The BEST Diet Out There

 I get messages literally every single day from people asking me to tell them what diet is the best to follow. With so many options out there (i.e., paleo, Weight Watchers, 8 Hour Diet, Dukan, etc), it is not surprising to me that people get overwhelmed when it comes to proper nutrition. Each of these diets uses a different method that promises fast weight loss but how on Earth do you know which diet to follow when there’s so many to choose from?

  

I’ll let you in on an industry secret. The best diet out there is finding one that is sustainable, not restrictive and satisfying. You cannot fully and honestly expect to go through life eating only raw foods or only eating carbohydrates at certain times of the day or only eating salads for every meal (when you hate salads). When you make a decision to eat healthfully, you need to toss out the diet mentality that so many of us are used to prescribing to. You need to switch out those negative thoughts to empowering, positive thoughts. For example, instead of saying, “I can’t have pizza” you could say, “I could have pizza but I choose not to.” BUT, that said, if it is a treat day, by all means, eat that pizza but just remember to be smart about it. Don’t eat an entire large size pizza to yourself.

 A well-balanced diet is absolutely ESSENTIAL to the healthy lifestyle equation. You can go to the gym and work your butt off for an hour every day but if your nutrition doesn’t reflect your goals, you just won’t progress. Believe me on this one. I spent 3.5 years working out hard, but it wasn’t until I really dialled in my nutrition and starting eating the right foods and the “bad” foods in moderation, my body didn’t really make a lot of huge changes. Or, I shouldn’t say that. My body did make changes but my mind didn’t. I have been a chronic yo-yo dieter for almost my whole life. When I started my weight loss journey in 2008, I thought that if I exercised often, I’d be okay to eat the Pilsbury cookie dough in our fridge for snacks every day. This, obviously, isn’t the answer. I would workout hard and eat well probably 60% of the time but the other 40% of the time, I would eat unhealthier foods in excess and then be angry that I wasn’t losing weight. Or I would commit to eating clean but then never let myself have treats which only lead me to binge eventually. It wasn’t until last year when I finally realized that I can still see progress with my fitness journey if I balance eating healthfully with eating the less nutritionally dense foods (i.e., pizza, French fries). 

                A well-balanced diet:

-          Has no restrictions, especially whole food groups or macronutrients

-          Allows everything (YES, even pizza & chocolate), in moderation

-          Is varied as well as flexible (Planned on chicken breasts for supper but feeling more like having eggs? Do it!)

-          Contains foods that you LIKE to eat, not foods you FEEL you HAVE to eat (don’t make yourself eat spinach if you hate spinach!)

-          Includes a lot of water

-          Is imperfect

-          Creates feelings of positivity towards foods

-          Is fulfilling

So, I’m sorry I cannot give you an exact diet plan to follow but I will tell you this: eat healthfully (whole grains, lean protein, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats) 80% of the time and use that 20% to eat those less-nutrient dense foods (see how I didn’t call them ‘junk’ foods or ‘unhealthy’ foods? That creates a negative relationship and we want to AVOID that). I don’t expect you to eat like a fitness model and you don’t have to. You just need to become more aware of what are more nutritionally sound food choices. Do not ever follow a diet that makes you feel like you're missing out on the foods you love. Doing so sets you up for a negative experience and implementing a healthy lifestyle change should be one of the most positive and empowering decisions you make.

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How To Eat Healthy ~ 10 Easy Steps

I get a lot of questions about proper nutrition, eating right and finding a sustainable way to eat healthy. Often times people will start an exercise program under the impression that they need to eat only salads for the rest of their lives. That's not very fun OR sustainable, is it? Can you see yourself eating only greens for the rest of your life? Of course not. Eating this way is not only unnecessary but it's also unhealthy! You cannot succeed in a nutrition program that you completely ban foods (or whole food groups) from. You need to find a balance.

Throw out the word "diet" from your vocabulary. You will not be on a diet. This is a lifestyle. The word "diet" has such a negative connotation that referring to your nutritional approach as “dieting” is basically setting yourself up for failure.

Getting started on the path to eating right can be downright complicated. With all of the fad diets available and the foods in the grocery store that are labelled as “healthy”, I do not blame anyone for being confused about where to start. I admit that when I started my wellness journey, I made it all about calories in VS calories out. I figured if I was eating low enough calories, I’d lose weight. I would buy all of the low calories and low fat foods in the supermarket because I figured that “low calorie” and “low fat” meant that they were healthy. This is NOT the case at all.

 

Ninety-nine percent of the time, the foods that you see at the store with labels on them claiming they’re low calorie or low fat are chock full of chemicals. The chances are, when the producers of these food products take out the fat from the products, they’re putting in even more artificial flavourings and chemicals to make up for the fats they removed.

