If your goal is to build fresh eating habits that feel completely natural, then join me in my journey. This time, my goal isn't to starve myself in an attempt to drop a few pounds and then go back to eating like I did before. I want to change my habits so eating healthier and the correct amount, feels instinctive. This shift is about making mindful choices and practical decisions. It’s all about strategies and selecting foods that fit my lifestyle and goals.
There are so many different diets on the web, but we are all unique and choosing a plan that someone else created can be difficult to sustain. This eating plan starts in our own kitchens with what we already enjoy eating.
How to Lose Weight
To start find our own maintenance number of calories. This is how many calories we can eat and not gain or lose weight. We simply maintain. Unfortunately, finding the magic number is a bit of a guess combined with trial and error. It may take a few weeks to pen down this number, but it is worth it because with this number, losing weight becomes simple math. Without it we'll just be hungry and grumpy without results. As a starting point a woman might consider 1800 as a maintenance number of calories. A man might need 2000 calories daily.
To lose one pound a week, eat about 500 fewer calories daily than you need to maintain. I maintain at 1800 calories a day so to lose weight, I eat 1300 daily.
Once we have our starting number of calories, space them throughout the day, so we don’t run out.
Because I love snacking, I’ve spaced mine like this:
Calorie Spacing
Start the day with 16 ounces of water
1st Breakfast 100 calories (Yogurt and fruit)
2nd breakfast 100 calories (banana with peanut butter)
Between breakfast and lunch drink 8 more ounces of water then 8oz with lunch
Lunch 250 (Salad)
Snack 50+50 (baby carrots and cheese stick)
16 more ounces of water between lunch and dinner
Snack 100 (1 whole apple)
Dinner 600 (entree and ½ my plate is fruit and veggies)
8 ounces of water with dinner and 8 oz. more before bed