New plan for a New year… Kind of

I am just short of two weeks into a new attempt at becoming healthy and losing weight. I have been trying off and on for some time, without much success. But recently I have made some large changes that seem to have kick started some progress.

Diet

The biggest change I have made is to focus heavily on my diet again. Below is an example of what I typically eat in the day right now. There are several areas that do change for dinner. One ingredient of change is the protein, in this example below from my fitness app, pork tenderloin. My protein of choice right now is instead often salmon, tuna, or chicken. The salad packages I use also vary, which in this case shown is the highest calorie and sugar content one I consume. The morning and lunch meals are primarily in smoothie form with the exception of the afternoon egg and morning almonds.  

My strategy of increasing food

So on my initial few days I consumed mostly my smoothie and salad, and nothing else. This caused a pretty dramatic and instant change. I lost over 10lbs in the first week doing this causing my scale app to give me a warning. The thing about this weight loss is that it was primarily water having given up my over indulgence in sodium rich foods. That combined with my excessive weight is what likely caused such a dramatic and rapid shift. Still as I remember someone once saying, water weight is weight you do not need to be carrying around. In fact, I felt better within a few days.

After that I began to add foods slowly to my meal plans, at first eggs. Eggs can be a controversial food to some because of the cholesterol in the yoke. There is a lot of back and forth about what quantity of eggs to safely consume. Eggs are however not questioned for their nutritional value, and they are indeed a powerhouse of protein and vitamins. So I decided to add two boiled eggs to my dinner and one to my lunch. I also wanted to add some healthy fats in with my diet so next came the avocado. As well as the added nutrition I noticed the avocado and eggs do wonders to make meals more satisfying and filling. For avocados I try to buy fresh, but keep some frozen just in case as they can be tricky to buy. I also began to add almonds and pomegranate (although I am not convinced of the pomegranate yet)

The strategy I am employing here is to steadily increase my food intake from a low calorie kick start into a comfortable nutrient rich and sustainable diet. As I lose weight and am able to be more active and burn more calories, I want to add a variety of nutritious foods and avoid the filler foods I often consume loaded with hidden calories and minimal nutrition.

Changing palate

Avoiding these filler foods is one of the main strategies I am going to employ, aside from resetting my diet in general. I have observed when eating healthy that I begin to notice the sweetness or saltiness in foods I had never noticed before. I also find adding additional sugars or sauces becomes unnecessary or even unpleasant. So I am hoping this strategy helps build out a new comfortable diet that helps enjoy the food for what it is. It is like removing all the items from a room, and then putting back only what is necessary or meaningful and enjoying those items all the more.  

Exercise

Along with doing my weight training I have begun trying to walk again almost every day. Right now, it is one around one km. but it is already better than I was doing, my back feels better and I am moving faster. This will hopefully be part of adjusting my food as I go, but for now, I am taking it one step at a time so to speak

See what happens

So that is the plan in a nutshell. So far it is working, so we will see. I want to be careful to both not effect my metabolism by restricting my self too much but also having a substantial change in how I view food. This is nothing groundbreaking or new for me, but this attempt is adjusted enough that I hope it brings long term success and a healthier tomorrow today.