Adventures in Clean Eating

I stopped having formal New Years Resolutions a while ago.  I find that when I make a true resolution, I make them a little too big and end up failing significantly greater than I would have had I never made the damn resolution in the first place.  I do, however, love the opportunity January 1 brings to reflect on my life, see how I’ve progressed over the year, and how I’d like to continue into the next.  Rather than starting a whole new goal, I look at the goals that have naturally appeared over the past year and decide how I can further those.  This year, I’m concentrating on getting smarter about my spending (not necessarily spending less, but making fewer impulse buys and investing in things that are better quality and won’t go out of style), diversifying how I spend my my “free time” (at least doing more creative things than vegging out in front of the television), and concentrate on eating a vegan diet more often.

After trying nearly every diet under the sun, I’ve learned that eating a vegan diet keeps me feeling energized and is really the only way I’ve been able to maintain my weight without feeling deprived.  I still love brisket and cheese, don’t get me wrong, but I keep my cheat meals to about once a week.  Yet, while I haven’t been feeling deprived, per se, I have been a little bored with my food lately.  Breakfast and lunch have been fine.  I like my morning smoothie and afternoon salad mess.  Dinners have been rough.  I really want something warm for dinner, but also need to eat things I can pack and bring to class.  I have a microwave at school, so reheating is fine.  I’ve been combining brown rice with steamed veggies and beans, but that’s getting a little blah.  Even with tons of hot sauce.  I made this from the Whole Foods website this week.  It’s alright, although I thought that since it combined some of my favorite flavors it would be a little better.

So, here’s a call to arms.  Does anyone have some great vegan recipes for me to try?  Preferably something without tofu that can be made in bulk.  If it looks yummy I’ll give it a try and post the results here!

For the final installment in this series, I’m focusing on two related issues: disordered eating and self-esteem.  I struggled with disordered eating for many years.  I don’t say I had an eating disorder, because my problem wasn’t nearly that severe, but I did have an unhealthy relationship with food and weight loss.  Slowly, I’ve overcome it.  I can’t say that I never experience food guilt anymore, but I’ve made a lot of progress over the years.  Here are some things I’ve learned along the way.

21.  Beauty comes in many forms. That sounds so corny, but it’s true.  Society’s perception of what is beautiful is constantly changing.  Once upon a time, curvy ladies like Marilyn Monroe were considered the ideal, but they’d be considered overweight by today’s standards.  Likewise, Kate Moss’s waif-like frame isn’t in style anymore.  I appreciate the fact that a little bit of muscle is considered sexy now, but who knows what we’ll be trying to attain in five years.  My point here is that you shouldn’t judge yourself based on what the women in the magazines look like.  Sure, they can be great motivation to get your butt off the couch, but that look isn’t attainable to most women.  It’s barely attainable to those women.  The amount of photo-shopping done to models these days is ridiculous.  Stop holding yourselves to those standards.  Even if we all had access to the same resources those celebrities have (personal trainers, private chefs, basically a whole team of people whose job it is to make them look amazing), genetics would keep most of us from looking exactly that way.  Our bodies are all proportioned differently, and getting down to supermodel weight would be really unhealthy for most people.  You need to look at yourself as individual.  Don’t strive to look like anyone.  Aim to be a healthier you.

22.  Separate your habits from how you feel about yourself. Belle explained this theory really well in a recent post, but I’d like to expand on it a bit.  Just like you should still lead a healthy lifestyle even if you love the way you look, you should maintain healthy habits even if you don’t.  Drinking juice all day is not healthy.  Think about how your doctor would tell you to eat and exercise, and do that.  No doctor would tell you that extreme diets are healthy.  Yes, if you are obese, you need to work harder.  But, there is always an extreme you should not reach.  Do the healthy thing, which isn’t always what’s going to work the quickest.  But, it will gradually work, and it will be much easier to maintain when it does.  So, while everyone should eat healthily and exercise, there is no specific formula to health.  If you hate to run, don’t do it.  You don’t have to run to be healthy.  Choosing “healthy” gives you a wide variety of choices.  Do what you like that makes you feel good.  Healthy doesn’t mean militant restriction from treats and sweets, it means having a balanced diet where splurges are minimal and controlled.  It doesn’t mean you need to beat yourself up because you caved and ate a cookie.

