Hi! This topic is primarily going to be focused on my journey to become healthier in a sustainable way.
Background: I have always lived and ate like a traditional southerner, being both inactive and eating a lot of unhealthy food. 36.5% of Oklahomans are obese. I have personally fluctuated between overweight and mildly obese in my life, but I haven’t been at the supposed target weight for a woman of my height… ever. I don’t put that much stock in this stuff, but I do put stock in trying to do better. I guess my goal, rather than becoming thin, is to simply make sure that I can be at a weight that I am happy with, even if that is considered ‘overweight’ by some fitness guru. I’ve been having some problems with acid reflux, which I’m hoping to alleviate with some weight loss as well.
It’s a difficult subject for me because I fiercely believe that people need to shut the fuck up about weight in general, but it’s something that has bothered me for most of my life. It is hard to run from ingrained expectations. I don’t really believe in fad diets / deprivation style diets, so I decided to assess what I wanted to do to improve my eating habits.
The first thing I decided was to cut out ‘stress eating’, which I definitely have fallen victim to many times in the past. That mostly translates as picking up a snack after work. I decided to start bringing snacks to work instead, and that was quite a good solution to the problem. I have only ate something after school once since the start of the new year. This wasn’t very hard because I realized that it was pretty stupid to start with.
A couple of snacks that I have had at work are: hummus and carrots/celery, which to be honest was a huge hit, especially once my coworker told me about making homemade hummus. It’s cheap and easy to make at home, and one can of chickpeas makes enough hummus for four weeks. I freeze three of the containers and get them out when I need them. The other one I tried was cashew butter and apples. Obviously this one is a little bit sweeter, but it’s still pretty tasty. Both provide nutrients and both hummus and cashew butter are reasonably filling. When I forget my snack it is definitely a bummer.
Rice/pasta substitutes: I’ve been tinkering with different ideas surrounding meals with pasta and rice. I tried making my own cauliflower rice. To be honest, it is really messy to shred and doesn’t really replicate rice that well in thinner-sauced dishes, but I liked it anyway. I’ve been eating it primarily with Thai curries. For Indian food, I tried eating veggie and lentils dishes without rice, which was fine and dandy. The meatier curry sauces I still like old fashioned rice for.
I’ve also tried making zucchini noodle pasta, which is a lot of work and a little messy. I ended up not really being satisfied with the amount of noodles when I tried to make it with red meat sauce, but it tasted really nice! After that, I have just been mixing it into some cream pasta dishes along with regular pasta, which is nice and also adds some veggies in.
Tinkering with breakfast: I’ve been trying to make my breakfast a little more diverse, with protein along with other things: First I tried boiling eggs and eating them with some cashew butter and a fruit salad. It was okay but not thrilling. I also decided to try overnight oats with apples and cinnamon, which I quite enjoy even if it seems like a lot of food.
Lentil soup: I’ve been making a big fucking pot of lentil soup every week and eating it at various times, including making up for any missed lunches rather than getting lunch at the gross cafeteria. If I don’t eat it during the week, I will usually cook it on Saturday.
The last thing I have been doing is exercising. I decided to buy a one year gym membership to the local gym, and so far I’ve been going about four times a week, usually from 30 minutes to 50 minutes per session. They tried to talk me into a personal trainer but I was like nah, I like my money. I’ve also been working on some at-home exercises and watching Youtube videos and stuff.
Lost 9 pounds so far since January. Last week was a bust diet-wise because vacation but I’m trying to get back in the groove this week.
