Working On Nutrition

Happy Friday to me! 

I am taking off tomorrow and couldn't be happier. I have a few weeks of vaca accrued (because apparently I like to hoard it all and realized I am close to a month and continually accruing) and am going to begin taking some much needed longer weekends and mental health days.

But anyways, back to the point. 

This week I took a step that I have been meaning to for quite some time. I finally had an appointment with an RDN, I went to the awesome people at Nutrition Energy.

This is a three fold situation, so I walked in with these goals:

• MOST importantly - start to address if I have food intolerance's that make my Crohn's worse. I am not in remission yet (that is for another time...) but I want to start looking to food and how it might be effecting my GI system now that I am at about 80%. As I told my awesome RDN Chris, I am so used to not feeling well that I don't know if it is Crohn's at this point all the time or some food choices are exacerbating GI distress. 
• I want to lose some more weight. I have managed to get down about 12 pounds and hold steady but I want to drop more. I am not "overweight" but I know I have some fat to lose. Not number focused but want to focus on more muscle/less fat. Maybe abs? (<-- lol probably not, ever)
• Eventually turn it into performance based nutrition guidance. I know I am not doing a full this fall BUT I would like to conquer some half's and I want to fine tune training and nutrition. But this is down the road. 

And boy did he listen to EVERYTHING. After almost 2 hours together I walked out with a plan to begin. 

It is just going back to the basic and listening to my body. Really paying attention to how I feel after eating certain foods. For example he was super surprised I eat a quest bar most days because they tend to hurt the stomach. Well, me, my stomach usually "hurts" to some degree. Is it the quest bar? or is it the Crohn's? (please god don't make me give them up). 

As far as weight loss - he gave me guidelines and it is back to macros for me - at a 50/25/25 split. He also gave me in terms of "exchanges" (i.e. 1 slice of bread = 1 carb exchange) and those targets. That will take some time to get the hang of. The goal is to bring him back my food diary from 2 weekdays / 1 weekend day. And, basically will be practicing 90/10 as far as wholesome/wine (bc summer and bubbly/rose which will be that 10% ;)

On our next appointment in a couple weeks we are going to do Metabolic Rate Testing (RMR) which I am SUPER excited about. I really want to know where my metabolism is at plus I am a numbers person and want to know that daily number. 

So after a couple days what I have I learned?

Holy undereating carbs batman. As in maybe 30% of my "normal" diet is carbs. Things that probably also explain my late night hunger that leads to binges. 

Also undereating calories. Struggle bus realizing I was at 1300 on a "normal" day. He has me at 1900. 

No wonder I am probably plateauing. (okay no I am holding steady at this weight because I have def loosened the eating reigns a little; while most days yes I am undereating I make up for it on my 2-3 meals out - I am lucky I didn't gain back any pounds!)

So I am focusing on adding back in more of the good carbs, quinoa, bulgar, brown rice etc. Also going to try and stop my quest bar breakfast habit. I hate breakfast and eating early (which he also said don't force it, and always just eat when officially hungry) and the quest bar is my bargain for getting something in me. Case and point I have been up since 5:30 and 3 hours later have not eaten anything and am fine. 

So that is where I am at. I feel lucky that my insurance is pretty darn great - I get unlimited visits to work with him and I am taking advantage. 

Yes, being more on top of my nutrition will be a pain in the ass but hopefully I get better at eyeballing the macros after a couple weeks. But for now, back to my fitness pal!