23.  It’s just a damn apple. Pardon my language, but it’s true.  Once, thoughts of food consumed me.  I planned out every meal a week in advance.  I counted calories religiously.  I weighed myself daily and it ruined my whole day if the number was up.  I felt like I was constantly in a state of deprivation.  I stopped keeping cereal in the house because I couldn’t “control” myself around it.  Same with peanut butter.  Those are healthy foods that I couldn’t seem to eat in moderation because I was so miserable from never letting myself eat what I wanted.  I remember one day when I had reached my calorie count for the day, but I was up late studying and got myself so stressed out because I was hungry but didn’t want to eat since I was at my limit for the day.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  After an hour of that nonsense, I just had to laugh at myself.  Eat the damn apple.  It’s just an apple.  You’re hungry, it’s good for you, eat it.  This stuff is not so complicated.  So began my journey of becoming more intuitive about how I eat.  I learned to pay attention to the cues my body was giving me, and started eating in a way that made me feel good.  Yes, I’ve gained a little weight since college, but I have more energy now than I ever did then.  Now, I don’t think about my day in terms of how many calories I eat, or when my next workout is going to be.  The other day I realized that I had started buying cereal again.  It wasn’t even a choice.  I just picked up the box at the store one day, and then would occasionally eat a bowl in the morning (without having to measure out a half cup serving, I might add).  It didn’t tempt me throughout the day, because I no longer lived in a state of deprivation.  I didn’t feel the need to stuff myself with unsatisfying cereal because I had learned to eat in a way that I enjoy and makes me feel good.  If you don’t feel that way, then you’re either not eating enough or you’re not eating the right things.  Find healthy foods that you like.  Eat mostly those things, only when you’re hungry and not when you’re full.  Treat yourself once or twice a week.  If you’re really craving something, eat a little bit of it.  Eventually you’ll find a rhythm that works for you.

24.  Don’t do it for anyone but you. I spent many years dieting to revenge ex-boyfriends who broke my heart.  I’ll show him, I’d think.  I’ll get so hot he’ll regret ever having left me.  I’d push myself to extremes out of jealousy.  Not only is that not an attractive personality trait, but it made for motivation that was bound to fail.  When I eventually lost the weight, I still didn’t feel good enough, and then I’d eat a pint of ice cream.  Don’t do it for anyone else but yourself.  You deserve all the  great things that come along with being healthy: a long life, energy, strength.  You are fantastic, no matter what the scale says.  You deserve it all and more, and if that asshole can’t see that, then he’s too stupid to deserve you.

25.  Appreciate all you can do. The human body is capable of incredible things.  I remember when I ran my first 5k.  I was so nervous at the start.  I didn’t think I could run the whole thing, but then I did.  I was so happy and… surprised that I could do it!  I wanted to keep going to see what else I could do.  It became an addiction of sorts.  Two years later I ran my first marathon.  What kept me going through the training and the injuries was the sheer amazement at what I had accomplished.  It was just so exciting to see how much stronger and faster I was getting every day.  It did more than help me lose weight, the physical strength translated to mental strength.  It made me feel powerful.  Five years ago I never would have dreamed in a million years that I could run a marathon, but I did.  My next goal is to finish a half-Ironman, and eventually a full.  I know I can do it.  I’m not sure when, but it will happen.

You can do amazing things if you work hard.  Watch your progress.  Appreciate the little milestones, whether you can start lifting heavier or you cut a few seconds off your average mile time.  The physical achievements will give you so much more satisfaction than your dress size will.

