Change for Life!

In this weeks meeting our lovely new leader (still missing Mary terribly though) focused on protein which I felt was quite relevant to what I have been focusing on these past few weeks. I feel that I am finally in a position where I can really experiment with my diet a little bit to find the best way to ensure this is a permanent change. I know I have been harping on and on about it and I apologise for this, but I guess I am really trying to figure things out. Weight watchers has given me such fantastic tools and now I just want to expand on that as much as possible.


There is so much information out there about nutrition it can be really hard to find the right information given in a way that makes it easy to understand. I can be really daunting to figure it all out. I guess the basic premise to remember is that in really simplistic terms it does come down to calories. To lose weight, take in less calories than you spend and to maintain have them balance out. I find that propoints are much easier for me to get my head around than calories and the results are the same. Breaking the allowance down into daily and weekly propoints gives you a little bit of flexibility in how you spread these over the week and can really handle your social life along with things.

I suppose I worry because I have had issue with food my whole life, and I really do not want this to carry on for the next 10/15/30 years. It may be a long way off, but if/when I have kids in the future I do not want to pass my food hang ups onto them. I always remember my mother dieting when I was younger and even though we always ate really healthy food at home, somehow all of us became overweight. I want a healthy relationship with food and now I am at a healthy weight my new goal is to get to that place.

I have been thinking a lot about the "low fat" products that I use and if these are something I want to use long term. The media has put a lot of emphasis on the sugar content of these products and I have started to look at labels in a little bit more detail. I think that using these products while I lost the weight works for me, but my ultimate plan is to try and wean myself back onto the full fat, less processed versions. I have started by working real butter instead of low fat spread and using full fat feta and goats cheese in my salads. I also have not touched my fry lite in a few weeks. I have been using butter, olive oil and more recently coconut oil for my cooking and dressings.  I have been afraid of fat for years, when really I think I need to put what I have learned about portion control and moderation from weight watchers, into practice with this!

The thing about this is at the moment I do not have all the answers and it really is going to be a lot about trial and error until I find what really works for me, but I really want to leave my old life behind me and move fully onto the next phase. I would love to hear  anybody's suggestions or advice who has embarked on something like this before!


Image courtesy of mrpuen / FreeDigitalPhotos.net