So, if the food industry is tricking us into eating chemicals by passing them off as “healthy” foods, what IS a person to eat? Here are some of my favourite healthy eating tips.

(1)  Start in the grocery store. The next time you go to the store, try to shop as much as you can in around the perimeter of the store. This is where most of the fresh, healthy finds are. Think about your local grocery store. What foods do you find on the perimeter of the store? Fresh meats, fruits, vegetables, dairy products right? Only go into the aisles of the store to find frozen healthy foods like meats, veggies and fruit and grains like brown rice.

(2)  Buy a reusable water bottle and refill it as the day goes on to keep you accountable for how much water you’re drinking. I have a 32 oz bottle that I refill 2-3x a day usually so I know that I’m drinking in the 64-96 oz range every day.

(3)  Watch what you top your salads with. Salads can be a delicious, healthy option in your lifestyle change but if you’re topping your salad with creamy dressings, cheese, bacon bits and other fatty options, you’re doing more harm than good. Play with different salad toppings and get creative. Try adding nuts like slivered almonds and cashews, different types of vegetables (peppers, mushrooms, celery, onion, broccoli, beets, sprouts, etc...the possibilities are literally endless) & add in some protein to make it more filling (chicken breast, hard-boiled egg slices, salmon, tuna).

(4)  Get creative with your meals. The great thing about living in the technology age is that we don’t have to shell out big bucks on cookbooks to find new recipes to add to our arsenal. A quick Google search of “healthy recipes” will bring up something like 220,000,000 results. The best thing about experimenting with recipes at home is that you know exactly what’s going into your meals. Some of my favourite recipe websites for healthy meals are:

         Spark Recipes

         Skinny Mom

         Eating Well
         Skinny Taste

         Eat Clean Diet

I like to go through these websites every Sunday and find new recipes to try every week. I make a meal plan on Sunday’s for the week’s dinners and while I find recipes online to try, I write out a grocery list that consists of only the ingredients I need for the recipes and meals I’ll be eating. This eliminates most impulse buys at the grocery store while also lowering the amount of food that goes bad before we get around to eating it because I’m only buying what we need and will eat.

(5)  I like to live by the 80/20 rule. If I am eating whole, nutritious foods 80% of the time, I can allow the other 20% some leniency. Do I sometimes eat 75/25? Of course. I'm only human. I'm not perfect. Do I beat myself up over a "bad" meal? Of course not. One bad meal isn't going to make me overweight again. Obsessing over that one bad meal is going to set me up for failure because I will beat myself up, think myself a failure as then end up putting MORE junk into my body.

(6)  Don’t deny yourself what you’re craving. If you’re craving a piece of pizza, have a piece of pizza. But try to limit the amount of treats you have every week. In our household, we have one cheat meal every week (usually Friday nights) and then we allow ourselves one other treat per week, usually in the form of Tim Horton’s iced cappuccinos or hot cappuccinos. BUT (you knew there was going to be a BUT), we only allow ourselves these cheat meals if we EARN it. That is, if we eat well every other day of the week and keep up with our exercise programs, we earn that one meal and one snack of foods/drinks that we wouldn’t usually eat.

(7)  Don’t use phrases like “I can’t eat that” when you’re referring to foods that aren’t necessarily healthy. Instead, putting a positive spin on your choices like saying “I don’t eat that” makes you feel more empowered and in charge of your choices.

(8)  Have a plan. This is SO important. Like I mentioned earlier, I always plan out our dinners on Sunday nights. That way I know what we’re having for dinner every night of the week. We also do our grocery shopping on Sunday’s so we have all the ingredients necessary for all of our meals that I’ve planned for the week. This eliminates the “hmm..what should we have for dinner?” discussion my husband and I used to have every night (which, for the record, often resulted in not-so-great fast food decisions). I often eat the same meals every day for breakfast and lunch as well as my snacks so I always know what I’m going to be eating and when. If you get bored of eating the same foods every day, keep your fridge stocked with many healthy choices so you always have something nutritious to reach for.

(9)  Play with spices. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring. Buy an array of spices at the grocery store and play around with them, trying different spices out on different meals to see what your favourite combinations are. I love putting Mrs. Dash on my chicken breasts. My husband always makes fun of me because I often just throw random spices onto our meals just to see “if it tastes good.” Check out this spice chart to see what spices go good with what foods (but don’t be afraid to make your own spice concoctions)

(10)     Make a grocery list and stick with it. When I first started eating healthy, I printed off “clean eating” grocery lists from the internet to take to the store. This is a GREAT idea for people who are just starting out and don’t know what food choices to make. Check out this list, print it off and make it your best friend when you go to the grocery store this week.

