Food

So the bad news is that food is like 90% of this struggle. You can workout all day every day until you die (please don’t), but if you’re not eating right, it’s not going to matter. This is especially true if you’re like me and have an “efficient” (read: slow) metabolism. (Which really just means when the zombie apocalypse happens, I’m going to be the last to die of starvation, SO THERE.) I’ve run 5 half marathons and trained for a full marathon in the past six years so it’s not like I was “unfit” but I also ate whatever I wanted (and way too much of it).

First Things First – Deal With Your Shit

Most of us are overweight for a reason – sometimes that reason is that you’re just too busy to take care of yourself (I find this is especially true of my friends with families), but sometimes there are more “baggage” type reasons and I highly recommend sorting that shit out before/while losing weight. (Does your insurance cover a few free sessions with a therapist? Take advantage of that!)

I’m an emotional eater, always have been. I can eat when I’m happy, I can eat when I’m sad, I can eat when I’m anxious, I can eat when I’m mad. I can eat on a box, I can eat with a fox, I can eat here or there, I can eat anywhere. So, I had to find other ways to deal with all the feels. I took up knitting years ago to give me something to do with my hands when I was watching TV/movies to curb mindless eating and that has always been helpful. I also started collecting and taking care of succulents, and got a dog (best life decision ever). I also started meditating in 2017 which really really helped with being more mindful about my eating, my food choices, and generally taught me to be nicer and less judgemental towards myself if I fucked up. (Because you will fuck up and it’s how you rebound from the fuck ups that really matters.) I use the Insight Timer App.

Macros

At the very beginning, I didn’t have to count calories, I just gave up everything I loved and got dramatic results.

Okay, I didn’t really give up everything I loved, but that’s certainly what it felt like at the time. What I did do was make a lot of simple substitutions in my diet AND stopped eating junk. (There was a point in 2016 where I was pretty much eating doughnuts three times a week for breakfast – it was a rough year.) I lost ten pounds in the first month just by cutting out snacks, and fancy Starbucks drinks, and not eating out. I don’t really think I even started eating more vegetables. This only works for so long though…

The second month I lost 2 pounds and the third month I didn’t lose anything because my body begin to adapt. My sister at some point had talked about counting “macros” (aka macro-nutrients) so I did some research and found the IIFYM website which lets you calculate what your macros should be based off your daily activity level and the frequency/difficulty of your workouts. (Counting macros basically means you care less about the calories and more about the macro composition of your food choices – how much fat, how much protein, much carbs are in each meal).

I also started using the MyPlate app from LiveStrong to track my macros. (Just a note, the macros MyPlate gives you aren’t the same as the IIFYM numbers so I had to just know that I needed to aim for 138g of protein every day even though MyPlate told me I needed 141…).

This worked really well for me because macros mean nothing is “off limits”. You still have to make smart food choices, but if you want to eat a chocolate bar, you can eat a chocolate bar - you’re just going to give up some fat and carbs somewhere else in your day. There’s no guilt factor to deal with, which helped me tremendously.

Experiment with What Works for Your Body

*This comes with the caveat of please don’t do anything dangerous or unhealthy, please consult your GP before you make any huge decisions.

Playing around with substitutes – I will always come back to bread as an example for things because I love bread and the thought of giving up bread pains me physically. So, if there’s something you can’t possible give up, can you swap your current brand for something better? I traded my boring, sugar-laden generic bread for Dave’s Killer Bread Power Seed. Each slice has 100 calories, 2g fat, 17 carbs, 5g protein (that’s a lot for bread!) and only 1g of sugar – and it doesn’t taste like cardboard. I tried a lot of “healthy” breads before I found Dave’s and most of them taste like cardboard. Again, this is what I like about macros because you can prioritize certain things if you’re not ready to give them up. I did pretty much give up sugar though and that was a HUGE help – honestly, after a while of not eating much sugar, too much will make you feel really sick. Learned that the hard way, so you’re welcome.

Try New Recipes

Pinterest is your friend (mostly) - I found a lot of good recipes to try via Pinterest (I’ll try to write some of my favorites up and post them), but please be careful of all the “health” bullshit that also exists on Pinterest. Holding certain crystals for 45 minutes a day might be a great way for you to relax and center yourself (which could totally help you lose weight), but if you follow that by eating an entire Domino’s deep dish pizza, it’s not going to work. Be careful of anything that guarantees “easy” weight loss and weird diet things (let’s only eat eggs for five days! Who created that diet? Gaston? Let’s not.) – this isn’t easy and anything the promises that is most likely not a great idea.

As far as figuring out what’s in your food exactly, I used this USDA site to calculate the nutrition info on some of my favorite recipes and/or to see what sort of portions I should be eating to meet my macros. 

A Word on Carbs

Several friends have tried the keto diet (basically no carbs) and loved it. I, on the other hand, can’t give up carbs for two reasons. 1) I LOVE carbs. They’re probably in my top ten things I love on Earth. I would be so unhappy and unpleasant if I had to completely give up carbs. 2) I like to workout HARD – the best part of this journey for me has been being able to lift more and run faster. For me, eating low carb drastically reduces my ability to do so, so NOPE. That being said, I did experiment with the sources of my carbs (bread vs. broccoli) and with how many grams of carbs I was eating on various days (fewer carbs on rest days, more carbs on workout days). And eventually found a sustainable balance that worked for me and that I’m going to continue.

Intermittent Fasting

(Obviously if you have any health concerns, please talk to your doctor about this one.)

