A lot of people are saying the dreaded 'D' word- but what I have done is make changes that I will stay with for a LIFETIME in order to be healthy. They are changes that make sense to me. Here is my 'plan'
1. Eat something every morning an hour or so after taking my meds. (I take phen, synthroid, and will start birth control tomorrow). In that hour between meds and food I drink at least 20 oz. of water if I can.
2. Make a water bottle permanently attatched to your hand. Always in reach and full of fresh water. Seriously, find a way to make this happen. I am a teacher, and I keep a bottle on my desk. I visit the water fountain (and bathroom haha!) between each class to fill it up. This extra important during high stress/high temptation times like parties, bbqs, whatever.
3. I eat a turkey sandwich on whole weat with light mayo everyday. Not 'lite' as in low fat mayo, but regular mayo, just a VERY small amount. The 'lite' you miss in fat you make up in sugar, and I trying to limit my processed sugars. I also drink (another) water and have some type of fruit with lunch.
4. Don't deprive yourself, just make smarter choices. For example: skip whatever desert everyone else may be having and if you HAVE to have something sweet, grab one of those 100 calorie packs. The carrot cake ones are so good! They taste like REAL carrot cake, and I know it goes agains the whole processed sugar thing, but I don't eat them on a daily basis.
5. Dinner should be a lean meat and veggies, preferrably the type that have a low glycemic index. This means they have very few of the carbs that cause your blood sugar to fluctuate and make you feel bad. Some 'bad' carbs are things like potatoes, corn, white rice, etc. We have fallen in love with the ziplock steam bags- fill them up with brocoli, squash, and carrots, some mrs. dash garlic blend, a pat of butter, nuke for 5 mins, and it is so good.
A little bit more on choices: instead of beef buy either ground turkey or for burgers buy turkey burgers, they are fast and easy. Examine your grocery habits. Where do you spend most of your time shopping? Try to shop on the 'outside' of the store and buy 80% or better of your food. This requires WEEKLY shopping for fresh fruits and veggies, instead of the canned and frozen ones. Hit up a local farmers market for some great deals on fresh foods! If you have to have ice cream, get the skinny cow stuff or the weight watchers stuff or frozen yogurt.
Take each day and reflect. Celebrate a victory, make a new goal for tomorrow.
Get a pedometer and see how many steps you walk in a day. Try to top that number each day.
These are small changes that don't take much effort, its really a mind over matter thing. A 'how bad do you want it' thing.
The people here are GREAT for support and celebrating your victories with you. Good luck!
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