January 2011 Diet Clean-up Challenge
I don't know about you, but I went pretty seriously off the ranch over the holidays and want to get back on track for the 2011 race season.
This challenge is to make good changes in your diet in January to help shed the holiday pounds, and get on track towards achieving your body composition goals for the 2011 race season. The dietary changes which you decide to make are up to you. For me, I will be doing a "Paleo Purge" experiment. This is the most strict I have ever attempted to make my diet. I will be eating lots of veggies, fruit, lean meats, seads and nuts. I will not be following the Paleo guidance to avoid legumes or certain low fat dairy (skim milk, low fat cottage cheese). Significant things I will NOT be indulging in include my latte-a-day, all sweet treats, breads, and alcohol (these things are my down-fall!). I will not be deliberately doing post or pre workout carb ingestion a la "Paleo for Athletes" unless I find that I need it. I will also commit to logging calories for the month of January.
What diet changes will you commit to for January?
Let's check in every 2-3 days with how we're doing.
Comments
I am also cleaaning up the diet. Did well through Thanksgiving and 1st 2 weeks of December.
My big goal is food journaling with my Body bugg. Keeping a close eye on calories in ( as well as out) measuring food. Plan also lots of veggies, fruit, lean protein and low fat/FF dairy. I also use legumes.
Time to make my grocery list and clean up the cabinets
1) No junk food at the office. I will abstain from all goodies brought in by co-workers whether store bought or homemade.
2) When I stop at Smoothie King after my Tue/Thu morning work-outs, I will not buy the organic cookie to supplement my drink. This only goes for January!
3) This one hurts the most...I will not have a bowl of cereal after 8pm
I'll reassess my weight at the end of January to see if additional limiters are required.
I try to stick to that paleo/primal thing (no seeds/grains or nuts) as much as possible outside of January too, but I'll allow a few 'cheat' days to allow for sanity purposes.
I read "Paleo Diet for Athletes" and though skeptical, I tried it this spring. I ended up losing 12 lbs (as last winter I was SOOOO far off the ranch and indulging in too many well marbled ribeyes). Aside from the weight loss, I felt alot "cleaner"---and not in the sense of "I just tortured myself with a wacky Juice Cleanse" but my bowel movements were more regular (yeah, TMI); I had more energy, less acne; I didn't have one cold/flu/upper respiratory illness the whole time I ate like that. I also tracked my calories on my iPhone app Lose It!
After IMWI, I left the ranch and went on a cake eating odyssey...with lot of steak and beer thrown in too. Pffft!
So for Jan, it's back to Paleo. I make an exception for occasional rice and rice noodles. It's such a huge part of the yummy Thai food my mom makes; and I die a slow death if I didn't eat it. The compromise I've made is that the rice will be brown Jasmine rice.
What ranch?
Beginning of November I was at 202.5 lbs. Now I am at 211. DOH! I have been seriously binging up to today when i took the kiddos to the movies and I consumed a large popcorn by myself!
I am in! I am doing Paleo-esque and will be doing a cleanse dealio that starts next week. Need to get back to "clean" eating.
I'm not sure why I get Outside magazine...it just started showing up a few months ago and I'm guessing there is a tie to triathlon. I've noticed that each issue has ads and articles related to triathlon.
@Paul - Search & Rescue - too funny! I'm going to check out that article.
@Kitma - it's encouraging that you had so much success with it! Hope I do too.
I am in for this challenge, I need to be accountable and this will help. I just started using LoseIt like many ENers. I want to lose 35lbs before IMAZ so I've got lots of work to do.
1) No more Carl's Jr - or fast food at all.
2) No more soda.
3) Way more veggies and fruits.
4) Eat a larger lunch and smaller dinner.
5) Log all food and exercise into LoseIt.
6) Work my A** off to get back into shape.
Cheers!
Thanks to everyone for the breakfast suggestions. Lots of great ideas.
