Dieting
When we think of loosing weight, DIETING, comes to mind. This brings on a slew of emotions of depravation, discipline, and failure. I start thinking about everything I can not eat. Okay, I begin to obese about everything I won’t be able to enjoy. I love my breads, pasta, chocolate, and my wine. Everything that is taken away with a diet.
We Started With Carb Cycling
I was not looking forward to any kind of a diet. My husband came across an advertisement from some celerity fitness coach. He watched as I listened, because he had the volume up plenty loud that I did not have a choice but to listen, to a very long informercial. It was interesting to hear that there is a diet out there that allows you to eat your favorite foods. However, even though I was not a fan of doing a diet that had so many rules I did agree to giving it a shot…. as a jump start to better health. I knew that this would not be something I would be able to sustain in the long term. So we did all the required calculations to figure out our individual macros.
What I learned From Carb Cycling
Carb cycling in theory is not as restrictive as so many other diets. But everyday, as I added my foods into my app of choice for food tracking, I discovered that over all I was missing out on many key nutrients. By restricting my diet I was not getting enough fiber, potassium, and other vitamins. I also learned that I did not get anywhere near the amount of proteins that I thought I was. So after a month I changed my eating habits away from carb cycling to eating for nutritional value instead.
The 13 Calorie Rule
No one likes to think about counting calories. No matter what diet you do, there is some form of calorie counting. However, sometime ago, on one of the many diet journeys, I came across the 13 calorie rule. The rule is you multiply your desired weight by 13. This will give you the total number of calories you can consume in a day and loose weight, without doing anything else. I have found that this works amazingly well. But not all calories are nutritional. When we were calculating our calorie intake for carb cycling we found the number to be very close to the number we calculate using the 13 calorie rule. So as of today we still use the 13 calorie rule, but focus on eating more nutritional foods during the day.
What My Eating Goals Are Today
Today we are focused on eating a nutritionally valued diet. I look up foods that are high in the areas I feel my diet is lacking and make a point to incorporate them into my diet. Not everyday is an “on point” day. Some days my husband wants McDonalds…. so we eat McDonalds. I just make sure that the next day we eat a little cleaner. I enjoy a glass of wine, or I go to happy hour with my Dad. But I plan for those days. I eat more veggies and less fats to insure that I have the room in my diet for the empty calories I will enjoy.
I am not dieting, I am learning to eat better. Life is too short to have so many rules with food.