Cleaning things up

I've had a couple of blog friends ask me about my new 'diet' aka 'abs are made in the kitchen' and I've been stalling on creating a blog post about it because truthfully, there is no 'diet' to speak of.  At least not in the traditional sense of the word.

I'm not counting calories
I'm not on any sort of a low-carb/high protein mission
I haven't gone vegetarian and/or cut out red meat
There is no book with set meal plans to follow

What I have done is pretty much kicked white flour, sweets/pastries/excess sugar, and pretty much anything that is overly processed to the curb. E.L.F. has said many times on her blog, "Garbage In, Garbage Out."  So basically, what I'm doing is eliminating the garbage as best as I can, without becoming a slave to the kitchen or a deprived, hungry lunatic.  Just by doing this I have dropped 4 pounds over the past 4 weeks.  My tummy is less bloated, I'm more regular than I've ever been (yes, graphic but necessary info) and I'm just now starting to see some changes in the mirror.

To put things into perspective, here's what a typical meal day used to look like for me:

Breakfast:
Frosted Mini Wheats with Skim Milk
Tea or coffee with about 6+ teaspoons of sugar.  I'm not kidding here; I was raised in the kitchen of a grandmother who had an addiction to all things super sweet.  She passed that addiction on to me.  I call it 'grandma sweet'.

Snack:
Wheat thins or maybe some Lucky Charms out of the box

Lunch:
Peanut butter (not the natural kind) and jelly (with added sugar) on two slices of whole grain bread

Snack:
More cereal- straight from the box

Dinner:
Subway 6"- usually Roasted Chicken Breast, Provolone cheese, lettuce, tom, peppers on Honey Oat.
Subway Baked Lays chips
OR
On an evening after heavy training, I would indulge in about 3-4 slices of Pizza Hut pan pizza, or perhaps IHop Double Blueberry Pancakes or maybe even General Tso's chicken from the local Chinese shack... complete with lots of white rice!

Snack:
Brownies, cookies... and maybe even some more cereal right out of the box

Drinks:
I cut regular soda out a long time ago.  Most of my daily hydration intake consisted of diluted Crystal Light.

And here's what a typical meal day looks like for me now:

Breakfast:
Special K Protein Plus or Kashi cereal made with Skim milk or Oatmeal made with unsweetened applesauce
Piece of fruit
Cup of tea or coffe made with Splenda

Snack:
Piece of fruit and a handful of walnuts or perhaps some 0% Greek blueberry yogurt with grapenuts added to it for crunch; protein shake/smoothie

Lunch:
I purchased a Panini Press and it has been a Godsend in the kitchen!  A typical lunch would be Turkey Breast  + Lacy Swiss cheese (reduced sodium, reduced fat) + sauteed mushrooms and onions on a Flat Out foldover and then pressed into a panini.  Sometimes lunch is leftover dinner from the night before.  I usually always stick in a slice of fruit. 

I also really enjoy black beans and quinoa for lunch (and sometimes for dinner)!

Snack (I usually have 2 afternoon snacks: one snack around 2PM and then another around 4PM before hitting the gym or doing the final workout of the day):
Piece of fruit, carrot wedges, 0% Greek yogurt with grapenuts, walnuts, Kashi bars

Dinner:
Grilled salmon with steamed veggies (those steamfresh bags are ideal and I can eat an entire one by myself) and quinoa.  I also like to grill lean meats (pork tenderloin, chicken breast, beef tenderloin/filet mignon) and prepare burgers made from lean turkey (actually, Jennie-O prepares the lean turkey burgers for me) or from extra lean, 93/7 ground beef.  A sweet potato will often find its way onto my plate as well.  I used to top my sweet taters with brown sugar; now it gets topped with different herbs (thyme, sea salt and black pepper is to die for)!

Snack (I still like to have a sweet bedtime snack, but it's no longer in the form of calorie laden cookies, brownies or sugar cereals):
Sugar-free fudgesicle, frozen whole fruit bars, fresh strawberries (or raspberries when they are on-sale) with a small dollop of fat free whipped topping.

