Back on a (new) wagon
By Linda
I don’t even want to try and document the sort of food weekend I just had because there is not enough room on this ENTIRE WEBSITE to categorically list the crap I ate. Suffice to say it was gross, it was unhealthy, and it was a pretty big wakeup call that I’ve been seriously sliding off the rails with my good eating habits lately.
I think part of what’s been going on is whenever I have a super long training run I tend to go completely overboard with food for several days afterwards. You know, the old “you deserve it” excuse, as if it even makes sense to put my body through the strain of a 3+ hour run then mainline garbage into it as a reward.
With less than a month to go before the marathon, it’s time to pull myself out of this junkfood nosedive. Not only does it impact my energy, my discipline, and my fitness, but I’m wondering whether there’s been a connection between my diet and the ongoing pain issues I’ve been having in my hip and foot. Jacked-up insulin levels can trigger inflammation, which is something I definitely don’t need right now.
Plus, there’s the . . . well, the bloating. The gas. Not pleasant.
Anyway, enough of the confessing, let’s get to the plan of attack. I’ve decided to give a particular eating plan a try, which I’ve seen described as primal or paleo or evolutionary or caveman, depending on what book you read. The basic idea is to stick to whole foods, mostly vegetables, meat, nuts, and fruits. No dairy, no sweeteners, no grains, no beans.
I got interested in paleo eating from keeping up with Kristin’s experiment with the diet (holy before and after, right?). When a reader emailed me about her own success with following a similar plan, I starting reading this website, and eventually bought Primal Blueprint. After the Weekend of Binge, it felt like a good time to start something totally new.
I have no plans at this time to do this long term; I’m mostly interested in having something specific to latch onto that makes eliminating the processed stuff kind of a no-brainer, and I’m curious to see what kind of fallout I’ll see from completely avoiding certain foods. My thinking right now is to try this for at least 30 days.
My biggest concerns (aside from the NO SUGAR thing, OMFG AIEEEE) are making breakfasts work—I love my cereals and granolas, and have always tired of eggs after a week or so—and fueling before and during long runs. I’ve only got one more crazy-epic run before the race, though, so I figure if I step outside the plan occasionally for training purposes, no big deal. As long as we’re talking about good carbs before, energy supplements during, and a return to normalcy afterwards, as opposed to LET US CELEBRATE WITH FIVE DAYS OF ICE CREAM.
I’ll let you know how it works out! I’ve always had more success with eating plans when I post my food journals, so I’ll probably be doing that for a while here, along with any recipes that seem worth sharing.
April 5th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Do you like lox? I find that it’s a great alternative to eggs for a healthy, protein-rich breakfast. Maybe I’m weird, but I eat it plain (can’t tolerate bread in the mornings). It’s good!
April 5th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Oh and also, lox is expensive but if you buy it at Costco it’s significantly cheaper. Worth it, to me, for the taste and health benefits.
April 5th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Totally interested to see how this works for you. Sounds interesting. Good luck!
April 5th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Oddly enough I just started this today too!
I read once that it’s not uncommon for first time marathoners to gain weight during training, because you’re just hungry and tired and it’s one thing to stick to a meal plan on a (sane) exercise routine, it’s another thing entirely once you start running for more than 3 hours.
That said, is Ezekiel 2:49 (or something like that) available around you? It’s organic bread, so would probably be a good grain to have.
But fueling, yes I’m with you. Pasta pre long run is a HUGE staple for me and I have this mental block that without it, I won’t be able to do the run. I’m not sure how accurate this is, as my long runs are only 16k right now (about 1.5hrs), so they’re not exactly epic.
Anyway, good luck! I enjoyed reading Kristin’s food blog and there are probably some good meal ideas. For me, personally, today was surprisingly not hard. I ate three good meals and two snacks and although I was never FULL, I wasn’t too hungry.
Alright, enough of longest comment ever. Good luck!
April 5th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I’d be keen to hear how you find this, and would love if you could share your food log. I’m in training for a half marathon in May and had been really monitoring what I ate up until this weekend when I overdid the sugar. Last Thursday I ran 16 kms, 3.2 on Friday, 5 on Saturday and this morning I ran 4. This mornings was by far the worst (pain in my legs, feeling like shit) and I swear it was the peanut butter chocolate slice that did me in.
I’ve been following your other blog for a while and have found your stories very motivating. Thanks
April 5th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
I have no relevant thoughts on this diet plan (sounds crazy to me, but then again I’m a vegan so I have no room to talk about crazy diet choices). I just wanted to say thank you for your appropriate use of the semi-colon. It is inspiring to see people use punctuation correctly. (Why yes, I am a teacher).
