I know this is a bit of controversial way of doing things in the weight loss/health community but I need to break free of this ridiculous cycle of diets and regain a normal relationship with and enjoyment of food. Two weeks ago, I decided to start running 6 days a week for fitness. Despite catching a cold (during my period!) which resulted in days of binging and no exercise, I finally (snugly) fit into two pairs of pants that I haven't been able to button for 2 years. I am vegan. I eat relatively healthily but I still like certain junk foods. There is so much fear surrounding eating with freedom, I haven't been able to find anyone who has really just let go and experimented with the healing properties of running so here I am.
I am a 20 year old female, 5'3, and 153 pounds as of this afternoon. I am starting off running a modest 16 miles a week broken up as follows: 2 miles, 3 miles, 3 miles, 4 miles, 3 miles, 3 miles, rest day. For now I'm doing intervals, running for 2 minutes and walking for 1 minute. I hope to eventually start making mileage goals. My next goal will be 25 miles a week.
I'm mostly doing this for myself but just in case there are others curious about the results, I will be posting my daily intake and mileage as well as a weekly weigh-in and pants fitting.
So day 1. I ran 2 miles yesterday so I did 3 miles today. Here is my intake:
-Starbucks grande unsweetened soy green tea latte
-glass of orange juice
-bowl of white rice, black beans, and Steamfresh Asian medley vegetables
-small handful of dark chocolate chips
-2 pieces of whole wheat toast and a small handful of raisins
-Bowl of unsalted vegetable soup seasoned with fajita seasoning
I think I'll eat more fruit tomorrow >.<
Last edited by Sunflower987; 04-17-2014 at 02:54 AM.
That doesn't look like very much food. It might add up to fewer calories than i eat on a diet with no exercise. And that's perhaps why you diets always fail.
I'd recommend trying to get more protein - do you like tempeh and tofu? Or just more beans or lentils.
I now try to eat some protein at every meal. I"m mostly vegetarian but this diet has been challenging to get more protein so i'm eating more fish because i don't like tempeh.
I try to eat 1 cup of beans at lunch and more at dinner if i can.
If you want to break you bad patterns you could learn a lot from a book i' am in the midst of reading called the Don't go Hungry Diet by Dr Amanda Sainsbury- Salis. If you could understand the theoretical points in this book (which are not hard to understand really) and take on something like what she recommends, you'd never have to diet again. Being young and still quite healthy and not very overweight, you are streets ahead of most people on this forum.
having done lots of exercise on diets in the past, i don't think it works in the long run. Nevertheless, its great to start exercise especially when you are young. I think if you can find a way to incorporate it into other activities - make it a social thing, you will find it easier to keep on doing it. I would do that if i could afford to as the classes and things don't motivate me enough. I will run later on to do a race.
I've joined a triathlon club once before. Loved it until i injured my knee and had to quit. All we did was meet once a week to run together. And go in the races. I only got to do one race i think. It was great. So bad getting injured.
I know this is a bit of controversial way of doing things in the weight loss/health community but I need to break free of this ridiculous cycle of diets and regain a normal relationship with and enjoyment of food. ...There is so much fear surrounding eating with freedom, I haven't been able to find anyone who has really just let go and experimented with the healing properties of running so here I am.
Hello Sunflower, and welcome to 3FC. There is indeed a lot of controversy about the anti-diet movement but fear not, there is support here in the ongoing Intuitive Eating thread http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/gene...il-2014-a.html There are also some threads in the "Chicks in Control" section of the forum that are labeled IE. There's a good handful of us here that are supporting each other in our journey of letting go of the diet mindset and we would all agree with you that diets do not work. It's great that you're so young and have figured this out now which means you can let go of the self-loathing that diets create when they fail. Sometimes it takes a lifetime for people to figure this out, and some never figure it out. I can tell you from experience that when I used to hear the often-tooted phrase "diets don't work" my mind interpreted as "I fail to make diets work" a mindset which kept me going back to many many diets.
Thanks for the advice! I'm soaking a big batch of beans that should be ready to cook tomorrow and just got a jar of peanut butter along with some Lara bars from my parents (yay pity packages!).
Day 2
Starbucks grande unsweetened soy green tea latte (necessary staple during finals week, only regret I have is the hole it burns in my wallet)
Evolution organic nut bar
Amy’s Indian Spinach Tofu wrap, a few Triscuits, organic oat and berry bar
Small handful of dark chocolate chips
1 piece of whole wheat toast
Bowl of gluten free pasta, broccoli, and black beans
A little carby, will begin adding more protein tomorrow. I had a stomach ache which made running 3 miles a little difficult but I did it and I felt good for doing it.
