Reading MDA's August Challenge is causing me to rethink this whole ZC thing. Three days in, and already it's hard. Even the ZC people say it is hard. Why am I doing this again? I need to rethink my diet. I have enough hard in my life. Why am I taking on more? I think about what Marc said. What are my motives? What are my goals? What do I want?
I want to be healthy. But, I don't want it to be painful for most of the time. What way is that to live? So I must find what works for me. I know this, and yet I look for someone to tell me exactly how to eat. Then, I try the diet, only to start hating it and go off it. I need to find some starting point, and then adjust from there.
The all meat diet is already not easy. I feel sick to my stomach sometimes, and the thought of downing a pound of plain ground beef does not sound good. But chicken, or the ground beef in tomato sauce, now that I could eat. I can eat healthy, or at least what I presently know to be healthy, without totally depriving myself.
I think I have a tendency to obess on my diet. Why am I doing this? I am not overwieght. Why do I want to get my BF down to under 10%? Just to look ripped? Shouldn't I be spending more energy on improving my spiritual condition, or at least my financial situation? I think it is because it is easy to believe that all I have to do is follow certain steps, and I will achieve what this diet promises. Well, I have committed myself to that already, with my recovery and the 12 Steps. I am convinced that the 12 Steps will work, and know that working them will be nothing but good for me. But maybe I am transfering that belief to my diet and my body. If I am, I need to drop that belief now. I need to find a balance in my diet between what I want to eat and what I should eat. Not just forcing restrictive rules on my eating. I have tried and tried this, only to it not be sustainable. I need to think in the long term. My diet has drastically improved over the last few years. I need to just keep on slowly improving it, and enjoy food along the way.
I like to exercise, that is a given. I will keep working out with weights. I will keep running, making the transition with my VFF. I will of course keep cycling. All that is fine. These will keep me fit and healthy, and at a normal weight.
I just went to Publix on my lunch break and bought a pack of sushi, Crunchy Shrimp with avocado. Also a mixed berries. The sushi was awesome. It has been a while since I had one that was so good. Then I ate the whole mixed berries. I probably should have only eaten half the berries, but oh well. My stomach is full, and a little tiny bit unsettled due to the influx of more carbs than I have eaten in a few days. But I am okay with it. Weird, though: I'm getting TMJ. Probably the rush of carbs after being ZC for about 72 hours. No biggie.
I think I am going to ditch this whole challenge thing and just try to eat healthy 80% of the time. I am okay with cutting out grains and sugar except for a pizza or an out meal or an occasional desert. I will eat vegetables, but only occasionally, when I feel like it. Maybe a salad once a week, or veggies with my entree when I eat out. I'm not going to count calories or macros, but I will try to keep my carbs down below 10% of my calories for 80% of the time. [This I will, of course, estimate. I may do a FitDay once in a while, maybe. I will continue with my weekly weigh-ins for progress sake.] I will eat fruit, but try to keep it to berries and occasionally an apple or other fruit when I feel like it. But try to not do fruit daily. Just like a few times a week. I will go back to whole milk. It was good, and cheap calories. I will pass on the HWC for now. I will listen to my body, and try to eat when hungry. I will use PaNu and PB as guidelines, but change it as I desire. The whole point is to not obsess over my diet, and just eat healthy most of the time. That sounds reasonable to me!
I will still try to blog daily. I will blog about stuff going on, rather than just diet and exercise. I will write about that, but just not only that. I will include recovery stuff too. Why not?!
So that's it. Follow some general rules, changing them as I find what works for me and what doesn't. Try not to get so hung up on someone writing about something being healthy or unhealthy. I have a good sense on what is healthy and what is not. Simply eat healthy, whole foods more often, with an emphasis on meat, and try to minimize unhealthy additions. If I want a soda with an out meal, I'll have it. If I want A1 on my steak, I'll put it on it. If I want to eat ketchup with my burger, so be it. I'm not looking to be super lean and ripped like Watchmen dude. I just want to be lean, feel good, and do well in my sports. I am already lean, so I just have to maintain that. I don't need to have a six-pack. It would be nice, but if not, then so be it. I want to feel good, which I do mostly. Reducing coffee has helped. I want to do well in my sports, which means progressing at the gym, which I am doing. I would like to run well, and ride well, which I am progressing toward also. So I just need to follow the path I'm on. Not take things to extremes like ZC or RTP. There is no need for that. It requires too much sacrifice. Life is short. I have lived hard enough already. I will follow the 80/20 rule, and search for the balance between crazy strict eating and SAD. It's a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the journey.
I'm home now, after work. Ate what was left of my breakfast NY strip, with A1 sauce. Awesome! I love A1 and steak. And I'm not apologizing for it!
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