Earlier this week I attended a meeting about how to handle eating during the holidays. I had been looking forward to this meeting for quite some time as I was hoping I would get some new information on how to handle the holidays. Sadly that wasn’t the case. The same old information that has been going around for years was regurgitated throughout the session. I left the meeting thinking I might have outgrown the program I am in or I am just more determined to stay on track. Be warned I am about to rant.
One of the things that struck a nerve with me was being told to follow the 80/20 rule. If your not aware of the 80/20 rule let me break it down. You eat healthy 80 % of the time and allow yourself treats 20% of the time. In a perfect world this rule works. In reality with this rule we are feeding the disease we have by giving ourselves permission to eat crap. If you can follow this rule I tip my hat off to you. However in my case if I was able to follow the 80/20 rule I would never have gotten to 274 lbs. I would have been successful on the many diets I tried that told me I shouldn’t deprive myself. But guess what it didn’t work for me. I find with all the information available to us now we shouldn’t be encouraging the 80/20 rule. We should be looking for healthier alternatives. How does that saying go If you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results that’s insanity or something along those lines. This applies to food as well. If you keep allowing yourself to eat cakes laden with sugars and fat and empty calories and then step on the scale and gain weight that’s pretty much to be expected. But what if you found a healthy dessert that was high in protein, low in sugar, low in carbs and healthy for you. Guess what craving is satisfied and you are fuelling your body properly.
Do you follow the 80/20 rule? How is it working for you? Have you found alternatives to your favourites? How are you handling the holidays?
As you guessed I won’t be following the 80/20 rule. I am making meal plans and figuring out my protein intake and finding healthy alternatives or eliminating certain foods altogether from our spread like mashed potatoes. The holidays can be stressful enough without going thru them feeling bloated and overstuffed. This year make sure to treat your body right.
For breakfast tomorrow I wanted to make the kids and myself something we could grab and go So I made muffins. These muffins below are what I baked. There’s no added sugar, there’s no refined flour and they taste amazing! If we are serious about our weight loss journeys and wanting to be healthy, we need to put extra work and effort into it. We didn’t get obese by eating one piece of cake or one treat meal but clearly we need to change our ways it we want to be healthy.
Ingredients:
2 cups quick oats ground in food processor
2 medium bananas mashed
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup applesauce(unsweetened)
1/2 cup plain 0% greek yogurt
1 egg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 scoop protein powder ( I used GNC ISO BURST french vanilla)
1/2 cup no sugar added chocolate chips
What to do
preheat oven to 400.
Mash bananas. Stir in yogurt, applesauce, extract and milk. Once that’s mixed together add ground oats, baking powder, protein powder and cinnamon. Fold in chocolate chips. Let rest for a couple minutes then divided into 12 cup muffin pan and bake till toothpick comes out clean. I baked these for 22 minutes.
Hope you enjoy the recipe and I look forward to hearing how you are going to handle eating during the holidays.
