Food for Thought

Have you ever noticed when you are trying to be extra careful about what you put into your body, food is ALL you can think about?

Ryan and I have been on a mission of sorts to decrease our body fat composition and, in turn, lose a few pounds. Why? Well, for me, to improve my running, and with several races this spring, I hope to see some improvement with each race. Ryan just wants to continue the weight loss journey he started months ago.

We have followed Matt Fitzgerald's Racing Weight: Quick Start Guide as closely as possible. The only problem is the quick start program is meant to be used before starting your race training, not during training. During serious training, the body needs more carbs and calories to fuel more intense workouts, making it difficult to lose much weight in the process. During the quick start, workouts are less intense, protein intake is higher, carb intake is lower, and calorie intake is lower.

So far, I ran one race last week and will be running another in two weeks. At that point I will have finished my 6 week quick start program and could easily transition to more serious training for maybe a...ahem...longer distance race goal. Perhaps?

So, is it working? Well, Ryan has lost another 10lbs (he had lost some weight already in preparation for the Disney Half). I have lost about 4lbs which may not sound like much but I have been essentially the same weight (give or take a couple measly pounds) for about 90% of my adult life. I had almost come to the conclusion that this was my "set point" and I would likely never break through it, but I have! I've also lost about 2% body fat.

Now, back to food. In addition to eating only high quality (no empty calorie) foods, you need to create a calorie deficit. The hardest part about this whole thing is creating a calorie deficit of 300-500 calories and still having enough energy to fuel my runs. To do this, I've lowered the intensity on many of my runs and basically stick to a 300 calorie deficit. The higher protein intake during the quick start is supposed to keep you feeling fuller, longer, but I'll just say that while it helps, we are still hungry a LOT.

Experimenting on new, yummy, stick-to-your ribs recipes? A thing of the past.

Dessert? Forget about it.

Watching Food Network? Don't make me throw something at the TV.

Browsing through Southern Living and running across Pound Cakes to Celebrate! ? Someone hide the butter and help me!

Since our weekend splurges are now out of the question, we've tried to embrace new possibilities of what we can eat which is why I posted a healthy alternative to the typical burger and fries last night. I hope to share more of our healthy recipes as we go. Not that we ate only junk before...in fact, we have always had fairly good eating habits during the week, but those efforts are easily erased with experimenting on indulgent recipes on the weekend.

I hope you enjoy what's to come!

Eat well and stay healthy!