Eating Right

Part of my running that I haven't paid as much attention to as I should is what I eat. I'm tired of carrying extra weight around so I've gone over to SparkPeople, I talked about that last time I posted. and it's still the place I'm going. Chris suggested another site, a less busy site (SparkPeople is jam packed with 1200 buttons, ads, magazine style format layout and is just frenetic to look at. It offends my eye.) that I went to and tracked my food for a few days then ran the reports. I didn't like the reports. I loved the site, but the reports weren't cutting it for me.

So, I'm still on SparkPeople and tracking my food. It's funny that without a plan, just knowing that I have to write it down makes me pay attention to what I eat more and make better choices. When I go to a buffet, and I have twice since starting this, I choose MUCH more differently than if I weren't paying attention to what I ate and it's made a difference. I've lost several pounds since I started. I'm happy with that.

I've pre-ordered their book, there's a link to it on the right. It's available for the kindle as well if you're interested. Oh, speaking of the kindle. If you get one for Christmas, or know someone who has one, or have one yourself check out this really helpful page.

The best part about the eating right thing is breakfast. I really enjoy breakfast and I found that if I get two scrambled eggs and a piece of wheat toast with grape jelly on it I'm not only full through lunch I also feel like I've had a good meal. There's enough sugar in the jelly and carbs in the toast to comfort my little carb craving machine and the eggs keep me going. The little greasy spoon restaurant next door to me at work knows what my regular is now.

Lunch is whatever I want, and then dinner is eaten in stages at home. I eat a little when I get home, a little more an hour later, and then finally, half an hour after that an apple for a snack. It's spaced out so if I stay up late I won't get munchy. Nights are the time I'm most prone to snacking so I spread the meal out into several micro-meals. This is all easy to do at home. It'll be harder on the road and in hotels I think. I'll figure something out though. I'm making too much progress to screw it up with McDonald's Value Meals.

Today was an off day but since yesterday was a light day I did 25 minutes of stair climbing. Not on a stepper machine. I literally climbed the stairs at my house for 25 minutes. Up & down over and over again listening to Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime. What a good album. I didn't realize until too late that I hadn't gotten my iPod and receiver all hooked up so that's two work outs this week that the Nike+ site won't know I did. Fortunately I can enter the stuff into my gowagon.com site to show off my exercise dedication!