This week I was thinking of what I was thankful for, and I know this is going to sound weird, but I am really thankful that I have learned how to eat! I thought back to different seasons of my life and how miserable I was, exercising 40 minutes a day, eating what I thought was good for me, and yet hating how I felt and looked.
I am not skinny and don’t think it’s in the realm of possibility for me to ever wear a bikini 🙂 but I weigh what I did in high school and my clothes fit. Yay! I am no longer addicted to sugar (to God be the glory) and I know what to eat to feel good and not gain weight.
I have shared this with people in the past and many of them have found freedom, too, so I will briefly share this with you! I just laughed at loud that I wrote “briefly”. Yeah, I’m not good at briefly.
When to Eat: Every 3 hours, no in-betweens
What to Eat: A protein, such as eggs, beef, chicken, turkey, cheese, milk, yogurt, nuts, seeds, beans. A carb, such as fruits and veggies of all kinds and/or grains such as brown rice, quinoa, corn, oats, or non-wheat tortillas. These are non or minimally processed whole grains. Bread, buns, bagels, muffins, and most cereals really don’t fall into that category. 🙁
How Much to Eat: One serving of the protein, and one serving of the carb. It is safe to say a serving should fit in your hand. A great thing is that you don’t have to limit fruit and veggies. Nobody ever got fat or unhealthy eating lots of fruits and vegetables for goodness sake! There IS fructose in fruit and that does affect your blood sugar/insulin levels, so if you’re just gonna really go wild on fruit one day, aim for low sugar fruits like any type of berry, but honestly i don’t know anybody that binges on fruits and veggies too often! Best kept secret: frozen berries!
Exercise: Not too much. I think a steady 15 minutes every day of the week is wonderful. This 15 should be intense, like power walking or weight lifting at least 3 days a week with the other 4 days being a nice walk, yoga, or an aerobic video or class. It really doesn’t matter that much what you do as long as you are intense for 15 minutes, at least 6 days a week. Currently, I’m doing 15 minutes of something (one of the things I mentioned) plus a 5 to 10 minute walk with my dog most days of the week. This added bit has helped me break through a plateau.
Caveats: There’s no room for fake food in this plan, and there’s no room for a weekly “off day”. On special occasions, I eat what I want but if I ate what I wanted as much as I wanted every Friday, for example, I would never have gotten healthy. I have learned the hard way over many years that consistency is the most valuable aspect of this! Also, there’s no room for wheat. Do your body a favor and stop consuming it! Lastly, there’s no room for sugar. I have written blogs and will write more blogs about how bad sugar is for us. I personally believe ANY type of sugar is harmful and not doing us any favors, and this means honey, maple syrup, evaporated cane sugar, but that may be because when I used to eat it, I didn’t eat it in small amounts. Any way, our bodies need every bite to be nutrient dense, and these 3 things bolded are NOT.
There are so many great foods that will benefit our bodies. I have seen people quit this type of plan because they said they couldn’t afford it. Sorry, not possible. Healthy food isn’t cheap, but when you take out the junk and eat the correct quantities of real food, anyone can do it. I’ll show you my budget! If I can do it, you can, even if that means you eat beans and rice several nights a week! Also, I’ve seen people quit because some of the new foods were too weird and some of the old foods were too tempting, and I have been there. I remember it taking me YEARS to buy coconut oil and quinoa! For some of us, it is just a slow transition, but as long as we’re moving in the right direction, there’s reward at the end!
God bless you and if you have any questions about learning how to eat this way and want some help along the way, I’d love to help!
