Nine a day?!?!

Typically, I use this blog to talk about my physical activity. That's definitely an important part of my recovery. However, as I have been unable to do any real rigorous physical activity the last several months, I've also noticed that I have not been very careful regarding my nutrition. As I'm able to start using my body more and more, I'm also trying to focus on improving the quality of the foods I eat. This has proved to be very, very challenging for me!

While on Weight Watchers, I did a pretty good job planning my meals, sticking to my daily points, and writing down everything I ate. Then I started slacking about writing everything down. And then I started slacking about sticking to my daily points. And then I stopped planning out what I was going to eat ahead of time. And then I gained back 15 pounds.

I really wanted to lose that 15 pounds again before I started attempting to run again, but it's been an incredibly difficult challenge. A lot of what motivated me to eat well is knowing that I need certain nutrients to fuel my body for long runs. When I had to stop running, I lost a lot of my motivation. Now I'm trying to get back to practicing good eating habits. It honestly SHOULD be motivated by my desire to be healthy - I should just WANT to do things to take care of my body, especially when I know that I feel better, stronger, happier when I make good choices. But at the same time, our bodies learn to crave certain foods.

For me, making good choices involves two types of thinking. 1) Mind over matter. Yes, I want sugar and fat, but I just need to decide to stop eating those things for a while and eventually it will become easier to resist those types of foods. 2) I feel good about myself when I make good choices. I can do more things, I have more energy, and I'm more pleasant to be around. I have to endure the first type of thinking for a while, and then hopefully I'll get into a rhythm and the second type of thinking kicks in. I have a secret, though - I'm not there yet!

My roommate recently informed me that the food pyramid requirements have changed and that we're now supposed to eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day (a serving is 1/2 cup for everything but leafy greens; a serving size of leafy greens is 1 cup). As a disclaimer, I have not verified this information. To be honest, I think that's a little bit unrealistic to tell the general public they need nine servings of fruits and vegetables when most of us probably aren't even getting the five they previously required in on a consistent basis. But I've been eating a lot of junk food and I want to focus on "detoxing" my body from all the sodium and sugar I've been feeding it, so I'm game to give it a try for a week.


What this means is that for the next week, I'm going to focus on more vegetable- and bean-based meals. I made eggplant parmesan and roasted brussel sprouts last night, which should last for a few days. (I honestly have never really eaten eggplant or brussel sprouts before; I'm not really sure why I decided to focus on two new foods at the same time, but hopefully it'll work out okay.) That should give me about four servings. I have applesauce every day with my lunch, which brings me up to five servings. I was going to get bananas to put in my oatmeal, but the grocery store was out of them for some reason last night. But that will give me at least two more servings. So now I just need to fit in two more servings somehow. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm also going to try really, really hard not to have desserts or pre-processed foods for the next week. In general, I don't believe in depriving yourself of things you really enjoy. However, I have a hard time satiating my sweet tooth, so I think it's better for me to stay clear of it for a while before I can trust myself to enjoy a reasonable portion at a time and not go overboard.

Besides, I don't think I'm going to have many free calories left over after eating all those veggies!