mama-vation: my "diet" philosophy.

you said you liked it the last time i talked about what's been workin for me.  so here's some more.  my "mama-vational" spcheal for the day!

i definitely have some room for improvement, but overall i am pretty satisfied with where i'm at fitness & health-wise.  and you guys, i'm no expert.  but i have reached my post-baby weight goal & i wanna share what's worked for me.  but this is also pretty much the way i've lived the last five years & i'm pretty sure it's what i'll be doing for the rest of my life.

which brings me to philosophy number one:

repeat after me:  there is NO quick fix or one-week diet that is gonna get you healthy & make you lose gobs of weight.  throw away the diet pills, keep eating those {healthy} carbs, & step away from the cabbage soup.  sure there are some de-tox methods that might give you a little boost, if that's what you're looking for, but overall it's all about learning how to eat on a daily basis that you're gonna be able to manage for the rest of your life.

no, seriously.  if you think you're gonna use some drastic diet until you lose the 30 pounds you need to, & then go back to all your regular eating habits, you're gonna find yourself right where you started.  thirty pounds overweight, or maybe even more.

a good diet isn't a "diet".  it's a lifestyle.  the weight will come off slowly & gradually, but it will stay off because you are doing it for life.  it might mean making some hard changes like giving up your daily can of dr. pepper or a nightly bowl of ice cream, but just remember those things are what got you in this mess in the first place.

on most days, i use a calorie tracker on my iPhone to track my food & exercise stuff & make sure i'm where i need to be.  this probably isn't something you need to do every single day for the rest of your life but if you've never done it before i highly recommend doing it for a little while.  maybe just a week.  you might be surprised at how much you're eating when you grab a handful of cinnamon toast crunch every time you walk in the kitchen, or when you finish off those uneaten bites of pb&j from your kid's lunch.

for the most part i track what i eat almost everyday just because it keeps me accountable.  that doesn't mean i never go over my daily allowance, it just means that when i do, i know i did.  oops.

there are so many little changes you can make in your daily diet that will make huge differences in your daily caloric intake.  switch from 1% or 2% milk to fat free.  give it some time & i promise you'll be able to stomach the difference.  sam & i have been drinking skim milk for years & when we drink anything more it kinda grosses us out.  ew, who wants to drink fatty milk anyway?

other little changes that make big differences:

-use fat free sour cream & fat free mayo.  you really can't tell much of a difference & it's totally still satisfying.

-use ground turkey in spaghetti/taco/casserole/other meat dishes rather than ground beef.  don't start off with the 99% fat free stuff or else you'll notice a big difference.  start moderately & i bet your husband/kids/neighbor won't even know they're not eating red meat.

-buy slow churned ice cream.  i get dreyer's brand & it's got like 1/3 the fat & half the calories or something.  and it still tastes dang good.  buy it, & then use some portion control.

-cook using small amounts of extra virgin olive oil.  the monounsaturated fats in it are actually good for you & will keep your heart healthy.  want an even lower calorie option?  cook stuff using water.  you'd be surprised how you don't even need cooking oil when you fill up that skillet with some good ol' fashioned water instead.

this might sound counter-intuitive but every now & then i think it's healthy to fall off the wagon.  this is real life.  and every now & then i fall off.  hard.  but i'm not trying to walk the victoria's secret runway anytime soon & for me, a life without pizza or ice cream just isn't worth living.

and you know what?  having the occasional burger & splitting a milkshake with your husband on a friday night is fine.  going out to fast food & eating french fries & milkshakes for dinner regularly because you don't want to cook, isn't.  save the "bad" meals for special occasions.  it may feel like two steps forward & one step back, but that's ok.  this is life & it's your lifestyle.  it's not a sprint, it's a marathon!

just so long as you're consistently being "good" more than you're being bad, i think it's ok.  at least that's what i tell myself!

when you do fall off the wagon?  hurry up & get back on.  don't let it get you down & make sure you just keep on goin'.  sometimes when i find myself out with girlfriends eating potato skins & nachos at 10:30 pm {like last night!} i don't sweat it too much because i know tomorrow i'll be up gettin my work out on & eating healthy again.  i know i'm healthy more often than i'm not & i make sure of it.  so that way i can allow some wiggle room from time to time.

also, be nice to yourself.  recognize good decisions & give yourself a pat on the back for it.  it'll make you feel good.  when you do decide to forgo that blizzard on your way home from grocery shopping say to yourself, "hey, i made a good choice back there... way to go me."  then you start to realize you're doing these things just out of habit & the decisions will become easier.  

or at least that's what i've found!

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and now i'm realizing there is a LOT more than just these five things to a healthy lifestyle.  like, a lot.  i could write about this stuff all day you guys, but sometimes i have to change diapers & play with a certain little man {and parker too} so i can't.  i guess that just leaves more for later!

so what's working for you?  

two clicks for good eats!