Last night I had my first personal training session in a week (both Jimmy and I had personal things going on and had to cancel our last two appointments). I walked into the gym, and right away he could tell that something was up with me. He asked me what was wrong, and I told him that I’d been having a really tough time of it lately. He immediately hugged me and said that things were going to be alright.
He and I had a “come to Jesus” talk about my weight loss. He said that I was doing really, really well with the activity, although he wants me to commit to spending a minimum of 30 minutes every day doing some sort of cardio – a walk, riding my bike, the Wii games, or at the gym.
Then we moved on to food. He asked me how it was going and whether I could honestly say that I was doing everything I could as far as my eating was concerned. I told him I couldn’t. I said that I do really well at breakfast and lunch, but when it comes to dinner, I know I’m overeating. I’m eating good food, but I just feel insatiable at night. He told me that it was good that I could identify the problem, and now it was time to do something about it. He suggested that I cut out my carbs, meaning the rice and pasta that I normally eat, at dinner. He said that eating oatmeal, yogurt, and a piece of fruit at breakfast was fine, although he’d rather see me have eggs (instead of the oatmeal), but I told him I wasn’t a huge fan of eggs. He said salad, fruit, and pretzels (or some sort of “healthy” chips) were great for lunch. And for dinner he suggested chicken or fish along with spinach or some other type of vegetable. The main thing he asked me to change was to center each of my meals around the protein. That is definitely something new for me, especially at breakfast.
I think Jimmy’s suggestions are spot on, though. I do think that I eat too many carb-heavy meals, and that my body isn’t metabolizing them as well. I am not going to go on an Atkins or South Beach diet, because that’s just unrealistic for my life, but I do think that making some simple changes and trying to reduce the amount of carbs I eat at dinner will be something I can benefit from and accomplish easily. He told me to remember that this was the healthiest way to eat on a daily basis, and then on special occasions like my reunion, or Thanksgiving and Christmas, I could have a bit more freedom as far as the heavy, carb-laden foods were concerned.
And it makes sense. I know that when I was eating fewer carbs when I did South Beach I felt better and had fewer cravings for sweets at night (this is something I’m struggling with right now). I felt like I had more energy and I felt healthier in general.
So I’m going to do a combo WW/low carb food plan. I’m not going to totally eliminate carbs by any means, but I am going to take them out of my dinner. I’m thinking of a menu that looks something like this:
Breakfast: oatmeal; yogurt; fruit or Green Monster smoothie; oatmeal
Morning snack: string cheese or nuts
Lunch: salad or a low-carb wrap with lunchmeat, leafy greens, hummus/laughing cow; fruit; pretzels (or some other low calorie snack)
Afternoon snack: cottage cheese & tomatoes or hummus & veggies
Dinner: protein + veggies (ex: salmon with spinach).
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Even though Jimmy’s main “job” is to help me workout, I can see now that he’s so much more than a personal trainer to me – he’s a friend and he’s a life coach. He really took the time to make sure I was doing well, and even texted me last night to check in on me. He also told me that I can call or text him any time. He gave the example of being in the grocery store, not knowing what to buy: “call me and ask me, and I’ll walk you through it over the phone.” He’s really the greatest, and I’m so lucky to have him as my trainer. I really need to remember that and show him how grateful I am by listening to his advice about the food.
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