This is something I didn’t start until the last two or so months in an effort to get a last minute boost and it’s something that I’ve continued to stick with. Basically, you just pick a period of time where you don’t eat – the science I found suggested a window of 12 – 14 hours for woman (it’s longer for men, haha.) For me, this means I stop eating after dinner at about 8pm and then I eat breakfast around 10 the next morning. (I DEFINITELY still drink coffee before this in the morning, otherwise I’d be reallllllllll cranky.)

I follow this most days, but I’m not always super strict about the 14 hours. If I know I’m going to be in a work meeting at 10am, I’m definitely going to eat breakfast before then. If I signed up for a workout class at 9am, I’m definitely going to eat breakfast at 7am so I have enough energy to get through the work out. If I’m out late at dinner with friends I’m not necessarily going to refuse to eat because it’s past 8pm. I figure it balances out because some nights I stop eating at 6pm and don’t eat again until 10am anyway (I have no idea if the science supports that, but it seems to work for me…)

If you want to know more here's some science.

If you want to know about other ways to fast, read this.

Hydration
Drink all the water! It seems so simple, but seriously. A lot of us operate on a moderately dehydrated level at baseline, but once you're regularly adding workouts to your day you're going to need water even more. Drinking enough water can also help you feel less hungry and/or help you stop mistaking your body's "thirsty" signals as hunger. There's a few ways to calculate how much water you should be drinking, but it can also vary based on what you've eaten during the day (more salt = more water), how much you're working out (more importantly how much you sweat), and the weather.

I'm a horrendously sweaty person so if I haven't had enough water before a workout it really affects my performance - sometimes I just can't workout as well, but sometimes it leads to debilitating side stitches. Not drinking enough water will also give me really awful dehydration headaches. My optimal water intake on any given day is about 5L (that's 5 full Nalgene bottles). 

Note: You can drink TOO MUCH water, it's possible. So, if you feel like you're sloshing down the hallway instead of walking because the website said you needed to drink 4L/day and by god you're going to - don't force yourself. This is a "listen to your body" scenario. Also, make sure you spread your water throughout the day. Chugging 2L in the morning and not drinking water again until right before you go to bed is not the way to go about this.

What I Eat

As with everything else, this is going to depend on your body, your schedule, your food preferences, etc.

FYI: It took me a looooooooong time and a lot of experimenting to get into this groove and figure out what works for me. I like to eat small meals/snacks (200-400 calories) a couple of times a day because the hungrier I am, the faster I eat which means I eat waaaaaaay more than I need to. I also pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast and dinner each day and just change up lunch/snacks as I need to to fit my macros. Some people don’t mind eating the same thing every day, some people get bored as hell – you do you.

Breakfast: 1/2c oatmeal (I’m weird and eat it cold like cereal), 1/2c chilled coffee, 2tbsp peanut butter, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder. (I like this protein powder (Prime eligible too!) because I’m mostly vegetarian and (real-talk) milk-based protein powders give me the worst gas.

Lunch: varies – usually some sort of veggie, bean, tomato, grain, spice combo with some sort of protein (sometimes vegetarian, sometimes meat-based)

Dinner: Omelette/Scrambled Eggs - 1 egg with yolk, 3 egg whites, 1 cup spinach, 1/2c shredded mozzarella cheese (half an avocado if I’m low on fat for the day, with toast if I’m low on carbs for the day…)

Snacks (I mix and match on any given day based on what I need to meet my macros)

·     ½ cup cottage cheese (super high in protein, I opt for the full fat version because it has less sugar and tastes way better than the fat free stuff – also, if you don’t love cottage cheese YOU’RE WRONG)

·     Pickles (usually two at a time) – I usually buy the whole cucumber, big kind. I like the “crunch” and this will often satisfy me if I’m craving chips

·     Hand full of almonds (28 to be exact based off serving sizes, and yes I count. I HATED being the person who counted out my almonds at first, but then I realized that that’s what I needed to do to lose weight so, whatever, that’s who I am now.)

·     Blanched broccoli and hummus – obviously you can eat your broccoli however you want, but I hate raw broccoli AND mushy broccoli, so I figured out how to blanch it so it’s still crispy but still cooked just a bit

·     Protein shake – 1 scoop of protein powder – sometimes I just mix it in a blender bottle with ½c of milk (cow or almond) and sometimes I go the actual smoothie route and put it in a blender with some coffee, 2 tbsp peanut butter and ice (basically my breakfast without the oats…)

·     Green smoothie (this is good with “tasteless” protein powder, I don’t like it with the chocolate) – 1 scoop protein powder, 1c strawberries, 1c spinach, 1/2c (or more if needed) coconut water, 2 tbsp peanut butter and ice.

·    Toast with pb – If I need extra carbs (especially pre-workout), I’ll toast a slice of Dave’s Killer Bread (Power Seed is my favorite) and spread peanut butter on top. HEAVEN.

·     Granny smith apple (with peanut butter if I need protein – I eat so much peanut butter and it makes me so happy.)

A note on being vegetarian: it’s 100% possible to be vegetarian and still get enough protein throughout the day to let you feel full and meet your macros (may I suggest the Thug Kitchen Cookbook if you need ideas) – that being said, towards the end of my bet (the last 2-3 weeks) I went pretty low carbs on my off days (50g/day) and it was really difficult to get enough protein without going over on carbs because a lot of my protein came from beans so I did start eating chicken for a time.