I've read Coah R's excellent wiki peice on Nurtrition and also bought the Paleo for Athletes book today and it makes a lot of sense. Also bought the cookbook since I'm a bit 'kitchen challenged". So, my goals:
1) One cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Decaf green tea rest of the day. (Caffeine is currently my vice)
2) Lean proteins, fruits, veggies during day. Light carbs before and after hard training sessions.
3) Lots more water; I seem chronically dehydrated
4) Use LoseIt faithfully; great App and I've had good success with it.
Here we go............
It would be great to have a group commitment to the same thing even...and those were easy, effective, and performance enhancing when I abided by them!
Thanks
@Tracy: Did you purchase the BodyBugg yourself? I have been looking at it and am trying to decide if it is worth it. I have been using Coach Rich's calorie burn estimates and LoseIt! to track the data and it seems to work okay. I am just wondering how much more accurate the Bugg is?
In that time I also figured out that I am gluten intolerant. This was shocking to me. I was having such GI issues and trying elimination diets without success. When DH suggested I eliminate gluten, I agreed but told him that I really couldn't see how that could be the issue. Within 24 hours I improved. I won't even lie- I was bummed out. But as it is not celiac disease, just intolerance, as long as I am within reason, it's OK. So no cereal, bread, sweets. In my quest to find snacks that I could have, I went a bit overboard and need to cut back. (I can have eggplant or chicken parm (lightly breaded) but no pasta to accompany it.)
Last year I had success cutting out carbs except around workouts. This year I won't be so extreme with carbs. I need to monitor portion size.
I was big into protein shakes last year, but the whey protein is out. It is hard to find tasty protein shakes without whey. I have tried so many, choked them down and said "never again". I have found a vegan rice protein that when mixed with water and juice is good. I do drink Odwalla and Bolthouse farms still, but they have a lot of carbs, If you have a low carb protein shake you like, let me know. My search continues.
My plan: cut portion sizes; pay attention to when my body says I am full; more tea, less hot chocolate- just a start.
I am in!
OMG, I am fifteen lbs over my last HIM (Nov 7th) and other than the JOS don't have a plan. You guys are inspiring and I need to catch on. I like coach P's idea as I am good at binging!
A bunch of years ago when I lost 80 pounds I made a deal with myself that every time I lost 5 more pounds I could go to this killer Mexican restaurant and scarf down one of their HUGE burritos and chips. Was great motivation and I learned one meal doesn't not affect my overall goals.
I am also not a fan of deprivation. I remember when Atkins was popular and people couldn't eat pizza, popcorn, pasta or potato's and I was like, "I would rather be celibate!"
I like this idea because I can be good all week and my "binge" may be a cheeseburger, burrito, and the like. For me, it wouldn't be all day nachos and French fries. Probably more of a binge dinner.
John- I like your idea of a reward for pounds lost! Do it as one meal & a glass of red wine?
I still have a lot to lose ( at least 45 lbs), but that could be a nice treat if I have evrything else planned and prepped ahead of time!
@Paul H - I read that Outdoor, too... a lot of really cool stuff in there. In addition to the MovNat, the article about the cleanse really caught my attention - and I got the book and am about 90% through it.
so, starting Sunday (my last holiday party of the season), I'm going to do an "elimination week" (cutting starch, caffeine, sugar, alcohol...) and then move into a 3 week cleanse beginning Saturday 1/15. From there I suspect I'll transition back into the mostly Primal/Paleo way of eating that I started this past summer/fall. It may be hard, but it's just a few weeks...
I've pretty much always been an 80/20 kinda person... so the idea of a binge day pretty much goes along with that.... although usually I do a little binging daily, i.e., a glass of wine with dinner or a square of dark chocolate for dessert.
Can you define "binge"
IIRC, your idea of a "Binge" is splurging on a single scoop of nonfat frozen yogurt. That's kinda like the difference between my definition of the word "hill" and Rich's!