a personal revolution: eating

Today marks nearly three weeks of my efforts to do the simple things that make me feel good- mainly, move more and eat well.  I've detailed a little bit about how I've gone about the moving part- and will be sharing an update about that side of things next week- but I haven't dove too deeply into how I'm giving my body the energy to do a bit more every day.

To be honest, it hasn't been the biggest focus of the last three weeks -- learning how to run again has -- though it is something I'm paying attention to.  I've just found that, for me, it's about making a small choice each day that means a better food decision that I would have made otherwise.  And there have been bad decisions too, of course!

To begin with, I mentioned a long time ago that I was going to give up caffeine, and then how I failed at that.  And then I shared that I actually did give up caffeine for over two weeks.  It was actually crazy how intensely my body responded to a lack of daily Coca-cola.  I think it was a lack of that mix of sugar and the caffeine that caused me to have headaches every afternoon and evening for five days straight, and helped me realize that somehow my body had come to expect this daily onslaught of sugar and caffeine.  After not drinking it for those few weeks, I also realized how little I came to want a Coca-cola or a coffee.  Now I only get a soda when I really, really want it, or for a specific occasion, or drink coffee when I'm invited to go out with some of my co-teachers.  I'll admit, these past few days I was in Phnom Penh and also having some tummy troubles, I went back to drinking more soda than I'd like -- but it's easy for to stop drinking it or put it down once I've had a few sips, which I think is still a step in the right direction.

Why do I think this is so important to my own personal health journey? It may not seem like a huge deal, and there are plenty of people who drink caffeine or soda regularly that are still quite healthy.  For me, though, I've come to see that my tie to soda was a bit like me tie to all things convenient - it was cheap, easy, and delicious.  But I know that's true of nearly all overly-processed food items, and I want to move away from relying on man-made easy, delicious foods and turn more toward the natural, real things that can be just as convenient, yummy, but also much more healthful.

Whenever I eat food that is chock full of unhealthy fats or overly loaded with sugar, I can immediately feel a dip in my energy.  Just this weekend, I chose a meal out of convenience and didn't feel like doing anything for the rest of the day. Compared to the days when Chris makes us healthy, balanced meals, it just felt terrible.  

A delicious meal: broccoli, mashed carrots, barbecue pork on a small slice of bread. And a first Coca-cola in days!

So, I've starting making a conscious decision to pick up a banana when I wanted something to snack on.  Drink water with sugar-free drink packets when I wanted to drink something sweet.  Ask Chris to buy a lot more greens and veggies for our meals and prepare them as healthfully as possible. (Which he happily does - he's far more health-conscious than me, and a far better healthy foods eater than me to begin with!)

I also began to write down what I ate, every day.  I actually started doing this more than 20 days ago, to establish a baseline of the kinds of foods I was eating to help me find small things to change and eliminate each day- it helped me figure out that I needed to give up soda after I noticed how many I was drinking each week and how it always seemed to lead to even more sugar consumption afterward.

I'm actually on the hunt for an even better online food tracking diary, one that will help me estimate how many nutrients I'm getting, as well as make general guesses at the energy I'm expending each day when I run or work on my strength.  I'll be trying out a few in the next few weeks and will be back with a full report in a few weeks, which will hopefully help others that are also a bit overwhelmed by all the fitness and food tracking devices out there.

I had wanted to share how I figured out the daily breakdown of nutrients that I should be getting, but as this is getting a tad long, I'll share that next time.  Have a fantastic day, all!