I'm glad to hear there are others out there letting go of the diet mindset. Sure, it's not for everyone but I have a good feeling about this path for me.
I can't see how you can be carb free and or even low carb and vegan. Its just not possible.
I don't think you need to fear carbs just keep the vegetables and fruit rolling in massively.
Try to eat a widely varied diet. Lots and lots of different vegetables, seeds, nuts, whole grains of all types. Make most of your foods unprocessed. These are the foods that are lower in nutrients and higher in unwanted sugars and industrial vegetable fats, not to mention salt.
Because you are a vegan, its even more important that you make excellent food choices more often than not. You can't depend on vitamin pills. Most of them do very little for us.
No need to be afraid of the fats in seeds, nuts avocado and olives and other cold pressed oils. I just read yesterday how our intestines need a certain amount of fat coming in from the meal to let our brains know we've had enough to eat. Its a compound with a special name which i can't remember. Mentioned in a book called the don't go hungry diet which is not the type of diet you probably think it is. But it has tons of good information about food and how our bodies understand it and make decisions for us like cause us to be hungry or satisfied or to cause our metabolism to slow down or speed up. etc.
The explains how and why those pills are not adequate. you may well be taking some form of vitamin supplement but its a good idea to get recommended ones from your doctor or a dietician.
e.g. about all this lets take an orange.
She tells us that the pith in an orange you eat, helps the body absorb more vitamin c. So if you are drinking just the juice, that's less vitamin c you can consume.
She tells us that some vegetables are more nutritious for us when cooked e.g. carrots (which i had never heard of before) and cabbage and maybe corn from the cob. Its because our body can't absorb all from the raw product.
I didn't say anything about being afraid of fat or carbs. I just naturally don't eat a lot of fat and by "carby" I meant a lot of grains and not enough fruit and veg. Grains are good as long they're balanced with fruits and veg. Yesterday I said I should eat more fruit today and I didn't.
ok i misunderstood you. I presumed by judging your intake as carby that you were trying to keep carb foods low.
The only carbs i have a problem with are the sweet ones. Of course i don't eat the rest in unlimited quantities either.
How do you get enough protein to sustain you? One of the things not being a meat eater is that most of the protein sources i get to choose from a are high in fat too, except eggs. But i'm not a vegan. I just think it must be much harder for you. but now i see that fats are not the problem i used to think they were.
Vegan protein is a lot more variable than many people think. I'm just bad at meeting protein needs. My favorites however include chickpeas, black beans, tofu, almond milk, all kinds of raw nuts, and kale.
I didn't say anything about being afraid of fat or carbs. I just naturally don't eat a lot of fat and by "carby" I meant a lot of grains and not enough fruit and veg. Grains are good as long they're balanced with fruits and veg. Yesterday I said I should eat more fruit today and I didn't.
Also, totally agree about the vitamin pills.
Actually my nutritional therapist was telling me that carbs and grains are great as long as they are balanced with PROTEIN.
Ahh finals are getting to me. I've been writing terribly unclear sentences. I meant that I don't want all of my carbs for the day coming from grains. I need to eat a decent amount of fruits and vegetables as well.
Last edited by Sunflower987; 04-18-2014 at 12:49 PM.
Banana, Lara bar, packet of dried apples and raisins
Small handful of dark chocolate chips
Hummus and kale sandwich, mango slices
Bowl of brown rice, vegetables, and kidney beans
Lara bar, 2 peanut butter sandwiches
Today was my first time running 4 miles. It's the farthest I've ever run! I haven't been running long but I am already experiencing positive effects not just during my runs but during my day. I'm walking up stairs faster and easier, I can concentrate better on my school work, and I feel generally happier.
Physical changes are also gradually appearing. My stomach feels slightly flatter. My fiancée has also told me that my butt looks bigger and more toned. That's a good thing for me! I have NO butt. I store all of my fat in my stomach. The rest of me is slim.
Glad I got in some more fruit today. Eating enough fruit always gives me a significantly better sense of wellbeing.
Whoooops. Been working on research papers all day so I was a little lazy keeping track of what I ate but essentially...
Half a banana, Lara bar
2 PB sandwiches (I don't know why I can't just have one! XP)
Starbucks grande unsweetened soy green tea latte
Bowl of gluten free pasta and canned tomatoes with chiles
Crackers and hummus
Small handful of dark chocolate chips
2 pieces of whole wheat toast (Bread again?!)
