March To Blogher – A Trip to the Dietician

Happy March my friends.

I’m starting a new thing on here that I’m calling March to Blogher.

What is it?

I’m planning on going to Blogher in August, and like most people, I want to look my best when I’m surrounded by hundreds (thousands) of fabulous bloggers that I adore and respect. So, I’m giving myself a challenge and calling it March to Blogher!

The real long-term goal here is to get healthy and get to a healthy weight. Will I get to my goal by Blogher – sadly, no because I have too much to lose. However I can make a great dent in it for sure, and I know I can make a difference in how I feel overall.

Since it’s March 1st, I’m starting today and plan to blog every week on Thursday, and I would LOVE for you to join me.

You don’t have to be doing a certain diet or losing a certain amount or anything like that. You can write about anything that you’re doing each week to get healthier – it’s up to you. It’s really about supporting each other, no matter what plan you are following or exercise you’re doing and inevitably, we can all learn from each other’s success and failures. So, if you would like to join me, grab a badge (badge to come!) and sign up using the linky below – hopefully, once this gets going, there will be several of us supporting each other and finding each other through the linky.

And if not, I’ll be here doing it on my own. Ahem.

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SO, yesterday I had an appointment with a dietician for the first time. She was really sweet and honest and it was an eye opener for sure. She asked me some basic questions, then asked me what I ate during the day and how often, etc. She was kind of shocked by what I told her and I was kind of shocked by what she told me – we schooled each other basically.

What did I learn?

Surprisingly, she told me that I was not eating enough and wasn’t eating meals spaced throughout the day so that my metabolism would work properly. She also said I have to give up Diet Coke, which I knew but it’s hard to hear regardless. I was actually expecting really strict rules and guidelines from her but that’s not what I got at all. What she suggested is very doable and realistic and it all made sense. I’m going to visit her once a month, and we’ll tweak the guidelines if needed then.

Here are the actual recommendations she gave me and honestly, I think they’ll work for anyone so please feel free to use them as well.

• Eat 3 meals and 2-3 snacks spaced 3-4 hours apart – This one is crucial for me because my metabolism is totally screwed up right now. Also, when you don’t eat regularly, your body just holds onto everything on your body for dear life because it’s in starvation mode – ie. it’s much harder to lose weight.
• Eat from 3 of the 4 food groups for meals, and eat 2 of the 4 food groups for snacks – The food groups I mention are those in Canada’s Food Guide. She told me that there is a lot of science behind the food guide and so as long as I follow the suggested serving sizes, that counting calories wasn’t actually necessary. She said that the goal is to get into a pattern where you are eating the right amount from the recommended food groups – this essentially cuts out junk food, sugar, crap and the like. She also mentioned that being able to eat like this is very sustainable for a healthy lifestyle long-term.
• Eat breakfast within one hour of waking up – This one is key and she said it’s super important to eat within an hour of waking up to get your metabolism going.
• If eating an evening snack (and an insomniac like me) eat a starch and dairy – When I mentioned I wasn’t sleeping, she suggested I eat a snack that contained one serving of starch and one dairy, to help me sleep.
• Drink water as your main beverage – If I’m feeling bloated it means I’ve had way too much salt – water will help get rid of that water your body is holding on to, and water is essential to being healthy.
• Walk daily or exercise in some way every day – She suggested I start slow, with ten minutes and add to it every day until I can get to at least 30 minutes.
• Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night – She couldn’t believe how little I was sleeping and said that unless I start sleeping more hours, weight loss will be harder to achieve.

So the plan for this first week? Incorporate the recommendations that the dietician gave me, drink water as my main drink and lots of it, and move/work out every day in some way, and we’ll see what happens. Are you working on getting healthier? It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting or have been at it for a while, link up so that I can visit and support you too!

Five months to go until Blogher!! I would love it if you would join me!

Tagged as: Blogher, Canada Food Guide, diet, exercise, getting in shape, linky, March to Blogher, visit to a dietician, weight loss, weight watcher