Happy New Year!  I’m just back from Atlanta, after a good trip and a rather disappointing football game.  I’m back in the office today, and have already completed my workout for the day!  I ran four slow miles on  the treadmill this morning.  I didn’t have much energy since I’m fresh off the trip, but I’m glad I was able to wake up and get it out of the way.  It always feels good to start the day with a workout.

Today I’m continuing the 25 Health Lessons series with five lessons on a topic near and dear to my heart: Balance.  My schedule is very, very hectic.  I work 40 hours a week (minimum), and after my work day is done I head straight to class at night.  Every night.  My weekends are filled with homework, which always sucks, but it was particularly difficult last year when I was out of town every other weekend or so to plan my wedding.  I’ve always been busy (truthfully, I kind of like it), but the past two years since I started law school have been a challenge.  Here are a couple tricks I’ve learned to fit a healthy lifestyle into my schedule.

16.  Get into a routine. Despite the fact that I was even busier last school year, with a much worse commute than I have now, I worked out a lot more regularly than I did this past semester.  This past semester I figured that since I had one night off a week from class, plus other random pockets of time during the day to get a workout in, I could go on an alternative work schedule.  So, I worked 7:30-5, with every other Friday off, instead of my normal 8:30-5.  I couldn’t force myself to wake up early enough to work out in the mornings, but figured I had enough time to get in regular workouts still.  I did have enough time, but I rarely took advantage of it.  Since I couldn’t work out around the same time every day, I never got into a routine, and subsequently skipped my work outs way too frequently.  I learned my lesson, went back to my regular schedule, and so far have been keeping up with my workouts.

17.  Something is better than nothing. Once upon a time, I worked out at least an hour and a half a day, sometimes more.  I had a pretty relaxed work environment at the time, plus after work I didn’t really have much to do besides watch TV, so I would typically go to the gym at lunch, and often after work as well.  When I started a new job and law school, my time became much more limited.  When I could make it to the gym, I couldn’t work out for nearly as long, so I developed a very “why bother” attitude about it.  That was dumb.  Just because you can’t do as long or as intense a workout as you’re accustomed to doesn’t mean you should skip it all together.  Try to get in just 30 minutes on the elliptical, or a short weights session.  Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred is ideal for a day like this since it’s a solid work out that’s only 25 minutes long.  If nothing else, walk the long way home, or get off the train a few stops early.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Small bursts of activity do accumulate.

18.  Learn to love circuit training and interval training. Circuit training is awesome because it doesn’t take much time, but gets your strength training and cardio in at the same time.  It also kicks your butt!  Interval training has a much better after-burn effect than steady-state cardio, but is done in much less time.  On any cardio machine, alternate a minute of moderate effort with thirty seconds of intense effort.  In fifteen minutes time, you’ll be dripping in sweat and have accomplished a great workout.

19.  Find portable healthy foods you like and bring them everywhere. The best way to avoid the temptation of vending machines is to never let yourself feel hungry or unsatisfied.  I always bring more food than I think I’ll need when I leave my house in the morning.  That way I don’t have to choose between being hungry and buying something that’s probably not healthy (and surely expensive) to eat.  Good snacks include: granola bars, fruit with a thick skin (not pears… I learned that the hard way when one  turned to mush in my purse), nuts, sandwiches with deli meat or peanut butter, sliced vegetables in plastic bags, sweet potatoes (prick one all over with a fork and nuke in the office microwave for four minutes), string cheese, dried fruit, individually packaged yogurts, etc.  Make sure your snacks are things you enjoy.  I used to buy individual portions of hummus from Costco.  I ate them with crackers or veggies a lot because they were so convenient.  But I soon realized that I’m not really crazy about hummus.  I like it ok as an appetizer… but mainly because I love warm flatbread.  Whenever I ate it with veggies I tended to feel really unsatisfied afterwards and I’d splurge.  Or I just wouldn’t eat it… and still splurge.  Find foods you like and bring them with you everywhere.

