Revisiting Diet Ideas

Since Merrill's Mile, I have been eating whatever I want. I also have not been running as much. So when I set out to run 7ish miles on very hilly terrain in high heat and humidity I had some issues! Luckily I know what is wrong and how to fix it.

The strongest I have ever felt was on a fruitarian diet. I was lighter, faster, and could just keep pushing myself. Last nights run had me feeling heavy, slow, and weak. I know that the fruitarian diet is great for me, but it is pretty expensive and rather boring.

I am moving to Lexington in the next few days and will be starting a new diet when I get down there. This time, I am basing my diet off of a P90X buddy of mine, Lou Trentadue. He focuses on eating "clean". While that is a pretty subjective term, we can mostly all agree that a piece of grilled chicken is cleaner than a piece of fried chicken. With that in mind, this is what I want to do.

The Plan

All meals are going to focus on balance of the plate. It's as simple as 1/3 meat, 1/3 veggies, and 1/3 fruit. I am going to try to cut out starchy carbohydrates and focus on the mentioned 3 food groups for my energy sources. I also am going to cut out as much dairy(other than eggs) as possible.

What Do I Think Will Happen?

I am still a firm believer that in order to lose weight, you need to put less calories into your body than you use. With that being said, I think I will lose body fat but still appear normal. I will be able to go out and eat at normal restaurants. Since this is possible, I think I will be able to stick to it a little better than my past diets.

That's all I got for now. More thoughts on this later.

Fat Run!

Jason Robillard was nice enough to let me test drive his new book, Never Wipe Your Ass With a Squirrel. It's a odd name, but a very good read so far.

One thing he writes about is running on fats. The purpose of this is to ease the transition from carbohydrate fuel to fats. This is what "the wall" that marathon+ runners hit. The idea is that if your body gets used to making the transition it is not so bad.

1 Pound of Fat - DaveyWaveyFitness.com

 Yesterday I did not eat much. I probably was around 1400 calories give or take. I did not eat a lot at night and a majority of my caloric intake was from fats and proteins. You see where I am going here?

This morning around 10AM I split an omelette with Whitney and ate a pear. Oddly these eating habits had nothing to do with Jason's writing. I was just trying to practice portion control.

Anyway, around 1PM I was feeling a little hungry. That's when I reflected on my caloric intake over the past 12 hours and decided it would be an excellent time to try out Jason's ideas.

Now, Jason says there are two ways to burn fats while running. 1) Run slow and keep your heart rate below some number a mathematical formula gives you. 2) Fast before a run. Then just run.

"I'll just do a little of both." Guess what people! It worked.

Around half a mile I started to feel depleted. My pace did not change and I didn't feel too bad. This feeling lasted for about 4 miles, then I started to really feel the fat burning.

I could tell I was burning fats because I did not want to run anymore. My mind was telling me to walk. I was not sore, but my brain was scavenging for calories. I kept wanting to drink out of my bottle, which had nothing but water in it. Ha body! I tricked you!

It was at this time that I started craving some stupid stuff. For example, raw oysters. I have never craved this on a run, but today I wanted it. 

I did my best to just keep going. I told myself that if I stopped I would have to run another mile. The last half mile I said, "I wonder how much gas I have left in the tank?" I started running faster and it felt great. I was able to keep a sub 7 minute pace for that half mile and cruise to my destination.

I debated if it was a good idea to eat a meal once I got home. I decided that I would take a shower and eat something really clean. I ended up eating some black raspberries, a pear, some strawberries, and a cup of orange juice. Update: 20 minutes after eating this Whitney brought a milkshake from Chick-Fil-A to share...



Enough about what I ate!

So what did I learn? I think my body is used to making this transition already. It wasn't nearly as bad as described by noobie marathoners, but I can definitely still use some practice. Since 10 miles isn't really long enough for my long runs I am going to try to do the first 10 of my next run slow and low carbed, then eat something(like a peanut butter and jelly) and run 10 more miles. That will put me in a good place and give me some ups and downs during my runs.

Attempting Fruitarianism - Kind of...

Well I am back on that "fruit diet". Basically my goal is to improve recovery times and feel better with it. I am being a little less serious about it this time around, as I still drink beer and have the occasional non-fruit snack.

For some of you wondering how anyone can thrive on just fruit, I am not going to go into a long-winded post about it. To be short, I don't. I also eat vegetables, nuts, seeds, and Avocados(and basically anything else I want because I'm not an extremist). There are plenty of resources, one of the most popular being 80/10/10 by Dr. Douglas Graham.

Anyway, I am using myfitnesspal in conjuction with this to make sure I am eating enough calories. I also like how at the end of the day I can look at which percentages of my calories come from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. I am shooting for 80% carbohydrates, 10% fat, and 10% proteins, but I have found that I usually end up with 90/5/5.

One thing I am finding is that I am not eating enough during the day. Even if myfitnesspal says I am over my calorie limit to lose weight, I feel like the body treats fruits a little different than deep-fried chicken. All I know is that at the end of the day I am hungry and I start to eat out of diet. I think with more food throughout the day I will be able to curve this behavior to maybe just drinking a beer at night with some fruit. 

To eat more during the day I am going to make it easier for me to eat fruit at work. I am bringing a cutting board and a knife so I can easily get into my oranges instead of having to work for it.

"Juice"

I am currently on an airplane. Less than 45 seconds ago I was offered a drink. More recently I have been drinking and eating more fruits. I thought that I would try a juice from the cart. The cranberry apple juice blend sounded good, so I chose that.

It wasn't until I had sat down in my seat that I realized I was drinking a lie. The "juice" that I got was only 15% juice. The rest looked to be the equivalent of a Coke.

This feels like false advertising. I wanted juice but instead got high fructose corn syrup.

The worst part is, we are fooled by other products as well. For example: chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets are not always completely chicken and I bet some are less than 50%

50% is still better than 15%. I mean, at least those crummy chicken nugget manufacturers are trying! Well, kind of.

People wonder why people are so fat.

For the most part:

1. People make bad food choices and know it. 
2. People may choose the healthier looking alternative and actually get something less healthy.

I think the FDA should make companies write on title of the product in clear text what the product actually is. Less than 95% real fruit juice? That is not juice, that is drink. I shouldn't have to read the fine print on a damn drink.

This change would encourage food makers to make real food or pay the price. Let the fatties that want to eat unhealthy, eat unhealthy. At least help the people that are trying.

How do you feel about this? Is there any known percentage of the named product that is required before it is considered false advertising? Could I take a muffin and call it a carrot? What about if the muffin contained 15% carrot?