A couple of months ago my friend, Holly, and I were out on a 15 mile run and I was lamenting how frustrated I was with my weight. The thing is, I work out A LOT, but then again I also was eating a lot too. I have a love/ hate relationship with sweets and diet coke. Love, because they are delicious. Hate, because of what they do to my waist!!! My friend gave me this idea of a year of healthy eating. She said that we would probably lose the weight that we wanted and be healthier if we just ate good for a year instead of crash dieting. At the time I was getting ready for a marathon and I just couldn't wrap my head around counting calories or depriving myself at all. The marathon was September 1, so no more excuses!!!
Since that run, I have been thinking about this dilemma and contemplating how to best go about a year of healthy living. I have another running buddy, Jacque, who has lost 12# in 5 weeks by doing LA weight loss. On several of our runs we discussed her success and she inspired me to get off my butt and do it!!! She gave me a copy of her food journal that she uses and I started it on Monday of last week (Sept. 24). The only problem was that by my Wednesday morning run was unable to run farther than 2.5 miles and I spent the next 2 miles trying to put one foot in front of the other. Jacque told me that she had felt like crap the first couple of weeks, but after her body adjusted, her runs became easier. After the run, I came home and immediately ate a 500 calorie breakfast. Since then I have been more careful about making sure that I ate all my food and I have felt much better. I weighed myself yesterday and I did had lost 2.4 pounds, so I know that I need to stick with this "year of healthy eating," but I'm haven't been entirely convinced that her diet plan was right for me.
This weekend I did some research and I found an article in Runners World about diets for runners. http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-310-7771-0,00.html I thought that it was a great article, so I'm going to try it out this week and see if I feel better on my runs. My plan for this week is to eat 1200 calories a day. I have a note on my phone where I divided it up and I can log my progress. I will eat 300 calories of starches, 300 of fruit and veggies, 300 of protein, and 300 of fat. For every mile I run I will add 100 calories (50 carbs, 25 protein, and 25 fat). I'm currently training for a half marathon (November 3) and the Las Vegas Ragnar (November 8-9), so I will be logging some longer runs. Also, I am allowing myself one free day a week. Not an all out, whatever I want day, but a day where I can make cookies and eat without writing anything down. My free day will be Sunday, for a few reasons: its notoriously my lazy day anyway, I usually do my long runs on Monday, and it will give my something to look forward to during the week. One of my dear friends, Monica (she's a fitness instructor at Gold's Gym and my inspiration) only eats 2 sweets a week. I have tried and failed at this. I just have to have one day that I only eat sweets because if I say 2 sweets a week then it turns into 3, then 4, etc. I'm still trying to decide if I will get to have sweets on my birthday (which is in July) and on Christmas and Thanksgiving. If I do, then I will have to forgo Sundays.
And Diet Coke? That's a thorn in my side. I really do believe that it is affecting my runs, but I love that stupid addiction. I have started drinking Crystal Light Energy to help curb the effects of caffeine deprecation, but every now and then I just want a 44 oz Diet Dr. Pepper (I love that even more than Dt. Coke right now). For now, I'm not going to make any promises.
Why the blog? A few weeks ago I watched "Julie and Julia" and that's where I got the idea of committing to a year and writing about it. I have to force myself to write this blog every Sunday, to report in. Maybe no one but my mom and maybe my sisters will ever read this (my mother will just tell me what grammatical errors I have made), but by putting it out there I'm hoping that it will keep me motivated. The other inspiration was my friend Priscilla. She has a blog spot about her experiences going from a non runner to a marathoner. She is very inspiring. So I guess that I have a lot of people that have inspired me to start this: Holli, Jacque, Monica, and Priscilla. Thanks girls:)
Here's a sample of my food journal. I put it in my Iphone and then I just delete the day's info and start over the next day. I hate having paper and notebooks sitting out on my counter, so this is what I have found that works for me. Also, I always have my phone with me. I have my calorie breakdown also listed above. I'm aiming for at least 3 veggies a day. They are not my favorite and I struggle to get them all in a day.
Protein 1/2 (100 calories each)
Veggie 1/2/3 (about 150 calories total)
Fruit 1/2 (about 150 calories total)
starch 1/2 (150 each)
dairy 1 (100 calories)
fat 1/*2/*3 (100 calories *my protein fats: peanut butter and nuts)
Then I track my food:
Breakfast:
Snack:
Lunch:
Snack:
Dinner:
Snack:
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