No Kidding

It’s not that I didn’t believe my trainers when they told me diet was important, it’s just that I was stubborn and thought if I worked hard enough, diet could be optional.

In the 18 days after the end of training, I gained 5.5lbs.  Said differently, on average, each day I ate 1,070 calories more than I burned.  That’s a lot of ice cream, cookies, and bread with butter.  Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious.  Fun.  Novel.

Do I still look great in and out of my jeans?  Of course.  Am I worried about continuing to gain weight?  Not at all.  What do I think of this body?  It’s great–I love it.

But as temporarily delicious as everything was, it made me unable to do what I’m used to doing.  Excess calories != excess energy.  I feel much better consuming way fewer calories.  I still crave sugar after nearly every meal, but if I just wait 5 minutes, it goes away.  (Or, I have some low calorie ice cream, because ice cream is still my favorite food.)

Not putting crap in my body is much more difficult when I’m not getting meals delivered.  Why are vending machines stocked with poptarts instead of single serve peanut butter and crackers?  It’s still worth the extra effort, though.  Here are my favorites for portable, buy-in bulk, not terribly expensive options:

• get a GNC card and buy boxes of protein bars at the beginning of the month.  I prefer Pure Protein and Supreme Protein because they’re delicious, and have high protein to calorie ratios, along with almost no sugar.  Ditto for the Atkins bars, but I just don’t like the taste as much.
• fresh and frozen fruit.  During the program, we ate very little fruit, so it seems like I can’t get enough.  Berries, melon, and green apples have the lowest sugar.
• cottage cheese and yogurt.  These win because the low fat, plain varieties have a great mixture of protein, fat, and carbs.  Bonus points for calcium.  Mix in fruit/honey/agave yourself to have a snack that tastes like food instead of candy.
• peanut butter.  Again, an amazing fat/protein mix.  Delicious.  On everything.  I buy the kind that only lists peanuts as an ingredient and am looking into making my own.
• old-fashioned oatmeal.  Cooks in 2 minutes, healthier than instant.  If made to the consistency of stew, is even good cold.
• eggs, potatoes, rice, beans.  All great foods.  All remarkably cheap.  But you have to cook them at home before they behave properly on the go.

So with real food in my body and no junk in my body, I have the energy and interest in getting up early in the mornings to go running in the park, and meeting friends at the gym in the afternoons to lift. 

Sleep helps, too.  They weren’t kidding about that part either.