Welcome back to Mustard Seed Botanicals Blog. We have a special guest with us today. Author, J.F. Jenkins is sharing about her journey on living a healthier lifestyle. Please feel free to join in the conversation and chat with our guest.
A NOT SO CRAZY DIET
By, J.F. Jenkins
When it comes to weight loss and bettering my health, I think I’ve tried everything on the planet. The soup diet, the grapefruit diet, the cutting out everything that isn’t a vegetable or fruit diet, the no refined foods diet, and so on.
For a while I did a brand of special shakes that were supposed to help lose weight. They did help, they didn’t taste good, but they did the trick. My first use of them had gone well and I got myself down to a weight I hadn’t seen since college. After I had my second baby, I thought: why not! Once again, it was working. Here were the problems with this magical shake, though.
After I got sick, I decided I need to do a different kind of diet. A not crazy one!
Did it still involve sacrifice? Yes. There is always sacrifice when changing habits, especially bad ones. But it wasn’t as painful as a wild diet! I’ll outline some of things that really helped me on my journey to getting in better shape. None of these things will be insane, full of complicated work out tips, or even complicated recipes (I’m cooking challenged).
1. Eat more veggies.
Now if you’re like me, you might hate vegetables. Most people aren’t exactly a fan of eating them. Especially the dreaded salad. Ugh! I am not someone who can sit down at a restaurant and order a salad. That might never be me. I just do not like salad. At all. So how did I eat my veggies?
I cooked them. I, personally, have an aversion to most foods that are cold. It’s just not something I enjoy all too much. I have a handful of exceptions, but usually, I like my food hot and warm and comforting. I also don’t like things that are flavorless or leave my stomach less than satisfying.
How did I cook my veggies?
In the oven. I roasted a lot of them. Carrots, eggplant pizzas, kolrabi crisps, broccoli, and whatever else I felt like sticking in my oven, drizzling with a little salt or parmesan cheese. In terms of calorie count (yes, I do that as a rough guideline of my day), a full pan is maybe 300 calories. I hardly ever ate a full pan in one sitting. They make for a great side too!
I sautéed them. I used butter! Yes, butter! Just a small amount, slice up some veggies, maybe find a leafy green of some kind (spinach and kale have been favorites), add some garlic, salt, pepper, whatever, and maybe even a hot dog. Boom, nice hot meal.
Use a veggie to replace a grain. I did this a lot with spaghetti squash. That gourd is amazing! It comes off like noodles when baked and can be turned into just about anything!
Some of these things can be done with fruit as well. I sautéed my apples a lot as well with cinnamon and brown sugar. It was a lot like eating pie filling without all the extra junk.
2. Move!
I’m not an athletic person. I will say I used an easy work out DVD, but then my back went out (for unrelated reasons) and I was forced to get my exercise solely by walking around. Not only did that help my back, but it ended up being great exercise. People were made to walk. Cars and things have really caused us to take advantage of such a wonderful thing.
Even if it was just in my living room, I walked, for at least an hour. Made a huge difference in my mood as well as my energy level.
3. Be gentle.
If you fall off the wagon, don’t go into a huge depressed rut. Be gentle. It’s okay. There’s always another day. It might not all happen as fast as you want, but it’s not the end of the world. A hard lesson for me to learn. I’m very much the impatient person.
4. Eat for fuel.
This was the best advice I got. A lot of people eat for pleasure, for control. When I started seeing my food as fuel, it made it easier for me to reign in my eating habits. Sometimes, not having that extra snack made all the difference at the end of the day.
It’s good to enjoy what you eat, don’t get me wrong. Even when making the choice to eat a vegetable over my beloved pasta, I still made sure I enjoyed that vegetable. I also had to understand that it was fuel to get me through the day and not a means of self-gratification or stress-relief.
Does this mean no dessert? No! Eat your ice cream and cake or other sweet of choice. Enjoy the comfort food, sometimes it’s needed! Just be aware of how often you need it and how much of it you’re indulging in. If it is a lot? You might want to ask yourself if there’s a better alternative for dealing with your stress.
5. AVOID!
I have done my best to avoid artificial sweetners and stuck with sugar. I don’t do fat free. Did you know fat is actually important to a balanced diet? It helps absorb certain vitamins and minerals.
