One of the things that I do and that I know i really shouldn’t do is weigh myself every single day! I know it’s bad because your weight always fluctuates during the day and during a week, but i just can’t help myself. But oddly enough doing this actually encourages me instead of discourages me…I guess it’s because I actually see the results. After weighing myself this morning I have lost another pound and am now at a total weight lost of 58 lbs…Yipee! I am ecstatic! When i started this weight loss journey i really didn’t expect to get such great results. I just did everything on my own, without following any diet like Weight Watchers and the like, which makes me even more proud of my accomplishments, because I have proven to myself that I can do it all on my own and that whatever I am doing is working wonders.
I think the key thing to start with if you want to lose a significant amount of weight, is to really start to look at everything you eat and all the fat and calories you are consuming without even knowing sometimes. Some people will start a food diary, which I am sure can be helpful, but I just used my head and really became conscious of everything i was ingesting. And it was shocking! Some of the stuff I was eating that I thought was good for me, was full of fat and calories. I used to make salads sometimes and I would put a ton of Cashew nuts in them. Now you might think that cashew nuts are good for you, but they are loaded with fat. Granted it’s a better fat than say a creamy dressing, but it’s still a lot of fat and sodium, and we all know that sodium is very bad because it makes you retain water. Another thing I used to eat all the time is chicken Caesar salad. Again, you might think, it’s a salad, it’s good for you, but again, it is loaded with fat. Caesar salad dressing has about 80 calories per tablespoon and about 8.5 g of fat. That may not seem like much, but when you look at the fact that you put way more that 1 tblsp of dressing in a whole Caesar salad, the fat and calories add up fast.
Another thing I used to eat a lot of is Pasta and Pesto sauce, I always thought that the pesto would be the healthier alternative for a sauce, but again, when i looked at the calorie content I was shocked! The one i had was 310 calories per 4 tablespoons! Add that to at least 1 1/2 to 2 cups of pasta, and you’ve got yourself a meal that is super high in calories and no vegetables added to that so it’s not a balanced meal either.
So next time you have a salad, try it with just a vinaigrette dressing, it’s just as tasty and has way less fat and calories. And if you eat pasta, try whole wheat pasta instead of regular pasta, it’s a lot better for you. And to lose weight, try to keep the pasta intake to a minimum and only have about 1 cup of it (cooked), and use simple tomato sauces on it, they are lower in fat and calories. The best thing I discovered as a pasta alternative is Spaghetti Squash! this stuff is a god send. Not only is it delicious and nutritious, but it is a perfect alternative to pasta, and has about 3/4 of the calories of pasta. 1 cup of spaghetti squash is about 45 calories give or take! That is so much better than about 220 calories for a cup of regular pasta! So there is my first little trick for all of you out there looking for pasta alternatives…spaghetti squash is the way to go. It’s low in calories, high in nutrition and you can prepare it so many different ways (like pasta)…Bon Appetit!
