Wednesday, September 06, 2006


I have been inspired to get serious about nutrition from my new friends at Slowtwitch (Thanks Lauren!). To understand my reasons for getting crazy about my food intake let's review my nutrition history:

College- Ate like crap. Exercised little. Gained 15 pounds
Med School- Studied for boards. Ate to stay awake. gained 15 more pounds
College/Med school- Very high cholesterol
Beginning of grad school- went on the Zone diet for a year. Lost 35 pounds, felt fabulous, cut out caffeine, cholesterol went WAY down. Life was good. I could run forever without knee pain. Not sure if I want to get that skinny again (108 pounds), but I certainly was healthy.
Past 2 years:

Dated someone who loved to cook. Started eating less great. Gained 10-15 pounds
Found out said person had been cheating on me. Didn't eat for 2 weeks. Lost 10 pounds

Joined the Tri-club, got my fitness in order, but my diet has been less than desirable. I want to feel great again. It is going to take some discipline, but at Slowtwitch we are doing a weight loss challenge. I am using it as more of a Healthy Living challenge, because I only have 5-10 pounds I want to take off (my knees will thank me, but I am a healthy weight now, so I'm not obsessing about it). So my new checklist:

1) Cut out processed or refined foods: whole foods only: Fruits, veggies, meats (if you eat meats), fish, eggs, etc.
2) 1x or less alcohol per WEEK
3) Ate 5-6 'meals' a day
4) Ate no processed sugar products, added sweetners, or sugar-sourced condiments (including honey, molasses, etc) as 'food'. (Your sugars can only be during your training - see #9). CHECKED ALL LABELS FOR 'High fructose corn syrup', sugar, etc.
5) Treat meal 1-2x week - (or not!)
6) Portion size no bigger than the palm (approx 1/2 c). (This doesn't count with salads).
7) RECORDED ALL FOOD for at least 5-14 days to see eating patterns.
8) Drank water as main liquid source
9) Maintained proper training/race nourishment and hydration, including broad-spectrum electrolytes according to sweat rate needs. Did not skimp on necessary carbs, gels, sports drinks during the important times before, during, after training.
10) Trained as normal - or better than normal. Checked my calorie expendature on for enough calories to train and live.

I signed up with It is a great tracking website that you can put in any goals you want and it will keep track of them for you.

If anyone wants to join us:;post=961116;page=5;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

Time to drink my water :)

Training note: had a great time at Master's swimming this morning with IronSteve. Then the dreaded thing happened at the run tonight... a whole new knee pain. AARRRGGGHHH. Same darn knee. I think the PT strap was not positioned correctly and something behind my knee cramped hard. Now my IT band hurts really bad. Can't I get a break with these stupid joints?


Wes said...

If you are committed to being healthy, then it seems to me that nutrition is an integral part of that, at least that is what I've learned in the last six weeks. I'm currently trying to lose around forty pounds, and my eating habits are not all that great. I'm getting better, but it is indeed going to take a concentrated effort to bring my nutrition in line with what it needs to be. Sorry to hear about your knee, hip, and your beau. Your soul mate is out there!

lauren said...

Thanks for mentioning me... and check on ST for a thread last Dec - Feb re: ITBS where I researched with stretches and solutions and successfully "cured" someone in less than 2 weeks, if in fact it was ITBS and not a different knee issue. We can talk later tioday about it...

Papa Louie said...

Way to go on being discipline on your nutrition. I think nutrition is a learning process and takes time. And little by little our eating habits will improve.
My 8 year old is reading the food labels and realizes that just about all packaged foods have HFCS and partially hydrogenatated oils in them so he is trying to stay away from eating them. I smile.

Steve said...

Nutrition is HUGE and not very easy in today's society... Especially when you have a job like mine where you are a talking head with people and taking them out for lunch and dinner... You would NOT believe how hard it is to get a decent (meaning not SUPER FATTY) salad dressing! I hate restaurants.

BUT GOOD FOR YOU!!! You'll have to tell me how this whole thing goes... I REALLY need to get a handle on my nutrition and thus my weight. Like our friend Wes up there I've been working on the extra 50 lbs I got. I will NEVER get back down to "my fighting weight"... I don't think I'll see that side of 190 EVER again.

Processed food.. yeah who knew it was SOOOOO bad for you? Ok so just about everybody.... I know I'm slow some times... don't make fun!

Keep Smiling! See you tomorrow Morning... for another A$$ Whoopin! I was the walking dead yesterday!!

rice said...

I find this a good sight to do for a couple days a month just to make sure you’re not overdoing it or under eating for the amount you’re working out.

Good for you for taking that step it is really hard to do these days like Steve said.

I tried to not lose any weight but just trim the fat. I dropped 20lbs. I had no idea that I was lugging that much fat around.

It sure makes it easier on the long runs.



Lynne K said...

Your post led me to 1. stop lurking at SlowTwitch and get a userid and 2. sign up for the challenge. Thanks for the inspiration! I, too, am a 5'3", 121 lb triathlete (although my last weigh-in on Mon was 124.5), and have been saying for two years that I wanted to get back to 115.

E-Speed said...

IT band can be from tight hip flexors so make sure you are stretching regularly!!!

Good luck with the diet. I might have to consider this. But as I don't cook for myself it might be hard.

DaisyDuc said...

I so like the idea of this nutrition thing...yet wonder if I can force myself to be committted! I just can't stand the idea of saying I will do something and not following through.

Anonymous said...
