This is going to be a lengthy post. Hold tight. For the past year, I've been trying to maintain a healthier lifestyle. Although it has been a rather slow process in terms of losing weight, it has been very fruitful. I will admit that when I first started being more conscious about what I put into my body, I still ate lots of unhealthy meals from time to time. Most of the food that I would eat without thinking twice back then is the kind of food I would not go near now.
I wouldn't say that I've been on a diet because I believe that diets are a lot harsher and are done usually in a short amount of time which is why I believe diets don't necessarily work. By slowly making healthier options, it doesn't seem like I've restricted or starved myself from certain things. As time progressed, I've also realised that I just begun to naturally gravitate to healthier meals and crave unhealthy food (fast food or anything deep fried or sweet) a lot less.
I started this healthier lifestyle by doing the dreaded calorie counting with the help of this app called MyFitnessPal. Initially, I only downloaded it because I wanted to keep track of how much water I was drinking each day (weird I know) but then started using it as a food diary where I was able to keep track of my daily calorie intake. However, I stopped using this app a few months ago because I found it easy to estimate the amount of calories I was consuming and thus, saving me the hassle of whipping out my phone every time I had eaten something.
Besides relying on a phone app, I did become a vegetarian for about 40 days for Lent. When Lent first begun, I was SO worried and immediately started regretting my decision but as the days past, I found it really enjoyable since I got to try out different recipes. The only hard part about vegetarianism is eating out. I don't think I could be a vegan though. I love my cheese too much.
Although I only adopted vegetarianism for about 40 days, it did motivate me to eat even healthier. So I began to eat healthier meals (mainly breakfasts) and consuming more 'superfoods'. I've also cut down A LOT on sugar and carbohydrates. Obviously I cannot completely stop taking sugar so I've limited myself to one small portion of a sugary treat each day.
Here are some pictures!
Strawberries, basil and cheese on wholemeal toast
Strawberries, plums, almonds, chia seeds with plain low fat yogurt
Green smoothie (Bananas, raw spinach, skim milk and a bit of plain low fat yogurt)
Green smoothie bowl (Green smoothie topped with dried cranberries, almonds and chia seeds)
My go-to breakfast meals are the green smoothie bowl (which I now use water only instead of milk and yogurt) and yogurt with fruits. Hummus (made from scratch) and toast is also really good and keeps me full for a lot longer.
