A simple,
incredibly challenging decision, the foundations of which I took from
reading Matt Fitzgerald’s “Racing Weight,” stood at the center
of dropping weight so quickly – I took active and complete control
of my diet in a healthy manner for the first time in my life. I had
complained to Mary that my running times had not improved quickly
enough for my tastes, and she recommended that I read that book. She
told me it had helped her understand many basic truths about food,
and imparted powerful advice about diet improvement, while tying its
lessons to endurance exercise.
Instead of
controlling one’s diet for the sake of weight loss, Fitzgerald
posed active mindfulness toward one’s diet as an absolutely
necessary step toward improving one’s performance in endurance
sports. “Racing Weight” posed improving the diet and getting in
shape as the means to the end of kicking ass in races, instead of its
own sake. I had never so clearly considered the link between food
intake and racing potential before.
Laid out in very
understandable, layman’s terms, the lessons from “Racing Weight”
completely changed my outlook on food and diet, and helped me begin
to get back on a successful weight-loss track. Certain ideas rocked
me and informed how to correctly think about food: the necessity of
tracking what one eats; the need to focus on diet quality, not
quantity; that some foods could be considered higher quality compared
to others; that the body took energy differently from different types
of food; that timing of food was indeed important, but not how I
believed; and that managing appetite was not the same as controlling
it.
I began tracking my
food intake, as well as measurable body changes, immediately. I soon
recorded everything I ate on a daily basis to the best of my ability
– but did not include calorie amounts, which felt like a step too
far, still. When I wrote down what I ate and drank, I had a better
handle and comprehension of really how much I had eaten. To that
point, remembering and figuring out what I’d done so far that day
felt like a shot in the dark. I could have eaten several larger meals
daily and would have barely recalled. Seeing my intake recorded drove
me to eat less, and better. Documenting that I had ingested a full
page’s worth of empty-calorie crap felt like failure, and I strove
to do better. Further, I started weighing-in twice daily, within
minutes of both going to sleep and waking up. I soon started tracking
my body fat percentage with a second scale, and started thinking of
my progress in terms of body fat loss as opposed to weight loss.
Having a consistent record of weight, what I ate, and extraordinary
aberrations from my normal route – significant time off running for
a pulled hamstring, sleeping 18 hours in a day or sleeping during the
daytime – helped me figure out what specifically correlated to
weight loss or gain. At the end of every month, I wrote up my monthly
weighing results, tracking how far along I’d come. As a very visual
person, writing everything down helped me beyond words.
For the first time,
I found myself ready and able to consider the quality of the foods I
ate along the guidelines found in the book, and thus able to make
wiser decisions in choosing what to eat. I began trying to
incorporate more fruits into my diet, whereas before I had eaten very
few. I began transitioning my most frequently eaten meats away from
beef, eating fewer cheap, near-instant-made hamburgers from McDonalds
or Burger King and hot dogs from convenience stores. Luckily, I had
never eaten pork. I ate more chicken, which thankfully I also loved,
and grudgingly tried to eat more turkey, usually in (hopefully)
lower-sodium, deli-slice form. I ate some more lamb in gyros, too,
from a great local diner. I hoped that was leaner protein, but I
didn’t really know where that fell on the map… and didn’t care
all that much. Not a huge fan of dairy to begin with, I cut out most
occasions where I’d eat higher-fat dairy, unfortunately including
ice cream. Instead, I maintained my utter dependence on peach and
apple Chobani Greek yogurt, skim milk, and lighter cheeses. After
some time, I realized that since I hated cold fish, I probably didn’t
get enough Omega-3 fatty acids, and the potential benefits of having
more seemed too good to ignore. I began taking such a supplement
twice daily after mulling it through for some time. Until this point,
I had (errantly) considered most carbohydrate as a negative. I had
cut out a good deal of bread from my diet, which had been difficult,
but still maintained a noted weakness for large servings of pasta,
bagels, and pizza. I now tried to replace most, ideally all, refined
and white grains with whole grain, or 100% wheat, versions. That
proved surprisingly easier than I had expected at the grocery store
and I enjoyed them about as much, but making the right choice and
choosing whole grain pancakes with berries, in place of double
chocolate chip or Dutch apple versions at restaurants, was a
struggle. Vegetables were more or less a lost cause, as I had never
eaten many of them, and didn’t feel like eating many more now.
Adding some in sauces and pizza occasionally seemed better than
nothing.
I also tried to cut
a good deal of the waste in which I’d been indulging. As I had
already eliminated drinking pop, I didn’t have to strike that then.
I had tried to limit fried foods from the start, but now I actively
avoided them if possible. I still allowed for an occasional plate of
fries, but only in the wake of significant exercise. I went several
months without almost any obviously-fried foods, to my true
satisfaction, a far cry from the McChicken sandwiches and fries three
times a week of old. Limiting sweets, of course, continued to be a
major struggle. I had cut out most sugar-loaded candies some time
ago, but indulged once in a while. I still did so, just tried to keep
it under control. Walking through the candy aisle at Target or
Walgreens tortured me. In the past, I would've killed a pack of my
favorite candy, Peach-Os, in 30 seconds. Now, when I read the package
and realized they had more than 650 calories, I almost always fought
off the urge. I had a great love for 7-11 Slurpees – that I
couldn’t combat so easily. Instead of 32-oz sizes, I drank 8-oz,
which was only about 150 calories, not horrifying. After some time, I
realized that these sweets, and particularly Slurpees, to my intense
disappointment, would consistently trigger cravings for other
terrible, sugar-packed items. Even Special K Fruit and Yogurt cereal
could do it. Instead, I tried to satiate urges with healthier
trail-mixes, but didn’t always succeed. On those days when I
completely fell off the wagon – and there were more than one or two
– I’d get seriously discouraged and stop documenting altogether.
