Let me explain my meal plan before and now — I feel like it’s essential to understanding my journey.
Initially, I tried to lose my baby weight by exercise alone. I would spend quite a bit of time on the treadmill and never saw any real results. The only thing happening was that I was feeling thinner but the scale and my pant size didn’t change. I then moved on to a plan called the Sonoma Diet — this actually helped to jump start my weight loss but I couldn’t stick with it for more than a few days. This plan is basically an Aktins-like diet with the allowance of things like wine and grains after the initial phase (that I never got past). By the third day or so of being on the Sonoma Diet, I was very ill feeling and too weak to even workout anymore — I assume that this was because I was breastfeeding my 3 month old daughter exclusively.
After I quit the Sonoma diet, I moved on to Weight Watchers, which has a plan specifically for breast feeding moms. Weight Watchers is not based on sticking to specific foods or eliminating food groups, it’s based on a point system where everything you eat has an assigned value and you’re allowed a certain value in a day (it sounds more complicated than it really is). This was so easy for me to follow at first and I was so happy to have bread again — actually, my favorite place to eat in the world is Subway so it worked out perfectly!
After my dad died, I gave up on dieting and caring what I ate altogether. I managed to gain everything back, and then some. My typical day would consist of fast food or sit down restaurants at every meal. My favorite meal at Subway went from being a six inch whole wheat with turkey, cucumbers, and onions to becoming a foot long with extra turkey, bacon, cheese, mayo and pickles, then add in a bag of chips and three cookies. In one day, a typical meal plan would consist of a fast food breakfast, my ‘new’ Subway lunch, a chimichanga from my favorite Mexican place for dinner and snacks throughout the day. Being full was vital because it’s the only thing that made me forget how empty and scared I felt. I guess you could say that I was the ultimate emotional eater.
Stuffed pepper with lean ground beef, cheese, and topped with homemade salsa. All Akins friendly except for the tomatoes in the salsa.
Now that my emotional wounds have started to heal, I’ve got a new meal plan to repair the physical ‘damage’ I’ve done to myself. I’m not going back to Weight Watchers because the routine is almost just too familiar. I don’t want to feel like I’ve done this before and get frustrated that I let myself go so easily. What I’m doing now is a modified low-carb diet. Basically, I’m avoiding bread and high-carb foods, but I’m not going to sweat every single detail. Unlike strict plans, I’m going to keep eating fruits and vegetables without regard to their impact on my carbohydrate count. I am still breast feeding my daughter, just not exclusively, and I want to make sure that I’m going to stay healthy this time. The added fruits and vegetables, not otherwise allowed on Akins like plans, should compensate for the extra needed calories.
I’m easing myself into it so I don’t feel so deprived all at once. Given my slight modification thus far, I am proud of my progress — I’ve lost two pounds since my last post. It’s not much, but the scale is going the right way!
