I was compensated for this post. This post is sponsored by Balance. All opinions are my own.

I’ve lost 22 pounds since I started watching my eating habits about 10 months ago. I’ve had some back and forth periods, but I’m happy with the success I’ve had overall. I’ve found that being extremely strict with my eating works for a while, but then will cause me to temporarily give up and go back to eating poorly for a few days or a week. To avoid that, I’ve been trying to maintain an overall balance. While I sometimes refer to my eating as a ‘diet’ it’s not something I plan to do temporary. My goal is to permanently have a healthy lifestyle that is maintainable. In other words, I count calories and try to eat really well most of the time. However, I allow myself to squash cravings by indulging within reason for the sake of avoiding over-indulging out of desperation.

Here are 5 ways that I find balance while counting calories:

Don’t cut out any food group. While cutting out a certain food group might be helpful in allowing some people to lose weight, I don’t want to sign up to agree to NEVER eat certain food or food groups as I know that will lead to failure in time. 

Indulge rarely. While I won’t sign up for a food plan that requires certain foods to be banned, I eat ‘bad’ foods only on rare occasion. I love pizza but I have it once a month or less, for example.

Indulge in small portions. When I do eat foods that aren’t nutritionally balanced, I keep the portion sizes small. Sticking with the pizza example, I try to keep to a single piece when I do indulge. 

Find sustainable changes for favorite foods. I have learned to modify some of my favorite meals to make them more nutritionally balanced and/or lower in calorie. For example, making tacos with ground turkey and chickpeas instead of ground beef, going light on the cheese and using and low-calorie tortillas with fiber and protein, over high calorie flour tortillas makes it a much more reasonable meal that still tastes great. 

Indulge with balanced treats. I’ve found a few foods that taste like an indulgence while still offering nutritional benefit. My favorite discovery recently was Balance Bars in Dulce De Leche & Caramel. The caramel in these isn’t overwhelming but they are SO sweet tasting. It really feels like having a candy bar, but they come with 5g of protein and 6g of fiber per bar, so they won’t leave me hungry. At 150 calories per bar, these are a perfect way for me to allow myself a treat without consuming “empty” calories. There are three other varieties in this line. Ryan really likes the Dark Chocolate Pecan Turtle bars (7g protein, 6g fiber and 190 calories each), as well as the chocolate caramel peanut nougat bars (7g protein, 5 g fiber and 190 calories per bar).

You can find Balance Bars at CVS, Amazon and select Walmart stores. Follow Balance on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to keep up with their new product releases.

Giveaway: One lucky winner is going to recieve a 6 pack of Balance Bars! It will be in one of the four new varieties (Chocolate Caramel Peanut Nougat, Chocolate Peppermint Patty, Dark Chocolate turtle OR Dulce De Leche & Caramel). The winners variety will be chosen at random. This giveaway will end 8/14/2016 at 11:59pm eastern and is open to residents of the US. Enter using the Giveaway Tools form below.

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Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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