I know, right?
Tough. This is for my future reference so feel free to move along as I stumble along here trying to figure it all out. The eating clean was great, and I felt so much better! Until, I didn’t. I thought I would just need to tweak things after I got used to eating that way. However, two weekends ago, I ended up completely overhauling my diet.
I watched this and BOOM! my mind was blown:
The delivery is obnoxious, but the content is worth putting up with it ESPECIALLY if you’ve been tracking your food, know that you’re hitting your caloric goals, and can’t figure out why you’re not losing weight. I have a scale and I thought I had been diligently measuring ALL THE THINGS. However, it didn’t occur to me to weigh what I was using a cup measure for (like oatmeal or egg whites or peanut butter or SO MUCH STUFF.) I tested it out and it was all off. Even the pitas I eat. The package says that one pita is 37 grams but the last one I weighed was 10+ more grams than that. Pitas: why do you hate me?
All of that has been adding up so I was inadvertently consuming a LOT more calories than I thought I was (at least over a 100-250 calories more a day.) Of course, that’s why I started to weigh things in the first place. Because I wanted to find out why I wasn’t making as much progress as I thought I should be. I knew something was off, and I think this was it.
The other change I made is that I upped the fat in my diet by a considerable amount. In March, I was not purposefully going low fat – it was just a side effect of trying to get as much food in as possible while not going over my caloric limit. Fat is the most calories per gram, and so it was the first to go. It wasn’t a priority and I wasn’t paying attention to it. Somehow, it slipped so that just 13% of my diet was from fat. It was causing all sorts of problems: digestively, with my moods, etc. Now, my goal is 33% each day and I’ve been getting close to this number. (I multiplied my weight by .4 to get the exact grams of fat a day I should be eating.) I cannot believe how much better I feel with the increase, and I seem to be back to making progress again.
I can only handle so many change ups and restrictions at a time so I’ve changed my diet to about 99% clean (1% = cool whip.) Actually, it’s probably more 80/20 because of the pitas. Is that why you hate me, pitas? Because I need to spray you down with windex before consuming you?
Anyway, here is a picture of what I ate yesterday:
Still a lot of food! I’m slightly above 1,700 calories a day.
Breakfast (far left): Cottage Cheese Pancakes* with half a banana 1/8 cup of sugar free syrup and 2 slices of bacon. How much do I love that I get to eat bacon and still lose weight? SO MUCH!
*I have been on a MISSION to find a low carb pancake recipe that is good. So far, this is the best one. I tweaked it a bit as I use MRM vanilla whey protein powder instead of flour. Half of this recipe is one serving for me.
Lunch (bottom): Buffalo Chicken on a low carb pita with a tablespoon of greek yogurt and a shredded blend of broccoli, carrots, and red cabbage.
Supper (top middle): Chicken pizzas inspired by Natalie Hodson made on a low carb pita with low carb pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and blue cheese crumbles.
Dessert (top right): Homemade Protein Peanut Butter Cups with a tablespoon of cool whip on top.
Snack (not pictured): Greek yogurt with a Halo mandarin orange and 2 packets of truvia.
Other (not pictured): As a side with either lunch or supper, I eat another serving of vegetables or 4 ounces of sweet potatoes.
This is just my second week on this so I’m still experimenting. I will definitely be adding more variety in, and switching things up. (It takes me a long time to find a recipe I can use that sounds palatable so if you have anything you love – please send the recipe my way.)