April 5th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
OOOh! How brave of you Linda! I have been following Kristin’s journey as well. And I keep thinking to myself that it would take a lot of will power to follow through on that diet, but I bet you have the will to do it. I look forward to hearing about your journey!
April 5th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
I’ve been doing P90X, and I have been trying to clean up my diet as well. I need more calories than what I have been eating, and I have been stressing on how to get more calories in without resorting to processed food. I am looking forward to your food journals!
April 6th, 2010 at 4:30 am
I struggle with breakfasts as well, as I generally believe that the caveman would have lived long had he access to the wonder that is dry cereal. I love cereal, and I’m honestly perplexed as to why I can’t eat it at every meal. ANYWAY, my point: I’ve gone primal/paleo until my big race in June, and I just don’t have time to make eggs every morning, and i get sick of them anyway.
I made Kristin’s apple cinnamon muffins (I bugged her for the recipe in the comments of that day’s entry) — the hit the spot great for morning “bread” needs. Give them a whirl – it might be what you’re looking for
April 6th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Paleo is a lot like phase 1 of the South Beach diet, which has been very effective for me. Diabetes runs in my family so I pay close attention to glycemic index. I eliminated (ha) a lot of gas and bloating by cutting out rice (even brown) and oats (even steel-cut). You’ll definitely want to up those dark leafy greens for calcium, or take a supplement — I keep yogurt and some beans in my diet for the probiotics, calcium, and added protein. And I’ll never banish my beloved semi-sweet chocolate chips. Good luck!
April 6th, 2010 at 10:10 am
I wish you the best of luck.
I don’t know the specifics of your particular plan, but I was able to stick to Atkins (as a vegetarian!) for 6 months by relying on the magical egg/cream cheese/salsa microwave omelette. I don’t know if your plan allows dairy, but if it does, the nuked cream cheese omelette is bizarrely fluffy, and delicious, and not eggy tasting (?), and I didn’t get sick of it. It’s just eggs, cream cheese mixed together in a mug & microwaved. You can add goat cheese or mozzarella or I suppose meat (I guess your options depend on your plan).
If you nuke it longer, you can make it drier, so that you end up with this cakey confection that you can dust with cinnamon, nutmeg, + splenda (if allowed on your plan). You can also of course add nuts if permitted on your plan.
Another thing a lot of low carbers do is start the day with leftover roast chicken or cold steak sliced over a salad. I know, sounds bizarre, but they swear by it.
April 6th, 2010 at 10:19 am
I’m training for a half marathon, and I’m *so hungry* all the time. It’s getting ridiculous: despite eating a ton during the day, I’ve woken up at 3 a.m. to a growling stomach and can’t get back to sleep until I eat something. Anyway, I can’t imagine forgoing (good quality) carbs when doing all that training. Everything I’ve read seems to agree that a runner’s diet should include a pretty high percentage of carbs. Avoiding entire food groups just seems like a bad idea…be careful!
April 6th, 2010 at 11:23 am
I followed Kristin’s paleo blog “religiously” and loved reading all about her recipes and tales. I’m excited to hear about your’s too! I found marksdailyapple a few months ago and have loved the new thought process and reading informative studies on how our bodies react to things like grains and processed sugars. I have cut out about 95% of those things from my diet (sorry, but how can one resist dark chocolate?!) and I have never, ever felt better. After a few days the bloat was gone, the gas was gone, the stomach aches were gone, and I had more energy than I thought possible. And contrary to what some others have said, I don’t feel nearly as hungry as I did when I was a carb-o-holic. I run daily and my runs have gotten better, not worse, with less carbs. Be open-minded (like I know you are) and enjoy it. There are some mighty delicious paleo/primal/whatever meals out there!! (Please go to Kristin’s paleo blog and get the ingredients for the Coconut Curry Chicken RIGHT! NOW!)
April 6th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I am so excited to read how this works for you. I also followed Kristin’s paleo blog and was so inspired. I also just want to feel better, and the chocolate shake I had with my lunch was definitely *not* the way to go.
Thanks, as always, for sharing with us.
April 7th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I followed Kristin’s blog too…AMAZING results. I’ll be interested to hear your take on the paleo diet. Definitely post!
April 9th, 2010 at 9:24 am
I always enjoyed your food journaling posts. As always, inspiring, Linda.
April 13th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I am way behind on my sniffing around the Internet and just saw this. I am so stoked to hear how you do, Linda. Yay!
April 13th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Also, also – thank you guys, for your comments on following my experiments with this stuff. That inspires me more than you know.
I credit Linda (and my fitness-obsessed boyfriend in part) for getting me started on this whole amazing journey in the first place.