New Diet: Blogging?!

The other day I read a Yahoo article about people who had blogged their way slimmer! According to an article on WebMD, people who record what they eat keep more weight off than people who don’t. A lot of these people in the Yahoo article lost substantial weight too! Around 100-150 lbs! Some even took it a step further by taking photographs of every meal. The idea is that having a group of people to be accountable to will make it more likely to stick to our goals. So, of course I have to ask myself if this would work for me.

Of course it’s easy to contemplate a diet on a full stomach. It’s not so easy when you’re ravenous and ready to eat your own telephone just to have something to take up space in the vast cavern that is your belly.

Making the right choices and practicing ‘thoughtful eating’ is what separates us from our more animistic urges. What is ‘thoughtful eating’? That’s when we carefully gauge our hunger and then make a deliberate decision to eat according to that hunger, taking small bites and savoring the food allows our bodies to digest. Then you re-measure your hunger levels at regular intervals. We must control our beasts!

Some Ground Rules:

1. No eating 3 hours before bed.
2. Carry a healthy snack at all times (in case of the munchies).
3. No soda.
4. More protein, veg, & fruit. Less bread.
5. The only bread allowed is whole-grain.
6. The only candy allowed is dark chocolate.
7. The only alcohol allowed is red wine.
8. Start a journal to keep track of what I eat.

So far, I kept a strict record for 2 weeks and even managed to do a little exercising via SparkPeople’s online video workouts. (Very cool by the way- who knew one little move could have me aching for a week?! The Plank Move is Eeeeviilllll) But the third week saw me slowly straying from my path. One weekend I pigged out on a bag of Godiva Dark Chocolates and the next weekend I was sharing TWO pizzas with my boyfriend! Not. Good.

But I have managed to learn a few interesting nutritional tid-bits! For instance: beef jerky has twice the protein and half the calories of peanut butter, cheese isn’t as good for me as I thought, and eggs are actually better than I thought!

So far, I have managed to loose 4 lbs in 3 weeks. Not great, but not terrible… what can I say? Here at Hiccups and Picnics, we strive for mediocre!