I'll have ONE piece of lettuce

Drum roll please...........

12 lbs lost people! I honestly am pumped! I may have cheated and weighed myself 3 days before the end of the Whole 30 but I couldn't take it. I noticed my waist had slimmed down, my legs were smaller, and my face was showing some structure! 

I didn't expect it to be that much but once I saw the number I was shocked! 

So what was key?? Did I deprive myself??

Yes, I ate the above EVERY. DAY.  JUST KIDDING!!!! How awful would that be! I mean I love shrimp, potatoes, and asparagus but seriously people!

So how do I trick my brain into eating less? I wish I could say I had the will power to just stop when I am full! I wish I could just eat ONE brownie and be done, or have ONE piece of chicken and not go back for more, but I just don't have that much self control!

So I play mind games to keep my portion sizes small! Here are my top 2 tricks!

Trick #1 Grab Half

Grab half of what you normally eat! So if you are out to eat and you get a sandwich and chips, eat half and wrap the rest up for later (and probably put it in the trunk of your car because if you are like me the back seat isn't far enough away lol). This trick is KEY to cutting down over eating.

Once you grab half, eat it, and if you still feel like you could eat your hand, drink 8oz of water and wait 10 minutes. Let your mind catch up to your stomach.

Trick #2 Use the Small Plates

Have you ever noticed that dinner plates are large enough to feed a family in Africa??? Seriously, they are HUGE! And being the wonderful food loving people we are, we fill that bad boy up! Obviously we were taught to "finish everything on our plates," so we eat it all! That is just too much food for the average person to consume! So you know those smaller salad plates, use those! That way when you fill it up, you trick your mind and can clean the plate being guilt free!

Portion sizes are key people and its so hard when you LOVE food like I do but I promise these tips work! Try it out for a week and let me know what you think!

Any other trick and tips for portion control???

12lbs smaller and still eating LOTS of food :) Please ignore the lack of make up ;)

Linking up with Biana , Stephanie , and #spreadthekidness

No wine? No cheese?? HELP!

No bread? No dairy? Is cheese dairy? Oh it is, so no cheese? What about wine? No cheese or wine???

Sounds like torture huh! No, its just the Whole 30! 

I promise, its not as bad as it seems! Sure, the first week I really wanted to kill anyone I came in contact with, I was beyond irritated, and my head was POUNDING! But I am on week 4 and its a BREEZE! 

Tonight I was craving something different besides buffalo chicken or taco bowls with no shell so I made Crab and Tuna salad on apple slices! It was DELICIOUS! 

So easy to make and so yummy! 

Ingredients

I pack of Trader Joes Frozen Crab Meat (optional)

2 cans Yellowfin Tuna

Cilantro 

Salt

Pepper

Granny Smith Apples

Sauce

1 can Coconut Milk

Cilantro

Salt

Pepper

1 TBS Garlic Powder

1 TBS chopped garlic

1TBS Onion Powder 

I currently have an obsession with Pickles so I through one on the side! 

Bring on the Bacon

Hi, I am Erica Ashley and I am addicted to Bacon.....

The crispy salty meat, the taste just lingering your mouth; always craving more! I have a problem! 

No joke, today I made 6 pieces of bacon for part of my Turkey Bacon lettuce wraps for lunch this week....I only have 1 piece left! I am embarrassed by the fact I ate 5 pieces of bacon today throughout the day but I. Just. Can't. Help. It! 

Bacon is the one of few craving that the Whole 30 has not taken away. Which is a good/bad thing depending on how you look at it. I mean I LOVE bacon, therefore I am happy. My heart, body, and hips hate that I still crave that delicious piece of meat! 

Why the talk about bacon? Well, we all crave FOOD! We love it! Its tasty, it makes us happy, we need it to survive, we may love to cook it, or go out to eat and have someone cook it for us, we use it to celebrate with, socialize with, cry with (hello, Ben and Jerrys!). The point is FOOD is part of our every day lives. 

We can look at it two ways: Embrace it, or look at it as this tortuous thing that keeps us overweight and unhappy. 

I use to view food as the enemy. The thing I just couldn't control. No matter how many diets I went on, no matter what I tried to cut out, no matter what I literally threw away because I couldn't control myself, I would find myself driving to the grocery store at 9pm 3 nights later because I just couldn't bare to be with out it. 

Food was my enemy. 

I would use it to treat myself, "Hey, I ran a mile, time for an ice cream cone!" or "I didn't eat one bad thing the past 3 days, french fries from McDonalds it is!" 

Anyone else do this??? If not I feel even more ashamed! 

The point is, it took me till last year, 26 year olds, to figure out FOOD wasn't the enemy. It was the way I looked at that was! 

Food is meant to be delicious, its meant to be taste, its meant to be enjoyable! Thats a FACT! However, it is also meant to bring nutrition to our bodies, to fuel us and energize us! 

My goal was to find that balance between the two. Figure out EXACTLY how I could enjoy food without over eating, without feeling guilty, without being sneaky as well as fuel my body appropriately. 

How did I do it? (well mostly do it because like I said, I still have a bacon problem!) I'll share those tips next week! 

Until then, anyone else struggling with this idea of food being an enemy?? Or was it just me!?