Food Philosophy

FOOD

I love food.  All of it.

Well...most of it.

Well....I'm picky about my food.  But if I love it, I love it with everything I have.

My philosophies on food [and drink] are as follows:

1.

 Portion control.  

Let me just repeat that for good measure.  

PORTION CONTROL.

Do I think I should eat pizza?  No.  Can I eat pizza and still maintain my weight? Maybe!  

Obviously every person's body is different.  We all digest things differently, and sometimes there are just those foods that make us retain weight. Why? I don't know. I'm not a nutritionist.

Anyway.

My point is, yes, we all have busy lives.  Every once in a while, I eat pizza.  [insert shame]  Sometimes you eat something that just is not good for you, but it doesn't have to undo your entire healthy life.  Remember that every bite has calories, fat, carbs, protein, etc, in it regardless of deliciousness.

Keep it small.  

Just don't do it every day, okay?

Need help with portion sizes??  Body by Vi gives this handy chart:

2.

Moderation & Education.

This spins off my last sentiment in the previous point.  

DO NOT EAT PIZZA EVERY DAY. 

Eating an unhealthy meal every once in a while is not bad, like I said before.  I fully recommend a cheat day once a week [less than that if you can swing it].  Other than the the occasional splurge, keep your diet clean.  Eat lean meats, vegetables, fruit, whole grain.  

Cannot get enough of those processed foods?

Me too. 

If you HAVE to eat processed foods-- 

Education.  

Check labels.  Pay attention to what ingredients are used, and how many servings are in a container.  I ignorantly made this mistake all my life.  

"One bag of cheetos is only 150 calories, right? What do you mean fun size or family size?  It's all the same!"

All in all, be wary of processed foods, and mix it up! Eat clean for breakfast and dinner, but don't beat yourself up for eating a microwaveable meal for lunch.  

3. 

Drink less calories. 

In fact, I wholeheartedly advocate drinking zero calories.

The first thing I could have cut out of my life to shed some pounds was pop. [or soda or coke or whatever it is you want to call it]

I was drinking sometimes 5 cans of pop a day.  That's around 800 - 900 calories. Just in liquids!  I personally never feel full after drinking something, so why waste precious calories on liquid when I can get full from my actual food.

I'm not super-human, so I did not cut out pop, and then stick to only water.  If you can do that, kudos.  I cannot.

During the liquid-calorie-cut, I transitioned from full-calories pop to diet pop.  Yes, it still has lots of icky chemicals that probably make us rot inside, but it makes that first step a little bit easier.

Otherwise, water [normal or flavored], tea, coffee [black] -- these all have little to zero calories.

Remember these.