Today I have decided to write about food. Though I am not a certified nutritionist by any means, I probably know a good deal more about food than the average person. This is because it has been a favorite pet study of mine ever since I decided to become truly fit at age 18, the year before college. I never wanted to "diet," because I wanted to make a lifestyle change, something I could live with for the long term. That year, while I had control over my food and exercise (pre-dining hall fare), I exercised six days/week and ate six small meals per day, of between 200-300 calories each, balanced protein and carbs. Ever since then I've been fine-tuning and adjusting for particular foods. It's amazing the amount of factors I incorporate each day without even thinking about it. For instance, here is a typical menu:
9am - two cups plain yogurt mixed with red grapes and Splenda sweetener, or an egg-white omelet with a mini bagel (whole-wheat) and a cup of OJ
11:30am - can of chicken or lean burger patty and an apple
2pm - ham & cheese sandwich on whole-wheat bread (make sure it is not "enriched" wheat flour) and an ounce or two of dark chocolate from my fav. chocolate shop
5pm - can of salmon, and cherries, strawberries or blueberries (whatever "special" fruit we have bought for the week)
7:30pm - either family dinner or whatever is left over from family dinner, depending on the time it was finished, and a large Romaine lettuce salad with vinaigrette dressing
10pm - Another low-fat serving of protein of whatever type
Every day I want to eat much more fruit than starchy foods, since the human body stores starches and processed bread products as fat a lot easier than it does fruit. I want to eat at least 3-4 servings of milk products, since people who do that usually maintain their weight or lose fat. I want to minimize bad fats and get in appropriate amounts of both Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. I want to get sufficient carbs for energy, and sufficient protein to keep my blood sugar stable and help me not get hungry between meals.
To fine-tune this even more, I know that I react badly to just plain milk, whereas yogurt and cheese are fine. Flavored yogurts are mostly sugar and have hardly any protein, so I opt for plain yogurt with sweetener and fruit - one of my favorite meals of the day. Further, I want to get plenty of antioxidents, because they inhibit free radicals (cancer-causing agents). The darker fruits have far more antioxidents than the others; red grapes are much better than green, and blueberries are one of the best fruits of all. Dark chocolate is also good, in small quantities, and it releases happy-making endorphins.
For the fats, I could just take a pill to make sure I have the exact balance, but I generally choose to change my diet rather than supplement. So I make sure to get in my fish (canned salmon is a nice fatty fish that doesn't have as much potential to contain mercury as others do) and a salad dressing that contains olive oil. These contain together both types of good fat.
The time of eating also affects what I choose. The body needs more energy to get started, so I eat more carbs at my first meal of the day. It also processes food in general best around the middle of the day, and I am hungrier then, so I eat my meal with bread, and I have my chocolate. :D In the evening, esp. before bed, I try not to eat many carbs at all.
When I exercise and what I do for exercise will change my schedule in subtle ways. If I'm doing cardio, I don't eat for at least half an hour afterwards, to maximize fat loss. If I do weights, on the other hand, I immediately supplement afterwards with creatine and glutamine. Creatine helps with muscle gain and retention, and glutamine reduces muscle soreness significantly so that I can exercise again sooner. Then I eat some fast-absorbing high-glycemic index carbs immediately, because muscles have energy stores called glycogen that weightlifting depletes, and that they use to repair themselves when they are worked hard. During about a half an hour period post-weights, high-sugar foods travel straight to the muscles instead of to fat. Interesting, eh? Without sufficient glycogen, muscles may break themselves down instead of repairing themselves.
No, I am not a masculine muscled freak, because, thank goodness, women only start to look like that when they take weird hormones. Right now I am in "maintenance" mode, meaning that I am about 10# higher than I was when I was
really fit, and I exercise really hard only 3-5 times per week. I was obsessed about it for a while, but you can't keep that up for life and be happy. So I try to exercise doing things I love, such as Tae Kwon Do class, walks/runs with my sisters, and, well, weights. Yes, I still enjoy weightlifting. :) If I was really in weight-loss mode, I wouldn't eat bread at all, or chocolate, ham, or cheese, and I'd shift the carb/protein ratio more towards the protein side. But I am happy the way I am.
Who knew all that was going on in my head every time I put stuff into my mouth? Let me just say it was
extremely hard for me to start eating properly when I began, because I was addicted to fast food and donuts and such. Now I can hardly stand it, and I feel dreadful when I eat such highly-processed things. I can feel it clogging me and behaving badly in my system. Even so, it took me an entire year of straying and experiencing negative effects all over again to finally determine that I didn't like those foods. :P
Comments on nutrition? Anyone?
