To Eat Or Not To Eat

So I have decided to log my food into the activtrax online system.  Now the questions are;  what do I eat, how much, and how often.  I am continuously reading articles and books about food, and what benefits are derived from eating certain foods.  I’ve read diet books such as “The Abs Diet for Women”,  “Harnessing the Healing Power of Fruit”, “The South Beach Diet”, and various articles that I find online and in health magazines.  As I said in  “The Weight Gain Dilemma”; I thought I was eating healthy.  I was just not as disciplined as I needed to be.  I knew this needed to change. I really had to get serious and apply more of this knowledge to my everyday eating habits.  As I logged in my food everyday and noticed how much fat was in everything, I focused on eating basically no fat.  That’s pretty much what you have to do in order to fit into the 20% a day category. Let me backtrack on that.  I was set up on activtrax to eat 20% fat, 50% carbs, and 30% protein.  I have always tried to eat balanced at every meal; protein, carbs, and veggies. I read that half of your plate should be filled with vegetables.  Also you need at least 7 to 9 servings of fruits and veggies a day; maybe 9 to 13 by now.  My goal was to eat my 3 meals a day with a morning and afternoon snack.  I was careful to keep all  my food intake to one serving size of everything. That included sauces, condiments (butter, mayo, dressings, etc. ), EVERYTHING.  I would also concentrate on drinking as much water as possible to get to the 64 oz a day.  This is not the first time I have tried to lose weight, and I know how my body will react to drinking more water, and eating less at each sitting, but more times a day.  At first you feel hungry because you’re stomach is used to having more, and it has to shrink.  You also don’t feel like eating every time you should. You have to give your body time to adjust to this new way of eating and drinking. After a couple of weeks, I started feeling hungry when it was time to eat, and I was eating or drinking all the time.  I brought healthy snacks with me to work; fruit, nuts, hummus and crackers, or celery, protein bars, etc. I made sure that I ate enough protein before going to exercise.  My body was changing quickly due to the change in what I ate, when I ate, and how much I ate. The exercising everyday was really making a difference in how I felt, as well as reducing the inches around my hips, legs, and belly.  I ventured into my closet to see how my old clothes would fit.  The results were amazing.  I was only losing about 1 to 2 lbs a week, which is what I was told when I was setup, but where I really noticed a difference quickly was how trim I was looking and feeling.  This was my incentive and motivation to keep on going.  IT WAS WORKING!!!  

Please read on to the next article “Getting Over The Plateau”.