This Nutrition Thing

This is a bit of a random hybrid-entry between my family blog and my running one. 

Motivated by a desire to feel, look, and race better (as well as have something beyond a time goal to work towards while I came back from injury), I renewed my commitment to mindful eating as a sort of new year's resolution. I also feel a strong desire to do whatever I can to ensure my kid gets all the necessary nutrients, and felt like, for our family, focusing on "real food" was the way to do this. 

Inspiration:

• Racing Weight
• The Dorito Effect
• Paleo diet
• Whole30
• 100daysofrealfood.com

I developed a loose set of guidelines for myself to help curb my own bad habits, not following any one specific diet, just focusing on things I wanted to do for myself. Some were devised with the goal of getting more nutrients into my body; some were to keep things I didn't want in my body out; and some were just to keep me from overindulging in things that I know are problems/triggers for myself. Generally, I followed them. As the month went on and I educated myself a bit more, I revised these a bit to get focus on whole-grain versions of flour, bread, rice, etc. and limit processed stuff with added "flavors". 

Guidelines:

• no boxed/pre-packaged things (i.e. cereal, ritz crackers, etc)
• no powdered sauces (i.e Hamburger Helper, Rice-a-Roni)
• no bottled sauces (I'm  not much of a sauce person, but do have a soft spot for this peanut soy sauce thing)
• no juice (I tend to drink it in 16oz increments if I have it-- better to just stay away)
• no Starbucks (I had a bit of a flat white obsession last year, and having a Starbucks in my building's lobby didn't help my intake or my budget)
• no Panera lunches (it's sooooooo easy to get these from the office though)
• no delicious biscuit cracker things from the office snack bin
• no mindless snacking on a sleeve of saltines, or a bag of tostitos 
• measure and weigh all food, track daily calories (I didn't have a self-imposed limit of how many to eat each day, but rather used this as an accountability tool. Having to write down what I ate made me think twice about everything I put into my mouth)
• no Clif bars
• no things with limitless shelf life
• no premade muffins

good-bye, free office snacks
(though, really, I only liked the biscuit thingies anyways)

I'm not a big candy person, but having to consciously abstain from taking a Reese's or a Snickers bar a couple times a day was definitely a conscious decision

Major habit changes:

• taking out processed carbs meant I had to fill my belly with something beyond crackers and granola bars, so I found myself eating a LOT more veggies out of necessity
• instead of snacking on breakroom chips and crackers, I brought raw nuts, apples, and tubes of natural peanut butter to satisfy me between meals 
• Sunday nights became weekly meal prep time, where I'd make:
• egg muffins for breakfasts
• roasted vegetables for half the week
• pre-prepped salads for lunches
• hard-boiled eggs to snack on during the week
• homemade chili (disclaimer: I did use store-bought tomato sauce as part of my base) or stew to freeze for the later half of the week
• a meal plan for the week
• all breakfasts included home-brewed coffee with only a tablespoon of heavy creamer and 1/4c whole milk in my Contigo mug, which meant I'd still get to enjoy a warm beverage upon arrival at the office 
• lots of time prepping lunches and snacks, and bringing a BIG bag of food to work each day

food prep Sunday

overnight oats for breakfast

egg muffins!

on-the-go lunch of salad and nuts

ALL THE BAKING

typical day of food

^what's for dinner

The first half of the month was pretty rough, since I had to make a LOT of changes to our normal food routine. The back half, however, has gone pretty well, and I'm starting to feel like a lot of the changes I've made might actually be sustainable!

Good habits I've developed:

• putting coffee ground in the coffee maker the night before so that my kid can make my coffee for me in the morning before he has breakfast
• actually filling my Bento boxes with lunch food the night before so I just have to grab-and-go in the morning
• logging foods in MyFitnessPal to check nutritional content (make sure I'm getting enough protein, carbs, calories, etc)
• eating veggies and nuts
• using apples and carrots as midafternoon snacks at work
• eating a good breakfast post-run in the morning (i.e. not grabbing a poptart, but having hard-boiled eggs, egg/veggie muffins, or overnight oats)
• NOT going to Starbucks (y'all, breaking this was HUGE for me... and my wallet)

That said, this has been the lightest month of work I've had in my entire tenure at this job. Who know what'll happen in the coming months as work ramps up, Jerry resumes full-scale training (running), and life, in general, ramps back up. It's been good for our bodies, and pretty good on our budget too. 

End of Month Results: down four pounds, saved about $60/mo by not buying lunch/Starbucks and paying closer attention to what we buy at the grocery store