Nutrition Tracking

Well my experimental diet has not been particularly effective. Right before Valentine's Day I removed processed sugar and dairy from my diet and have been extremely calorie restricted eating all whole foods and supplementing with vitamins. I really don't even know why I removed dairy except to reduce the amount of fat in my diet because I sure do love me some whole milk lattes, whole milk in my cereal, sour cream, and cheese!! So just by staying away from it I won't get carried away! I have been tracking what I eat with the app "MyFitnessPal". It has tons of foods and brands listed so it is easy to track your eating. You can enter everything online as well at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/.

It has been very motivational and at the end of the day when I record what I have eaten it tells me how skinny I will be in five weeks. My first race is in six weeks so this sounds great! Well that is all peachy but it is telling me I will weigh the same I did when I was 16 before my body even finished growing. I was just hoping to weigh the same as I did in my 20's which is 10 pounds lighter. So I was stoked after dieting for a week and a half thinking I had lost weight. Well, this morning I went in to the gym and weighed myself on the same scale and same time of the morning as I did a week ago and I am .1 pounds heavier. Nice. Now THAT is motivating. 

The day after I started this diet thing I got immediately sick with a virus and have had NO energy. It was quite difficult to function during the week although I did manage to swim once, do weights twice, run three times, and go on a long bike ride yesterday. I'm still not totally better. I really should have rested more but since last week was my first real week back at running I wasn't willing to give in. Here is an article I happened to read about training when you are sick: http://www.active.com/fitness/Articles/Is-It-OK-to-Exercise-When-Sick.htm?cmp=306&memberid=108015174&lyrisid=38341505. Maybe if I had chilled out on the training I would be in better shape today!

I don't usually eat much meat. I just prefer vegetables and don't really like the taste of meat and I find it kind of gross to cook. Ofcourse most cooking turns me off but somebody has to feed me and the kids! Alot of information on nutrition doesn't focus in on vegetarian athletes but one of my friend's sent me a great blog that has tons of information on being a vegetarian athlete. I am always worried I'm not getting enough protein so I really enjoyed reading the information I found here on the "No Meat Athlete: Run on Plants" site: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/vegetarian-diet/. 

I also decided I would be a "weekday" dieter and be a bit more open on the weekends so I can drink an occasional Friday night beer or post bike ride beer. Notice when I cut sugar out of my diet I never mentioned removing beer! 

Post Bike Ride Fun after this Sunday's ride

We are actually members of the Star City Brewers Guild. It is the BEST club EVER! Everyone makes their own amazing craft beer and we have monthly meetings trying everyone's beer and usually learning something technical or about a different beer style. There are also four competitions throughout the year and I have really enjoyed judging! It is a very close knit and active group and everybody seems to do lots of things together during the week outside of club meetings. We've made tons of great friends there!

This months Brewers Guild Meeting,
photo courtesy of Carrie Cox, Star City Brewers Guild VP

We made the paper! Courtesy of Carrie Cox! That is me with some of our club peeps!
http://ourvalley.org/salem-catches-craft-beer-fever/ by Carrie Cox

Lately some interesting beers have been tapped on Fridays at a local restaurant that has 46 beers on tap. How could I ever miss a rare beer being tapped? The Friday before last Foothill's Sexual Chocolate was tapped and this weekend we had a rare Bell's Hopslam Firkin, and believe it or not "MyFitnessPal" even had those beers in the database! I am ALL about hoppy beers, in moderation that is. 

Friday night fun with friends

Foothills Sexual Chocolate

Bell's Hopslam Firkin

Contrary to the photos I don't drink THAT much but an occasional beer on the weekend is great fun and I really appreciate craft beers!  So this week I will continue this experimental diet. I hear removing sugar is supposed to make you feel good and not like the living dead which is how I have felt. Now I know it was the sugar and milk keeping me alive, ha ha. Wish me luck! I'm leaving you on a funny note with my three year old who has gotten into yodeling. He did NOT acquire this skill from me!

https://plus.google.com/stream/circles/p6437a8bc8edcfae7

Sugar Free Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! Yesterday I decided to start a diet because race season is not many weeks away! Clearly I should have started this after today. BAD planning. I've never actually dieted except for once in my life when I was a teenager and decided to eat salads because it was the cool thing to do at the time. I've changed my diet to be sports specific or changed my diet to whole foods, but I haven't actually gone ON a diet. But yesterday was the day. I thought I would give it a tri (overused pun totally intended). 

