A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

A blog about my life, fitness and fun! (...and maybe a few cat pictures...)

Saturday, January 4, 2014

This is where I'm at right now... (Nutrition!)

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'Tis the season for setting goals and making resolutions. Most New Year's resolutions focus on health- eating better, getting more exercise, etc.

I am seeing a lot of posts lately about cleanses, juice fasts, detoxes, etc. I think they are stupid. If you want to eat better, some sort of cleanse or detox isn't going to teach you how to do that.

Nutrition plays a KEY part in losing weight and/or changing body composition. I would say it's even more important than exercise. Face it, it takes 10 minutes to burn 100 calories and 3 seconds to eat 100 calories. You can exercise all you want but if your nutrition is abysmal, it's not going to make any difference.


This is where I am right now with my nutrition.


I'm not on a "diet".
A diet is not something that can be maintained in the long term. It's a lifestyle for me. It's something I can stick with and works for me.

I don't have rules.
I don't have strict regulations about what goes into my mouth. More like "guidelines". But there is nothing that's off the table. There are circumstances under which I would eat practically anything, even if it is HORRIBLE for me.

I like to eat well most of the time.
It is not always easy, but if I didn't eat well most of the time, I would not be able to meet my performance and aesthetic goals. (Yes, I do care about what I look like, too. I would be lying if I said I didn't!)

Sometimes I want party cake ice cream and I have it.
Food is fuel but it is also one of life's simple pleasures! I will never give up ice cream, wine, or chocolate.

I'm not vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, paleo, Atkins, "clean", low-carb, or anything with a name.
I don't have any personal or medical reasons to adapt one of these diets. I eat protein, carbs, and fat. I eat meat as well as veggies and fruits. I eat "clean" foods (I hate that word!) and... I guess the other foods would be "dirty"!?

I will not cleanse, detox, juice, or fast.
Those are great ways to mess up your metabolism and don't accomplish anything.

I don't set myself up for failure. I am conscious of what I eat but I do not hold myself up to a standard that cannot be maintained in the long term.


My personal nutritional "guidelines".

1. I log my calories daily. I have a range that I like them to fall into. 
(1600-2400... yeah I know that is a huge range. It depends on my workout!)

2. I aim for an approximate macro nutrient breakdown of carbs-protein-fat. 
(I try for 45-30-25, unless I do a lot of cardio that day, in which I eat a lot more carbs.)

3. Eat the correct foods at the correct times so I can properly fuel a workout 
and properly recover from a workout and rebuild muscle.

4. Eat as little fake sugar as possible.


These are guidelines I can live with and they are helping me meet my current goals. It is possible that if my goals change, so will the way I eat. Or, as I become more informed with what works best for me, it could change as well.

I don't write about nutrition a lot, but here are some posts I think relate:




Do you have any personal nutritional guidelines you follow?
Have you ever done a cleanse/detox/juice fast?
Do you follow a diet with a name? (Aka, vegetarian, Atkins, low-carb, etc...)

15 comments:

  1. I've been eating terribly over the holidays but in general I do what you do and keep track to make sure I'm in a healthy range for my workouts and try to use whole ingredients and limit the artificial. I do eat whatever I want if I feel I need one of those days which usually coincides with higher mileage weeks or an especially long run ;) all this applies to everything except the last 3 weeks which were food madness in my house!

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    1. I hear ya, I ate a lot more treats over the holidays too! And it's good you allow yourself those days to eat whatever you want. I bet you rarely feel deprived because you know if you really want/crave something, you are "allowed" to have it.

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  2. Ah, love this!!!! I'm so on the same page as you. Detoxes and cleanses don't make sense to me. In the end, aren't you just so hungry you eat like a pig afterward and ruin any "progress" you made?

    I've heard that your body is built in the kitchen, and I think that's true. I need to be smarter about what kinds of food (fuel) I choose to ingest in order to power my body for exercise, but I totally agree that nothing is off the table (unless I'm allergic to it haha). I'll try anything once, and I see nothing wrong in indulging sometimes!

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    1. Yes!! I went through and 8 month period where I severely restricted my calories... it was a diet that consisted of fat free grilled cheese sandwiches on lite bread, popcorn, and LOTS of spray butter. Once I started eating normally again, I totally pigged out and gorged on donuts, ice cream, and honey buns. And whaddaya know, I gained 15lbs!!

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    2. That diet sounds exactly like how I ate for about a year. So. Much. Popcorn. And so much fake food.

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  3. Sounds like a great plan to make healthy choices without letting it run your life!

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    1. Yeah, there has to be some sort of balance or else I'd be eating every meal out of a tupperware container. :)

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  4. I am on board with where you are at except I don't log my calories and I live the No Seafood Ever lifestyle... not because of any crazy diet thing or anything, just because I have a super weird fish phobia (long story) and can barely even look at a fish let alone ever try to eat it. I know, I know, just call me crazy now :)

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    1. Logging calories is the anal part of me that I hope to some day let go of! I think there are a lot of people that don't eat seafood. But it is sad because sushi is sooooooooooooo good!!!! ;)

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  5. This is fantastic! Your diet sounds a lot like my diet (except I don't do gluten due to medical reasons and I don't miss it at all). Your body is absolutely built in the kitchen. I know I could see the results I want if I focus more on how much exactly I put into my mouth. It took me a long time to realize that food is fuel and that I need to eat it. But now, my portions are probably a little too big. I really need to start tracking my food daily, just so that I have an idea of where I am at. The goals I have for myself this year have everything to do with diet (and working out, but mostly diet).

    I do not believe in cleanses. I think they are ridiculous and a waste of money. Your body naturally cleanses itself. We were built to keep ourselves healthy and happy. I could not even imagine simply drinking juice for a week.

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    1. I don't know why people think they need to cleanse their bodies themselves. Actually, I do know why. They read stuff that is NOT true and they believe it! Tracking calories is a really good idea to keep yourself in check. When I have to stare in the face the number of calories I eat from ice cream, it reminds me not to overdo it!

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  6. I too, do not restrict myself from any particular food (except cranberries, I'm allergic to them!), and I've never done a cleanse. And if you're someone who exercises a lot, that's really dangerous! A lot of cleanses are diuretics and are counter-active; if you're exercising a lot, you need to be ingesting lots of water, not losing it!
    I also haven't been eating too healthy over the holidays (this actually starts around Halloween for me, and ends right around the New Year, lol)...but I follow Weight Watchers. Counting calories is too restrictive for me (I've become too excessive and restrictive with this in the past); with WW, I know exactly how much food I need to eat every day, and can add in points that count for exercising. I always make sure I use the amount of points allocated per day; if anyone has suffered from disordered eating, WW can actually help you get the fuel you need without becoming obsessive about it.

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    1. I'm glad you have something that works for you! I like knowing how much I'm supposed to eat in a day, too.

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  7. We have very similar philosophies. The only thing I don't do very often is track calories. I just find myself getting a little too obsessed with food when I do. But other than that I feel like I'm more of an intuitive eater. And I must be doing something right since I've weighed no more than 3 pounds either way from about 125 my entire adult like. I once got to 118, but that was because I had the stomach flu. lol!

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    1. I wish I could eat intuitively! That is a long term goal of mine. :)

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