This is my latest: “Flow of Life”, a 17×23″ oil on canvas.
When I joined the Biggest Loser Club online in December, they promised they’d send me out 3 books worth $60 and this week they FINALLY followed through.
I found this chart within the book which has helped me SO much this past week and pointed out to me where I’m falling down.
I found out that I’ve been eating too heavily in some areas, not enough in others. As soon as I made a shift, within 2 days, my weight started shifting down a bit.
Their overall recommendation is that when you fill your plate, it should be 1/2 vegetables, 1/4 protein and 1/4 grain. At least 1/2 of your servings throughout the day should be from fruits and veggies, much heavier on the veggies.
At least 4 servings of fruits and veggies a day, minimum. You can have as much veggies as you want-no limit. Fruit serving sizes-medium or 8 ounces. Vegetable serving size-1 cup or 8 ounces.
Protein foods-3 servings daily. Serving size is 1 cup or 8 ounces. For me, that’s 1 cup of beans, tofu, seitan or any other meat substitute. But hey, it’s only THREE servings, not endless protein.
Whole grains: 2 servings daily. That’s TWO. That’s not a lot!!! That’s either 2 pieces of toast–for the whole day, or 1 cup of cooked grain. 2 servings of the whole grain might look like this: 1 cup of cooked oatmeal, 1/2 c. of brown rice, 1 cup of quinoa and 1/2 c. of whole wheat pasta to round it out. As you can see, eating whole grains over processed bread gives you a huge bang for your buck! But Wow, 2 servings? That’s where I was falling down and didn’t realize it. I was having probably 6 servings throughout the day.
Lastly, at the top of the pyramid, is the teeny tiny peak which is only a teeny tiny 200 calories from which you can choose things like: any sugar free or fat free product, if you eat those. I can’t stand them, but whatever blows your skirt up. It also includes nuts and seeds, avocado, olives, sour pickles and condiments and sauces. That’s just 200 calories peeps! That’s like a little bit of nuts! That’s it!! That’s also where I was falling down a bit…not realizing that just because something is healthy for me, like nuts or avocado, that it might be something I’d only want a tad of.
This was really an eye opener for me.
As you lose weight and you get to that point where you need to reduce your calories further, you work on cutting down on that 200 calories from the tip of the pyramid, replace some of your whole grain servings with more vegetables and chose lower fat proteins plus reduce your fruit servings and replace them with more vegetable servings.
I’m learning how important it is to eat, eat, eat up your vegetables! Last night I made an incredible chilli with my homemade seitan and lots of beans and spices and I also added in 2 cups of cut up kale which was kind of unusual but it worked great. I snuck in my vegetables and really you couldn’t even taste it, it just mixed in there looking all pretty.
Have to go hiking again. I think I’m going to lose 3 toenails. This always seems to happen to me when I run a lot or walk a LOT. It’s just me. It makes things “exciting”.
Fit Living Daily 