Drinks:  Still doing diluted Crystal Light (50/50 mix).  Our water tastes funny down here (for drinking purposes, but not for cooking) and I refuse to purchase water when I pay $72 a month for it already to the City.  However, when mixed with a bit of flavor, it's just fine.

And there you have it.  That's pretty much it.  There's not much science involved.  It all pretty much boils down to this:

If I have two choices in front of me, I'm now picking the one that is only a step or two from the plant or animal that it came from (i.e:  apple slices vs. potato chips at Subway)  and is the most nutrient dense (sweet potato vs. white potato).  After all, I want to get the most bang for the buck.

Creative substitutions:
I knew from the get-go that giving up pizza, brownies and sugar cereals was probably going to be the most difficult part of cleaning up my diet.  In an effort to ease the transition, I have come up with a few ways to completely satisfy those cravings.

Cereals/Carbs:  Quinoa has become my new cereal/carb of choice.  Itching for cereal or just something 'starchy' in general? Grab a few spoonfulls of Quinoa sauteed in garlic and olive oil (I always have a tupperware container of this on hand in the fridge now; yes, it's good cold too).  Want some pastina in that soup?  Use Quinoa instead.  Looking to mix something in with your veggies that is way more nutritious than even brown rice?  Reach for the Quinoa.  I cook about 2 cups of raw Quinoa at a time (makes about 6 cups prepared) and right now, I'm doing this 2-3x per week b/c Scott and I are eating so much of it.  I sautee it in olive oil and garlic (thanks, Sondra) and then cook it with low-sodium chicken broth or stock. Into the fridge it goes to be used in whatever way I want.  It's possibly the most versatile food item that I've ever used in my life.

Pizza:  Wal-mart sells a whole-grain flat bread/pizza shell as part of their Artisan line.  When topped with a mix of garlic & olive oil, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, a sprinkle of part-skim mozzarella cheese and then baked on a pizza stone, I find that I don't even miss the 'real deal'.  Actually I don't even want the real deal anymore.  My new pizza is just as tasty, not nearly as greasy and way more nutritious.

Chinese:  My newest concoction is Pork Sauteed Quinoa (in replacement of Pork Fried Rice).  Quinoa can pretty much be used in any recipe where a grain is called for and I just love it!  Topped with steamed Chinese veggies, small pieces of grilled pork, and low-sodium soy sauce and you will never miss the greasy Chinese food that exists at #1 Wok! You can always throw in some shrimp or even an egg too!

I'm having so much fun exploring new food options that I plan on posting about all of this a lot more.

This change in how I'm eating pretty much mimics the change in activity that I made 2 years ago.  I thought it would be more difficult to do, but just like jumping on the activity ship, I have found that when I'm ready for change, I'm really ready!  I am lucky that I have support from BFF, Sondra (who was my main motivator to start to eat like this) and from my awesome husband, Scott, who thankfully loves to eat the mounds of Quinoa that I cook up.

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On the training front:

My ITBS is allowing me to run approx. 5 to 5.5 miles at a pop without giving me problems.  Any further than that and I start to feel it.  If I want to go further, I just walk the rest of the way.   As small as it may be, I'm thankful for this amount of recovery, since just 1 month ago I couldn't even go a 1/2 mile without pain.  I'm still icing and foam rolling every day and this may just become part of my routine forever more.

Strength training has entered my life again.  I really had to dig up some serious motivation to get back in the gym, but I'm glad that I succeeded.  I think that when I realized that I could complete a half ironman, but couldn't do more than 12 push-up reps that something had to change.  Sondra's got me working hard with her in the gym now and it hurts so good.

I did my first barefoot run around my yard yesterday (I'm sure the neighbors thought I was nuts) and loved every minute of it.  I think wearing Newtons for the past year has allowed me to entertain the idea of 'sensible' barefoot running (not rushing into it).   I went 0.3 miles barefoot after my regular run and it felt wonderful.  I could really feel 'where' my foot was striking underneath me.  A neat change.  I'm going to continue to add bits and pieces of barefoot running to my routine, taking it slowly as to avoid any possible calf/achilles complications.