Facing it.

This morning I decided to face the music and step on a scale, and stop hiding from the fact that I’ve gained 18 pounds from my lowest weight, and about 12 from where I was most of last year.

On the plus side, all my clothes still fit (though some are noticeably snugger.) On the down side, I can definitely see the difference when I look at photos from my first half marathon.

Bummer, and time to start calorie counting again. I’ve admittedly been a little out of control with unhealthy habits (eating too much junk, drinking too much, skipping workouts because “I’m tired” or “I would rather do crafts.”)

This is my food for today (I haven’t entered in dinner yet because I don’t know what I want to eat.) My goal is to eat as little sugar as possible (especially added sugar, but definitely trying to keep my naturally occurring sugar in check!) for at least the next couple days, if not a week or two, because I’m on sugar overload these days.

Case in point: I just ate a bowl of chili. Then I looked at the graham crackers sitting on my desk and thought I’d like to eat them. I told myself “If you are hungry, you can eat the hard boiled egg in the fridge” and suddenly realized I was so full that the thought of eating an egg was kind of gross, I had just wanted something sweet. Is this what sugar addiction is?

In other news, oatmeal with no sugar (aside from a tablespoon of raisins) is not bad! Neither is unsweetened coffee, as long I add a ton of almond milk.

Additionally, I may be unable to meet my goals if I want to eat 1600 calories and get 30% of my calories from protein. 120g of protein is kind of a lot. (in the picture above it’s factoring in the calories I “earned” from exercise. I haven’t decided if I want to eat back all my exercise calories to net 1600, or some percentage of them so my net might fall a bit short and leave me at a deficit.)

One thing I can say is that this has made me reevaluate what my “goal weight” is. Because to reach what I set as my “goal” in 2010 would require me losing 35 pounds from where I am now, and I just don’t know if that’s possible OR maintainable. As of now, my goal is lose 5 before Thanksgiving weekend (10 year high school reunion that weekend!), then an additional 15-20 before I start training for the Brooklyn Half (race will be in May, so training will start in March-ish). From there I’ll see, but from where I sit now I think I will be comfortable with maintaining there, assuming I can get there to begin with.

meal plan

Call for resources: high-protein veg meal plans

I mentioned in my previous post that I hadn’t originally planned on doing the meal plan included in New Rules of Lifting for Women. To be honest, while I understand the advantages to increasing my protein intake, I’m not interested in superdosing myself with soy or dumping protein powder into everything I eat. I seriously object to how quickly the author tossed out all concerns about artificial sweeteners (basically said “the POSSIBLE side effects of aspartame aren’t as bad as the DEFINITE negatives of sugar.” I guess that may be true, but I still choose not to load my body with chemicals.)

However, to get all I can out of the book, I want to try a version of this eating plan. It’s really just a 30/30/40 protein/fat/carb ratio, which should technically be adaptable. The breakfast and snack meal plans are all easy enough (oatmeal with protein powder, breakfast burrito, fruit and yogurt, cottage cheese and raisins, etc.) However, most of the lunch and dinner plans are meat-based. Some include multiple kinds of meat.

If all else fails, I know I can use myfitnesspal to build meals with the same ratio, but I’m hoping that there may be some ready-made resources out there that I can use. I’m looking for meal plans that fit into the 30/30/40 ratio, about 350 calories for lunches and 350-500 calories for dinner (the plan also includes 2 snacks and a post-workout shake.) 

In general, I try not to rely too heavily on any one form of protein. Eggs, beans, soy, dairy, wheat gluten, mycoprotein- all good options, but I don’t think that too much of any one thing can be all that good for you. There are studies that say eating too much soy messes with your estrogen, eating too many eggs can lead to diabetes, eating too much dairy will give you bad skin, and there are also studies refuting all those claims. To play it on the safe side, I try not to eat more than one meal of soy protein or eggs in a given day.

For anyone who follows a similar plan, are there sites out there with more meal plans? Even if the site isn’t exclusively vegetarian, I’m hoping I can find some additional options so I can feel confident going into this plan!

30/30/40

meal plan

new rules of lifting