    

     The important thing to remember when you’re starting out eating nutritiously is that you should be EXCITED about it. You should look forward to the changes that are going to take place to and IN your body. If you’re less than thrilled about following the above tips and eating better foods, then you’re just going to get frustrated down the road. You need to approach healthy eating with enthusiasm and excitement! If you’re shuffling your feet down the grocery store aisles, sighing dramatically as you pass the Pop Tarts, then maybe you’re just not ready to make a change yet. And, you know what? That’s fine. Everyone has their own journey to embark on when it comes to making a lifestyle change. Just remember this, however:

The reason we need to eat nutritious foods isn’t just to lose weight; it’s to help you feel better from the inside out. If you feel exhausted, tired, and all around crappy all of the time, then maybe it’s time to change your attitude towards healthy eating and start doing it properly?

I want to hear from you! Respond here with your thoughts, on my Facebook page or e-mail me!

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Why I Broke Up With The Scale

I have been a slave to my scale for literally as long as I can remember. I can tell you various weights I have been at different points in my life (52 lbs – 5 years old; 82 lbs – 11 years old; 170 lbs – 17 years old; 122 lbs – 20 years old; 198 lbs – 21 years old). It upsets me that memories of fun times from these different stages in my life are fading but these numbers are something it seems I won’t ever forget.

                More often than not, I have let the scale dictate my mood for any given day I’ve stepped on it. Down a pound? Happiest girl ever! Up a pound? What the hell?! I hate myself! I’m not even exaggerating these sentiments. Anytime the scale said I weighed more than the previous time I weighed myself, it literally ruined my day. The sad thing is that I understand why and how weight fluctuates from day-to-day but it still hurt me to see an increase (no matter how minute) on the scale.

                The scale measures your relationship with gravity and that is it. Seriously. That is IT. The scale does not show you how beautiful you are, how your eyes sparkle when you laugh, how your hair shines when the sun hits it just right, how your contagious smile can light up the room, how downright intelligent you are, it does not show how you’ve inspired others, how strong and independent you are, or how wonderful and uniquely special and amazing you are as a human being. 

It’s true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That’s it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Don’t give the scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful!” 

– Steve Maraboli

                I’ve made the decision to throw out my scale. I will not be a slave to this machine anymore. I’m not going to let it take another day, another memory away from me. I will not spend another day hating myself because of a NUMBER. Does this mean that I’m not going to care about my health anymore? Of course not! I’m throwing the scale away BECAUSE I care about my health – my mental health, specifically, in this case. I’m not going to spend any more time fretting over the simple task of standing on a square device that spits out a number that tells me if I’ve pooped lately, how much water I’ve drank, if I’m retaining water,  etc. 

                I know that there are people out there reading this blog post right now clutching their beloved scales in their hands thinking, “Are you crazy girl!? How could you be into fitness if you don’t even know what you weigh!? ” I don’t need to know my scale weight to see progress in my fitness level and feelings of wellbeing. I can see progress everyday with any given program I’m doing just by the improvements I’m making (endurance and/or strength gains), how my clothes are fitting and how I feel, in general. I can’t tell you how many times I felt amazing, like I was succeeding in my fitness regimen, just to step on the scale, see a higher-than-expected number, and feel crushed to my core. That’s not going to happen anymore. I am breaking up with the scale once and for all.

                I know that there may be other people reading this blog thinking , “you will take my scale away from me when you pry it from my cold, dead hands! I NEED to know how much I weigh!” And, you know what? That’s fine. If you can have a healthy relationship with the scale, then more power to you. Personally, for my well being, I don’t like having a scale in my house and I feel empowered with it gone. I feel like a lifelong duel I have had with an enemy is finally over and I, my friends, I have won!

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My Story.

Up until recently, I had never in my life had a healthy relationship with food.

As a kid, I remember my favorite meal being French fries deep fried and slathered in ketchup. My favorite day of the week was Sundays because my parents went out to brunch to eat by themselves and would bring my sister and I McDonald's home to eat. For some people, the smell of a campfire or smell of rain on a summers night remind them of being a child. Me? The smell of a cheeseburger Happy Meal takes me back to being a kid. Scary, isn't it?

I was a chubby kid through the earlier elementary school grades. I remember someone in Grade 3 calling me a cow. That hurt and has always stuck with me. I started leaving notes for myself in candy dishes around the house, "no chantelle!! Don't eat me" so I'd be deterred from indulging in that particular treat. Not a healthy habit for a child.

(me, in the yellow, in Grade 3)

(another from Grade 3, I’m in the blue hat...Man I miss 90’s fashion)

I thinned out as I grew up but never thought of myself as a thin kid. I always thought I was fat. I compared myself to my thin friends and was never ever satisfied with how much better they looked than me.

