We all know how important it is to eat “healthy foods”, but not all of us understand exactly what that means. I thought I knew - low fat, lots of whole grains, fruit, veggies, diet soda, juice, etc. All the things that doctors, dieticians, and health and fitness magazines tell you to eat right??? Not exactly. It wasn’t until about 2 years ago when I started to understand that most of the “healthy” foods I was eating were actually full of empty calories with no nutritional value whatsoever. A normal breakfast for me 2 years ago would have been something like:
· 2 fried eggs
· 2 pieces whole wheat toast (with butter and Polaner 100% strawberry fruit spread)
· 1 banana
· Coffee
This breakfast is carbohydrate HEAVY (85.5 grams) and contains tons of empty calories (sugar). Bananas, I’ve learned, are actually one of the worst fruits to eat because they contain such a high amount of natural sugar, and more carbohydrates than the two pieces of whole wheat toast; if you can believe that. Why do you think runner's eat them after marathons? Anyway, this meal contains 605 calories, at 55% carbs, 32% fat and 13% protein, and it would take only an hour for me to be hungry again.
A typical breakfast for me now:
· 2 eggs and 2 egg whites scrambled
· 1 apple
· Coffee
This breakfast is more “balanced” with 20 grams of carbs (29%), 20 grams of protein (34%), 10 grams of fat (38%) and only 260 calories. I have eliminated all empty calories and excess carbohydrates and increased my protein intake. I am on track to stay under 100 grams of carbs/day, which is where I want to be for steady fat loss, and have eaten a sufficient amount of protein (almost 3oz) to support me through a workout, and since I cut out the excess sugar I won’t experience the hungry feeling caused by the crash...(blood sugar..)
I used fitday.com to come up with these numbers. It’s not 100% accurate but it’s pretty close. I use this website when I’m not sure how many calories I’m consuming. I cut out almonds when I saw that I was eating around 800 calories a day in almonds alone. (This is a lot easier to do that it sounds.) A handful, or 1.5 oz of almonds contains about 250 calories.
Another thing we’ve started doing, which will help keep your consumption in check, is weighing the meat portion of our meals. As long as the veggies aren’t potatoes or corn (limit carrots again blood sugar spike) we eat them liberally and don’t worry about weighing them. We have a small scale in the kitchen next to the microwave and it takes no time at all to use. Here's how: put plate on scale-hit zero-put meat on plate-stop when scale says 4 oz-continue if you want more or use less if you want less, email if this isn't clear.
This not only helps us keep our calories in check, but also ensures that we get a sufficient amount of protein every day.
I find the Zone Diet to be a little more of a pain than I want to deal with on a daily basis, but here's a simple tool if you want to learn about it zone block calculator. Again, this is geared towards making a low glycemic meal with a small blood sugar hit and keep your body using carbs for energy. (good carbs). Other diets focus on different strategies, example: high protein-high fat-no carbs forces body into a ketogenic state which in turn uses fat for fuel once glycogen (from carbs) is used up... more on this later.
You just input your body weight, body fat and activity level into the zone block calculator and it tells you how many blocks you should be eating. It also tells you how many grams of protein you need to be eating each day. I should be somewhere close to 95 grams/day. There are 7grams of protein in 1oz of meat, and about 7 grams/egg and 3-4 in each egg white. So if I have 2 eggs and 2 egg whites in the morning I’ve eaten 21 grams. I’ll need to eat the remaining 74grams throughout the rest of the day. I can do this by eating between 5 and 6 oz of meat for lunch and dinner (74/7=10oz aprox). Easy.
I also found a spreadsheet on Crossfit Albany’s website that breaks different foods down into “blocks” and there is a special tab for Paleo approved foods. Like I said, it’s a little more complicated than Paleo Dieting but it’s a good tool to keep your intake in check if you’re unsure.
Anyway, the point of all this is that while eating is an enjoyable activity we need to remember that food = fuel for our bodies and we need to make sure we’re feeding ourselves the right kind of fuel in the right quantities for our specific body types, lifestyles and fitness goals.
Here is a good article about protein and it’s benefits.
Meal Description | Ashley | Gerard |
Breakfast/morning snack | - Fasted until 8:00am - 2 eggs and 2 egg whites - 2 pieces turkey bacon - Green tea - 2 cups coffee | - 4 eggs scrambled - 3 pieces turkey bacon - 2 cups coffee - 1.5 oz almonds |
Lunch (usually spread from 10am to 12pm) | - Bowl of chili - 4 stalks celery - 1/2 cup eggplant dip - Green tea | - 8 oz roast beef (crock pot) - ½ cup carrots - ½ sautéed mushrooms - water |
Snack (after dinner) | - 1.5 oz almonds - 4 pieces turkey bacon | |
Dinner | (I ate at 2:30 because I have class from 4 to 10pm tonight. Today will be a fasting day. More on that later) - Carrots, onions and mushrooms - 5oz pot roast - Green tea | - 8 oz pork loin - Stir fry veggies - water |
Exercise
Ashley | Gerard |
Rest day Much needed, my legs are smoked from the past 4 days Walked a little over 1 mile to and from class | Rest day foam rolled-stretched |
Sleep:
Ashley: 10:30pm-2:15am; 3:30am-6:40am (I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about lots of things and had trouble going back to sleep. I’m hoping that once school gets underway I will be able to sleep again.
Gerard: 10:30pm-6:40am
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