Getting Healthy Part One: Eating Right

In 2014, I lost 45lbs.  I wasn’t really fat.  Nobody looked at me and thought “wow that girl needs to lose some weight.”  I wore my weight well, evenly distributed over my body and a little extra around my belly that I hid nicely under layers and sweaters and such.  But I did need to lose weight.  My doctor informed me my cholesterol was high and I was over the average weight for a woman of my height and age. 

By the time I moved to Virginia in December of 2013, nine months after I graduated college, I weighed 175lbs.  I didn’t look it, but I knew something needed to change.  I realized I needed to get healthy.  Not skinny—healthy.  I had gotten skinny before. But that didn’t work for me for very long.  No one cared how I looked, and I wanted to eat the foods I liked.  This time I knew I needed to make a life change, not just get to a goal weight and then keep bouncing back and fourth between weights.  I wanted to make a change to be a healthier, fitter person.

The first step for me was changing my diet.  For me, food had become an addiction a long time ago.  In High School, I would come home after school and open a bag of potato chips and sit on the couch and watch TV for hours.  This became my daily routine and, although my parents tried to discourage me, I had my own car and my own money, and they had full time jobs. By my senior year, my friends and I went out for lunch almost every day, pizza, fast food, you name it.  I ate because it was there, because it was delicious—not because I was hungry.

In college, this continued.  With people all around me, I was ashamed to eat a whole bag of chips in one sitting, but I was still eating a lot, and unhealthy foods.  My college cafeteria was all you could eat, and there were times that I adopted that philosophy.  I would get a burger and fries, with some mac and cheese on the side, and why not try the new special?  Dessert? Cookies, brownies and ice cream were a daily treat.  After college, I started working at Panera Bread, which gave me easy, cheap access to all the carbs and cheesy warm goodness I could ever desire. And my part time Job at an afterschool center allowed me to eat plenty of snacks, whenever the kids ate.

So when I got serious about getting healthy, I knew this was the first thing that had to change.  I gave myself a limit on my frenemie potato chips: one bag a month.  I started making healthier choices, popcorn instead of chips as a snack—turkey burger instead of beef.  I also started recording my food and exercise in a journal.  I estimated portions and was religious about recording what I ate.  I wasn’t counting calories, just making myself accountable.  Seeing everything I ate on a page really made me realize how much food I was taking in.  And it didn’t start out well.  Here are the first couple pages of my journal in April 2014:

As you can see, I had a tough first couple of days.  I started my journal as I started that time of the month, and all I wanted was salt.  So much for laying off the chips… sure it was tortilla chips—but half a bag?!  That’s a family size bag I’m talking about.

One thing I struggled with was that even if you eat healthy foods, you can still eat too much of them.  Sure, peanut butter has protein in it and that’s good for you, but it also has oils and fats and a whole bunch of calories, and if you don’t have the “recommended portion size,” it’s really not that good for you.  I fell in love with hummus, but I needed the salty factor that carrots and celery just didn’t give me.  I would allow myself pretzels or tortilla chips after eating some veggies first, but by then I had eating plenty more than the 2tbs serving.

But I didn’t give up the foods I loved—I think that’s what makes people quit their diets.  I ate the foods I loved, just smaller portions and less frequently.  I would give myself a treat after a good workout—but if I didn’t exercise one day, I took that into consideration and would have a light dinner.

The biggest challenge for me was stopping myself from eating when I wasn’t hungry.  The women at work would have snacks all the time, leftover chips and dip from a party, or just someone felt like baking over the weekend.  As good as those cookies looked, I would try and take a second to check in with my stomach.  Was I really hungry? Or did I just want some warm gooey deliciousness?  If this were a plate of celery, would I still want to eat it?  Taking the time to make sure I was really hungry gave me the willpower to refuse a snack, or to take just a little bit to tide me over, or take a few bites home for when I did get hungry.  Not only did I save myself in those instances, but I also strengthened my willpower.  And it didn’t always work.  But I knew that if I wanted a brownie that bad, I could have one, but I had to amp up my workout later or have a light dinner.  I made sure to keep myself accountable with each and every thing I put in my mouth.  Here is an entry from when someone at work made popcorn and I gave in.  But that night I went to the gym and kept my dinner light.

I also got serious about liquid calories.  I’ve never been much of a drinker in terms of alcohol, but I would have a margarita here or there.  I liked soda, but wasn’t addicted to it.  But what I really loved was fruit juice.  I could drink a jug of white-cranberry juice in one weekend.  I cut out or cut back on all of these.  Water was my drink of choice.  I gave myself my morning coffee (black, only about 6 calories a cup), but other than I only drank water.  And I tried to drink the recommended 64 oz a day.  This helped me stay full.  If people around me were snacking, I would take a drink of water.  If I felt like I was starting to get hungry, a couple sips and the feeling would subside.

But it wasn’t always easy.  There were days when Jim would text me and ask if we could get pizza or Chinese food, and I had already eaten a lot that day, so I had to say no.  And then usually he would just order for himself and I would get jealous.  Having a boyfriend is a struggle on any woman’s diet plan.  Men just eat and gain differently from women.  Jim is definitely no small man, but I really had to try not to eat the same things he was eating.  He tried to be supportive, but when all I was having for dinner was a yogurt or a baked potato, he needed something more (understandably).  I think it was really hard on both of us at first, but we found middle-ground eventually and we both learned to do our own thing when it came to food.

Here’s a journal entry from a weekend I went home to Massachusetts.  I was on vacation, and I ate like I was on vacation:

Back in my hometown, I wanted to go everywhere I hadn’t gotten to go since moving to Virginia.  They don’t have Papa Ginos (one of my favorite pizza joints) down here.  The Green line is a sandwich from the Whistle Stop (my favorite sub shop) and I met some friends at the Cheeseckae Factory—where everything comes supersized and they always offer extra parmesan for your pasta.

I started planning ahead.  If I knew I wanted to get pizza, I would have a granola bar for breakfast and soup for lunch: filling, but low-cal and healthy.  And eventually, it started to get easier.  I started liking the healthier foods more, and I started to feel fuller faster after having richer foods, making it easier to say “just one.” And the best motivation of all was when people started to notice.  The women at work were the first to say something, and then people at the gym.  This positive reinforcement was a great feeling and made me that much more motivated to keep plugging away.  By July, I had lost 20 lbs.  But it wasn’t just eating right that got me where I am today.  Stay tuned to read about getting off the couch and to the gym.