How I Lost Weight By...

I just did a Google search a minute ago for "how I lost weight by...," and the endings I got to that search were horrific. Ten options immediately came up, and of those ten, five of them were a derivative of "starving myself." As a culture, we have got to change our mentality of weight loss as something that is only achievable if we deny ourselves food and nutrients. That is certainly not a healthy way to approach this! Ask any nutritionist!!

For years, I've been a victim of this mentality. I've tried fasting all day on Tuesdays (followed by binge-eating Wednesdays), drinking 160 oz. of water a day (my bladder was never more angry at me), and only eating rice cakes (the diet of the 90s). While there is nothing wrong with fasting for spiritual reasons or drinking plenty of water or occasionally eating rice cakes, we have got to end this idea that starving ourselves for a time produces long-term results. Well, I suppose it does: we (literally) will become a skeleton!

Our bodies need -- crave! -- adequate nourishment. I love food. I really, really do. Among my favorite restaurants is Olive Garden, with its buttery, herby breadsticks and amazingly cheesy pasta dishes. Given the choice between the Five Cheese Ziti and a bowl of spinach, I'd take the Olive Garden route any day. Unfortunately, my brain and my body crave two different things. My mind says, "cheeeeeeeeeese" (in a super creepy tone), while my body says, "Vitamin A! Iron! Protein!"

The good news about a lifestyle change involving new foods is this: if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it. If I had to live the rest of my days eating only rice cakes and onions, I wouldn't be a happy camper. I'd be a very depressed and malnourished camper. Fortunately, I'm learning ways to love the new foods that I'm trying and to avoid the things that I don't like. For instance, I found a great idea on Pinterest that involved making raw Apple Cider Vinegar more palatable. The site listed all the benefits of drinking Apple Cider Vinegar, and I was sold on the idea. Unfortunately, the drink tasted terrible. Nothing could mask the fermented taste of the drink. Barf, barf, barf!! So instead of forcing myself to drink it (as I may have done in the past), I poured it down the drain, guilt-free. I found my own recipe for drinking the stuff (which included 1 part water, 1 part apple-grape juice, and 1 tsp. of ACV). That worked. Learning to make accommodations -- rather than giving up entirely on something -- is how this is going to work from here on out.

Let's just not starve ourselves. That is the most unhealthy route of all.