What I Love About My Healthy Eating Plan

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 61

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 42 in.

Current waist size: 40 in.
Weight end of week 9:  192 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week: -1 lb.

Total Gain/Loss:  -17 lbs.

It’s a new year. I want to start the year in a positive frame. Here are a few of the ways I’ve described the way I’ve been eating since November 1, 2013:

• healthy eating plan
• change my eating habits
• new approach to eating
• course on eating right
• adopt a healthy relationship with food
• new eating regimen
•  healthy eating strategy

I plan to continue this “diet” not just until I reach my goal, but as long as my life and health allow. The word diet in its original and broad definition is simply what you eat. We are all “on a diet,” some more healthy ones than others. In most of my weekly posts since I began this dietary shift (for anyone coming to this blog for the first time, my plan is based on a book: The 2-Day Diet: Diet Two Days a Week, Eat Normally for Five ), I’ve focused on adjusting to the restrictions inherent in the effort to lose weight. Today, I want to focus on some of the things I’ve enjoyed!

The most restricted parts of this plan involve the two days each week when carb heavy foods are not allowed. Here are some of the foods I enjoy on those days (I can enjoy them on any day, but might have some crackers or a piece of bread with them). I am not labeling these as meals, any of them could be a meal or part of a meal; I’ve noticed that on some days I may have four or five small meals the size of which I would have considered snacks before I started my healthy eating plan:

•  A scrambled egg (I use a yolk-free product to keep cholesterol down) with a sprinkling of cheese on top, topped by salsa.
• An apple with hummus (I usually cut the apple—or ½ an apple if it’s one of those large ones) in wedges, put a couple tablespoons of hummus on a plate, and eat slowly, savoring each delicious bite)
• An apple with cheese (a stick of string cheese, slice of swiss or some sharp cheddar)
• Celery, bell pepper, and/or carrot with hummus or salsa.
• Traditional tuna salad (tuna, fat-free or low-fat mayo, celery or relish and/or chopped apple}
•  Canned sardines, kipper snacks, smoked oysters, or packaged smoked salmon in a garden salad with a low fat or fat-free dressing (I particularly like the Newman’s Own sesame ginger and balsamic vinaigrette).
•  Roasted green vegetables that have been tossed with balsamic vinegar: brussel sprouts, green beans, broccoli (roast in the oven at 425 until browned, turning once).
• Cauliflower pesto (yes, cauliflower instead of pasta—it’s awesome!).
• And of course any fresh fish—talapia, salmon, cod— sautéed in a couple tablespoons of olive oil with garlic (after turning, I sometimes top with salsa or feta and chopped olives).

Okay, I’m not writing a cookbook (the 2 Day Diet book has some recipes, and there are a million low carb recipes and Mediterranean diet recipes online) and this is by no means a complete list of what I eat, but I just wanted to say that while changing my eating habits has been difficult, over time it has gotten easier, and while I’ve pined over foods that I must avoid, I’ve discovered new foods to love and come to love foods I dismissed as uninteresting before. I liken this to cutting salt or sugar completely out of your diet. If you do so for awhile, you will be able to taste the natural salt and sugar in foods which were there all the time, but in smaller quantities than you could detect with taste buds that were used to being hammered by them.

Though I like to pretend that thousands of people read my blog, the stats don’t lie, and I’ve had from 25-250 views on any given week. If you’ve read this far, I’d love to hear from you through a comment or message. Are you finding anything I’ve posted helpful to you? What in particular? If you’ve read the 2 Day Diet book and are trying it, I’d love to hear about your efforts. What is working or not working for you?