Clean Eating – On Those Extra Good Days.
I feel on today for some reason, and not wanting to over analyze how it is I feel on top of the world on rare days and sluggish both mentally and physically other days, I do want to figure out the how’s and why’s of that.
I believe you are what you eat. Overall, I eat well and reasonably clean. We fix all our meals here at home using little processed food – plain black coffee and canned plain black or white beans being the exceptions. We consume two vegetarian meals a week. Since I seem to have issues around eating grains – flour and flour products, whole wheat anything, quinoa, and rice, I personally try to limit my intake of those to just a few times a week.
Fresh, raw vegetables are a big hit around here. We love ‘em, we eat ‘em and we definitely shy away from overcooking them. We don’t eat beef and lean more toward chicken, turkey, and fish with the occasional pork tenderloin thrown in. I suppose all these meats could be considered processed since we didn’t catch or butcher any ourselves.
My dinner last night was a big Portobello mushroom sautéed in Worchester sauce and homemade chicken stock with one quarter of a large acorn squash (microwaved and plain) and two cups of fresh chopped salad w/o dressing, croutons, or nuts. A tall glass of plain water rounded out the meal (we’re not big on desserts). Later, over writing homework, I sipped a tiny glass (about a quarter cup) of port.
Good eating. Reasonably clean (if you removed the Worchester sauce, almost completely clean). Our problem, as I see it in regards to eating, continues to be portion size. We can really pack it away and unfortunately, we do. Always.
I take vitamin D every other day, a Krill oil every other other day, and a Resveratrol daily. Three out of five days last week, I ran one mile straight and walked a third of a mile. And I wrote a lot and talked a lot with Steve about my writing goals.
Rinse and repeat to get the same results tomorrow? I’d really like to rise from bed feeling this good and rested again.
More On Not Being a Runner.
A bit more on running and not being a runner: Someone asked me the other day, someone who had overheard me saying I was a runner who wasn’t a runner, when I was going to run a marathon.
A dozen images raced through my mind at the question. Me, running, plodding onward, trying to find something to calibrate how much longer I was going to put myself through this, this, this thing I thought I might want to do someday. Me, sweating and my lower lip and jaw gone tingly and numb like it does at the three-quarter mile mark like clockwork. Me, pulling and tugging at my definitely not running-style summer shorts that make my underwear go places best left unspoken of. read more…
A Runner? Who Me?
Occasionally both here and in life, I’ll mention that I’m running. More than just occasionally I’ll append my comment that I am not, in the least bit, a runner. That’s not to say I wouldn’t like to be. Just because my body wasn’t designed to run doesn’t mean I can’t try. And try I do.
One could argue humans are designed to run. Okay, perhaps those without asthma, without short legs and short midsections, and those without barrel chests and apple-shaped bodies. I suffer all these, along with my age (I’ll be 56 in a few months), and yet, I still try to run.
Running is the only exercise I’ve discovered to date that keeps my apple-shaped body from becoming a planet-sized, apple-shaped body. It knocks out my lower belly overhang within a couple of months and keeps my ample back fat from scaring the neighbors during the warm summer months.
Three-to-four times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, I put myself through one of the P90X routines because nothing, nothing, builds lean muscle like P90X. All while continuing to try to run.
I love my treadmill. Yeah, so I’m not sure the mile-per-hour pace time is correct (it seems a little slow to me but I wouldn’t know a correct time from an incorrect time if it smacked me on the butt and called me Martha), and sometimes I worry that it, with me on it, is weakening our ceiling joists and all will come crashing down into the living room some day.
But overall, I couldn’t see living without it. We live in a charming neighborhood but it’s not one I feel comfortable running in. I’m not sure if that’s just me or not but my gut feeling isn’t going to change. Before I gave running a try last year, I walked a mile or two on my treadmill almost every day and dreamed of being able to someday do more. If it weren’t for my treadmill, I’m comfortable going on record to say that without it, I’d be a much heavier, less healthy person.
Notice I said person, not runner. I’m a runner who’s not a runner. Or maybe I am and I’m just in denial.
Less Calories In, More Exertion Out.
We watched the Super Bowl yesterday. Neither one of us cared who won, exactly, but if pressed, we were kind of rooting for the Patriots. Earlier in the day, I whipped up a healthy seven layer bean dip sort of thing – two cans of plain, low sodium black beans, one can of plain white beans, both drained and microwaved in a big glass bowl together with a little chicken stock and cumin before hand-blending them into a much healthier version of refried beans. We then covered the beans with chopped fresh bell pepper, onion, tomato, red cabbage, and romaine lettuce, all topped with a hot sauce I made from reconstituted dried Ancho peppers and water.
As for the chips, these weren’t as healthy. I cut up a bunch of simple corn tortillas and fried them in a shallow amount of extra virgin olive oil.
Still, over all, we felt good about the football game spread we’d created. No cheese or sour cream was included. The only fat was the olive oil on the chips. Boy, was it good and filling! And half remains for leftovers later in the week.
Later in the evening, after the game, I felt heavy and extra tired. This morning, I feel about the same. I don’t think it has anything to do with our football game dinner, but because I haven’t worked out in a week. That will change today with a good mile walk and perhaps a half mile run as a follow up. Later, it’s back to the P90X wagon. And while that bean dip and those chips were satisfying and tasty, it’s high time I start tracking my food intake if I’ve any chance to lose ten pounds in the next two months.
Less food in, more effort out. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?
I had three decent weeks of working out; running and P90X. I didn’t see my weight drop more than three pounds but I felt better. My pants fit better. My arms are better defined meaning I’m dropping fat, building muscle, and probably redistributing the rest to my midsection, the first place everything settles and the last place pounds and flab disappear.
I should continue but I’m giving myself a few days off, if not the entire week. I’m resting which as I type this sounds like an excuse. To be honest, yes, it is. The week has been mentally challenging and I let my head wander off the task of working out.
Resetting my mindset is the goal for the week. This shouldn’t be terribly difficult given our area is expected to enjoy the first stretch of dry, sunny days in months. Just in time for the weekend. Just long enough to believe spring is on the way with all that time soon to be spent working in the yard and OMG! I can’t be seen out there looking like this with all my muffin-tops hanging, flopping over. And that pesky back fat. Ugh. I’d scare puppies and small children!
No, no, no, no, no.
The sunshine will do me a world of good as will raking the flower beds, clipping branches, hauling this and that. It’ll be tough not to uncover lawn furniture so as to just sit in the sun and soak it all in (like a lump). But we’ve got another 2-to-4 months of rain to get through first. The fresh air and a few days working in the sun is exactly what I need. And next week, when I’m back on the treadmill and hefting dumbbells left and right, I’ll look forward to the next dry, sunny spell outside with a little less flab and a bit more muscle to show off.