Honestly, I'm not proud of my intake today. Not a single vegetable! I can't use schoolwork as an excuse to eat badly. If anything I should be eating healthier to keep my concentration up. I just made some roasted curry chickpeas for tomorrow. They're delicious!
I ran my 3 miles easy peasy. I listened to a Disney playlist on Spotify. It was oddly more motivating than the workout mixes.
Tomorrow I have more research to write but I will eat more fruit and get some protein from those yummy chickpeas! Woo!
Last edited by Sunflower987; 04-20-2014 at 12:34 AM.
Yes, you can use schoolwork as an excuse to eat badly. What I mean by that is if you're like me who eats during times of stress then this is exactly what is happening. It doesn't make you a bad person, but the more you allow yourself a little bit of compassion and relieving yourself of the guilt when you eat during times of stress then it will miraculously start to lose its appeal. It has for me.
If you're going to record what you eat despite of following a diet then listing the food you eat may not be sufficient in helping you achieve your goal of not dieting. With the help of my nutritional therapist I've learned how to keep a record of my eating so that I can fully address my hunger and satiety, and I use a scale to record it. So my daily food intake consists of a handmade chart with the following columns.
Time
Food/Beverage with portion
Level of Hunger pre-meal (1-5)
Level of fullness post-meal (1-6)
Self talk/food rules/rationalizatioins/emotions
This scale has helped me a lot because I wasn't always eating out of hunger precisely. Now, if I can't name my hunger on this scale accurately I don't eat. I wanted to post this because where you wrote "Bread again!!" it reminded me a lot of what I write in the self/talk column. Carbs again! Too many carbs! lol If you're self judging too much you'll continue to self judge, only by help quiet that inner voice that judges what you eat will you be a little less anxious about the foods you choose.
I'll hit the one no one has mentioned first. How long have you been running and how quickly are you increasing mileage? You are running intervals, which is good as a beginner. Running is incredibly hard on your body. It takes your skeletal system (including ligaments and tendons) a good 4-6 weeks to adapt to the demand you place on them during high impact exercise like running. Your cardiovascular system adapts much, much faster. New runners often get themselves into trouble right about the time breathing while running feels easy so they run too far and/or too much and end up with an overuse injury. While not infallible, the old 10% rule is very useful for newbie runners. You should only add 10% of your total weekly time or distance to your running routine each week.
Depending on just how new you are to running, you're probably not giving yourself enough rest days either. When you exercise, you break down your body. It's the off/recovery days that allow your body to rebuild and come back stronger. If you don't rest (again, especially when you are new to something) you increase your risk of injury a lot because your body is constantly in a state of breakdown.
I'm back to running again after a long lay off. After 11 weeks of consistent running I'm still only running 3 days a week and cross training with low impact activities (cycling, weights, yoga and soon swimming when the lake warms up). I had a very large base of walking miles already, but I still erred on the side of increasing running time slowly. Overuse injuries suck and some take a long time (weeks to months) to heal from. I'd rather build my base slowly and still be running 6 months from now than go too hard, get hurt and be laid up. My 13 year old is running with me and even as young and fit as he is, he's needed the slow pace as well. Running is hard on the body!
The second issue has been addressed but I'll point it out again. You need more protein. Especially with the work load you're putting on your body. Why don't you track what you're eating for a few days just to check your macros? I don't diet- ie restrict types of food. I do keep an eye on calories but more importantly I watch my macros. I'm nursing a toddler, I work out a lot and I don't want to deprive my body. I get lots of protein (I'm omnivorous) but because dairy doesn't agree with me and I don't consume it I was surprised to see my calcium macro was consistently low (even though I eat enough spinach and other leafy greens and vegetable sources of calcium to fill a Mac truck).
Intuitive eating is great, if you naturally include a lot of variety and know what to eat to meet your needs. I'm a huge advocate of good, healthy, minimally processed and raw whole foods.I try really hard to meet dietary needs with food. Sometimes it's hard. I don't battle the junk food cravings like some (I love food, all food! I battle the portion size issue) and I eat a large variety of foods. I was surprised to still see deficiencies in my macros. Compared to you, my diet is incredibly diverse and balanced. Not saying that to knock ya, just worried that with your increased level of activity and not so balanced diet you're setting yourself up for problems and injury in the not to distant future. Trust me, you don't want to hurt your body. It bounces back well when you're young, but injuries catch up to you again as you get older. Sadly, I know from experience.
Running without diet: Daily Accountability
