Monday, September 8, 2014

Foooooooooood

Oh my goodness I'm finally finished with Feel Great in 8 and I will say it was really really good for me.  Part of me wants to take it up a notch and try something like whole 30 and part of me just wants to go get a burger...and some ice cream.

oh man i have not eaten this healthy in a long time.  We averaged about 2 sweets a week, but mostly it was no sugar, no white stuff (flour, rice, potatoes) and little dairy.

The hardest for me was to get the fiber and dairy in (the good kind) but finally by the end I had it done what I liked.  I don't think I will go back to white bread except on special occassions.

I finally got in the habit of using my dang Lose It App which I have tried a bunch of times to do unsuccessfully.  and something I will definitely stop doing immediately cause i'm sorta burnt out of it...maybe i will start back in a month who knows.

I also got in a good habit of was taking my vitamins and exercising more.  Vitamins are have always had great intentions of but I definitely want to keep that part up.  I went through a whole jar of fish oil by myself!!!

I really do like eating healthy, but I also don't want to feel guilty when I choose to eat something not healthy and I think ive found a good balance.  If its not good for me it better be gooooood.  and also I need to still eat most the day healthy because my digestion will not take it.  In fact it fixed a lot of digestion problems I normally have (I should never go to olive garden, that place does not agree with me!),  The one time I went out with friends I couldn't even finish my burger and ended up throwing up in the night!!! now that is messed up!  My tummy was rejecting the bad foods!

soooo.  here is what I ate and liked.  I started out with different stuff and really wasn't smart about it in the beginning but got it down by the end.  And yes I will probably sign up again in January cause the competitor in me would like to win! Good habits for a $10 and helped to have Camille sending out weekly challenges and reminders. 

All in all I did way better than I thought I would and also had a good amount of cheats :) I found out that if i'm gonna exercise, its better to do a whole hour so I could get the points in and I liked it. 

I ended up losing ten pounds in 8 weeks...something I haven't done in a while!   I loved exercising with my friends from church and actually Tracy Anderson was the winning workout DVD.  Especially after I did it a couple times and then would turn it down and listen to a podcast or watch a show on the ipad while I did it. 

Okay, back to food.

The black bean burgers at Costco or wherever.  Good with greens and some guacamole or salsa. 


While I've never been a fan of whole wheat pasta I totally like it now.  I mix greens with wheat pasta and other veggies or chicken and then I add pesto (ok so that might not be healthy to you but i counts as healthy to me!)


I also would do small amounts of feta cheese and it was worth it.  made eating salads better and could even go without dressing with it.



Vacations, birthdays, family, visitors....those counted for all my cheat days.  And jason picked up my favorite ice cream one night when amberli and darek were here.  totally worth it.  (kit kats are not my friends, they taste like plastic) 

Chipotle was a good one.  I found a good salad at CPK but its too far from me and i never go there. 

But chipotle salad (ok so i had sour cream, sue me!) are the best.  wow I wish i could eat this everyday.  


You had to have two healthy dairy (lowfat) every day and this how I got it a lot. 


another cheat that is worth it.  this stuff is good. 


oh yes and I got good at bringing my healthy stuff to the pool or the park and my found my girls ate most of it so i needed to bring too. that was probably the biggest benefit that my kids ate healthier when their mom ate healthier...wow!  like that is worth it alone.


another chipotle salad cause i'm a dork.


this is my favorite dressing.  with brown rice, veggies and chicken...so good and good for portable meals.

oh yes, this looks good but was gross. but i do love arugala.  but i was experimenting that things looked or tasted better all mixed up verses separate...these are pictures of the same salad. 

oh yes, costco canned chicken is a great go too.

okay so after many attempts here is the breakfast I settled on.  I tried the banana/egg pancakes, oatmeal, eggs, cottage cheese, but this one winner and also cause i got a veggie and a fruit and a dairy right away in the morning.

here it is not mixed together.  and yes that is my favorite yogurt with it...any flavor.

and then all mixed together.  doesn't look as good but it tastes yummy. 


okay here are some other meals.  I found when I premeasured and cooked brown rice and put in 1/2 cup then I could just toss the other stuff in easily and liked having a big precut veggies that I could take from all week too.  nerdy things I learned from feel great in 8 :)




other snacks were individual sized beef jerky, v8 juice I love!!!! and good way to get veggies in, protein bars (my kids love those too...pure protein is my favorite), and protein shakes that were 100 calories too if i was starving.  I found when I was craving cookies if I ate something healthy and drink water than usually went a way....and if it didn't than i really wanted it!


Other things I found I liked was popping popcorn kernels in a brown paper bag to make my own popcorn.  At first I thought it tasted like cardboard but then I thought it was good.  My girls liked it too.  The more fresh fruit I had the better.  I also really like salmon and would eat it more if I went to the store more regularly.  I felt like I didn't eat that much romaine lettuce actually but got bored of it and liked to try different kinds.

I never gave up diet coke or coke zero completely but definitely cut it down (not that I drink it excessively anyway).  Also really love crystal light drinks and crystal light energy and zipfizz.  I love water when I'm exercising but don't always love it all the time.  I do love herbal ice tea with stevia...peppermint is always a winner. 

lots of good changes over the last 8 weeks.  I totally fizzled out at the end but didn't care.  Jason made homemade buttermilk chocolate chip waffles with buttermilk syrup for dinner last nite and it was wonderful!  Other good cheats are dang chips in salsa and chips and guacamole.  I'd rather have that than a treat sometime, chips are delicious :)  Also I got better and not buying or making the tempting food that I wanted.  what is it?  Work smarter not harder?  

Thanks Camille for doing it!  Even though I was cursing it many many days.  I sometimes wanted to cry about missing cookies cause they speak to me.  And I really missed pizza.  And bacon.  Couldn't have done it if Amber didn't do it too...so glad she did! It was a lifesaver really.  My family is so glad I'm done with it by the way although they never wanted me to break it, the kids were great cheerleaders to my healthy eating!  

Yahoo I'm done :) What are your favorite healthy eatings tips?  And how can I make these habits permanent?!!!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Yumm! This makes me want to make a salad :)

Nancy Jo said...

Good for you for losing the weight & eating healthier!!

Amber said...

Awesome post Brooke! I fizzled out at the end too. I'll tell ya some of my favorites if you want to try them. I really got into mixing 4 oz of chopped chicken, a diced tomato and diced cucumber in a bowl with a couple spoon fulls of guac. That was a go to lunch for me. Another one was Egg salad. chop 2 whole eggs, 1 egg white with 1 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp of olive oil, salt and pepper. No mayo. No bread. Just sliced a tomato with it and some kind of veggie sticks usually as a side. One of my fav dinners was two TJ's chicken sausages (2 ounces 100 calories each), red and green bell peppers and onions sauted in 1 tsp coconut oil. SO SO SO good. Then I usually had an apple with it or some other fruit. I'm VERY glad it's over too. Gonna incorporate more healthy eating in over all, but so glad to not be counting calories and points. I'm completely tired of that. And water…drinking lots of water. Def wanna keep that up. Is Camille doing it again in January? Yeah…I won't be joining you for another round. Sorry…… ;-)

Oh but I did find I like sprouted whole grain bread from TJ's. As long as it's toasted. It's pretty dry. I would use a little butter, but hey…that's better than margarine in my opinion.

Yay for losing 10 pounds. That's amazing!!!

Lindsey said...

Way to go! Those do look great! You are awesome!!