My Diet Plan

It’s FRIDAY! Welcome to the weekend, friends! I am starting to get pre-race butterflies with my marathon looming this weekend. It is my first and I am set to qualify for Boston if my Achilles cooperates with me..

This week, I am tackling some of the questions that I have been asked the last little while and today’s is a nod to my Nutrition Week posting.

Question: Do you follow any kind of specific diet plan?

The short answer: no.

The long answer: I try. In my plethora of current jobs, they are all focused on either the health of the individual or the environment, so unbeknownst to be, I adapt healthy eating practices without even realizing it. You are more or less shamed if you eat a fried food or even too many starches at my jobs, and from the sugar push back on my recent post, even on my blog!

On one hand, I am being watched closely as a fitness instructor, health blogger and active member of my community in what I eat. On the other hand, I have an anorexic sister who is obsessed with every bit of food that goes into her mouth, so there is a real dichodomy at work here. I think my sister’s experience over the past decade has inserted a deep resistance against the diet/eating trends of the day and has helped me to be firm in the best way of eating for ME.

I love food. I have a good relationship with food and my body. I neither overeat or undereat. I try and listen to what my body wants. I think that this is the most important starting point for anyone’s diet. If you are unhappy with your body and jump aboard a restrictive eating plan, it is going to create an unbalance for you in some way. 

My “Eating Plan”, if I have one, looks a little bit like this:

Breakfast: What do I want? Eat it. Often includes protein and fruit.

Lunch: Raw veggies (summer) and steamed veggies (winter)  with other delicious foods that I enjoy.

Supper: Protein, veggies and starch.

I eat more when I am training more, and I naturally eat less when I am training less. I drink a LOT of water and try to limit my caffeine intake to one or two cups a day. I try to limit sugar, but I firmly believe that there is a graph when it comes to food.

On one hand, there is clean eating and the other part is life enjoyment. If eating clean hampers on my life enjoyment in one area, I am creating mental stress and unhappiness which causes imbalance. So my “diet” in a nut shell is this:

Eat as many raw, steamed veggies as possible. Eat lean proteins, and have a burger when you really want one. Aim for sprouted, whole grains as often as possible, but if there are fresh cinnamon rolls from the oven, you better eat a whole one with a cup of hot coffee. Drink as much water as you can. Have at least one piece of a fruit a day, often a banana as I dislike fruit. Try not to eat a lot of sugar and processed foods. 

The end.

I would rather be obsessive about my training and relaxed about my eating because at the end of the day, our bodies are pretty fantastic things that can anticipate what is needed.

Do you follow an eating plan? 

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway with North Coast Naturals today! The winner will be announced at 6 am, EST on Monday!