I have so many people tell me they can't eat like I do because they love food. Like they think I am special and don't have taste buds or something. Well, I am here to tell you something: I love food too! I totally appreciate a delicious meal or tasty desert and savor every bite. But I also love being able to run long distances, lift heavy weights, and contort my body into various yoga poses. I also really really love hiking!
I'm not saying you can't do these things unless you eat healthy, but think of how much better you could do if you treated food as fuel. I only got into running seriously about five years ago and before that I hardly did anything that resembled a workout. I actually despised running in high school and refused to do it. I blamed my asthma but it really didn't hinder me to the extent I made it out to. What I'm saying is I started from nothing. I don't have an athletic background. So for me to be able to do the things I do I find it very important to fuel my body the best way I can.
It's definitely possible to eat a poor diet and have an active lifestyle. But for me, my main motivation in eating the way I do is so I can run, lift, yoga, and climb as much as I want to. It didn't start that way. When I think back to when I first got into running, it was because I had gotten my first "real" job and had gained weight. My pants were too tight and I knew I had to make a change. I would walk 4 miles before work every morning and thought, "if only I could run, I wouldn't have to get up as early because it wouldn't take so long."
So I started Couch to 5k which got me to be able to run 3 miles without stopping. I coasted on that for a while, running very sporadically. Then I signed up for a 10k and caught the race bug and eventually ran a marathon. For a while I had the "I workout so I can eat whatever I want" attitude. Until about halfway through training for my first marathon when I realized I had gained weight! I was running more than I ever had in my life and I had gained weight!! It was around that same time I watched the documentary Forks Over Knives which talked about diet from a health perspective. It quoted Hippocrates, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” and other philosophers that have been saying the same thing all along. Food is fuel.
Once I looked at it that way, my choices got much easier. There's always room for improvement and I don't think any one diet is one-size-fits-all. But I think there are small easy tweaks we can all make because not every meal or snack is so amazing that you just can't pass it up. If you save the splurges for the food that is truly worthy of splurging on, then you can make healthy choices the rest of the time.
I'm not saying you can't do these things unless you eat healthy, but think of how much better you could do if you treated food as fuel. I only got into running seriously about five years ago and before that I hardly did anything that resembled a workout. I actually despised running in high school and refused to do it. I blamed my asthma but it really didn't hinder me to the extent I made it out to. What I'm saying is I started from nothing. I don't have an athletic background. So for me to be able to do the things I do I find it very important to fuel my body the best way I can.
It's definitely possible to eat a poor diet and have an active lifestyle. But for me, my main motivation in eating the way I do is so I can run, lift, yoga, and climb as much as I want to. It didn't start that way. When I think back to when I first got into running, it was because I had gotten my first "real" job and had gained weight. My pants were too tight and I knew I had to make a change. I would walk 4 miles before work every morning and thought, "if only I could run, I wouldn't have to get up as early because it wouldn't take so long."
So I started Couch to 5k which got me to be able to run 3 miles without stopping. I coasted on that for a while, running very sporadically. Then I signed up for a 10k and caught the race bug and eventually ran a marathon. For a while I had the "I workout so I can eat whatever I want" attitude. Until about halfway through training for my first marathon when I realized I had gained weight! I was running more than I ever had in my life and I had gained weight!! It was around that same time I watched the documentary Forks Over Knives which talked about diet from a health perspective. It quoted Hippocrates, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” and other philosophers that have been saying the same thing all along. Food is fuel.
Once I looked at it that way, my choices got much easier. There's always room for improvement and I don't think any one diet is one-size-fits-all. But I think there are small easy tweaks we can all make because not every meal or snack is so amazing that you just can't pass it up. If you save the splurges for the food that is truly worthy of splurging on, then you can make healthy choices the rest of the time.
Day 20
Breakfast:
Oatmeal, banana
Snack:
Lunch:
Snack:
Apple
Dinner:
Exercise:
Hiking (12+ miles, 4,000 ft elevation gain)
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