Substitutions

I've had an epiphany this go around of weight loss. I have gained and lost the same friggin' 15 lbs probably about 5 times since I started this "fit life" 4 years ago. It's super annoying.

About a month after I had Liam and realized that 9 lbs was all that was going to come off on its own, I needed a new game plan. I wasn't about to work my butt off to lose these 20 lbs....AGAIN...just to have the end of summer and holidays come around and have myself cookie and Mexican food my way back up to the 140's. This was going to be the last time I lose these same pounds no matter what it takes!

So fast forward 5 months later, 21 lbs down, and zero yo-yo's later, I have found the secret to staying at your target weight and not finding yourself in the closet finishing off that fresh package of Pumpkin Oreos working yourself up 5 lbs in one night. And then 15 pounds a month or two later. One word...substitutions.

My epic fall outs of my diet always were triggered by One. Evil. Thing. Dr. Pepper. "Oh, I'll just have one" always always turned into like 20 over the weekend (I had a problem) and about 6 pounds gained by Monday morning. Mondays were always depressing and I always had to psych myself up to "get back on." I'm sure many can relate. With the Dr. Peppers always came the thought, "well, I already screwed up today, might as well binge and eat 10,000 calories a day all weekend. Let's go to Mojitos!" I'd start every week with the intentions of never drinking a Dr. Pepper again. Who am I kidding?

To get to the point, this time has been very different. It's completely sustainable and there's literally nothing that can derail me. The difference is that I have taken all my setback foods and drinks and found replacements for them. This is so key. I haven't taken a single food item and said, "okay, no more ___." You know why? BECAUSE YOU WILL EAT IT AGAIN! And when you do, it will probably be 20 of them. Sad story.

So here are my replacement foods that have kept me sane and will be permanent changes:

1. Chocolate. Coffee. Creamer. Oh, the apple of my eye and the best part of my day. The way I could annihilate a bottle of chocolate creamer was nothing to be proud of. I'm talking like 12 tbsp a day. To say I would just not do coffee creamer anymore is so unrealistic so I found a replacement. To find one that tasted good and had the macros I wanted was a huge challenge. Almond milk creamer is disgusting by the way. It's like adding water. Yuck. Coconut french vanilla creamer is a yes and organic half and half with some organic stevia has been my creamer lately. Does it have the chocolatey goodness I so passionately loved before? No, but it's creamer that tastes good and is now what I use and is essential to me staying on track. Whew, this was a toughy to replace.

2. Dr. Peppers. Obviously my poison of choice. So the mindset of never drinking soda again never panned out well. And just having one always turned into 20. This was a hard one as well. By the way, La Croix is la gross. I don't know how anyone drinks that stuff. I tried a diet Dr. Pepper one day with my dad and was surprised at how little diet after taste there was. This was huge in my postpartum weight loss because I no longer consumed large amounts of calories from soda on the weekends or when I messed up. I could have a soda whenever...for a whopping zero calories and zero carbs and zero sugar. Is this real life?!  I got on the Coke Zero and Diet Dr. Pepper train pretty hard. Restaurants, snacks, desserts....diet soda! It keeps me skinny!

Well, about a month ago I just couldn't get over the fact of how unhealthy this diet soda thing was. I'm a personal trainer. I promote health and taking care of your body, yet I'm consuming one of the worst things you can put in your body on a daily basis. I couldn't get rid of it so, you guessed it, I started searching for a substitution. I landed on Zevia and Honest Soda. Both are organic, non gmo, sweetened with stevia, and have 0 calories and 0 carbs. They don't taste like pee like La Croix (I'm really hating on them), and were actually pretty tasty! They aren't at Wal-Mart and are pricier than diet soda, but having those in my fridge and in my car have been VITAL to me staying on track.

3. Cookies. Chocolate. Any sweets. I'm so bad about NEEDING a sweet after dinner or after lunch. Bad habits I guess. This little girl right here can put away a package of raw cookie dough and trust me, it's shameful. The substitution for me has been dark chocolate. I like to keep a package of dark chocolate kisses in my pantry and allow myself 2-3 a night. Paired with a Zevia or Honest Soda, you'd be shocked at how satisfying this combo is for a sweet tooth. I've never had any problems since doing this. If you hate dark chocolate, I'd really look into maybe some gluten free healthy sweet snacks. You can find something! If you're super disciplined, which not many people are, and you can have a package of something awesome like Oreos or ice cream in your house and only eat ONE...then power to ya. I cannot. I'll eat the whole thing. Also, some health food stores have awesome versions of ice cream bars that are sweetened with stevia and are super low calorie. That's a great alternative too.

So moral of the story is we all know you're not going to give something up forever or completely take something out of your diet. It's too hard and leads to binging. This has been such a different feeling and attitude this time around because I didn't go to extremes to completely take things out of my daily diet that I normally consume so much of. Find your problem foods or drinks, and find alternatives. Do your research and make sure it's not made of pure crap like diet soda. Trust me, this is some good advice for sticking with a diet.

Yours truly.