A New Diet Routine

A week before my thirty-seventh birthday, I stepped on the scale and to my dismay I weighed around 155 pounds. I thought that I could never go over 150 pounds no matter how much I eat. At my birthday, which was little over a month ago, I decided to shape myself up because I will reach my 40 soon and it would go downhill from there. I am happy to report that I went back on the same scale again this weekend and I am now at 145 pounds. I lost 10 pounds in a month, something I had not been able to accomplish in the past. What have I done in the past month?

The first thing I decided to do was to cut down my sugar consumption. I drank hot green tea instead of coffee in the morning for the first two weeks. Now I am switching back to iced coffee with one cream and no sugar. As much as I love my sister-in-law’s irresistible flan, I had determined to skip it. It has been quite a struggle for me, especially when my kids shoving donuts, ice cream, and cakes down their throat.

I am experimenting with intermittent fasting, which means I don’t eat anything until one o’clock in the afternoon. I am fine with skipping breakfast since I did that when I was a kid. Instead of buying breakfast with the money my mom gave me each morning when I was a kid back in Vietnam, I spent it on video game and billiard. Because I am always busy at work, I am fine with eating at one. I am also incorporating salad into my deal. I used to pack grill chicken with pre-washed salad mix. Then I got tired of eating the same chicken everyday so I switched to fried tofu. Obviously fried tofu is not all that healthy.

My new plan has been to enjoy Whole Food’s salad bar at half price. If you just get whatever you want at the salad bar, your bill would be at least $10 or more. So what I had done is that I bought the pre-washed salad mix for $6, which I could eat for four or five meals. Then I would get two slices of fish or some chunks of curried lamb for $5 to go with my salad. I always have my sriracha sauce with me to spice up my meal. In addition, Whole Food is about half a mile from my office; therefore, I get a mile from walking back and forth.

I also am getting back to my exercise. Because the kids wouldn’t wake up in the morning until I force them to, I would get to do some jogging. I wanted my exercise to be enjoyable; therefore, I would not force myself to run like I used to. If I couldn’t run, I would walk. If the whether was not so nice, I would skip it. My diet plan would also changed on the weekends because I want to enjoy eating whatever the family and the kids enjoy.

Since I dropped 10 pounds in a month, I am hopeful that this new routine will last long.