Quick Clean Eats Update

In my haste to toss up last night's post about our weekend's accomplishments before Downton Abby came on, I completely forgot to update everyone on this Clean Eating project of mine.  So I'm checking now at Day 16 of 30 in the project, which was to eliminate gluten, dairy, refined sugar, and alcohol from my diet.

My freezer - half frozen cupcakes and cake balls for pops,
half veggies, lean meats, fish, etc.  Mixed messages??

When last I checked in, I was having major nutrition-related training problems.  Not eating enough calories to support my increasing training volume.  After a few days of tracking my nutrition, I corrected by eating more, and by adding back in cheese and plain Greek yogurt into my mix. Actually, that's not true.  I retroactively tracked 2 days worth of food, made a decision, told myself I'd continue tracking to be sure, and then only logged breakfast the next day.  You see, I dearly hate tracking my food.  I track everything else down to the nanosecond, but for me entering everything I eat into my phone sends me back two years to when losing weight was my main goal.  When the scale got to predict what kind of mood I was going to be in that day.  I'm just not in that place anymore.  Losing weight is not a goal for me.  Being healthy, happy, calm, and training well is my goal.  But I seem to forget that when I've counting calories (or macro nutrients) and go to the bad place where I can make myself feel physically ill deciding if I really need/want a snack because it might not fit in my calorie budget on my phone.  So - I am non-compliant in the food tracking category.  And I plan to stay that way.

Sore throat popsicles - coconut milk, banana,
cocoa powder and honey

So anyway, I do feel much better now.  I've added my trusty PocketFuel back in as my main source of pre- and post-workout fuel, even though it has sugar in it.  Der - sugar is fuel.  It's ok to have for workouts!  I have a little cheese now and then, and I don't feel badly about it.  Dessert can be fruit yogurt and granola with a little honey.  Yummy.

Over the weekend Jedi and I went out to a movie while my saintly parents watched the kids.  Jedi bought pizza at the Whole Foods next door to the theatre. I had a  few bites. I won't call it a slip-up, because it was intentional.  It was that or divorce, as Jedi knew how badly I'd been craving pizza.  I mean, we just came from the freezer isle pricing out GF dough, for crissakes.  Jedi is unfailing patient and supportive of whatever wacky ideas I get in my head to try to myself, but he will not change.  Period.  He wants pizza - he gets pizza.  He will not run with me.  Ever.  Nor will he swim with the kids just because I pushed for a family membership at the Y.  Clear boundaries - it's how it is.  I also got myself a small bag of dark chocolate covered raisins for the show.  I enjoyed my treats.

Me to Legos - don't eat bread and butter

I enjoyed the headache I got later while at my parent's for dinner a lot less, however.  I'm not sure if the wheat and the sugar were to blame, or the three hours of dragon roaring and fighting scenes (yes we saw  The Hobbit, and yes it was awesome) immediately followed by my incredibly loud and excited children.  I'm guessing some combination of both.  But certainly, the sugar and wheat didn't help.

Cravings-wise, I'm doing ok.  I miss things that are crunchy the most.  Much of this diet has the same consistency.  Legos and I have a near nightly ritual of texting each other to talk ourselves out of whatever evening craving we are threatening to devour.  Thanks to a steady supply of treat recipes from Cara's Cravings, my sweet tooth is in check.  I'm down to one cup of coffee, which makes afternoons tough.  Especially afternoons following early morning workouts.  But I'm finding listening to my coach's spin playlists on Spotify is as good as coffee.

Legos to me - don't eat the ice cream!!

Overall, my jury is still out.  My main goals were to see if this diet would positively affect my mood, my migraines, and my stomach issues.  My stomach is the same or worse.  This could also be attributed to my much higher running volume over the last 2 weeks than I've had previously.  I'd like to try my little guy on a GF diet, as celiac runs in the Jedi's side of the family.  My son is quite small for his age and currently is on medication for reflux - I do think it would be worth it to try to eliminate gluten and take him off his meds.  See how he does.

I will say that I feel much calmer and more joyful since Christmas.  I am less reactive to the Monday morning annoying emails from work.  I'm having more quiet moments of fun with my kids without my mind being distracted by worries.  Again, this could be due to a lessening of stress post-holidays, my increased training volume... but knowing myself I think it's that my blood sugar is much more level.

My plans going forward are to keep gluten free past the 30 day mark (though I might have to designate all pizza gluten-free to do it), and keep refined sugar to a minimum.  I'm looking forward to adding back in a glass of wine now and then.  I don't think dairy is something I'll eliminate long term.  But so far I've learned a lot of great recipes, and am willing to call this a partial success.  If it manages to help my son, so much the better.