Well, after months and months of horrible eating and watching it effect my running, I have made a change this week.
For six days this week - I ate clean, and I mean CLEAN!! No candy, no sugar, no packaged foods - nada. All of my foods were identifiable by what they were, not the package they came in. (not sure if that sentence made sense). No preservatives, no gluten, no fillers, no artificial nothing.
Here is what I learned this week. I am not sold that I feel SO much better when I eat clean. I felt pretty normal. I was never starving, but I did long for certain foods. I had a very detailed plan, and that was very helpful - if the food wasn't on the plan, it didn't head into my mouth. I did notice that my teeth remained cleaner - longer (a weird observation, I know).
At last Saturday's Half Marathon (the Lululemon Half) I bought several items. I decided that after 5 days of following my plan - BY THE BOOK - I could have ONE item. Thus, hedging against my nature to just eat ONE piece of candy. I was conducting an experiment people!!!
and then comes Sunday, or FAT SUNDAY, which it's now known by at my house. Today is a cheat DAY - eat whatever you want ALL day long. I was never so happy to see today - and let me tell you, I have taken FULL advantage of this day. I will not even begin to tell you everything on my list, but I will tell you that Sonic Bacon Cheese Dog is AMAZING!!!
Here is what I have observed. The candy that I ate was much sweeter than I remember candy being, and I couldn't eat as much as I used to. The pizza stick I ate was way greasier than I remember them being, and left an odd film around my mouth. Also, after I ate the food that shall not be named I became really really really tired. I do believe that, much to my husbands dismay, I felt the need to sit down in the aisle at Home Depot. He turned around, "Do you mean to tell me you can run for four hours straight, but cannot find the energy to walk around this store??" I reminded him that it was now under four hours, and that if they had water stations and/or fuel stations it might make this jaunt easier. He was so not impressed.
I suppose that what I learned today is that maybe I shouldn't go ALL IN on cheat day if there is actual "stuff" I need to be doing, other than napping. And that maybe it's not that eating clean makes one feel so fantastic, but that eating really really poorly makes you feel really really tired. I cannot wait to see how well I can run when I am fueling with real food - knowing what I know now (after only seven days) I should be making huge gains in the next couple months. (as soon as I shake off this calf pain).
I am pretty ready to get back to my detailed eating guide tomorrow, but first PIZZA!!!!