The next day, I’d try to get myself under control and do my best to
eat smarter.
Though
comparatively a minor realization, I also learned that one could
ignore those limited foods and drinks designed to improving
performance that were consumed during exercise. I had, until this
point, all but refused to partake in sports drinks or gels, only
drinking water, thinking that would maximize the benefits of the
caloric deficit from exercise. Understanding that aids could help
enhance performance and power through the limited calories gained on
their own, I now felt more comfortable taking carbohydrate gels on
long-runs and Gatorade at aid stops.
As I began thinking
about differences in macronutrient sources of energy, namely
carbohydrate, protein, and fat, my approach toward what major sources
of energy I ate changed significantly. Even while running
consistently at first, I thought of obvious sources of carbohydrate –
bread, pasta, etc – as evil foods that would add to the bodyfat
problem, except in racing conditions when eating a ton was necessary.
I discovered that, while I would need to eat somewhat significant
amounts of carbohydrate on days when I worked out or ran, I would
only need a limited amount on off-days. With that in mind, I
continued restricting carbohydrate on days when I didn’t exert
myself significantly. Yet until that point, I hadn’t understood
that attempting to go relatively low-carb on days of aggressive
exercise was an absolutely horrible idea, could result in significant
injury, and would result in only the most negligible of performance
gains. I started incorporating more carbohydrate into my diet on
high-energy exertion days, while choosing the sources more wisely. I
also tried to be mindful and accurately estimate the amount of
carbohydrate necessary to ingest before races and after long-runs,
with some success – one particularly major failure down the line.
Along those same
lines, I started closely monitoring the timing of my nutrient and
water intake. I’d thought nutrients were nutrients, and
circumstances did not matter much on how they affected the body,
besides eating carbohydrate after endurance exercise, protein after
strength training, eating a large meal immediately after waking up,
and never eating two hours before sleep. I started eating based off
when I felt hungry, not just set to some arbitrary schedule. I ate
smaller amounts of food, not intending to kick up my metabolism, but
to simply offset hunger, avoiding accidentally eating more than
necessary and wasting nutrients. I continued to eat quickly after
waking up – which, it should be noted, had always proved extremely
easy for me. Eating dinner between 5 and 9PM, when I would wake up,
felt natural, and I had a wide variety of choices of restaurants or
dinners and events to attend where I’d eat; I felt having a
“normal” schedule, where upon waking, I’d have been expected to
eat breakfast foods, which I didn’t particularly enjoy, would have
made eating quickly much more challenging. Having three dinners daily
made my food choices that much easier – but I digress. I learned
precisely when to eat in relations to workouts, and the exact timing
of the recovery period afterward. Finally, around this time I had
aimed to drink four Nalgene bottles, or 128oz, of water on a daily
basis, thinking that would help my metabolism. I realized that was
pointless and cut my water intake back. I didn't notice any
significant impact, besides having to urinate three or four fewer
times each day, which I appreciated.
All those lessons
certainly helped, but I believe that the techniques suggested to
manage appetite contributed to my weight-loss success most. I tried
to be as mindful as possible of the moment when I hit the feeling of
satisfied from a meal, and worked to not eat beyond that moment –
while very often a struggle, I found I didn’t need to eat as much
to reach that point as I imagined. I tried not to eat at random or
out of boredom, which also sometimes proved difficult. I didn’t
particularly enjoy having to think through my eating habits
constantly, particularly since I would focus on it and not feel able
to deal with much besides that, but I tried as best I could and the
results turned out decent. In that vein, eating more high-satiety and
low-density foods to want to eat less overall made the most impact of
any changes, I believe. I found my secret weapon for weight loss, and
eating less: lightly-salted peanuts. I began eating more peanuts than
ever before, and found I felt less hungry from just a serving of
peanuts a few times a day. Whereas I sometimes wouldn’t feel full
from a full plate of food, a handful of peanuts and a yogurt cup
could now hold me over for four hours. I also sought out foods with
high water- and fiber-content, and all but stopped eating insanely
dense foods like granola that I’d eaten constantly before. I also
made a point to eat fiber bars occasionally, though their benefits
weren’t as certain.
Finally, I took to
heart the lesson that so many people had repeated, and one of the key
premises of “Racing Weight” – exercise how you would enjoy it
most. I realized the exercise I was doing at the gym was probably
counterproductive. Spending two or three hours with lifting was
idiotic, particularly if I hated it and would quit soon anyway.
Additionally, I wasn’t getting THAT much stronger, and the workouts
had had a negligible impact on my body fat percentage over several
months. I resolved to find more efficient workouts and to focus on
running.
