Dieting on a Limited Diet

I’ve written a novel, so get ready.

Yes, at some point in my life, I was “chubby Katherine.” I quit dance classes (I was taking up to 4-5 hours a week) right after elementary school and ballooned to about 120 through middle school. I can’t tell you exactly how tall I was, but let’s just say that I’m now 5 feet 4 3/4 inches now and I grew very slowly. In fact, I grew so slow that I gained about another ¼ of an inch in college. Not until I was a freshman in high school, where I became so self-conscious that I limited my diet in a bad way (probably wasn’t taking in more than maybe 1,000 calories a day) did I finally take off the weight. Then I went to college and relaxed my diet due to the lovely pallet of resident hall food options. I’ve struggled with weight off and on since then, but not to that extreme.

Quitting dance classes was not the only culprit. I’ve often believed that having food allergies and a limited diet has often made me more food conscious, which is a topic Iris brought up. Thus, when I find a replacement for a favorite food that’s on my no-no list, I’ll eat way more than I should. When I add a new food to my diet, like rice, I’ll go a little overboard. Or when I start getting more headaches, I’ll start throwing food out of my diet like water from a sinking ship and be so scared of the pain that it takes me years to try the food again, and I’ll lose 10 pounds in two weeks during the process.

Within the past year, though, Kevin and I decided to start eating healthier. Kevin wanted to kick his candy habit; he’s one of those wonderful people who must eat about a pound of candy a day in order to gain any type of weight (love you!). I started training for the half marathon and needed to lose some weight to make it as pain-free as possible.

Now, there is one major thing that I have to do in order to maintain or lose weight on my limited diet.

Exercise.

I’m not talking binge exercising, where you go out and run your first-ever 3 miles at a scary pace each day for a week and then stop because you burn yourself out. I’m talking “slow but steady wins the race.” I’m talking a cardiovascular activity that you do at least three times a week for thirty minutes. Something that you know you can handle for years at a time and can maintain and, if interested, build on steadily. With that in mind, the following diet tips and tricks have helped me to lose weight and keep it at a steady 132 for the past year. Again, I'm not a dietition or have a degree in kinesiology, so these are just what I've found helpful.

10 Keys for Maintaining and Losing Weight on My Limited Diet:

1. Sugar free gum. This is something that I’ve seen promoted in pop culture (Biggest Looser), but, beyond the hype, we’ve found it quite helpful. Gum is great for three reasons: to chew while you’re making food so that you don’t snack, to chew right after a meal instead of going back for seconds, and to chew during those times that you feel like snacking for no reason other than because you’re bored or craving a food. We’ll eventually wean ourselves off the family-sized packs of gum at some point, but we’re not knocking it right now.
2. Water and plenty of Sugar free, salt free, and potassium free flavored drink mixes. I’ve quite often mistaken hunger for thirst in the belly, so I find it’s important to drink plenty of water. But water all the time can be rather…blah. So I sometimes add no or low calorie drinks. My favorite healthy soda used to be Diet Rite sodas because they’re calorie free, carb free, salt free, and caffeine free, but the local Wal-mart doesn’t have those here. So, I’ve switched to the Great Value brand drink mixes (gotta be picky because some add salt, caffeine and that makes me thirstier and hungrier).
3. No caffeine. Talk about a drug that can make you soar and plummet all within a couple of hours. Besides the nasty headache side effects, it’s just not good for maintaining a constant energy level in my body.
4. Limit the salt. What goes with tasty salty French fries? A 48 oz/gallon of sugary soda, of course. Then the salt makes you retain all that liquid. I personally can tell the difference in my running if I’ve had lots of salt beforehand. And if it shows up on a run when my body is forced to be as efficient as possible in order go, go, go, then it’s probably not so good for the bod at other times during the day either.
5. Fiber. Like Farty Girl suggests, it cleans the pipes. Now, if you’re staying away from gluten like me, chances are you’re already eating more fiber than the average person, so adding more might not be necessary. But let me just say that lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes have a limited amount of fiber in comparison to squash, celery, spinach, and beans. Salad doesn’t cut it for me.
6. Tums. Taking calcium in the morning and in the evening also tends to make me less likely to gorge. And berry flavored Tums are tasty for a girl who doesn't drink cow milk.
7. Frequent small meals. My metabolism speeds up if I split up my meals into smaller portions, especially lunch. I’ll have breakfast at 8:00 am, then a main dish at 11:00 am or 12:00 pm, then I’ll have another snack around 2:00 pm and then I’ll have a quick snack when I get home at 5:00 pm, then we’ll eat dinner. If I’m trying to maintain my weight, I’ll eat until I’m full for each meal, but if I’m trying to lose weight I’ll eat until I’m almost full.
8. Reduce the carbohydrate intake. Again, this is not so hard considering I can’t eat wheat, but it also means that I can’t just pile on the rice and corn products either. I’m placing sugar in this category too. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t eat candy unless someone gives me a piece or two or if I’m visiting someone and I treat it like a treat (love your after dinner mints Kayla and Terrell!).
9. Working away from home. I always make my lunch and snack the night before work. This also helps to make sure that (1) I don’t eat out and (2) I don’t over snack during at least 5 days a week. I’m limited by what I bring, so I just bring enough. Weekends are harder, but I can’t be perfect all the time!
10. Not eating after 8 pm (or three hours before bed). This deadline gives the food time to digest and do some productive things in my body rather than sit and fester in my gut as I sleep. Kevin and I both seem to actually feel hungrier in the morning if we eat too late. Again, this is easier during the work week and hard on the weekend or on vacations.

Whoo! Now, you’ll notice, a lot of my keys to dieting don’t actually take food away. For me, that is so important! I’ve had enough food taken away that I’m going to take pleasure in all food that doesn’t make me feel bad (in moderate ways, of course). Take salad dressing, for instance. Since I’ve started using wine vinegar I’ve been making my own salad dressing and it does contain sugar. But, as long as I don’t saturate my salads, it’s a healthy treat. See my recipe below. It’s been modified from a recipe I found only (sorry, don’t know where it came from).

Wine Vinegar Italian Dressing

• 6 tb oil
• 2 tb white wine vinegar
• 2 tb parsley
• 1 tb lemon or lime juice
• 1/4 tsp dried minced garlic
• 1 tsp dried basil
• ¼ tsp dried crushed red pepper
• Pinch dried oregano
• 2 tsp sugar, honey, or agave nectar (might try Splenda as a sub)