Pep Talk
Coming out of a holiday weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about nutrition and getting right back on track after eating foods that aren't necessarily a part of our normal diets.Eating "junk" is a part of a healthy lifestyle -- yes, you heard that right. It just needs to be a once-in-a-while occurrence and not the norm. Celebrity fitness trainer Shaun T puts it perfectly; to paraphrase, he recommends that 80% of your calories are for health, and 20% are for fun. Let's face it, you are not going to give up your favorite comfort foods for life. Nor should you. And you should not feel guilty, bad, or like a failure for eating them.
There is no perfection in the pursuit of health and fitness. If you try to be perfect 100% of the time, you are setting yourself up for failure.
What you CAN do is confine those indulgences to special occasions (i.e. Memorial Day barbeques) and then GET RIGHT BACK to eating healthy. I cannot emphasize the importance of getting right back on track enough. The damage does not come from an isolated occurrence. In fact, I personally find that a treat once or twice a week helps me stay on track the rest of the time. The damage comes from feeling that the small slip has messed up your plan, so you continue to eat unhealthy foods for days or weeks on end.
A Personal Observation
As some of you know, I am training for Ironman Lake Placid for the second year in a row. Last year, I was obscenely strict with my diet (salads with chicken, no wheat or dairy, etc.). And I leaned out very well between my healthy diet and training. However, I dreaded social events because I was the odd-ball who brought her own food or wouldn't touch anything at the buffet. I was clutching to the hope of the week after Ironman so I could pig out and eat all the foods that I missed.
This year, my approach is very different. Yes, I am eating healthy 80% of the time. But once or twice a week, I allow myself some treat meals when I can eat what I want. Yes, at my Memorial Day barbeque, I had potato salad, beer, and pineapple upside-down cake. But now I am right back on track and eating healthy.
I have been eating this way (80/20) for the past several weeks, and have made the following observations when compared to my progress last year:
- I am leaning out just the same, if not even more rapidly.
- I feel like I have more energy.
- I am HAPPIER.
- I feel like I can continue this endlessly, not just until Ironman. I WANT to eat this way because of how good I feel (I am giving my body healthy foods most of the time, but I do not feel deprived).
