Two weeks ago, I tried on the BR Mad Men dress I'd been lusting after only to find that it was tight in all the wrong places. It made me feel big, awkward and discouraged that I no longer reliably fit into my 'regular' size. It's embarrassing to admit how vain and predictable I am by allowing myself to become depressed by it all, but that's exactly what happened.
It was frustrating to think that I'd been able to lose all the weight after each of my pregnancies except for the last one. Is it my age? The fact that I'm now in my 30's and my metabolism has slowed? Training for a 1/2 marathon wasn't enough-- must I really train for another full marathon just to shed that final 15 pounds? If that was the case, I simply didn't have the motivation for such an all-consuming endeavor. I felt trapped.
So instead of adding more exercise, I decided to refine my diet. I've long been a believer in Michael Pollan's Food Rules and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, convinced that the key to health was to eat real, unadulterated food with a minimal amount of processing, refined carbohydrates and sugars.
However, believing in something and living it are two different things. While I'd been intellectually converted, too often I fell into the attitude that since I worked out so hard, I could eat whatever I wanted and that it was still 'moderation'. Thus, I resolved to get back to basics, putting myself on Phase 1 of the South Beach diet in order to kick start my committal to eating right.
It's been 10 days now {though I allowed myself a roll, some fruit and a dessert on Easter} and I'm surprised at how differently I feel. I've never eaten so many vegetables at every meal in all my life, and I'm learning to quite like them. And my taste buds have adapted so that when I did splurge on Sunday, everything tasted incredibly sweet and overly rich. I can see how after this, fruit will seem like an indulgent dessert. :)
My only problem so far has been that I get light-headed when I run in the morning. I think I may start eating a half of a banana before I go so that I have a bit of quick energy to burn. And I've gotten quite sick of eggs in the morning, so I've turned into my dad and have started eating dinner for breakfast, namely salmon and veggies.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? ;)
{Eat Food Papercut by April}
4 comments:
I'm quite excited to do the same after I'm not so pregnant and hungry aaaaaallllllll the time. Thanks for helping me gear up for it:) and Giiiiiirrrrrllll! You look fabulous, it was the dress not you.
I feel best when I eat that way too. A little breakfast tip: if i am exercising I have some whole wheat toast with peanut butter. I know it isn't faze one, but that early in the day, when you are going to run...I think you might really feel better. I sometimes eat it in addition to egg breakfast, sometimes instead of. sometimes half the toast before i work out, and half after.
I also adopted South Beach to lose post pregnancy pounds. But I discovered that my thyroid was out of wack too. Always good to get that checked.
I'm in the same boat. The last 5-7 pounds are sticking. I think I just don't care, though. But I am with you about food. I've listened a few times to a podcast of a speech Michael Pollan gave on "In Defense of Food" at Berkley or somewhere. It is fascinating and rings so, so true. I love that living in Poland has forced cream of chicken soup dishes, boxed mac n'cheese (and all other powdered mixes and bottled sauces) and frozen chicken nuggets off my menu for the entirety of my mothering experience thus far. There are a lot of things I want to do better, but I think we started with an advantage, simply because we didn't have any other choice. Unfortunately I still try (unsuccessfully) to convince myself that because the muffins and cakes and cookies we eat are homemade, they are somehow good. Better than Oreos and Ding Dongs? Yes. Good? No. It is a sad, sad truth.
About the diet. I'm so glad it's working for you and that you feel well generally. We are working to get more fresh (especially raw) fruits and veggies into us. My husband used the Dukan diet, wich follows the same phase idea as the SB diet, but the focus is on lean protein and almost no carbs, rather than lots of fruits and veggies. Probably an easier one for men. :)
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