Resolutions

This time last year I was losing weight on Weight Watchers and feeling great about it. I was also working a job I hated. Last April I got a fabulous new job, unfortunelty it caused me to not only fall off the wagon but to actually crash and burn. I quit Weight Watchers and since have gained back most of what I had lost. My husband and I discussed it last night while waiting for the ball to drop and decided that I should go back onWeight Watchers. So that is what I just did, I rejoined. I also weighed myself for the first time in a long time. OUCH! New Year, Clean Slate, Right????
I am also going back to my Clean Eating. Last night I finished making hashbrowns from scratch so we can eat them this morning. I had gotten a Kitchenaid and a slicing attachment for Christmas and it is FAB! I highly recommend it!

TV Show workouts

Meal Plan

I have repeatedly been told that too learn a new way of eating, one must PLAN for success. This is what one must do for any goal one sets for themselves. So here goes nothing:


                  
Tuesday     B   Granola with Greek Yogurt and a clementine
                   L   3.5oz steak, 1/2 baked potato, 1/4c corn
                   D Cilantro Lime Chicken with 1/2 c brown rice and fresh green beans

Wednesday  B Fruit Smoothie
                     L Natural Peanut Butter and Natural Jelly on a Rice Cake
                     D Chicken Taco Salad (See recipe below)

Thursday      B   Granola with Greek Yogurt and a clementine  
                      L   Leftover Cilantro Lime Chicken
                     D   Rice spaghetti with tomato sauce

Friday            B  Natural Peanut Butter and Natural Jelly on a Rice Cake and a clementine
                       L  Spinach salad topped with tuna
                       D  Pork chop, sweet potato and broccoli

Saturday         B  Peanut butter and apple oatmeal with a clementine
                        L Salmon, 1/2 C brown rice and broccoli
                        D Garlic Lime Chicken, Quinoa, Green Beans

Sunday            B Smoothie
                        L/D   Ribs, Sweet Potato, Left over Vegetables



Chicken Taco Salad

Place 2lbs chicken breast in a crockpot with a packet of taco seasoning and a jar of your favorite salsa. Cook for 6hrs on low. Shred the chicken with a fork. Serve over greens.


My snacks for the week are as follows: banana with natural peanut butter, fruit, veggies dipped in hummus, rice cakes, and granola.

Also, I will limit my self to 2 sodas a day this first week. I will drink 6-8 glasses of water a day. This is going to be difficult but I am going to do this!

I am joining a new weight loss group tomorrow. I am hoping it will help to be with others that are in a similar situation. I intend to post what I eat, along with pictures (when possible) daily.

If anyone can give me ideas on future meals, please post them to the comments section. I could use all the help I can get!

The last post I made, I had been gung-ho about eating better. It didn't last though. Sigh! I thought starting a blog would help but it just gave me one more thing to avoid. I quit going to Weight Watchers and my diet has gotten worse and worse as the days go by. I found this challenge Clean Eating Challenge that Jessica Zokas had posted and decided enough is enough. I have to do something! My allergies are kicking in thanks to a steady diet of hot fudge sundaes!

 I have the worst time sleeping anymore thanks to not only the sugar high but the caffeine high as well. I have over indulged in Diet Dr Pepper to the point that I am guzzling 4-6 cans a day! I reread my previous post about the garbage that has invaded our tables and again wonder---What am I doing to myself? I saw a wonderful image the other day on Pinterest. It read something like: Don't reward yourself with food, you're not a dog!   

I had never really thought of it that way before, but that is exactly what I do. I am an emotional eater. It gets worse when I am stressed but it is still there no matter what the emotion is. It is time to save me from me. I need to clean up my diet and get back on the exercise horse.


 I will start to follow Tosca Reno's Diet Rules, not just as diet rules but more as living rules.

Her rules are as follows:

1. Eat More! Eat 6 small meals each day, spaced at 2 1/2 to 3 hour intervals.
2. Eat breakfast every day, within an hour of rising.
3. Make your last meal 3 hours before bed.
4. Eat a combo of lean protein and complex carbs at each meal.
5. Eat sufficient HEALTHY fats every day.
6. Drink 2-3 liters of water each day.
7. Carry a cooler packed with clean foods each day.
8. Depend on fresh fruits and vegetables for fiber, vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes.
9. Adhere to PROPER portion size.
10. Eat only foods that have not been overly processed or doused in chemicals, saturated and trans fats and/or toxins.

