Nutrition: The things I have learned

When I first decided to get my body back, I said to myself that I would workout, but I didn't want to eat right. I love food and there were a lot of things that I didn't want to give up. Soda being one of them. I had my mind set on eating whatever I wanted but trying to workout at least 5 times a week. Well one week of working out and all of the sudden my body wanted something better in terms of nutrition. I stopped drinking soda cold turkey and started counting calories. I use Myfitnesspal.com to count my calories. It is a wonderful website and also has an app for iphone, Android and Blackberry. You can input your current weight and height and your goals and it will calculate how many calories you should be eating in day to achieve your goals. In the beginning, I was keeping my calories around 1200 a day. I admit it was very hard in the beginning and there were times that I was hungry, but I pushed through and have gotten the results I wanted. Yes there were days that I splurged, but I choose my cheats wisely. I wanted my cheats to be worth it and not regret it later. After I reached my goal weight, I increased my calories to around 1500. And now while doing Insanity, I have been keeping my calories around 1800. But it isn't all about calories, you have to be smart about what you are putting in your body. I am definitely a label reader now. I try to stay away from high fructose corn syrup and I have decreased my consumption of white flour and sugar. I even have been eating wheat bread lately!! Crazy for me!!! I have also found several things that help with my sweet tooth. Of course 100 calorie packs work great, but there are other things too. Like Popcorn Indiana's Cinnamon Sugar Kettle corn, one of my faves. You don't have to change everything about your nutrition right away, you can do it gradually over time. Slowly omit certain things, like soda or chocolate or Starbucks lattes!!! Oh and by the way, a Tall Starbucks Skinny Peppermint Mocha is only 100 calories and very tasty.