Being Honest With Myself: Cleaning up the Diet

I don't think that it is any secret that after NYCM I was pretty much just done. I was tired of training, tired of being good, I was ready to kind of let loose and enjoy the holidays and a little bit of what I like to call "being a fatty". 

I do not see anything wrong with indulging a little bit especially when you are highly active aka marathon training but due to undiagnosed stomach "issues" I stay away from high fat, red meat, and oily food as well as a lot of sugar in my diet. I do it because if I do not my runs will be miserable, and I will have stomach pains and never make it through a run without a stop. 

So after several weeks of a little too much mac n cheese, wings, burgers, beer, wine and tequila (all of which were thoroughly enjoyed thank you very much), I started finally really running again. And, my runs were brutal. I was riddled with stomach issues and just felt incredibly sluggish. I was well aware of the culprit, my diet. Diet goes hand in hand with my training. I will never be one that can eat like shit and bang out an amazing double digit run. I can do that more with an alcohol hangover, but not a food one. I also have managed to gain a few pounds over the past year. Nothing drastic but I have been feeling it in my clothes and my workouts. 

I had a hard look at myself and realized if I wanted to really start back at base building and feeling fit that I needed to clean up my diet. So I did the one thing that I said I would never ever do. I decided to turn to juices; specifically Juice Press. Now, I had no intention of stopping my workouts as I was ramping them up at the moment, so I choose to start juicing during the day, and then normal meals at dinner & snack. 

Juice Press has all my money

And let me tell you, I have never felt more phenomenal. I decided to do it during the week the first week then stop on the weekends because I go a little nuts as you can see on the weekends. Saturdays I do body pump, then run a shakeout, then take a flywheel class. Juice will not cut it. Nor will it for long run Sundays. 

Typical Saturday <3

On the weekend though, I can genuinely say I was MISSING the juices. I think I have been converted. 

So here we are week 3 of incorporating a lot of juice into my diet. Due to a lot of work obligations I have been going on business lunches so I am not necessarily juicing all day through to dinner but I am still making the healthy choices of lean meats and veggies instead of oh burgers and fries and all that jazz. And I am finally feeling so much better. 

My stomach hasn't had issues much lately and my energy is crazy. I have stopped drinking the 100 ounces or so of coffee I used to during the day (I will never EVER give up coffee, sorry not convinced) but I swear green juice gives me way more energy. I am also down a couple of pounds. However that probably is hand in hand with the fact that I am taking 3 body pump classes per week and running a lot more miles now. My workout intensity has increased as my eats have cleaned up so it isn't rocket science that the scale would start to move. But I am also not being a slave to my scale. There is more value in running a faster pace and for longer as well as upping my weights consistently - hello arms that are getting defined again!

So the moral of the story is as fun as it was to go totally off and enjoy whatever I wanted for a while, I love the way I feel when I am "behaving". I am back to bed early getting at least 7 hours most nights and waking up naturally before my alarm at 5 something. I love having a schedule again and feeling like the best version of myself. 

And I love when I underestimate my running as I did this morning as I set out for some fun repeats and well I thought I would be dying and started out at 8:34 and was cruising. That was a good feeling to know I should have begun sub 8 that my fitness is returning. 

Repeats for breakfast.

To sum it up, I'm back! And ready to train for real.