I am reading about nutrition ALL the time. There is one article after another coming in my e-mail box from this and that but it is all a blur to me. No carbs, add carbs, more protein, less protein, high and low glycemic index, paleo diet, diet for runners, Rachel Ray diet, and so on and so forth. It really makes NO sense to me. But I admit since my feet have been hurting me I haven't been spending long hours in the kitchen cutting up fresh food and my diet has gone into a slump and add not running into that and I have probably gained a few pounds. Honestly I never weigh myself. I would love to but the scale at the gym doesn't seem to work and I have one here but I can't find it! I've never had to diet but my body has NEVER been the same after three kids. I've always been 10 pounds heavier after having kids but at the same time I started doing sports and lifting weights so how much might be muscle weight? I'm not really sure but I thought, hey, let's try to loose some because the amount of weight you carry could affect your speed. 

So yesterday I cut dairy and processed sugar out of my diet. I admit it, I like chocolate, sweets, and lattes. I don't particularly like fruit. I've never really eaten much of it. It doesn't sit well with me and I don't like the taste. But ok, I'll try eating some as a substitute. So yesterday I said goodbye to lattes and cereal and cheese added to anything. Honestly I didn't plan this thing out well at all because I'm not so sure what I had around here to eat. It was particularly poorly planned because I got up at 5, got to the gym before 6 (it's half an hour drive just to the gym), and didn't leave the gym until 9 after doing weights, swimming, and running. I didn't get home until 9:30 and still hadn't figured out what to eat for breakfast because lately I've been in a cereal slump. After getting the kids settled I cooked some eggs on toast but that was 5 1/2 hours after being awake and having not eaten and doing three workouts. Then for lunch I made a vegetable stir fry with cinnamon, garlic, and olive oil, and angel hair pasta, and had some nuts and fruit as a snack throughout the day. Clearly I am not good at meal planning or diet planning so I think today I need to get to the store and figure out what healthy snacks I can eat during the day. I worry about getting enough protein because I don't eat meat that often so I guess I will hope to get enough protein from beans and eggs. 

So, that is my haphazard diet. I cut back on the amount of food, removed the processed sugar, and cut out the dairy. I'm curious to see how the week goes because yesterday for the first time in YEARS I actually took a nap. Wow, no processed sugar = a sleepy me trying to get through a long day! Amazingly my seven year old and three year old also took a nap (this NEVER happens) while my five year old stayed quietly but awake next to us! I have no idea how long I can keep this up. Let's hope I make it through day 2 on Valentine's Day! Goodbye lattes, goodbye chocolate, goodbye cereal. I'll see you again maybe one day soon! By the way I ran for 35 minutes yesterday! This is extremely exciting after being down for the count since the beginning of the year! YAY!! Enjoy your Valentine's Day with the ones you love! Eat a cookie for me :). 

Looney Bin for Triathletes Gone Duathlete

The police officer here was pretty adorable

Since I have had a run injury from the beginning of the year (plantar fasciitis) and haven't been able to run I have been loosing my mind a bit. I told my coach I needed to start running or I would need to be put in a special home for triathletes gone duathlete! 

Luckily the cell mates were pretty cute and entertaining.

Happily I started running some over the last two weeks but more of a walking warm up followed by a 3 or 4 minute run and a 1 minute walk (x 4). It was SO great to be running again even if it was only for a couple of minutes! I can't say my feet are totally perfect yet but this is a GREAT start just to be able to run some!! Not being able to run was a REAL reality check. I have an all new appreciation of just being able to do it and I'm pretty sure I will never say again that I "hate" running. It's amazing what just a couple of minutes of running can do for your body and your mind! I guess I never realized the benefits until now. 

I'm excited for my seven year old daughter Eva who will get to start the first Girls on the Run program in our area on Monday. We had a  really fun time yesterday shopping for running shoes and clothes for her! She will take the twice weekly class with her little friend Lucy and I'm sure they will have a blast! The class will prepare them for a local upcoming spring 5K! 

Eva (right) with her friend (left) and their American Girl Dolls

A couple of years ago we signed Eva up for a 5K because she wanted to do one but I made the mistake of running the race and not running with her. She lost me at the first corner and went running back to my mom and husband after only a couple hundred feet. 

Now Eva is older and will be in a group of girls her own age so hopefully this time she will finish the race and have a great time preparing for and doing the race! She is looking forward to Monday and I'm excited that I get to try to run for 20 minutes straight on Monday! Headed out for a fun group bike ride today! Can't wait!