Let me just say up front, I AM STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. But boy, have I already lost some weight. About 45 pounds to be exact! I couldn't be happier...until I reach my goal, that is! :)
My youngest child is 4, and after his birth I got really, really fat! Like, 280 pounds fat! At 5 ft 4 inches tall, I was horrified and convinced that it was my age that was a big factor. I have 2 other children and their ages are 23 and 15. Naturally I assumed that having him a little later had zapped any elasticity I had left in my body. I was lookin' through ROSE COLORED GLASSES!
The truth of the matter is that I was eating around the clock and loading up on high fat foods. A typical day would consist of 1 or sometimes 2 sausage and biscuits from Mickey Dee's, fried chicken for lunch (from a fast food place of course), and then maybe ordering a pizza for dinner. Looking back, I now realize that I was consuming SEVERAL hundred grams of fat a day. Not healthy for anyone.
I tried the high protein, higher fat diets. And I did lose weight, at first. But I also had headaches, upset stomach, and generally felt like crap. I didn't know what I was going to do. EVERYONE, it seemed, was losing weight this way and my body just couldn't tolerate a diet like that. I was stuck and didn't know which way to turn.
After a little soul searching, I realized that I didn't want a new "diet"...what I wanted was a new way of eating that I could live with for the rest of my life... so that once I lost the weight, I wouldn't "find" it again. I also wanted something that would be healthy for my children to eat. As a general rule, I think that if you wouldn't consider it safe to feed a child your current "diet", then you shouldn't be eating it either. ! And it's much easier and LESS EXPENSIVE to cook one meal instead of two.
A friend of mine had lost lots of weight (over 100 pounds) following a low fat eating plan and I wanted to see the same results. So, I began to google "low fat diets" and came up with a LOT of sites that said how "unhealthy" they were or how they didn't work. I knew the part about them not working was total crap because of my friend, so I decided to check out the "unhealthy" part for myself.
I went straight to my doctor and he told me that he actually advocated a low fat lifestyle....he quoted the American Heart Association and rattled off some statistics. That was all I needed to hear.....I was "on board".
The only "warning" he gave me was that lots of folks achieve great results eating a low fat diet, but often abandon it due to "lack of variety". I considered this a CHALLENGE. I'm from a LONG line of great cooks and I knew that if this would help me see results like my friend, I was willing to spend a little time in the kitchen developing recipes!
I've changed the way I cook, so that the food we eat tastes great and is much healthier for us. After living this way for several months, I realized that there were probably other folks out there like me , who wanted to lose weight and still eat great. That's how I started this blog.
Let me warn you that I am from the South. A lot of the food that I cook has a southern "flare" and there will also be some cajun food thrown in as well. We live in Mississippi but are only 40 minutes from the Louisiana state line. I hope that there will eventually be recipes and ideas on here that can help anyone lose weight and feel fantastic!
Now, here's the question that everyone who sees the fat I've already lost asks: How much fat and how many calories do you eat every day? I can only answer for myself. I eat around 30 grams of fat a day...give or take a few grams. And as for calories, I HAVE NO IDEA. I don't count them. I simply cook low fat meals, stay within my fat "budget" (which is super easy to do with my recipes), and eat until I'm full. Pretty simple. You'll need to check with your doctor to see what he recommends for you.
I'm not a doctor, I'm not a dietician,...I'm just a Southern mom who loves food but loves looking great too!
Stay tuned......... :)
