womenshealthmagazine.com
I’ll be honest, I am not a nutrition or a fitness expert.
I am, however, really good at keeping off those few extra holiday pounds (you know, the ones that inevitably find their way to your hips and thighs) and maintaing a constant healthy weight. I used to always find my weight uncontrollable. Like one minute I was feeling great and 3 days later I was bloated and 8 lb. heavier. Over the past 3 or so years, I’ve tried every fad diet on the planet. Whether it’s the Master Cleanse, the South Beach Diet or radically cutting out all carbohydrates, you name it, I’ve done it.
I will tell you right now, diets do not work. Whatever you do, stop with the interval dieting. It’s not good for you and in the long run, it slows down your metabolism and makes weight-loss even harder. You need to change your lifestyle and one of those lifestyle changes needs to be to incorporate a lot of protein into your diet.
Every time I start eating a diet with foods containing a high level of protein, I seem to lose weight, have amazing energy and look better than ever. Surprisingly, you actually need more protein than you think. Research suggests you should actually be eating HALF your body weight in grams of protein every single day. That means if you weight 120 lb., you should be eating 60 grams of protein.
To put things into prospective, I wanted to provide a list of 10, high protein foods that can help you increase the amount you are eating every day.
1) Eggs: 6 grams per
2) Cottage Cheese: 13 grams per half a cup. I like to mix cottage cheese with a little whole wheat pasta. Sounds weird, but it’s amazing.
3) Quinoa: 8 grams per one cup cooked. Check out this protein packed recipe.
4) Greek Yogurt: 15 grams per 6 oz container
5) Peanut Butter: 4 grams per tablespoon
6) Beef Jerky: 10 grams per ounce
7) Chicken breast: 30 grams per 3.5 oz serving
8) Cheese: 6-10 grams per oz depending on type
9) Tofu: 20 grams of protein for a half a cup
10) Tuna: 40 grams for a 6oz can
In order to eat half your body weight in grams of protein, you need to start early! This means a protein packed breakfast.
Here is an example of a good protein meal day for most women:
Start the day off 2 scrambled eggs (12 grams) with cheese (10 grams). For lunch, have a salad with chicken breast (30 grams) and for dinner, some quinoa (8 grams) stir-fry with tofu (20 grams) and lots of fresh veggies. That’s about 80 grams right there!
Simply put, kicking up your protein intake isn’t actually too difficult. If you can do that and reduce the amount of sugar and carbohydrates you eat (and do moderate exercise), you will drastically change your body and energy levels. Also, don’t freak out or feel bad if you eat something bad! I think that is the main reason why people can’t lose weight. They think “oh I just ate a cookie, my whole diet is bad now so I will just eat 3 more”. One cookie is okay! It’s all about moderation.
Maybe this really isn’t a secret to some of you, but for those of you out there who are looking to try something different, I figured I’d share my experience.
Have any of you had a good experience introducing a high level of protein into your diet?
Love always,
Erica
Everything Erica 