Eating Clean

Had the worst week of my training (maybe of my entire year) doing a low-carb diet.  But it taught me an invaluable lesson.  I needed to have a shock to my system to realize how out of control my diet was.  I needed to detox from sugar and feel what it was like to go without.  I wanted to die of course, because a body and mind need carbs to function.  I could hardly walk up the stairs during this diet.  I was tired, irritable, lightheaded, unable to exercise, exhausted, did I mention I was tired?  So I quit after 5 pounds of weight loss which equaled 6 days on the diet.  I am three days off it and have gained 3 of my 5 lbs back which tells me all I lost was water! 

But of course I must see the wisdom in my madness...what did I gain...
from this week of ZERO-carb HELL? 

• Knowledge about healthy food choices that I never knew existed!  (Who knew 0-carb noodles and rice existed?  Not I!) 
• How to cook fat free/carb free that is edible
• How to drastically reduce your calories by little changes that you don't feel or miss
• How to do a food log that is easy online 
• Sheer respect for the power of food and how it affects the body and mind. 
• Control of my diet 
• Desire to discipline myself enough to start a food log which I have never been successful at because it is such a P.I.T.A.! (http://caloriecount.about.com/)   
• How to train for my marathon and get lean at the same time which I have never been able to accomplish simultaneously: "Racing Weight"  By Matt Fitzgerald. 

So okay, it may look as if I wasted a week of training walking around my house eating celery for 6 days.  Ah but no my friend.  I have been liberated.  I have never enjoyed eating like this before.  It's called "eating clean" as my body-builder friend Chelsea put it.  After her spin class on Friday, she told me about her diet and "unstoppable" she feels when she "Eats Clean".  I asked her about this and her diet is almost identical to the diet I followed for those 6 excruciating days + whole food/grain CARBS.  NO SUGAR.  Hmmmm...I thought, I can do that.  Here's one of her favorite snacks that she claims to eat massive amounts of each night:

Chelsea's Popcorn

 Air Popped Popcorn 

Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Chilli Powder

Drizzle olive oil over a bowl of air-popped popcorn, add sea salt and chilli pepper to taste, TOSS.  Add again, TOSS!  YUM to the tum.  And healthy too.

Thanks Chelsea!!