're all carbs. They're all the same color. All but one of them really doesn't constitute a “meal.” I have eaten an ENTIRE BAG OF LAY'S POTATO CHIPS BY MYSELF. Do I have them in my house right now? No. Will I ever buy a gigantic bag of Lay's potato chips ever again? No. I know what I do to them. I know what they do to me.
Do I still eat them? Hell yes I do. I love them. All salty and crispy and AWESOME. If I buy them, I spend the extra money and get the little pre-portioned packages. It's really how I broke the habit. I get to finish a bag... so the sensation is still there. The salt is what I want. It's still there.
Okay, I'm licking my lips right now. Let's move on.
Knowing our bodies. I had a nun for a gym teacher in high school who told us girls that it was important to perform your self breast exam. She also went on to comment that we should “know our breasts better than our boyfriends do.” The same concept needs to be applied in the kitchen, not only with foods that cause you to overeat, but just foods that make you miserable. What foods cause you to put on “fake” weight, as I like to call it. I had a WW leader once that told me that apples caused her to gain.
Identifying these foods and limiting them can be an excellent mental boost to your weight loss. There's nothing worse than doing everything you should have done all week long; eating right and exercising... and then you step on the scale and it all went to hell. You look back at your week... what was it? This is one of the reasons why I now weigh every day. I step on the scale the day after I ate Chinese food and I say, “Well, that's what you get. But boy that fried rice was awesome.” And the next day the weight is gone.
Though I always log my Monday morning weight in MyFitnessPal as my “official weigh-in,” I keep track of each morning's weight. This exercise has ended what I like to refer to as the “weigh-in day binge.” We've all done it. Weighed first thing in the morning, logged the weight, then eaten whatever the hell you want for the rest of the day because you know this day is the longest time before you'll be stepping on the scale this week. That sort of behavior breeds more bad behavior. If you're doing that once a week, just think of how you're impacting your weight loss. By not being accountable 4-5 times a month, how far are you slowing yourself down? Treat every day like it's important, but don't let one day discourage you. If you eat a piece of chocolate cake (delicious chocolate cake) don't feel that you need to also have a large fry, a milkshake, a plate of deep fried chicken tenders smothered in liquid cheese (you get the idea) just because you had one large calorie item. You're day is not over and you might surprise yourself the next morning if you keep on track for everything else.
So enough talking about food, let's make some! I'm really enjoying making full recipes and breaking them up for lunch. I haven't had a frozen meal in over a week and that's a good thing (especially considering I won't eat them if they have meat in them... so I have about 3 different kinds that I circulate through).
This week I'm making Shrimp Fra Diavolo (which I've always wanted to make and just never have) and Stir-Fry Chicken and Lemon Rice. I've already made the stir fry today, so that's what I will share. The original recipe came from the super fast Cooking Light cookbook that I've been working my way through. I changed it a bit mainly because I wanted more than 268 calories in the meal. I split it two ways rather than four and ended up with about 406 calories. Here's how it went down.
You'll need:
2 chicken breast halves
1 c shredded carrots
1 pkg Uncle Ben's Ready Rice, Jasmine
1 clove garlic, grated
1 Tbsp lemon zest
This recipe smells SO good and it comes together really quickly, since your rice is already cooked.
Cut up the chicken to bite size pieces and stir fry over medium-high heat in a pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. Put that aside on a plate for later.
Respray your pan and throw in the grated garlic and the carrots. Cook for 2 minutes or until slightly tender. While that's cooking, throw your rice in the microwave according to package directions.
When the carrots are tender, throw in the rice and the lemon zest. Stir well to incorporate. Next, stir in the chicken.
Done. And done. And this makes two portions. And it's so fast. Can't even believe it.
Just a short digression, since I just gave a recipe, I've had someone ask me what websites/resources I like for recipes. I'm essentially a Cooking Light addict. I have lots of their cookbooks and the magazine shows up in my mailbox once a month (except February, you know, since the first issue of the year is a double). The big thing that draws me to Cooking Light are the pictures. I love looking at pictures of gorgeous, delicious looking food. Cooking Light cookbooks have a picture of practically every recipe. I love that. I like having something to strive for. And something to stare at longingly.
How did my weight loss go this week? I have been VERY proud of my tracking. I tracked every day this week. And it was kind of funny this week because I was up just a little toward the beginning of the week (hormones = I wanted to eat EVERYTHING and kind of did...). I also skipped the gym a little more than usual. But then I weighed on someone else's scale Friday morning and it said 157. Wow. And I thought, shit, what if that's RIGHT? That's crazy. Wasn't far off. Even after a Friday night of beer and awesome food, this morning I weighed in at 158 on the nose. I'm absolutely loving this. If you told me 3 years ago that I would weigh in the 150's I might have laughed in your face.
Sitting here in my medium t-shirt and my size 12 jeans feeling like a million bucks. Anyone can do this. Really.
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