January 2020

Like many of you, Aly and I started 2020 off with big goals and a renewed sense of purpose. After all, we are set to be married in April! We are generally pretty good about our diet, but to be honest, the last few months of 2019 were kind of a free-for-all when it came to eating. We used the, "it's the holidays," excuse like most people do. We decided we would start the year off by getting back to our commitment to healthy eating. This isn't so much of a New Year's resolution as it is a fresh start. I'll admit though, January makes a nice clean starting point, and we lose the holidays excuse, so if its a resolution then its a resolution.

As we close out January, I can tell you I am pleased with the results so far. Suffice it to say I am not a nutritionist and what works for Aly and I may not work for you, but I will share our approach.

When I am eating without any dietary guidelines I tend to eat what is convenient and I always give in to my cravings, think lots of pizza and wings. I am also a big snacker. A typical day last month quite often looked like this:

Breakfast - Plain bagel w/cream cheese, hash browns, and a medium black coffee from Dunkin (670 calories).
Lunch - Two cheeseburgers, medium french fries, and water from McDonald's (966 calories).
Dinner - Anything from home-cooked, eating out, or ordering in (avg 1000 calories).
Snacks - Donuts, those Quest cookies, chips, or whatever (200-500 calories).

I don't have much self-control, I mean, at least when there are no dietary restrictions. I love to eat! Who doesn't, right? I have found something that works for me though! It doesn't hurt having Aly as a partner, in fact, it's a critical component. Besides the desire to eat healthily and lose a little weight along the way, any eating habit I choose for myself has to keep me satiated all day. I know that seems obvious; I'm just not interested in starving myself to lose a few pounds. Besides, it's not just about the weight loss, my larger goal is to reduce the crap I am putting in my body.

The diet (I hate calling it that, but it's exactly what it is) has a few partially intended consequences as well, which I will also touch on. The underlying guiding principle we follow is low carb (under 20 net grams) and low sugar (under 10 grams). You may recognize this as the keto diet, which it is but we put a partial paleo spin on it. So keto guides the nutritional macros, paleo guides the actual food we eat. Although we do allow for good quality cheese, hence the partial paleo part. The thought of such a drastic change in diet was daunting to me at first but now that I am have had some time with it, I actually prefer it to my old habits.

Now, a typical day looks like this:

Intermittent fast from 8pm to noon,

Breakfast -  Coffee (black) (2 calories).

Lunch - Chicken thigh with either broccoli, zucchini, or green beans and a serving of olives. (450 calories).

Dinner - Cobb salad (400 calories) Aly makes the world's best Cobb salad!

Snack (after lunch) - 1/4 cup of cashews, and a hard-boiled egg (220 calories).

Snack (after dinner) - Random paleo approved snack (200-400 calories)

On average I am eating between 1400 and 1800 calories a day.

When I see the side by side comparison, I am pretty amazed that I feel satiated with such a reduction in calories. The reality is we are taking in more thoughtful nutrition as opposed to empty calories that don't carry any nutritional value at all. Eating for fuel instead of eating for fun essentially.

Now for the other pros to this life change...

First, we grocery shop once a week instead of picking up a few items every few days. You don't necessarily need to be on this regiment for this to be a thing, but it definitely helps you stay on track. By planning our meals out for the week it is easy to grab everything in one trip. Aly and I make a morning of it. Every Sunday morning we make the rounds. First to Whole Foods for a few specific essentials, then to BJ's for the bulk of our items, and only if necessary, over to Big Y for any remaining things on our shopping list. Another helpful tip, we recently discovered Whole Foods delivers when you order through the Amazon app. We may be outliers here, but we both actually love grocery shopping. We look at it as less of a chore and more like quality time together.

Second, we food prep our lunches for the week. When I don't bring my own lunch to work I will eat on the economy. Using the typical before day I mentioned above that's roughly $15.00 a day. Since we fast until noon and I bring lunch from home we have reduced that outlay to $0.00. Lunch prepping is done on Sundays right after grocery shopping and its an extension of that quality time mentioned above. Throw in laundry and some random chores, and Sunday's for us, while regimented and busy, are very relaxing. The sense of accomplishment is very satisfying.

Third, in one month we have both lost 18lbs. Obviously, that will level off and will reach a point where we are maintaining a healthy weight. In addition to weight loss, there are increased energy levels, better sleep, better focus, and less upset stomachs. My blood pressure is easier to manage as well.

Fourth, there are the kitchen gadgets! There are two we use regularly. Usually, my lunch requires heating, so I bring it in a mini crockpot (pictured). I love this thing! We each have one and both use it just about every day. We recently added a mini waffle iron to our kitchen. We use it to make "chaffles" which is a recipe using only egg, cheese, and some seasonings to create a bread substitute. If you get really creative, it can be formed into all types of other things. We have used it to make sandwiches, pizzas, and tacos. The possibilities are endless. If you have never heard chaffles you're not out of touch, I hadn't heard of them either until about two weeks ago when we discovered them online.

All in all, January has been a great month. We both feel a great sense of accomplishment and plan on continuing this trend throughout the year. If you're interested in the kinds of meals we eat, follow Aly on Instagram. She posts a lot of our meals to her story. Just search for @loverofnaps.