And they were right, I did have a lot of hidden pitfalls in there. Sour creams, sugar-based juices etc. And then there were not so bad food, but I still bagged them up. Like non whole wheat pasta and cereals and my white rice (gasp!). Yep. I did it. I finally, finally figured out a way to make brown rice that I am comfortable with and it doesn't taste God awful to me.
"To have healthy habits and a healthier lifestyle, you first must live in a healthy environment.
This is so true. I had already jump started this by making my workout closet. An organized place where I keep all my workout/fitness equipment so that it is always accessible and right there when I need it. I needed to take the same approach with my kitchen where the "fuel" is. Because I can be gung-ho about getting in shape, eating healthy... but unless I arm myself properly, I am sure to fail. I avoided eating late last night... my will power was strong but everyday isn't that easy.
So I took stock to see what was going on in there.
Starting with the fridge, I threw away sour cream, all the spoiled fruit and veggies (obviously... shoulda been eating that!). I threw out the the ranch. Kept all my oil-based dressings though.
Start with the fridge and pantry. Focus on replacing sugary and high-calorie foods with whole grains and lower-calorie alternatives.
Spark People suggests:
- Learn to read food labels
- Buy a sturdy cutting board for all the fresh veggies you’ll be cutting up
- Get plenty of plastic bags and containers for portioning out prepared foods and storing healthy leftovers
- Collect healthy, quick recipes
- Toss out all those pizza coupons
- Get a few drinking bottles for keeping cold water in the fridge
- Put a bowl of fruit and granola/breakfast bars by the back door
And while we are still in the kitchen...
... learn where to spend your weight loss dollars. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, it takes more than reading a book or joining a gym. It really takes a lifestyle change of consistently picking up good habits and chucking old habits to the curb. Exchanging habits takes some time, so the smartest thing you can do is to make it easy on yourself. That means making it easy on your pocketbook too.
Here's a quick glance of what's in my kitchen.... and a couple recipes I adore... you're welcome lol
- quality knife
- vegetable peeler
- measuring cups
- scale
- calorie handbook
- portable containers
- snack size baggies
- threw out fatty unhealthy choices
- washed and placed veggies at eye level
- made it convenient to eat healthy
- butter spray, squeeze and Can't Believe It's Not Butter vs. actual butter or marjarine
- string cheese & individual cheese snack blocks
- egg whites - quick source of protein (I bowled and froze the egg whites from actual eggs... cheaper than buying them already separated.
- tuna packets (easy to just top on a bed of greens, no draining fuss)
- oil based salad dressing sprays (1 calorie per spray)
- tofurkey slices (found some really good vegetarian lunch meat)
- fat-free yogurt, strawberries, apples
- low-fat cottage cheese (still not a big fan of this stuff but much like the brown rice movement, hoping for a revelation!)
- whole-grain/wheat pastas and starches
- high fiber/low carb whole-wheat bread
- cereal (high fiber/low cal)
- oatmeal packets
- put all snacks in separate snack bins (raw almonds, calorie snack packs, teas, etc)
- whole wheat pasta
- pre-packaged ingredients (dried cranberries, crushed almonds etc)
- sugar free chocolate pudding
- sugar free Jell-O
- Cool Whip
- whey protein powder mix
Waldorf Salad Spin-Off
1-cup green apples
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup crushed almonds
1-cup fat free yogurt
1 dash lemon juice
Sweet Treat
Sugar-free chocolate pudding
Sugar-free strawberry jello
1 Tbsp Cool Whip
1/2 cup fresh strawberries
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