Day 5: Chew on this

A new week :)

At university we always used to call Sundays ‘square one Sundays’ and Mondays became known as ‘clean slate Mondays’. This may sound familiar to many of you; however it is now, officially a thing of the past. Don’t let yourself get back to square one, and remember that one slip up won’t affect your progress (if it’s small). If you slip up, make up for it (calories in = calorie out). If you eat a piece of chocolate don’t think you have ruined everything and you can therefore eat the whole thing. Today I had a piece of sweet bread that wasn’t a part of the program, although I felt guilty I made up for it, I didn't eat one item in my lunch (without starving myself) to make up for the calories. I could also spend an extra 10 minutes at the gym doing an intense workout. However with this said, it’s also not acceptable to then eat what you want, thinking you can make up for it by starving yourself or ‘gymming’ it off.

So what should you be eating? Morning should be your biggest meal, my friend Lindi always used to tell me, eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch and a pauper for dinner.

Mornings: At the moment I am eating 3/4 cup of oatmeal with low fat milk (I would use fat free but they don’t have that in Korea), a tbsp of raisins a tsp of honey. Click here for ways to spice up your oatmeal. This comes to about 300 calories which is good for a breakfast. You could also have muesli, brown/rye bread, poached egg or my favourite, weightless cereal. It’s up to you as long as it’s not fried or involving simplex carbs. Here are 10 Quick and Healthy Breakfast Meal Ideas. 

Lunch: I usually have a salad with chicken, lettuce, carrots, cucumber etc and a tsp of oriental sesame dressing (careful, dressing calories add up quickly). Sometimes I add a boiled egg. But my favourite at home was crackerbread/rye crackers, fat free cottage cheese and chicken or turkey slices! Mmmmm I miss that and it’s cheap!

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 Dinner: I try cook delicious stuff that’s low fat/calories like oven baked (fried copycat) chicken or lean mince burgers. I always try use complex carbs like couscous, brown rice, whole wheat pasta or sweet potatoes (if at all).

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Drink: I drink loads of green tea (no sugar or honey or milk) and 8-12 cups of water a day!
Snacks: I usually have a 25g packet of mixed nuts and raisins (no salt), air popped popcorn (no toppings) or fruits (watermelon is best).
 
I don’t ever usually go hungry and sometimes end up under my calorie goal. You shouldn’t be going hungry to lose weight, if you are then you need to lower your calorie count in your three meals and change to make sure you are eating six, well-spaced-out, meals a day.

 Also remember that this is not a diet I am doing here, those don’t work, this is a lifestyle change. I intend to continue eating and exercising as I am, even after the countdown and hopefully forever really.