I'm Not On a Diet Part 2

I'm Not on a Diet Part 1 is here if you have catching up to do!

With 5 new good habits to begin and maintain, naturally there are 5 bad habits to break. As with the good habits some of these are very difficult, and some of these are very easy to attain depending on where you're coming from.

• No TV while eating
• No sugar, except what naturally found in fruit
• No snacks, except for fruits and vegetables
• Moderate meat and low-fat dairy
• No eating at restaurants, unless the meal fits the program

No TV while eating

The no TV while eating rule has a moderate impact on us. We have made some slight adjustments to help us ease into this rule. Mainly, we have decided that no major meals, ie breakfast, lunch, or dinner are to be eaten in front of the TV, ever. We may, however, sit down for a snack in front of the TV. The restriction on this, though, is that our snacks must be a fruit or a vegetable (the other bad habit rule) and we must have our entire portion when we sit down so that we're not sitting mindlessly munching while we stare off into the TV.

Just for the record..it's not like we ate in front of the TV all the time. Most nights we'd eat at the table with the occasional exception.

No sugar, except what naturally found in fruit

No snacks, except for fruits and vegetables

This one has been exceptionally hard because, as you can tell by some of my previous blog posts such as Chocolate Chip & Hazelnut Cookies and Bruschetta Desserts I really like baked goods and sweets. Store bought cookies, brownies, crap donuts..all of that was in the trash long ago and never brought back into the house (with the exception of Edy's ice cream). Over the years of being a foodie my tastes in sweets have become refined, but what makes it easy is since I don't buy sweets, all I have to do is not make sweets. Easy, right?

I may be imagining things, but since cutting out as much refined sugar from my diet as possible, I find that those fruits I've been eating for a snack are tremendously sweet. It may just be part of the lingering bit of hunger I feel constantly because I'm not gorging myself at the slightest craving that is causing a food flavor enhancement. Since I'm not taking eating for granted, I find that I appreciate food so much more. I'm learning to take my time and appreciate the look, smell, and especially the taste of food that I eat rather than scarf it down for the sake of personal gratification.

Moderate meat and low-fat dairy

Moderate meat and low-fat dairy - it says only eat a quantity of meat about the size of a deck of cards on a daily basis. That sounds like about 4-5 oz which is about one quarter of my normal daily quantity. We haven't been measuring this very strictly, but we definitely have cut back our portions. We do stick with the deck of cards sized portion with dinner, but for lunch we might have some lunch meat (turkey) or even leftovers which contain meat. As far as dairy, we've cut back our daily cheese intake tremendously, and I've switched from 2% to 1% milk with ease.

No eating at restaurants, unless the meal fits the program

No restaurants!?!? No problem. We have no issues omitting take-out, drive-thru, or delivery either because I can cook better stuff than any of those place have to offer (Szechuan Beef from PF Chang's excluded). This is also a great way to save on our budget.

Also, I haven't really been able to eat at restaurants for some time now because of my IBS. I'd say most common restaurant food is loaded with additional fat that just does a number on my system for several days. Olive oil has been a huge trend lately and most Italian restaurants smother their food in it. Jen and I both simply can't eat it, which is really too bad because it is supposed to be a very healthy fat.

Straight Ahead in Part 3

That's it for part 2 - eliminate those bad habits. Obviously, we still have a little work to do regarding these areas if we want to completely eliminate these bad habits, but altogether I think we've made some tremendous improvements, and that's what counts.

In Part 3, I'll cover the additional good habits that can be adopted and go over more of the benefits that I've been observing and experiencing over the past couple of weeks.