20.  Learn to prioritize. Face it, when you get busy, you’re going to have to cut back on time spent in all areas of your life.  But, when you have to choose between two competing activities, you need to decide which one really deserves your attention.  There’s not always going to be one priority that’s the most important.  You have to take stock in each situation.  If you’re a little behind in your reading and have a couple hours before class but also need to work out, ask yourself how important it is to do your reading in that class.  I’ve had classes where you can never predict when the teacher will call on you, and then she intensely grills you on each aspect of the case.  In those classes, I need to do the reading very thoroughly for each class.  In other classes, I would know when I would be called on, or would just need to have a basic knowledge of the case based on questions the professor asks.  If it’s the former kind of class, reading would typically have to win out.  If it’s the latter, I would decide based on how badly I need to work out.  Have I not worked out at all this week?  Do I have time for a good workout tomorrow?  Can I switch up my workout schedule to make today my rest day?  If I really do need to work out, there’s my answer.  Try to divide your time up as evenly as possible.  It’s the only way to stay sane.  As far as friends and family go, you can’t just ditch the people you love all together, but true friends will understand when you have to stay in and study and can’t make it out one night

It being the day before New Years Eve, I think it’s fitting that the five lessons I’m sharing today have to do with motivation.  I’m actually still trying to figure out what my resolution is this year.  I think I’m going to push myself to stick to a vegan diet at least six days a week, as opposed to what I do now (eat vegan during most of my main meals if I’m eating in, but not limit what I eat when I’m out, plus regular non-vegan snacks and desserts).  Whatever your goal is, here are the things that help me stick to my goals.

11.  Save your favorite entertainment for the gym. I started listening to audiobooks over the summer when I had just finished the first Hunger Games book, and didn’t want to run, just start reading Mockingjay.  I compromised with myself and bought the audiobook off iTunes (for way too much money, I’ll add), and told myself if I wanted to listen to it, I had to be doing something productive.  If you’re a Hunger Games fan, you’ll understand why I logged a lot more miles than normal that month.  I save a good audiobook for the gym, cleaning, and commuting, and it really makes me look forward to those dreaded activities.  I also like to save magazines I like for the elliptical or treadmill for inclined walking (I’m not quite talented enough to run while reading).  To save money on audiobooks, I got an account at audible.com, so I can get a book a month for about $8.00.  You can also get books on CD at your library, but the selection at mine tends to be pretty picked over.

12.  Invest a little money. Buy a package at a yoga studio.  Get a cute workout top.  Invest in a good pair of running shoes.  I’m not saying become Lululemon’s best customer.  Your professional wardrobe is where the bulk of those funds should go, trust me.  But, if you spend a little hard-earned dough on your goal, you won’t want to waste it.  Plus, whenever I have a cute new workout outfit I really want to show it off.  For this to really work, buy something that will expire, like a month’s worth of classes at the gym.  Not only will you need to get your butt in gear quickly, but the more often you go, the more bang for your buck you’ll get.  LivingSocial and Groupon are great for stuff like this, since they always have expiration dates.

13.  Use non-food rewards. Rewards can be pretty powerful.  However, rewarding yourself with an unhealthy food is a slippery slope, for a number of reasons.  First, one key to learning to diet successfully is to separate your emotional ties to food.  You need to learn to learn to view food as it is: nourishment.  It is definitely okay to indulge sometimes, but treating food as a reward only fuels disordered eating, just as using food as therapy does.  Secondly, I’ve learned that the longer I go without junk food, the less I crave it.  However, I’m not very good at the moderation thing, so if I let myself have a little bit, I’ll go overboard.  And then I ruin a week’s worth of hard work.  There are plenty of other, healthier ways to reward yourself.  Buy yourself a present.  Go see a movie.  Read some sappy, indulgent book.  I’m a beauty product junkie, so I like to buy myself a new bottle of nail polish or some other product that I’ve heard works wonders when I’ve reached a week’s or month’s goals.

