New Way of Thinking About Eating

This morning I had my one-on-one session with Dan from Sweat Life Fitness (which turned into a 3 on 1 since Julia & Drew had to come with me!). He went over the basics of how the body burns energy (calories). He told me about how these low cal diets and such work by starving the body. But once you go back to a normal diet, the body moves into fat storing mode and thus you gain weight back. The best method, is to feed your body what it needs to run and then workout to burn the excess of what you eat. So, I need to burn at least 500 calories a day more than I eat in order to get a 1 lb weekly weight loss (7x500=3500 cal=1 lb). It is not too motivating to see only 1 lb gone off the scale, but along with the other activities of taking care of the kids and other things that aren't considered "exercise," I should lose more like 2 lbs a week. This is what most people consider a healthy amount to lose per week.

So, I'm starting this journey with a new approach-you can't starve your body. In order to make this a permanent change, slow and steady wins the race. Although I would love to see all of this weight gone in 3 months, it might realisticly take 6 months.

My goal is to only eat 320 calories per meal, 5 times a day. The reason is because the liver can't hold more than that amount of "energy" at one time. When you eat more and don't burn it off, it stores as fat. This will keep my body happy and keep any fat from accumulating!

Of course, these 320 calories should be equal size of protein & carbs and some good fat. So I also have to plan for a well balanced meal. This is getting easier as I find more foods I enjoy. I like nuts, so they are a good source of protein and fruit is always a good carb! The key is portion control and making sure I get something down every 3 hours....which isn't always easy as I chase around 3 kids!!!