Sometimes, yeah, it’s hard to avoid artificial things. Go back to number 3: be gentle with yourself. Just also be aware of what you’re putting into your body!
6. WATER
This is my biggest struggle. I’m not a fan of water. Drinking it does make a huge difference in how your body processes your food, though. Give it a try!
None of those are insane. It’s all about self-awareness and commitment to the task. It’s about saying: I’m going to roast carrots today instead of eat a box of macaroni and cheese. About having one scoop of ice cream instead of two. About choosing to go for a walk before binge watching Netflix. Eating at home even though I’d rather get take out. Cooking instead of microwaving a boxed meal.
And it does work. I’ve lost 30 pounds in 10 months from doing these things. No, the pounds didn’t melt away instantly, but they are leaving my body in a healthy way. More importantly, they are staying off and I feel a whole lot better.
Some great ideas. We appreciate you sharing with us today. Roasted vegetables do taste delicious and we're in complete agreement that being active each day is vital to maintaining optimal levels of health. Your point about "being gentle" with yourself is crucial to achieving weight loss goals and trying to live a healthier lifestyle. We all will fail at some point in our journeys. It's when we can be accepting of ourselves and our limitations, and learning how to overcome them, that we'll be successful.
A NOT SO CRAZY DIET
By, J.F. Jenkins
When it comes to weight loss and bettering my health, I think I’ve tried everything on the planet. The soup diet, the grapefruit diet, the cutting out everything that isn’t a vegetable or fruit diet, the no refined foods diet, and so on.
For a while I did a brand of special shakes that were supposed to help lose weight. They did help, they didn’t taste good, but they did the trick. My first use of them had gone well and I got myself down to a weight I hadn’t seen since college. After I had my second baby, I thought: why not! Once again, it was working. Here were the problems with this magical shake, though.
- I got sick. I don’t think it was related to the shake, but since I got sick while I was drinking them, it turned me off of the flavor even more and I had a negative association.
- I realized that drinking the shakes didn’t teach me anything in terms of how to maintain my body weight. At all. It gave me an easy out. The first time I stopped the shakes, though, I had gone up twenty pounds pretty fast. Twenty pounds! So that tells me it’s just temporary and easy fix but not anything long term.
After I got sick, I decided I need to do a different kind of diet. A not crazy one!
Did it still involve sacrifice? Yes. There is always sacrifice when changing habits, especially bad ones. But it wasn’t as painful as a wild diet! I’ll outline some of things that really helped me on my journey to getting in better shape. None of these things will be insane, full of complicated work out tips, or even complicated recipes (I’m cooking challenged).
1. Eat more veggies.
Now if you’re like me, you might hate vegetables. Most people aren’t exactly a fan of eating them. Especially the dreaded salad. Ugh! I am not someone who can sit down at a restaurant and order a salad. That might never be me. I just do not like salad. At all. So how did I eat my veggies?
I cooked them. I, personally, have an aversion to most foods that are cold. It’s just not something I enjoy all too much. I have a handful of exceptions, but usually, I like my food hot and warm and comforting. I also don’t like things that are flavorless or leave my stomach less than satisfying.
How did I cook my veggies?
In the oven. I roasted a lot of them. Carrots, eggplant pizzas, kolrabi crisps, broccoli, and whatever else I felt like sticking in my oven, drizzling with a little salt or parmesan cheese. In terms of calorie count (yes, I do that as a rough guideline of my day), a full pan is maybe 300 calories. I hardly ever ate a full pan in one sitting. They make for a great side too!
I sautéed them. I used butter! Yes, butter! Just a small amount, slice up some veggies, maybe find a leafy green of some kind (spinach and kale have been favorites), add some garlic, salt, pepper, whatever, and maybe even a hot dog. Boom, nice hot meal.
Use a veggie to replace a grain. I did this a lot with spaghetti squash. That gourd is amazing! It comes off like noodles when baked and can be turned into just about anything!
Some of these things can be done with fruit as well. I sautéed my apples a lot as well with cinnamon and brown sugar. It was a lot like eating pie filling without all the extra junk.
