Tuesday, June 5, 2012

It's "THE" diet not "A" diet






It's happened. For real. I like being on a diet. 


Above I am eating Ahi tuna tartare with lemon, shiso and pine nuts.

OK, Let's qualify that a bit. I just spent the weekend in a hotel and ate every meal out, Friday afternoon through Sunday night.  It was for the State Lacrosse Championships and my son's team won. He, and all of his teammates are thrilled, absolutely ecstatic. 


Here is a short video I captured with my phone, and after you see the entire team run to the left, you can hear someone saying to me "Look, Kristy! Cooper' getting into a fight, Cooper's getting into a fight!", so I pan over to the right, and you can see the ONE guy in white (Cooper) in a sea of black (the other team) and then the referee pushes him out of the crowd...he later explained that the other team was being disrespectful towards his teammates, so he wanted to set them straight.....gotta love the passion that kid has! (email subscribers will need to navigate to the blog to view this).






I will write more about the event later, but right now I want to talk about food.

I live my life meal to meal, I always have and always will. I think about what I will eat at my next meal as soon as I have finished my current meal. I dream about food, I talk about food, I write about food.

I love food.

I always have dreams about what I will eat after a competition, sometimes those dreams can get downright racy, I love food that much.

But, it's losing it's thrill, not the  the "good stuff", but eating it all the time is, it no longer lures me the way it used to. I like it better when its a treat now and not an everyday occurrence.

I know, I have heard other people say it for ages, but I never really believed them. What am I talking about? Eating clean because "I like to"......riiiiight. Yeah I would rather gnaw on a raw celery stick instead of a big cheeseburger too! LOL!

I do love cheeseburgers, but I have discovered that I love to eat them once in a while, not all the time. It's taken me this long to actually feel that. I mean, really, really feel that.

Don't go getting all worked up, I still love fine food. I love to go out, but I have discovered that for me, a little goes a long, long way now. It's like alcohol, I just don't want to drink much anymore, a couple drinks and I am done. I am happy and then I can enjoy myself with my water.

Same with food now.


Friday we had a plate of bone marrow. Talk about rich!



It was really good, and I loved it. Before that was butter poached halibut cheeks and morel mushroom fricassee.


I had it with wine, lots and lots of wine (actually these are 2 ounce pours so four glasses equal one full glass of wine).



David's had enough, we had several courses. I didn't show you three of them....


But the weekend continued and although I loved my meal at Willie's Wine Bar, I was ready for some of my own food the next day, and I found that I was trying to create it at every restaurant I visited.



In the morning I woke early and had a meal replacement drink then headed off to the gym. It was wonderful gym, one I wish we had here. I had another shake after lifting, just as usual.


Breakfast for David was about when I would normally eat lunch and we went to an omelet restaurant. I ordered an omelet with mushrooms, onions, and avocado. I ate a little potato, and no toast. I only ate half the omelet and had the other several hours later (at my 4:00 meal). Eggs are a great protein source, I felt better eating this.


We went to a brew pub for lunch (which would have been my 1:00 meal), David had a pizza and I ate one very small piece and ordered a Cesar salad with chicken, and no dressing. Although it wasn't very good (the chicken was cubed and dry), I felt better eating this instead of a big plate of say...chicken wings.


It's like me and ice cream. I don't eat it because I am lactose intolerant. I don't miss ice cream, people freak when they hear me say I haven't had ice cream in a year or so (I usually will have it once a year for old time's sake). But if ice cream made YOU feel the way it makes me feel, you wouldn't miss it either, believe me. 


The whole weekend went on like that, I did indulge in fun stuff, and I had wine and cocktails, but kept leaning towards my familiar clean food.


Sunday I was sitting in the bleachers eating tuna from a foil pouch along with hard cooked eggs and a couple dates. It tasted great.


When I got home late Sunday night, all I wanted to do was get all my food ready and start back in on my regular diet, lean meat and eggs, lots of vegetables and some brown rice or sweet potatoes. 


Just like lifting has become a permanent fixture in my life, it seems "the diet" has too. I have been able to develop a diet that seems to allow me to eat foods I enjoy, and not gain too much weight, and enjoy the "fun stuff" on occasion and not feel left out. I am still struggling with my size right now, I have gotten big, bigger than ever it seems. I suspect I shall learn to accept it, I want to gain mass and really, a little fat comes with the territory, I cannot be ripped year round, at least, I cannot and live a normal life!


I got back to my regular eating and felt good, I felt strong. 


Monday night I met Roy and we trained hamstrings. It was deadlifts again, and I did a lot. 5 sets of 10 reps (except the fourth set for some reason I could only do 8, I don't think I rested enough between sets). At 200 pounds....that's a lot of weight! Then back extensions with a 10 pound weight on the Glute Ham Raise, 4 sets of 10.  I felt high, I felt really strong. Roy said he could tell it would be a good session just by how I moved when I did my warm up sets, he's a very observant guy.


So for now, I am sticking to "the diet" most of the time, enjoying other food on occasion and lifting heavy, it's all a recipe for success you know. 


I am curious, how many of you actually eat clean 90% of the time and truly like the diet you are on? Or do you just tolerate it? And if you just tolerate it, how could you make it enjoyable?





5 comments:

  1. I really enjoy eating clean and rarely feel the need to "cheat a bit." However, since I'm not a "foodie," i.e., I don't cook (nor do I care to :-)), my foods are very basic and very simply prepared--one protein, one carb, one or two veggies eaten every three hours. That's it. My husband, on the other hand, loves to cook and has used our Clean Eating magazine subscription to make some great recipes. When he does that, it's yum, yum, yum, all the way around.

    I find that, because I work out at home, the hardest part is maintaining my regimented routine without feeling isolated. NOBODY I know practices clean eating or training like I do, and it's hard not having people to share with. There's a gym in my town that's small and bodybuilding focused, and I'm thinking of joining just for that reason.

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    1. Phil, I LOVE to cook, and am quite the foodie! That's great that you like your diet, its the first step towards being successful really. I get Clean eating too and although I love their recipes, i find many are way too high in carbs for me. Clean, but caloric!

      You are right, if there is no one to show off that hot bod to, it almost makes you feel like you have worked for nothing! I say join the gym if you can, and make some connections with like minded people!

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  2. When I was doing my Whole30, I ate clean 24/7 and felt great. While my whole family was sick, I got a sore throat for a day and was done with it. I got to a point where things like cheeseburgers, ice cream, cake, etc just weren't appealing.

    Now, I'm trying to get back to it but I find myself sneaking a yogurt covered pretzel or three... I don't always have the time so it's a big convenience factor and sometimes plain laziness after a long day. Food prep, for me, will only work for a few days and then goes out the window. And keeping good foods in stock all the time is difficult too since there are now 6 of us (including my mother-in-law and brother-in-law) with all different tastes.

    I'm getting there...slowly.

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    Replies
    1. Sakura, I know you go through periods of being so very diligent...6 of you now? Oh my I don;t know, that must be very difficult for you, all age ranges too! Hopefully they help cook and prep, you certainly cannot do it all yourself.

      Just keep on trying to stick to it as much as possible, it does help to be "clean", most of the time and don't give up just because you cheated here and there. Think of it this way, if you get a flat tire, you get out and fix it right? You don't just go and slash the rest of the tires and say "take that!"

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  3. I don't think you should really enjoy your right now Tracey! I mean right now you are less than two weeks out, so you have been eating the same ol stuff day and night and not enough! Let's chat after your competition and see what's up with the diet! I bet we can share some ideas and you will be much more satisfied. But right now, you just have to hang in there!

    ReplyDelete