Food, health, and training performance. These three things go hand in hand. When one is not quite on par, the other two suffer. Take food for example. Eat crap, feel like crap, perform like crap. Eat whole foods, feel great, train even better. It is with this in mind that I decided to refocus on my eating.
A group of us decided that we would clean up our eating and give the "Engine 2 Diet"* a try. Leary and I are already eating similarly to this style so it wasn't too much of a departure for us. BUT...we had gotten a little lax in some areas including eating meat and dairy again.
In a nutshell, the E2 diet was created by Rip Esselstyn, an Austin fire fighter, and consists of a plant-based (no animal products at all), no oil, no processed foods way of eating for 28 days. I call it the "twigs and berries" approach to eating. I overhauled my eating about three years ago to model this approach in order to lower my cholesterol based on a presentation I saw given by Rip's Dad, Caldwell Esselstyn, MD** (wonder where Rip got the idea ;-). Three months into this change in my eating, my cholesterol went from ~205 to ~170 and my bad cholesterol dropped 30 points. I felt better and "cleaner" than I ever had. But over the course of the following year, I discovered that I wasn't getting enough protein, B-vitamins, or iron. And when you are a female endurance athlete, these things are sort of important! My health slowly fell apart. So I reintroduced fish, eggs, milk, and additional supplements (liquid iron, complete B vitamins) into my diet and gradually rebalanced my system.
So here I am again focusing on my eating and trying to clean up a few things. This includes: removing animal products from my diet (with the exception of 1 gallon of raw milk every 2 weeks), incorporating more grain-based proteins into my diet, and increasing the number of green leafy veggies I eat at lunch and dinner. My personal additions also include to stop eating candy (I love candy!!) and opt for tea instead of drinking so much coffee.
I would also like to get into a weekly rhythm of food preparation. Last night I soaked beans, wheat berries, and started some home made bread dough. Today I'll cook the beans, wheat berries, and will bake the bread. I also started some alfalfa sprouts so they should be ready to munch on by end of week.
It always amazes me how much time food preparation takes. But it is so worth it when I do it and the feeling we get from eating those fresh, whole foods is undeniable. So here goes!
*For more info, go to: www.engine2diet.com.
**For info on Caldwell Esselstyn's work, go to: www.heartattachproof.com
.
