New Year, New You: {Eatin'}

Hi girls and welcome back to the New Year, New You series! We kicked off last Wednesday night with our introduction, so if you’re just joining tonight, you may want to go back and read that post. But tonight, we’re going to start focusing on the diet part of what we’ll be doing for the next six weeks. Since everyone is at different heights and weights, everyone will have different calorie needs.

The formula for weight loss is simple: Burn more calories than you take in. Since we know that 3500 calories = 1 pound, you’ll need to cut out 500 calories PER DAY from what you’re currently eating to lose 1-2 pounds per week.

To find out how many calories you'll need to eat per day:

1. Go here to figure out the bare minimum number of calories that you need to be consuming per day, also known as your BMR (Basal Metobolic Rate). Your BMR is the number of calories that you expend per day, just to keep up your necessary bodily functions (breathing, digesting food, etc.) I calculated mine, shown below:

2. Now, take your BMR number and add calories for your respective CURRENT activity level:

Sedentary = 0

Light= 100 (some walking, household chores, etc., 1-3 times per week)

Medium= 200 (brisk walking, Zumba, or jogging 3-4 times per week)

High= 300 (running, interval training, competitive swimming, tennis 5-6 times per week)

3. Add your BMR number and your activity number together. My number is:

1322 (BMR)
+200 (Calories from activity)
1522 (Number of calories I’ll need to take in for the next 6 weeks, while on this plan.)


Obviously, as your activity increases, you’ll need to up your calories accordingly using the above formula. Enough of this math stuff, let’s talk meal plans! This drawing representing your dinner plate shows how to distribute the portions of each food group:

50%- Should come from non-starchy veggies like broccoli, spinach, asparagus or zucchini
30%- Should come from lean protein like boneless/skinless chicken, skirt steak or pork
20%- Should come from complex carbs like sweet potatoes, brown rice or butternut squash

Adequate portions 101:

Meat: Portions of meat should be the same size and thickness as the palm of your hand

Carbs: Portions of carbs should be no more than ½ cup. If you can’t hold it in the palm of your hand with your fist closed around it, that’s TOO MUCH.

Greens: As many as you want!

Sugars: No more than 1 Tbsp. of real butter or margarine per meal, keep salt to a minimum

Here's what you'll need to do to up your weight loss during this program:

1. Eliminate Diet Soda - Ever noticed that you crave something sweet after drinking a diet coke? Here’s why the diet stuff ain’t cuttin’ it. Drinking a beverage with aspartame actually causes your body to store fat around your middle- yuck! Also, your body doesn't recognize fake sugar, so to get its sweet fix, it sends signals to your brain to eat something with simple sugars, like are found in candy and cookies. Thus, you eat a jelly donut after your diet soda. If you want fizz, just drink a real can of Coke, jot down the calories and move on. It won’t kill you.

2. Say No to Fake Sugar- You’ll also want to cut out the Splenda, sweet ‘n low, equal, etc. Fake sugar is a chemical that your body was not made to metabolize. Quit NOW.

3. Say Yes to Real Sugar- If you need a sweet fix, eat a reasonable portion of something with real sugar and move the heck on.

4. Drink Coffee- Coffee or unsweetened black tea up to 30 min. before exercising will help you power through your workout AND burn more calories by increasing your metabolism. Caffeine stimulates your body, helping you to put that extra oomph into your workout.

5. Be Careful with Bananas- I’m being serious. Bananas are loaded, I repeat, LOADED in sugar. I mean, it’s better than a candy bar when you’re hungry, but there are much better fruit alternatives.

6. Stay Away from Low Carb Diets- ‘Cuz all that meat and cheese is not good for your body or your digestive tract. Luckily for you, COMPLEX carbs are A-OK on this plan.

READ MORE! (Continued)