(me, grade 5 or 6....I had thinned out a bit here but still thought I was fat. CHECK OUT THAT PHONE! ITS HUGE! Lol)

In high school, I got a job at a local eating establishment and things started going downhill from there. When I was hired at this job in Grade 10, I had already begun packing on the pounds. But when I started working more often and having closing shifts, I started eating at work more and often indulged in the deep fried french fries of my childhood again.

(me, grade 11 on the far right, eating a TimBit donut)

Whenever I would work closing shifts at work during high school (5-10pm), I would eat supper at home immediately after school. And then i would have a burger and fries or poutine at work during my break. And then sometimes I'd have cake slathered in whipped cream before my shift was done! The cake and whipped cream was probably 75% of my daily calories right there!

Looking back at that time of my life, I was a depressed, over-dramatic teenager who turned to food for comfort. I was unhappy with the way I looked and I looked the way I was because I was unhappy. I don't like looking at myself in photos from these years of my life. I see the sadness in my eyes and wish that I would've spent more time taking care of myself. My destructive eating in high school set me up for (more) years of self conscious behaviour.

Grad loomed before I knew it and in the pressure to look beautiful on grad day, I started eating less. And less. If I didn't look good (to me "good" meant skinny), i didn't even want to bother going at all! Before I knew it, I was taking in just a few hundred calories per day. I dropped 30+ lbs, fast. People kept telling me how good I was looking and asking how I lost the weight. It was an awesome feeling. Until I lost weight, boys hadn't paid attention to me. But suddenly I was thinner and people cared! I was more outgoing, I was happier (so I thought).

Grad came and went. I had to get my grad dress heavily taken in because I had lost that 30+ lbs. But it felt awesome to look the way I always hoped I would on grad day!

But things didn't get better after high school. I still didn't feel thin enough. I started lightly exercising to burn off extra calories from the foods I did eat. I eventually lost another 20 lbs and was at my lightest weight ever! It was exhilarating to step on the scale and see those lower numbers!

Eventually I met my husband and we moved to Regina. The destructive eating didn't stop. I specifically remember being part of a "pro anorexia" website forum where other girls in the same position as I traded "thinspiration" photos of one another and tips on how not to eat. There were days when all I would ingest was vegetables and dip and coffee. Or fruit and coffee.

Then, I became pregnant. It was terrifying. I didn't want to get fat! I remember being torn between being excited and upset about my pregnancy. I was excited to be a mom but I wanted to not get fat, stretch marks, etc.

I treated my pregnancy like a free-for-all. I ate everything in site and none of it was healthy. "Salads? Psh, nope. I'm having ketchup chips even though they give me disgusting heartburn!" I ate and I ate and I ate. Even my doctor telling me that I has gained 10lbs since our last visit was not enough to stop me. I was letting myself eat all the "comfort" foods i had banned from my diet 4 years earlier. I was at 200lbs before I knew it. I knew I had gained way too much but I didn't care. My love for the food I had not let myself eat for so long was greater than my love of my body. I know now how terrible it was to let myself get that bad, eat that terrible food and I'm thankful Melina was born healthy despite of that!

(the day we were admitted to the hospital..Melina was born the next afternoon)

 (Look at how uncomfortable I looked and how wide my face got)

I will be the first to admit that it's hard for me to hear numbers sometimes. If I hear people talking about how many calories they ate and it's less than the number I ate, I get competitive. Numbers still trigger me. But I'm at a point in my recovery from these destructive eating habits (both over AND under eating) where I know I need to concentrate on me. I know I need to put on my blinders when certain topics come up in conversation or else I (a) get tempted to slip back to my old ways or (b) feel terrible about myself for an extended period of time.

I know now, because I have taken the time to educate myself, that losing weight is not something I can prescribe a time limit to. It's something I need to do for me. Steadily and slowly. Because if I don't take the time to make the necessary lifestyle changes, my weight loss will be temporary again. And I don't want a temporary solution. I want a permanent lifestyle change. I want to give myself 100% to this journey and prove to myself that I don't need to starve myself or deprive myself to succeed. I am a survivor, I'm not gone give up (Yes, I definitely just quoted Destiny’s Child circa 2001. It felt right.)

This is me now,  65 lbs lighter since starting my fitness journey, and I have to say that this is probably the happiest I've ever been with my body. I feel confident for the first time in my life. I love having muscle. I love flexing my muscles. And I love feeling strong. I love that although I mistreated my body for so many years and spent so much of my life hating myself, I was able to rebound and find my passion for fitness in the process.

I'm still working on my body as we speak. I'm currently doing Insanity to lose a bit more fat and then I plan on building some SERIOUS muscle mass with Body Beast, a new program from Beachbody. I can't wait to see what the next few months will bring me.

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