For years, both Bo and I have relied on quick, extreme diet changes in preparation for beach vacations and special events. Most of us know the feeling. First, you start by choosing some unrealistic goal within an even more unrealistic time frame.
I want to lose 10 pounds in a week and fit in a dress that hasn’t fit in two years.
I want to have a flat stomach before my tropical beach vacation.
I want to banish all my arm fat before wearing a strapless formal dress in three weeks.
After years of this mentality and more than one too many food and wine induced hangovers during the month of December, Bo and I started 2015 in a very different mentality.
We were ready to make a lifestyle change.
Working out has not been an issue for either of us over the past seven years. We each workout 5 to 6 days a week. Regardless how busy our schedule, we will make time for an hour workout whether this means eating lunch at our desk, waking up at 5am or going to bed later. We love the post gym endorphins and the strength and self-confidence we gain from a great spin class, day on the slopes, or long run.
Even though we’ve heard from dieticians, personal trainers, blogs and even the New York Times that 80% of weigh loss and health is what goes into our body; we haven’t paid enough attention to this part of the equation. We considered ourselves healthy eaters, not frequenting fast food restaurants or filling our plates with multiple servings of fried foods. But, upon further analysis and lots of conversation, we realized we each had some work to do in the diet and nutrition department.
We didn’t want to re-haul our diet in an extreme way, leading to failure. Instead, we spent a few hours on our Savannah to New York City flight outlining our goals and what we wanted to achieve from the change. Bo is more interested in the psychology of changing what goes in our bodies. While we’ve always known the “right way to eat” and fuel our bodies, it has always been easy to rationalize the little things. I was interested to see how my body and mind would react to the change. For at least five years, I’ve eaten nearly the same thing Monday through Friday, almost reaching a robotic state during breakfast, lunch and snacks. This would be the perfect opportunity to start experimenting with new cooking techniques, ingredients and snack foods.
Since our goal is a long-term life change versus a January resolution diet, we collaborated on a plan of action, agreeing to evaluate our progress each month and hopefully make further changes as we progress.
Reduce our alcohol intake to 2 nights per week. We can’t exactly pinpoint when we started enjoying a glass or two of wine each night, but it probably coincides quite closely to when our morning workouts became more difficult, and our stomachs became a bit softer. It’s easy to rationalize unhealthy food after two or three glasses of wine. Making dinner becomes a distant memory when a glass of wine is in hand, and the mind is too relaxed.
Cut out Coca-Cola and drastically reduce sugars Of course it is difficult to cut out ALL refined sugars but we have rid our home of Coke Zero, processed snack bars and artificially sweetened foods and desserts. I have substituted my horrible afternoon chocolate and cappuccino or Coke Zero habit with popcorn and sparkling water. I missed Coke Zero for about a week but now I prefer my afternoon sparkling water or warm cup of green tea. I no longer have the 5pm headaches that followed the sugar rush. While Bo and I both have a sweet tooth, we’ve realized that having one or two indulgent, high quality desserts each week is more enjoyable.
Always be prepared. Whether we’re out on the slopes, at the office, on a plane or even in the comfort of our home we always have healthy food nearby. Our refrigerator and pantry is filled to the brim with roasted chicken, cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, freshly popped popcorn, Fage Greek yogurt, apples, clementine oranges, celery, carrots, roasted cashews, almonds and salad ingredients. In case we got hungry while skiing this weekend, we each carried pre-portioned cashews in our ski jacket. We board each flight with two gallon Ziplock filled with yogurt, nuts, hummus, vegetables and fruit.
Portion control is key to success. We use our food scale at the beginning of each week to portion snacks into individual portion containers to make snacking easier. The first day we measured, we realized we were eating 2-3 times the serving size of most foods. Regardless of whether they are healthy or not, food in excess is never healthy. It was a tough habit to get accustomed to the first week but now it’s become second nature.
We committed to making the change together. We aren’t policing each other’s progress. Instead we are merely cheering each other on each day and supporting the changes. We’ve been going through cookbooks together choosing healthy, weeknight recipes while also planning indulgent weekend meals based on what we’re craving that week. When you’re only having wine, cheese and dessert one or two nights per week there is a lot of joy in anticipating that weekends meals.
Next week, after we’ve had time to reflect on our first month, we’ll be back to share our thoughts and results.
Your turn: What’s a small lifestyle change you’ve implemented that has had a big impact?
Having snacks ready to go has been essential for me too. If I have a healthy choice that’s easy to grab I’m more likely to pick that over something that isn’t good for me.
I gave up soda a couple years ago and haven’t looked back. I had a sip of it awhile ago and it was awful. It didn’t have any flavor other than just being overwhelmingly sweet.
I absolutely love this! In 2014 I overhauled the way I eat. I eat more frequently and smaller portions. I also cut my alcohol and desserts back. After the holidays I’m working on resetting myself, so this post has inspired me to do so!
Thanks Katie! Good luck!
These are great steps for making a change! Since Jan started, I’ve committed to getting up at 5:15 to workout M-F. I have never been a morning person, especially with a 3 yr old troubled sleeper, but working out at 8 pm was the worst for me. I’d dread it all day and usually workout maybe twice a week because I was too tired and full of excuses.
A.M. Workouts have made all the difference on the world. I have more energy and feel so accomplished 🙂
Great job Holly! It doesn’t always get easier to wake up early but you feel SO much better!
My husband and I are also working on limiting our alcohol intake after drinking almost every single night in December, even if it was only one drink on most nights that adds up over the month! I didn’t have any alcohol for the first three weeks of January as I just tried to really clean up my eating and “detox” my body a bit but now I’m also committing to only having alcohol two nights a week, which will naturally usually be Friday and Saturday night.
I also started following the 21 Day Fix this month which has been awesome and taught me so much about the importance of portion control and food preparation ahead of time! I’ve felt great following the very clean, portion controlled eating plan!
Great job Amber! I’m glad you all are doing it together as well – makes it so much easier!
First of all, I really love how you two always work as a team and support each other. Secondly, I inconsciouly started 2015 with the same mind frame. It’s easy to think that we can get away with all the food with want considering the amount of exercise we do. However it gets frustrating to stagnate and not see the results you want. I hope that I will be able to change things by having a closer look at my diet.
Laureen that is one of the things we are going to talk about next week. We set non scale victories because we both knew that after an initial few pouns things may slow down. Great job and I hope you continue feeling GREAT!
This is basically my approach to 2015 as well! I want to lose some weight but I want to do it in a way that makes me feel good physically but while allowing for some weekend indulgences! Would love to hear more about your daily eats, etc!
I changed to straight black coffee, and that small change many years ago has probably saved me thousands of calories! The Today Show has been doing a great series on small changes making a big difference, it’s totally true!
I like your goals! Drinking a few nights a week (even just a beer or two) definitely doesn’t do us any favors! I feel like my relationship is in the same boat. We usually have no issues working out, but whenever it is brought up that we run marathons, people are sometimes surprised, lol.
One of our biggest goals this year is to not eat out 300 days this year. We travel a lot so this is especially a challenge, and while we don’t typically eat fast food, it helps cutting out all those bags of Jimmy John’s chips and beers to go with dinner 🙂 Or least it should help! So far so good!
haha. that meme.
Great changes! I hear you on the glasses of wine each night…I know they add up, and it definitely makes it easier to make some poor decisions on the food front. It’s just so darn delicious… 🙂
You’re so right Courtney! It’s so wonderful and a great way to relax, but I enjoy it SO much more now those two nights a week!