Monday, July 29

Cleaning up my act

So I have fallen off the food bandwagon in a serious type of way lately.  I have stepped up my strength training and was in a great running swing, but the pounds weren't coming off.  Pretty sure I was out eating my workouts as well as sabotaging myself with sweets and unnecessary things.  So now that I am in post-vacation depression, I see it as a "New Year's Day" type of experiment to clean myself up.

Since I am doing Crossfit, and their idea is to do a more Paleo style of diet, I figured I would try it out in a limited version.  I will not be giving up all grain and bean carbs - nope, no way, won't do it!  I do admit that I need to pull back some however so my goal is to try to limit my carb intake to a more manageable amount and maybe even try to do some days where grain/ bean carbs don't exist.  From many of the blogs and information I have read from nutrionalists, calorie counting is not as beneficial as it seems.  Too many times low calorie foods can be filled with useless crap while I higher calorie option provides the body more nutrients and satisfies it for longer.  This could be translated that eating baked lays at 110 calories is "better" the broccoli roasted with olive oil at 140 calories.  However the baked lays provide no nutritional benefit while the broccoli and olive oil provide a large amount.  In short - stop counting calories and start looking at what you eat instead.

My workouts will consist of Crossfit 3x a week as well as ramping up a running schedule to correspond - probably 3x a week as well.  Hopefully the lack of carbs will not affect my running since I am going from a very low 2 month total. 

Current State of Body:
(In this section I am going to describe how I am feeling every few days as I go through the process, that way I can look back and see if there is progress)
Let's just down to it: bloated and disgusting!!!!  I have splurged and eaten everything in site the last week without care - lots of sugars and carbs, and I can feel it all.  I also have the "attention deficiency" that I have read about when you have too much sugar in your blood stream.  Basically if right before a meal you mind is crazy and wandering (it would be impossible to sit down and concentrate on a mind puzzle) then you are ingesting too many carbs and not enough protein and usable nutrients.  I am sure yesterdays sugar high and McDs dinner is contributing to this.  Let's also say I went straight to the fat pants this morning, I didn't even want to kid myself.

What I've Been Eating:
(Talk about the foods I have been eating and how closely I have stayed to Paleo)
Today - being 2 meals in, I have done good.  Breakfast was scrambled eggs and nuts, lunch was veggies and tuna fish.  I know it will go down hill from here however since it is someones birthday.  Last birthday for a long stretch however, so I am putting this in the adapting phase!!! (I know pathetic).  I figure this first week I will continue to eat carbs at dinner just to help my body adjust to the lessened carb load.

That's a wrap.  Hopefully my news will get better each week - if not I am ditching this plan, because I really do like carbs!!!! It pains me to give them up.