It's not a diet

**Disclaimer: I was compensated by Diet to Go with a week of free meals and a little bit of cash but all opinions are mine.

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From the very beginning of this journey I have been "fighting" with myself and with others the mindset of a diet.  In my thought a diet is something that is restrictive, that leaves me with cravings, that cycles over and over and then as soon as you reach the goal weight you stop the diet and then sometimes (but not always) gain the weight back.  That's where the thought of it being a lifestyle comes in- WE (all of us) HAVE to get it in our heads that this is going to be for the rest of our lives.  It's NOT something that will ever go away.  Whether we overeat, have/had an eating disorder, binge, etc., it's always going to be there- IF we let it.  I'll be the first to admit that I find it easy to slip back into habits that are not good for me.  Fried foods, sodas, sweets, etc.  Does that mean I need to cut them out?  Not necessarily- what it means is that I need to follow the 80/20 rule.  I need to eat healthy 80% of the time so that 20% of the time I can enjoy a treat.  And that's what it comes down to- a treat- just because I have that treat does not mean I have to just give it all up for the day!  (and just so you all know I'm preaching to myself here- LOL)

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Enter Diet to Go.  As I have mentioned before I was selected to be an ambassador for them a few months ago.  I also had the opportunity to help promote their summer shape up series.  They hosted a twitter chat, have a google + community, a giveaway on Facebook, and even a dietbet (pay $25, lose 4% of your body weight in the month and split the "pot" with others who did the same thing) Check out all of the details HERE.  As part of that I was sent a week's worth of meals.  I did go with the traditional/low-fat meal plan again and received a few of the same meals but a few different ones.  Due to some dietary restrictions I have to spread out some of the foods I eat so I have not eaten all of them.  However, I did want to share what I have tried (along with some "oops" moments- LOL).

 Stuffed shells- you have seen these before but I ate them again.  Honestly, tasty but a little too much tomato sauce- once I scraped it off and ate just the shell I was good.  This also comes with chocolate pudding which I had to throw away because I can't have chocolate but I am assuming it was good...

 Egg Quesadilla with a potato "hash".  These egg quesadillas were probably my favorite!  The potato "hash" was good- has pimento in it so it gave it an interesting flavor but LOVED the eggs.  The only thing- make sure it's thawed instead of frozen- I cooked it (in the oven) for the amount of time stated and it was definitely not long enough.  I think it's the way they are packaged in the black tray.

Tomato Meltovers on pita bread.  These were pretty good- a couple too many tomatoes but I just pulled them off and it was all good. This was my "oops".  In the black sectioned trays used with the stuffed shells you can stick the whole tray in the oven.  Well, this one was on foam- and not only that, I forgot to cover it with foil- needless to say I had a shriveled piece of foam when it was done.  (and sadly, I did it again with the turkey chili- and not only that- I forgot to take the plastic lid off the turkey chili- needless to say I had to throw that away- along with my cookie sheet- LOL).  I'm learning some lessons in this ambassadorship but need to wait until the end to share them all (because I keep adding to them).

I know this is long but to end Diet to go is offering my readers a chance for $50 off a weekly plan so you can give them a try.  You can pick your menu and they will send it to you.  I would LOVE for them to have something that you could log in and literally pick and choose your meals because honestly the best thing would be to have a little bit from each of the menus).  Hopefully, at some point they will :)

FYI- they are having a sale until the end of June for 20% off which makes a week's worth 76.79- if you incorporate the $50 gift card you can get a week's worth of meals for under $30.