Do "Consistency" and "Diet" Belong in the Same Sentence??

Ok so first of all.... If you call what your doing a "diet", your most likely going to think of it that way.  "Diets" only tend to last for awhile, or end up being something you decide to do when you need to drop a few pounds for a wedding, date, vacation...etc....

What I have realized is that when you finally commit to learning about eating healthy, it has to become a lifestyle change to actually work. You kind of have to look at food and how you react to it in a totally different way. Food isn't here to make us happy. Although I know a lot of times we may use it as comfort:-) Food is here to fuel our body's and give us the energy to get up every day and go out and be the best we can!!

Nowadays, everything is for convince. People tend not to like spending large amounts of time on anything... The faster the better. I think we need to slow down for a minute and look at a few things that can help us improve our healthy eating habits!

1. Develop an eating plan for the week!

I started making meal plans a few weeks ago. Let me tell you, they save me so much time!! No searching through the cupboards, wondering what I'm going to eat and when. It's all layed out for you!  I include breakfast (within 1 hour of waking), snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. If you we're counting... That's 6 small meals a day! Eating every few hours sends a signal to your metabolism to speed up. The more often you eat, the more often your metabolism increases and burns fat!!

2.Keep it Interesting!

Look up new recipes... or ask around for them! Most people love to share a new discovery of a wonderful healthy recipe!! I have to admit, I kind of like eating the same thing day after day, I know what to expect that way. But, since I started trying 1 new recipe a week, I have broadened my horizon on what I eat! Variety is always good!!

3.Designate a cheat meal!

By doing this, it is already planned out, not spur of the moment. Include it in your weekly meal plan!   That way we know its coming and we can use it as motivation to eat well until our cheat meal. For me, it keeps me from going crazy. Sometimes you have to just slip up a bit and grab something that may not be that healthy. Ya know what!?  That's completely ok!!! The important thing is that you don't let a cheat meal turn into a cheat day, then cheat weekend, then before you know it, it will be a cheat week!! If you ever feel like you messed up on your healthy eating just brush yourself off! Get up! And keep moving forward! No one was ever successful at anything with set backs.

4. Surround yourself with like minded others

Support groups were one of the main reasons that I have been able to continue to eat healthy and lose weight. Ya know why? Chances are whatever you are feeling, someone else had that same feeling at one time to. They can tell you how they got through it. We keep each other motivated about life in general and hold each other accountable. We share recipes and tips! When we set goals... We all work together to help all of us reach them! It's truly amazing!  If this sounds like something you would be interested in I would love to work with you!! You can contact me and I would absolutely love to talk to you about how we can reach your goals!!!

5. CONSISTENCY

You need to be consistent if you want to see any type of results. You wouldn't just go to work 2 out of 5 days a week and expect to get paid for 5 days would you? You get out if this what you put in. Yes, it can be difficult and I promise you will have bad days. But that is why we have support groups. You aren't alone in this. We are all working towards the same goal... Being healthy!!!

What is this whole "Clean Eating" thing??

So when I started paying attention to what I was eating, I decided to follow "clean eating". I didn't know what the heck that was. But I knew I could learn. So I researched it. It turned out to be very simple in fact. "Clean eating" is mostly about eating "real" foods. Ya know.. Things without artificial flavoring, artificial coloring and sugar substitutes. The less the ingredient list the better!


 Seemed easy enough! But I very quickly learned that changing the way I ate would be a process. I wasn't one of those people out there that could just turn my diet completely around all at one time. So I did it slowly and learned a few things along the way...

 1. Try switching one food out each week ( I started by switching to whole grain pasta, quinoa, and barley instead of white pasta and white rice) This way you get used to eating healthier and its not as much of a shock.

 2. You may not like everything you try, but don't get discouraged! Play around with new recipes. (I found very quickly that I was not a fan of quinoa... But I finally found a stir fry recipe that I loved!) Trying several new recipes a week was too overwhelming for me. Plus I didn't have all the ingredients in the cupboards. So I decided to try 1 new recipe a week.

 3.Always stock up on fresh or frozen fruits and veggies! There are so many different fruits and veggies out there! Not until I took the time to look did I realize what I was missing out on. Things as simple as blackberries, watermelon and pineapple were things I overlooked before while shopping because my cart was filled with other unhealthy food

 4.Lastly I learned to shop on the perimeters of the grocery store. Did you ever notice that most fresh foods are on the outskirts??


I didn't! Now, not all the food you will need is on the outskirts but alot of it is:-

I hope you learned something from this! I'm still continuing to learn every day and will continue to share with you on my journey!!!

My new lifestyle change

A few months ago, I was a totally different person. Unhappy, depressed, stuffing my face with whatever I could find and overweight. Today, I still am overweight, but losing the pounds fast! I'm active, happy and think carefully about what I put into my body. A friend asked me to join a Facebook "challenge" group back in March. It consisted drinking Shakeology, doing a fitness program from Beachbody, and participating in a closed facebook group. For those of you who may not be familiar with private groups (I wasn't at all), there's private groups on facebook where only certain people are involved (whoever creates the group will "add" the member), and everyone can interact and support one another there.

Now I thought that was cool. Where else could I get motivation and support while trying to lose weight! So I joined! I'm going to be honest. I kind of "watched" for the first few groups I was in. Didn't post everyday a what workout I did, how I felt or what I ate. As I think back now that's probably because I wasn't doing what I said I would. I wasn't working out  consistently, or making healthy food choices.  But after awhile of watching everyone and seeing how great everyone's results were, I decided it was time to make a change!

Now, by this time it was July... Better late than never right!! I started drinking Shakeology daily, doing my workouts and paying attention to what I ate(most of the time). I couldn't believe it! In the first 2 months I lost 15 lbs!!! I was so exited! I knew I could do better so now I'm currently learning to "eat clean". It's all a learning process, but I have a feeling it will be worth it in the end. I would love to work with you and reach your goals!!! Feel free to email Savko.christine@gmail.com with any questions!