Hello again! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone!
I've been a bit busy with the Holiday travel and end of year at work. Craziest time of the year for me for sure. I've been thinking a lot about what I wanted to write about next....and New Years is the perfect time to chat about one of my loves....FOOD.
I've been reading a ton about gluten free, Primal Diet, etc...I've dieted myself in the past. I've even used the body bugg to track how many calories I'm burning in a day. And you know what? After years of watching my weight and what I eat....the secret is: You ALREADY know what you shouldn't eat! :)
Too many times, myself included, I reward myself coming off a hard workout...locked in week...etc, and binge a little too much on the food and alcohol. Don't get me wrong, there IS a time and place for that. I find it works best if you schedule it.
The problem we run in to...we start rewarding all the good stuff we are doing...and we reward just enough to ERASE all the gains from weight loss. 90% good...is not good enough. Not when trying to lose weight.
Your motivations for losing weight could be anything. Look good, get abs, spring break, and the one I'm obsessed with, race weight! So you have to ask yourself:
"Is what I'm about to put in my body going help or hurt my goal?"
I made a simple switch last year. Every time I went to Madison to ride the Ironman course, I would reward my hard effort with Culvers. I LOVE the mushroom swiss burger with some cheese fries! And what better time to knock that down than after 4+ hours of hard bike riding. Are you kidding me? I knew EVERY time I stepped foot in there that I shouldn't be WASTING my workout like this. So I made a change...I found a Noodles on the way home from Madison that I go to now. Guess what...it is a MILLION times healthier and I recovered better from those Madison trips. Furthermore, I made my goal of qualifying for Kona. I didn't qualify because of this one switch....but the mental shift to take care of my body....and reward myself when I got my result...was the KEY! Small changes can yield amazing results....and just might be the 10% you were lacking to reach your goal.
My best friend always says: "Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels." And he is 100% right. I think about that phrase ALL the time and it helps me make better choices. By the way, because of my job, I eat out at restaurants at least 8 times a week...so eating healthy can be done. You just have to try.
You know what you should be eating....so stop rewarding your JOURNEY....and reward your RESULTS instead!
Happy training...and EATING!
Dave
Dedication, Passion, Results
