diets + healthy eating

I’ve been posting a bunch of stuff lately – which is good – but with all the recent focus on Tuesdays with Dorie, I’ve sort of neglected the other side of this blog, which is a focus on HEALTHY eating. 

See, I started the blog because I lost weight – a lot of weight, as I’ve mentioned here before – and people are always asking me “What diet did you use?”  Most people expect me to answer with the name of a popular diet because that’s how we’ve been conditioned.  We seem to have reached a mindset that says you can’t lose weight unless you “do” a diet:  Atkins, Cabbage Soup, Oprah, South Beach, Weight Watchers … whatever.

When I reply that I didn’t use any particular diet, that I just changed the way I eat, people are often confused.  But, they ask, what did you DO? 

So here, for anyone who asks, is what I did. 

• I embraced moderation.  This is, IMO, the most important thing I did.  Rather than forbid myself anything I wanted (which I find inevitably leads to cravings and failure), I ate things in moderation. 
• I limited the amount of processed and packaged foods I eat.  Notice that I said “limit” not “elminate”.  Let’s face it – very few people can eliminate processed/pre-packaged foods.  There’s too much of a convenience factor, especially for working parents and those of us who hold down multiple jobs.  Even so, it’s pretty easy to cut out a lot of things and to learn to make a lot of things from scratch. 
• I started paying attention to labels and really considering what is IN the food I buy.
• I started planning my weekly meals and shopping from a list. 
• I started working out.

Notice that of the 5 things listed above, 4 of them are about food – and they are about eating whole, real, unprocessed foods and eating in moderation.   It’s  not a popular concept or one that can be easily explained, but it’s what worked -and I truly believe that it’s the only real sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off permanently. 

I’m not going to say it was or is easy.  Our society (at least here in America) often focuses on two things:  convenience and quantity.   It’s easier and faster to buy a precooked bag of rice, enriched with extra vitamins, that you can pop in the microwave and have ready in 5 mins.  It’s easier to throw a package of processed, sugar-laden, vitamin enriched oats into the microwave, than to think about making the time to cook whole oats. 

That’s why I originally started this blog – to show that it can be easy to eat whole, real foods most of the time. You don’t have to be a master chef or have a huge kitchen with all the do-dads and accessories.  You don’t have to live near a gourmet market either, or blow your budget on fancy organic brands (although some organics are worth it).  And you don’t have to become a “food snob”.   Mostly is a return to a simpler, more sensible (imo) way of eating. 

So with that in mind, and to help keep the blog focused on what’s really important, I’m going to make every Wednesday a post about healthy eating.  It might be a recipe, it might be an article about food planning, it might be a review of a product or food that has become a part of my routine, or it might be a Q&A session.  Feel free to let me know if there’s anything you want me to talk about – otherwise, look for my healthy eating babblings on upcoming Wednesdays!