14.  Surround yourself with support. Unfortunately, we all have people in our lives who don’t want us to succeed, for whatever reason.  Whether it’s the coworker who pressures you to eat a cookie or the friend who tries to convince you to skip the gym, we all have one of these toxic people in our lives.  They aren’t malicious; they do what they do because they want to feel better about their own unhealthy habits.  As best you can, try to cut these people out of your life.  If that’s not possible, learn to recognize their sabotage.  Know that they’re just jealous of your will power.  Don’t fall for their tricks.  A true friend will support you on your journey to get healthy.  They’ll tell you they’re proud of you for rocking that race, instead of rolling their eyes at you when you say you have to go to bed early so you can run in the morning.

There is a caveat to this.  If a good friend approaches you with concern that you’re not eating enough, or may be working out to the point that it’s unhealthy, don’t write her off as a hater right away.  True, she might be uninformed about what good habits look like, or she doesn’t see what you’re eating when you’re not around, but at least listen to what she has to say.  It takes guts to tell someone that you think their behavior is destructive.  You don’t do that unless you really love someone.

15.  Make plans. Schedule your workouts in your planner, along with your other meetings and appointments.  This will not only help you figure out how to work them into your busy schedule, but it helps you to take it all more seriously.  One of the reasons I like classes is that they’re nonnegotiable.  When I plan to go for a run I can put it off until it never happens, but when I plan to take a class I have to get out the door by a certain time or I won’t make it.  Plus, if you start going to certain classes regularly you’ll say that it’s often the same group of people taking the class.  Even if you never get to know anyone, knowing that you might be noticed as missing one day is good motivation.  It feels like you have someone to be accountable to.  I used to go to the same 6 AM kickboxing class on Friday mornings for a while, but I had to change my work schedule and couldn’t make it anymore.  When I ran into my instructor at the gym one day, she asked me where I had been.  It was nice to be able to say that I had been going to a different class because of work, and not that I had just gotten lazy!

We’re off to Atlanta to see UVA play in the Peach Bowl tonight and won’t be returning until Monday, so this series will be taking a break for the holiday weekend.  I’ll be back next week with some more important lessons!  Anyone out there have a health-related resolution to share with the class?

Read Part I here.  Yesterdays lessons learned dealt primarily with nutrition.  Today, I’m going to share with you five lessons I’ve learned relating to exercise.

6.  Everyone needs to exercise.  You need to make exercise a part of your routine.  It doesn’t matter if you naturally look like Giselle.  Our bodies are meant to move.  If you’re sedentary, you are unhealthy, regardless of what you look like.  Try to get in the habit of making it to the gym three times a week for about 45 minutes, for a combination of strength and cardio.  If that seems miserable, find something that seems less so.  If you hate running, take up walking.  See if there’s a class at the gym you enjoy.  Netflix, On Demand, and YouTube have countless (basically free) exercise videos.  If there’s a sport you played as a kid, see if there’s an adult league in your area.  I’m sure if you look around, you can find some activity that’s tolerable to you.  If you don’t do it for your physique, do it for your heart.  Your ticker needs to be worked to stay strong.

7.  Everyone needs to strength train. From a health standpoint, strength training will increase your bone density and prevent injury.  This is particularly important as you get older and your bone density naturally decreases with age.  From a weight-loss standpoint, regular strength training will increase your metabolism.  Although 30 minutes of weight lifting won’t burn nearly as many calories as cardio, muscle burns more calories than fat.  So, if you have more muscle mass, your at rest calorie burn will be much higher the more muscle you have.  Basically, you will burn more calories doing lazy things like watching TV or sitting in front of your computer if you have more muscle.  From an aesthetic standpoint, muscles are sexy.  People are finally starting to get that.  Even Victoria’s Secret models have six packs now.  I’m so sick of hearing girls say that they don’t strength train because they don’t want to look like guys.  Ladies, you do not have enough testosterone to bulk up.  Your muscle will stay lean, I promise.  Plus, a little mass isn’t a bad thing.  “Skinny fat” girls look gross.  If you’ve already lost weight through diet, strength training will help that excess skin look more taut.  Yes, muscle weighs more than fat, but you should distance your perception of yourself from that number on the scale.  Real quick, do a Google image search for a pound of muscle versus a pound of fat.  See the difference?  I currently weigh more than I did five years ago, but I’ve dropped two dress sizes in that time, and I’m a hell of a lot healthier to boot.  Such is the power of strength training.