2. Move!
I’m not an athletic person. I will say I used an easy work out DVD, but then my back went out (for unrelated reasons) and I was forced to get my exercise solely by walking around. Not only did that help my back, but it ended up being great exercise. People were made to walk. Cars and things have really caused us to take advantage of such a wonderful thing.
Even if it was just in my living room, I walked, for at least an hour. Made a huge difference in my mood as well as my energy level.
3. Be gentle.
If you fall off the wagon, don’t go into a huge depressed rut. Be gentle. It’s okay. There’s always another day. It might not all happen as fast as you want, but it’s not the end of the world. A hard lesson for me to learn. I’m very much the impatient person.
4. Eat for fuel.
This was the best advice I got. A lot of people eat for pleasure, for control. When I started seeing my food as fuel, it made it easier for me to reign in my eating habits. Sometimes, not having that extra snack made all the difference at the end of the day.
It’s good to enjoy what you eat, don’t get me wrong. Even when making the choice to eat a vegetable over my beloved pasta, I still made sure I enjoyed that vegetable. I also had to understand that it was fuel to get me through the day and not a means of self-gratification or stress-relief.
Does this mean no dessert? No! Eat your ice cream and cake or other sweet of choice. Enjoy the comfort food, sometimes it’s needed! Just be aware of how often you need it and how much of it you’re indulging in. If it is a lot? You might want to ask yourself if there’s a better alternative for dealing with your stress.
5. AVOID!
I have done my best to avoid artificial sweetners and stuck with sugar. I don’t do fat free. Did you know fat is actually important to a balanced diet? It helps absorb certain vitamins and minerals.
Sometimes, yeah, it’s hard to avoid artificial things. Go back to number 3: be gentle with yourself. Just also be aware of what you’re putting into your body!
6. WATER
This is my biggest struggle. I’m not a fan of water. Drinking it does make a huge difference in how your body processes your food, though. Give it a try!
None of those are insane. It’s all about self-awareness and commitment to the task. It’s about saying: I’m going to roast carrots today instead of eat a box of macaroni and cheese. About having one scoop of ice cream instead of two. About choosing to go for a walk before binge watching Netflix. Eating at home even though I’d rather get take out. Cooking instead of microwaving a boxed meal.
And it does work. I’ve lost 30 pounds in 10 months from doing these things. No, the pounds didn’t melt away instantly, but they are leaving my body in a healthy way. More importantly, they are staying off and I feel a whole lot better.
Some great ideas. We appreciate you sharing with us today. Roasted vegetables do taste delicious and we're in complete agreement that being active each day is vital to maintaining optimal levels of health. Your point about "being gentle" with yourself is crucial to achieving weight loss goals and trying to live a healthier lifestyle. We all will fail at some point in our journeys. It's when we can be accepting of ourselves and our limitations, and learning how to overcome them, that we'll be successful.
Let's find out some more about the author.
J.F. Jenkins lives in Minneapolis Minnesota with her husband, son, and two cats. She graduated from Bethel University in 2006 with a degree in Media Communication with minors in both writing and film. When she is not busy writing, she spends her free time playing games, reading, and spending time with her family. You can visit her Amazon Author Page to view her current book releases or her Website and Blog to connect online.
Thank you J.F. Jenkins for visiting Mustard Seed Botanicals Blog today! We hope you all can stay for a bit to chat with our guest.
Also, don't forget to mark your calendars to join us on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016 for our first Healthy Living Blog Party. There will be book giveaways from our guest authors as well as other special gifts. J.F. Jenkins will be back for the blog party. Hope to see you all there.
J.F. Jenkins lives in Minneapolis Minnesota with her husband, son, and two cats. She graduated from Bethel University in 2006 with a degree in Media Communication with minors in both writing and film. When she is not busy writing, she spends her free time playing games, reading, and spending time with her family. You can visit her Amazon Author Page to view her current book releases or her Website and Blog to connect online.
Thank you J.F. Jenkins for visiting Mustard Seed Botanicals Blog today! We hope you all can stay for a bit to chat with our guest.
Also, don't forget to mark your calendars to join us on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016 for our first Healthy Living Blog Party. There will be book giveaways from our guest authors as well as other special gifts. J.F. Jenkins will be back for the blog party. Hope to see you all there.