How I Found Balance Through my Nutrition & Stay On Track
- Talia Lego
- Jul 24, 2023
- 5 min read
I have come a long way when it comes to my nutrition. There are so many fad diets I have tried and most did not work for me or I found to be unsustainable for my lifestyle. I am going to go through the multiple types of “diets” and “lifestyle changes” that I’ve attempted and talk about what I liked, disliked, and where I am now!
First diet I remember doing was in college I signed up for “WW” also known as weight watchers.
It is a system that gives you a daily allotted points system that can be used to track what you eat. Fruits and vegetables are worth 0 points so essentially it is encouraging you to eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can. For my lifestyle in college this simply didn't work. Monday - Thursday I was able to stay on my points for the most part, but I didn’t want my points to be spent when I was drinking throughout my weekend. The main reason I was bigger in college than now is because of the drinking and eating on the weekends.
There was also a point where I did intermittent fasting-
I wouldn’t eat until 11:00 in the morning and I would stop at 7:00 at night. I never worked my way down to smaller increments of time because I would get so hungry in the morning and I would still be hungry after 7:00 when I was supposed to stop. I know a lot of people see success in this type of lifestyle.
Being a nurse it is crucial that you eat before a shift, and I am a particularly “shakey” person if I do not eat so I cannot fast for long periods of time.
After college when I was 22 - 23, my mother introduced me to the keto diet.
I found a lot of success in this. My weight out of college was around 165-170 pounds. And with keto I was able to get as low as 150. I used the app MyFitnessPal to track my carbs and fat. I would keep my carbs under 25 g a day so a very very small amount. When the holidays rolled around the keto diet was absolutely not sustainable, and I always broke ketosis on weekends when I would drink. My weight would fluctuate and I wound up getting to 160 pounds again by the next year.
Winter/ Spring of 2021 I did another round of strict keto and once again saw quick results. If you are looking to slim down quickly, keto is an option. But if you want to keep the weight off, I would not recommend keto because diet wise it is very difficult to stay in ketosis if you are going out to eat, drinking, etc. You need to be very strict with yourself and track everything you eat, all the time.
My workouts were consistent but I would use diet and eating to cope with anxiety for a long time.
There were periods where I would try to be mindful about carbs, incorporate more vegetables, etc . I just never found anything that actually worked for my lifestyle long term. Winter of 2022 I did a diet called “G-Plans” that cuts dairy and highly processed foods out of your life.
This was an extremely heavy “cooking” diet and you needed to follow the exact grocery list and meal plan that was given to you based on your metabolism. My weight didn’t move a pound. I did G-Plans for 2 months and gave up because it was so much work for so little reward, not to mention canceling this plan was a headache and you needed to jump through a thousand hoops to speak to anyone on the phone.
Winter of 2023, after so many different attempts at weight loss, I finally put my foot down and knew I needed to make a whole 180 lifestyle change.
I redownloaded MyFitnessPal, downloaded an app called SculptYou (see my fitness journey blog post for more info on that!) and surprisingly, used tik toks to help come up with a game plan. I came up with a goal weight that was attainable to achieve, and I used different math equations to determine my daily caloric value and my daily protein goal that I needed to hit.
On MyFitnessPal I would focus on tracking those two things. By doing this it puts the pressure off avoiding certain foods and highlights the importance of protein-rich foods. I try to find options that have 1g of protein for every 10 calories. (example: If a food or meal is 500 calories aim for 50 grams of protein in that meal). By being in a caloric deficit and hitting my daily protein goals, I found a system that worked for me.
Another lifestyle change that I made at the beginning of 2023 was limiting my alcohol consumption.
I just found that I feel better mentally and physically if I limit my drinking. I don’t need to have a drink socially. I can just order a diet coke and be perfectly fine. This was difficult for me emotionally because being in your 20’s most socializing comes with drinking and going-out on weekends. I absolutely still do go out, but it is in moderation and I haven’t put pressure on myself to limit the drinks if I’m having a good time and I want to.
I also started to lessen my cardio-
this was extremely difficult for me to do because I conditioned myself to think that cardio meant fat loss and fat loss meant skinny. That is not the case. I think the amount of cardio that I was doing was putting so much stress on my body that I was inflamed and holding onto excess water and fat. The SculptYou app has given me daily workout plans and I physically see myself getting stronger. I have never seen more results than I do now and I have never felt better.
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