Remember the whole "clean eating" resolution? Well, not really resolution, but either way... I have been sticking with it for the last two months. I feel great, I dropped some serious weight, my pants fit better again and my training is going well.
I implemented several changes in the last couple of months and will eventually write a whole big post about it to explain the how's and the why's. But today, I just wanna talk about the change, that I believe made the biggest impact:
Take my lunch to work.
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| Yesterday's creation: Chicken, beets, artichokes, barley and 2 table spoons of Italian dressing |
I know this is not great news. Every weightloss blog and podcast talks about it, every nutritionist recommends it, but I just didn't do it. I was too lazy. Heck, I lost 60lbs a couple of years ago and still when out for lunch every day during the week.
But for whatever reason, this time around, I wanted to have more control of what I am putting into my body... While calories in vs out is the determining factor if you are losing, gaining or maintaining weight, I wanted to start improving the quality of the calories that I am taking in.
Since I am not a great cook and mostly prepare my meals for the next day between getting home, walking the dog, unpacking my bags from that day's workout and repacking my bags for the next day of workouts, I developed "go-to" meals pretty fast. My two standards are some sort of salad creation (see above) and some sort of wrap creation.
In order to no get too bored about this, I switch the ingredients around every day. And when just switching stuff around wasn't quite enough, I added new (to me) foods that I have not used in the past, like barley, beets, banana peppers and artichokes... It would sound better, if they were called "bartichokes"... I know, not funny!
Actually, I started to cook a whole box of quinoa one night and just keep it in the fridge and then we just throw it into anything we can think of e.g. salads, scrambled eggs, cottage cheese. A couple of months ago I bought a box of barley, but haven't cooked it until earlier this week and I see barley being utilized by us the same way we use quinoa.
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In other news:
Since daylight savings started, Terry and I are taking the dog for a walk for at least 2 miles every night. So far, we got lucky with the weather and haven't gotten rained out yet. We only don't walk her, if I have an evening workout and it's already dark by the time I get home. Then Terry usually takes her for a shorter walk by himself.
It keeps the dog's energy level in check and she's not bouncing around the house like crazy.
Here are some pictures from a recent walk... Spring is here indeed:
those evening walks sound nice. i think about getting in that sort of habit, but never force myself to. lazy.
ReplyDeletei have been eating super clean for almost a week now myself. i have to just 'toss stuff together' too. although this week i made a big pot of brown rice and divided it up into tupperwares for lunch all week. then i throw some frozen veggies (straight from the bag from the store) into another portion size tupperware and that is my lunch. i am a little burnt out on salads... especially when i can't put cheese or dressing on them.
anyway, sounds like you're doing well with the clean eating! have you gone out to eat any? i just can't - i know i will be tempted to eat things i "can't"...
Yes, I did you out for a couple of lunches and weekends like the last when we were on the road, you can't avoid that and those days are okay too... I actually had my first burger and fries last Saturday after the race and boy it was good. Also treats are not off limits, but try to keep it mostly clean. That is much more than what I have been doing in the last year!
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