AVOID

1. All refined, over processed foods, particularly white flour, sugar and related products.
1. Guess this means no hot fudge
2. Chemically charged food
3. Foods containing preservatives
1. What, no Twinkies???
4. Saturated and trans fats
5. Skipping meals
6. Excess sodium
7. Sugar and all sugar substitutes
8. Counting calories
9. Alcohol and juice
1. Good thing I don't drink much anymore
10. Artificial foods
11. All calorie dense foods continuing little or no nutritional value
12. Super sizing your meals
1. Was never much for this one

 

(Reno, Tosca. The Eat-Clean Diet: Recharged. Robert Kennedy Publishing. 2009)
The Eat-Clean Diet: Recharged


I have decided too that I am going to begin this transformation today! It can't all be accomplished in one day but I intend to be following all the rules in time and be back to the gym!

Fresh vs Processed

DH and I bought a dehydrator tonight. I can't wait for the weekend to try it out! We have so many spices in the garden and hot peppers that we need to dehydrate some before they go bad. I have been surfing the Internet and my favorite website, Pinterest, looking for different things I can dehydrate. There are soooo many options. I want to make my own trail mix for work and different fruits for my morning oatmeal. This will all help to keep me on the allergen-free straight and narrow as it will open up so many options.

Dehydrating it myself will also be cheaper AND I will know exactly what is in my foods. That is something I am liking about eating clean. I know what is in my food. Before, when I ate processed foods I would have absolutely no idea what was in it. If I did bother reading the ingredient's lists, I wouldn't recognize half of the ingredients! Do you ever look at that list and scratch your head? Look at a simple Chocolate Frosted Donut from Dunkin' Donuts. If you follow the link and look at the ingredients, they have to tell you what some of those ingredients even are! If they didn't tell me I would not know what Soy Lecithin was or what Potassium Sorbate was used for. And for that matter what is Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate?
When I make food now, I am the one putting the ingredients together and I know exactly what they are and what they are for. I also don't have to worry that what I am putting in my body doesn't have so many preservatives that it won't ever rot. Have you ever seen Supersize Me? The burger and fries on the desk never rot. Think about that in your stomach. Gross!

I know which I would prefer! How about you? 

Research

I have read several books now on the subject of food allergies, gluten-free living and clean eating. I have come to the realization that alot of the problems I have had or am currently having could be caused by the way I eat. I never realized that depression and ADHD could be caused by the foods I eat. I have always eaten all kinds of processed food. I have eaten fruit and veggies but not in abundance. I grew up on a farm with access to the freshest meat. Now, I eat processed meats from the grocery store. Definately not the same!
I have learned through my research that food allergens can be under any number of names in the ingredient's lists of many foods. I have come to the conclusion that if I eat clean I don't have to worry about this because that will take out many of the processed foods that have been in my diet for years.

Recommended reading:
G-Free by Elisabeth Hasselbeck
Eat Clean Recharged by Tosca Reno
Complete Idiots Guide: Gluten Free Eating by Eve Adamson
Gluten-Free Cooking for Dummies by Danna Korn and Connie Sarros

Recommended Cookbooks:
Allergy Self-Help Cookbook by Marjorie Hurt Jones, RN
Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal
So What Can Eat Now by Rhonda Peters
Complete Allergy-Free Comfort Foods Cookbook by Elizabeth Gordon
Everything Allergy Cookbook by Linda Larsen
Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook 2 by Tosca Reno

I have been doing alright in my quest to become free from my allergens and eating clean. I did have a few little slips today. I ate 3 pieces of fun size candy. I am not even sure why I did it. I wasn't hungry. I had other heathy foods I could have been eating but instead I choose to eat foods that had a bunch of ingredients that I could not even pronounce much less knew what they were. I am a very big emotional eater and I just had my gallbladder out Friday, so I suppose it had to do with that. *Sigh*