8.  You need to stretch. I never want to stretch after a workout.  I’m usually so beat I just want to go home.  But, stretching will vastly decrease your risk of injury and next day soreness by increasing the blood flow to your muscles.  It will also increase your athletic performance by both helping your muscles grow more quickly and increasing your range of motion.  So, it’s worth it to take a few minutes at the end of your workout to stretch out the muscles you’ve used.  Do not stretch before your workout.  Studies have shown that this actually increases your likelihood of injury, so save the stretching for your cool down.  A good way to warm-up is to do a modified version of whatever workout you plan to do, going through the same motions with a lighter weight or doing your cardio on a lighter setting/more slowly.  When you do stretch, don’t bounce, as this creates small tears in your muscles that will create scar tissue.  You want to go for easy, static stretches.  You should feel the stretch, but it shouldn’t be painful (I wish someone had told this to my dance teachers who used to push me into the splits as a kid…).  I also try to hit up a Vinyasa yoga class at least once a week to get an extra good stretch in case my cool-down didn’t cover it, but that’s just me.

9.  Mix up your workouts. When you first take up exercise, you will probably start to notice changes in your body sooner, rather than later.  The changes will be gradual, but they’ll start showing within a month if you’re working out consistently.  After a couple months, though, you’ll start to plateau.  That’s because if we do the same thing over and over again, our bodies get used to it and stop responding.  This is especially true for weightlifting, but it applies to all exercise.  If you lift weights on your own, make sure you change up your routine every six weeks at a minimum.  Instead of only running as your cardio, work some cross-training in the mix.  This will not only help your progress, but it will also keep you interested in your workouts and prevent injury from over-training.  Personally, I like to mix up my weight-lifting using BodyPump classes, DVDs, and doing my own thing in the weight room.  I also have a variety of cardio exercising I like, like running, swimming, cycling, taking classes at the gym, and doing cardio circuits.  It really helps prevent burnout when you have another workout you can do when the one on your schedule sounds miserable.

10.  Drink coconut water! My whole life, I’ve had really bad issues with cramping.  You know what’s not fun?  When your toes cramp up when you’re wearing pointe shoes.  Even after workouts that aren’t particularly strenuous, like a three mile run, I can develop really painful cramps in my legs and feet.  A couple months ago, when after a boot camp class I got a Charlie horse so bad that I couldn’t stand up (much less drive home from the gym) for 20 minutes, I decided I needed to take control of this problem.  Based on my research, the problem could be caused by dehydration, potassium deficiency, or a need to replenish electrolytes.  I drink a lot of water, so I figured it wasn’t dehydration.  I also eat two bananas a day, so I doubt it’s my potassium.  That left my electrolytes.  Adding a little salt to my water wasn’t working (and it was gross).  I could drink Gatorade, but I didn’t want to take in all the sugar when I wasn’t burning enough calories during my workout to counteract it, and my stomach can’t handle artificial sweeteners so G2 was out.  Once I tried coconut water, I was sold, and I haven’t cramped up since!  This stuff is yummy, low-calorie, and really works.  As an added bonus, it’s a pretty great hangover cure, too.  I buy mine in bulk from Costco to cut cost, and save them for after particularly sweaty workouts.  I’ve also seen them at the grocery store in re-sealable larger bottles, so drinking half and then saving the rest of a different workout is a good option, too.