on the blahs

In the “out of left field” department, I’m struggling with a deep case of the blahs this week. Sure, some of it is post-Spring Break depression, but a lot of it stems from some minor diet changes, digressions, and the realities of life this week. Let me explain them one by one.

The Benefits of Raw

Last week we were out of town for about 5 days. During that time, we ate raw fruit and veggies along with almonds, macadamia nuts and some boiled eggs and simple grilled chicken for our meals. We digressed from this to eat meals with the family, but mainly for social reasons. Our stocked cooler provided the main source of our food. Because of this great baseline, even when I enjoyed tortilla chips and salsa at a Tex Mex restaurant and a brownie with ice cream for a birthday celebration, I still felt good. I felt light. I could feel that I was losing weight. And I did – even with the traveling and the treats I lost 1 pound last week.

Don’t Over-think Food

After a week of eating mostly raw, whole ingredients, I felt the pressure was on to provide some hearty cooked meals for dinner. In addition, I’m doing some experimentation on the paleo and primal fronts, so I’ve noticed that I tend to rely more on things like coconut oil and olive oil instead of nuts for my fat sources. The portions are not huge, but they just feel heavier than their raw counterparts. And during the day when the family was off to school I was making omelets for breakfast and generally having dinner leftovers for lunch (except for one meal, which I will discuss below). While none of this is necessarily “bad” per se, I was just left feeling worse off than I did last week.

Could it be that eating raw and whole foods as a majority of your diet could have such powerful effects?

1 Bad Choice Has Major Consequences Now

When you eat crap every day for every meal, crap for one meal doesn’t really have a huge effect on your metabolism, your body’s tendency to burn fat instead of storing it, your mood, etc. So the logic is always, “one bad meal won’t hurt.” But when every meal is one bad meal… it’s a vicious cycle.

Factor in the issue above and some stressful situations at work and I had a familiar need to escape to some bad food choices. So on Tuesday I was out and about and I grabbed a sack at Jack in the Box. I was thinking, “It’s just one meal…” And it probably would have been, but I was already struggling with the shift from mostly raw foods. Boy, it sure tasted good and it did fulfill my immediate emotional need to connect with food, but I think it compounded my body’s issues this week and as a result I’ve put on a few pounds in just a few days.

Workouts Are NOT Enough

Last week I took a break from long workouts and still lost weight and felt great. I’ve been working out this week, but my diet and other stress factors are overpowering the benefits of 2 great CrossFit WOD’s. This is just another powerful reminder about the constant need for balance in all areas of our lives.

Injuries Suck

I’ve been dealing with a shoulder injury that has now contributed to an injured pectoral muscle. It’s not stopping me, but it is slowing me down. Most of all it’s just frustrating because I’m seeing so many positive changes in other areas and I want to see them in my workouts as well. I think I’m underestimating how much stress this is causing me right now.

And so, today is another day. I’m not dwelling on the choices made this week or the realities of life right now, rather I am thankful that I am more in tune with my body now and I’m really starting to connect the dots when it comes to diet, stress, and overall living conditions. Grok would look at his living conditions and make adjustments when things were out of balance, and so will I. Grok on.

on cheat meals

Since we started this endeavor 6 months ago and more earnestly in January, my goal has always been to eat well about 90% of the time. I just flat out like food too much – all kinds of food. In addition, I have 3 children ages 15, 12, and 10 and while we want to teach them about making wise food choices, we also know that they need some balance in their lives as well. This has been my mantra and I’ve made progress while sticking to it.

As I mentioned yesterday, I downloaded The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson yesterday on my Kindle. As soon as I started to read it, it was like we are kindred souls and I didn’t feel this huge gulf of “I’m much smarter than you” that some of these diet and way of life books make me feel. This is another quote of his on the topic of balance and it made me realize that part of my goal with the happy gastronomer has already been fulfilled – not by me, but by Mark! Read this:

I strongly support you making allowances for, adjustments to, and occasional deviations from the Primal Blueprint based on your particular real-life concerns and constraints. You’ll encounter many references to my 80% Rule in the book …, which basically means you can chill out and enjoy your life rather than invite the additional stress and anxiety that comes from a perfectionist approach or an overly strict regimen.”

For the record, he does say that you should strive for 100% perfection in the plan but with a realistic expectation that you will hit about 80% and that’s OK.

Anyhow, it’s always been our “thing” on Friday night to reward ourselves and the kids with a treat meal – and their favorite (and one of ours, I’ll admit) is Taco Bell. I can hear the gasps from everyone now, but suck it – I’m not competing later today in the sectionals.

But last night as I lay in bed I noticed that I just didn’t feel right. In fact, I felt like crap. I checked my blood pressure and it wasn’t bad, but it was elevated and so was my pulse. My body wasn’t starting to shut down at about 9:00 like it normally did. To top it all off I’m up at 4:30 AM writing this instead of waking up at 6:30. Overall result: cheat meal FAIL.

And it hit me: my body is finally starting to reject my drug of choice: food that’s bad for me. The challenge for me now is what next?