Food!

As previously stated, I love food!  All food.  Mostly comfort food, anything greasy, fattening, chocolate, sugar infused, yummy, delicious, mouth watering food.  As I've been moving along in this process, I ask people who have been successful at losing and keeping weight off how they were able to do it.  90% of the time they tell me they did it by counting calories and having an exercise routine.  Counting calories, huh?  Sounds easy enough.  But for someone like me, I didn't have the slightest clue of where to begin.  How many calories should I be consuming in a day?  What's considered "a lot" of calories?  My younger brother, Austin, has done a lot of schooling in the area of nutrition, so I decided to ask him.  He told me that for a woman my age & height, I should be consuming anywhere between 2000-2500 calories per day.  But again, how do I do this calorie counting thing?  Why can't I just eat "good" food & have that work?  I'm a talker, by nature, so I will talk to anyone & everyone about what's going on with me, what I'm struggling with, etc.  I'm also a smoker (boo, I know) and about a month ago my company hired a new sales guy who's also a smoker AND also is very much into fitness, etc, and so is his wife.  So we're talking one day and he tells me that his wife follows this meal outline that she really likes & it's super effective, etc, and that if I want, he'll bring a copy of it to work for me so I can try it out & see what I think.  Yes!  Absolutely, I'm open to any & all suggestions.  That's another thing that has been crucial for me, having an open mind & being willing to take the suggestions of others; especially if they've got something that has worked for them, it may just work for me.  Here's the meal outline:

First Day

Breakfast             1 small apple, 2 TBS Peanut butter

Shake

Lunch                    ½ cup dry Tuna or Chicken or Turkey or Fish, 1 small salad, with olive oil & vinegar

Shake

Dinner                  3oz Chicken Breast, 1 cup green beans or vegetable of your choice, 1 small apple, ½     cup vanilla ice cream

Second Day

Breakfast             2 eggs, 1 banana

Shake

Lunch                    1 Greek Yogurt or 1 cup cottage cheese, 1 small salad with oil & vinegar

 Shake

Dinner                  2 hot dogs or 3 oz chicken breast or turkey breast or fish, 1 cup broccoli or vegetable of your choice, 1 banana, ½ cup vanilla ice cream

Third Day

Breakfast             1 slice cheddar cheese, 1 banana, 1 small apple

Shake

Lunch                    2 hard boiled eggs, 1 small salad with olive oil & vinegar

 Shake

Dinner                  3 oz fish or chicken or turkey, 1 cup cauliflower or vegetable of your choice, ½ cantaloupe or 1 cup frozen mixed fruit, ½ cup vanilla ice cream

3 on, 1 off…water, coffee, protein shake…EXERCISE!! 

Seems easy enough, I'll give it a try.  In the 1st two weeks I followed this plan, and I mean I followed it as completely as measuring the peanut butter, dressing, etc, each & every time, I lost 7lbs!  JUST by following this simple meal plan.  And let me just tell you all, I DO NOT like tuna.  Not a fan, not at all.  But on the days I was supposed to eat it, I did.  I found it was easier for me to eat the tuna if I mixed it in with my veggies or salad & poured the olive oil & vinegar on top of it.  I also discovered that mixing the cottage cheese in my salad was quite tasty.  By the 3rd week, I decided that the ice cream wasn't worth the calories & stopped having that at dinner.  I also discovered that trying to stick to this over the weekends while I had my kids was next to impossible.  In total, I've been working off this basic outline for about a month now.  I've made some adjustments to it, I don't have full cheat days anymore, I do cheat dinners on Friday & Saturday nights, so I can eat the same thing I'm making my kids.  And, again a shout out to Pinterest, I've found new recipes for meals I can make for us all that are tasty and healthy.  Who knew?!  Each day on this meal outline is about 1500 calories.  It's a little lower than what my brother suggested, but it's working for me at the moment.  I know that I'm not going to be able to eat like this forever, I'm already getting bored & looking for more options.  But since I now know what kinds of things to be eating, portion sizes, & actually stopping for a minute while at the grocery store to look at the calorie content on the package, I am better equipped to make smarter decisions.  I got this.  I can do hard things.