Cleaner Eating Habit

What exactly does this mean to you?

There has been some buzz on the new Weight Watchers program and I for one am very excited, I have heard it will encourage more clean eating and less pre packaged foods etc. To me it seems this will fit right into my current eating habits. I thought today I would share a few thoughts on what I have been eating lately and how I knew my eating habits had really changed.

It all started a few months ago after I hit the 50 pounds lost mark. I was doing well but I felt I needed to take things up a notch because I was not seeing the results I wanted particularly in my mid section.I consulted a very dear friend of mine Drea and she suggested abs are all in your diet. Now she is my all knowing personal trainer, super fit, super mom so I knew she had to be correct.

On the agenda was to reduce carbohydrates, sodium, and sugar. Focus on vegetables, lean protein, and some fruits and dairy. Honestly the easiest to ditch was the carbohydrates, having Celiac helps me out in all sorts of ways with this because gluten is in every baked goodie so it was easy to avoid all together. It also prevents me from even eating those yummy Weight Watchers bars they sell int he centers. This helps because to eat cleaner I wanted to avoid pre packaged stuff a lot.

Next was the sugar. I did not consume a lot but still I wanted to cut out all together so I switched to Truvia Natural sweetner in my morning cup of coffee. I made sure if I broke down and needed and afternoon latte that it was a skinny one (skim milk and sugar free syrup). Sodium has probably been hardest to cut, it is so much of everything! I started using Mrs. Dash seasonings for my lean proteins and on egg whites. Then I started cutting back on the cheeses I was using with sodium. Little by little again it did not happen over night, I began making changes.

I began to look for food as a means to satisfy my hunger and fuel me through my day and workouts. I never even thought this was possible. (Stay tuned a post coming next week on binge eating, a dual project for school will explain my horrible relationship with food). So yes when did I finally realize this would be a life long habit, the other day after a long meeting I was completely famished. For many reasons my food intake had been limited all day and I was just plain starving. I got to a restaurant and instead of saying oh my gosh I am so hungry I need........... I said I am starving I need some protein!

My friend laughed at me and said do you realize what you just said? I thought for a minute and said yes I know what I said. I was so hungry and I knew I needed something to satisfy me and I knew my lean protein could. I was for the first time out loud looking for something just as fuel not as a yummy decadent treat, or a fancy dinner. It was for me a break through and probably one of the biggest I have had in my last 8.5 months. Well to end that story I ended up ordering a small side salad with light italian dressing and lime chicken breast grilled and a jicima salad. It was delicious and satisfying and I did not feel guilty for eating it and I left full and satisfied.

Here is what my tracker looked like yesterday:

Egg white quiche 3pt
Coffee 1pt
Chobani Vanilla greek yogurt 2pt
Baked apples and 1 tbsp fit granola 3pt
WW cheese stick 1pt
Side Salad with ff dressing2pt
Chicken breast 5pt
Bannana 1pt
Pop chips 2pt
Steamed veggies and ff parm cheese 2pt
Chicken breast 4pt
Almonds 2pt
Total points consumed 28 Daily allowance is 25. I distribute my 35 weekly allowance points over the week to get in the healthy foods I like. I do not use them as "cheat" points or things like that, once I started doing it this way I stayed successful.

How do you use your calories or points?
Do you try to follow a plan within a plan like I am at all?