Day 5- No Grazing Between Meals

Day 5 of my weight loss journal, 1500 calories. No grazing between meals. Eating at 9, noon, 3, and 5 works best for me.(See the other days in this weight loss journal here)

Oh my!! AGAIN I was 116.6 lbs today. My scale wouldn’t send the data to the tracking app no matter what I tried. I think it assumed it wasn’t possible that it didn’t even change a tenth in the last three days.

So, I waited about 20 minutes and got on again for a new reading (116.4) , and then it uploaded to the app. LOL.

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Day 5: 116.4lbs!

No Grazing!

Instead of saying “no snacking” (because people get confused that I have a mid-day snack), what I really need to call it to clarify is NO GRAZING!

But, remember the old school diet mentality that you had to eat 6-7 small meals a day to “Keep your metabolism running”.

I bought into the 6-7 meals a day hype very easily. For someone who loves food, this seemed like a win-win! Eat more often, and have more joy in life!

The problem was, MY 6-7 meals were never “mini-meals”. I like a BIG hearty, satiating meal when I eat. But worse than that, the period of time between meals got fuzzier and fuzzier. Instead of 6 defined meals, I was just eating all day long.

We now know that your metabolism doesn’t fluctuate just because you skipped a meal. Our bodies are much smarter than that. We also know that putting proper time between eating is better for digestion than grazing and constantly processing food all day.

But more than that, I find it MUCH easier to stay in my calories for the day when I just decide I won’t eat between meals, and stick to 3-4 meals per day. I wrote two GREAT articles about the science around that here: 3 Meals a Day Diet, and Stop Snacking to Lose weight.

One of the reasons I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is to have good glucose and insulin numbers. From my article linked above, when we put sufficient time between meals:

Insulin sensitivity returns, leading to easier weight loss. Insulin is a hormone that controls your cells use of energy. One way to become resistant to the insulin is by a constant stream of glucose from eating. Limiting your eating window allows glucose time to be used between meals and help your insulin do it’s job. (source)
3 Meals a Day Diet

Even knowing this, the reason I find it difficult to not eat between meals is

I work from home, and eating while I’m working, or to avoid working is TOO convenient.
I am literally a food blogger! I look at food on pinterest and instagram all day and that much exposure to delicious food truly creates cravings!
and finally, I’m impulsive. I have a thought about something I want to eat, and then I just eat it. Sometimes, I don’t even think about it. In the final weeks before all three bikini shows I found it incredibly easy to stick to the diet just by saying no to snacking! It really can be a game changer if you let it.

Anyway, maybe it’s a longer rant for another day, but speaking of snacks……

My PROTEIN TREAT

I eat at around 9 am, noon, 3:00 and 5:00. My 3:00 meal is a protein treat or dessert. Breakfast is my first favorite meal of the day, but that treat is my second favorite meal!

I’ve been LOVING lowfat cottage cheese with sugar free pistachio pudding mix!! OH MY HEAVENS!! Here’s one way to make it (a little more indulgent) with cool whip and yogurt.

But yesterday, I simply mixed the pudding mix and cottage cheese. My photo shows pistachios, but normally I wouldn’t do that. I just thought it looked better for my picture!

Either way, you should totally try this treat!! For this bowl, it was 230 calories, 25 g protein, 16g carbs, and 6 g fat. (if you are adding a food on MyFitnessPal, search 1500S04 by Health Beet)

cottage cheese and sugar free pistachio pudding

My Workout

Cardio

Yesterday, I ran 3 miles on the treadmill. It started raining, and the temperature is getting below 20 degrees! That’s usually when I start bringing my running indoors.