The Fat Fitness Instructor: After Week 2

It’s the end of week 2 of my return to health, and I’m dropping weight, feeling energized, and am making the little adjustments needed to make clean eating work for me.  I still hate eggs.  The smell, taste, texture, ugh.  So I’ve modified lunchtime to not only get out of my egg rut, but to also avoid feeling overly full and like crashing after lunch.  Now, I make lunch an extended experience where I start with a piece of fruit (usually an apple) at 12:00ish.  Between 1:00 and 2:00, I’ll have light string cheese for some protein.  Between 3:00 and 4:00, also known as The Crunching Hour, it’s a bowl of dry Cheerios.  Finally, between 4:00 and dinner, I’ll have 1 ounce of raw almonds.  This way, I’m satisfied all afternoon but never over-full, and I’m getting in fruit, whole grain, and two sources of protein – dairy and nuts.

I’m an all or nothing kind of girl, so cheating isn’t really an issue for me when I’m eating healthy all the time; however, I wanted a little taste of something sweet Tuesday night – but not filling or too cheaty.  It was then that Eric tried to kill me with sugar free “candy” that’s main ingredient is sugar alcohol.  For the uninitiated, sugar alcohol is a terrible, horrible ingredient created solely to make people gassy and unfit for social contact.  He was just being nice, but he’s learned a valuable lesson.  In most cases, it’s not worth it to me to have some fake “diet” food version of a treat. When everyone talks about diet food not tasting good, they’re talking about this fake kind.  There’s no way someone could hate all fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and lean proteins.  Actually, productive diet food is real food that comes from nature and not a lab.  I preach this all the time, but this is the first time that I’m actually following my own professional advice and not falling into the fake food trap.

In addition to spreading out lunch and eating real food, I’ve started drinking more tea.  It’s warm, comforting, and satisfying in the way that often food can be.  Sometime eating is about comfort, so tea does the same thing for zero calories.  I’ve always been a tea person, but now I’m going through it like a champ.

I know it’s clichéd to say that this isn’t a diet, it’s just a different way of doing – but it’s true.  Whether you’re making a drastic change in your weight, or you’re just trying to find your way back to being healthy, it’s pretty hard to change your behaviors.  We all know what’s good for us – there are no secrets there.  We don’t have to change beliefs and our attitudes toward healthy food.  It’s about actually putting what we know into action.  And that’s the key to wellness.