4 weeks into my training "Couch to 5K" and my 4th week of South Beach Diet.
My average pace is a 14:30 minute mile. Improved by 30 seconds from 2 weeks ago!
I am down 3 pounds with my South Beach Diet. I feel like I am not loosing weight or inches. I figure I just need to keep at it. Eat healthy and keep running with a bit of cross training every week. My weight went to 1.5 pounds ABOVE my starting weight last week and now I am back down here. I got a little stressed out and confused. I must have had a lot of salt or something.
::AND NOW back to your regularly scheduled blog post about
food::
In the last year or so, I have been under then impression
that I eat and cook decently "clean". Not a lot of processed foods,
not a bunch of freezer meals. Mostly fresh, wholesome produce with mixture of
quality meats, poultry, and pasta. Recently though, my friend was put on a diet
that is processed food free and my world was shaken when I realized I was using
a lot of processed foods that I didn't put in the processed food category in my
brain.
So what is "eating
clean"? Here is what I have learned:
Fresh fruit, vegetables, lean meat,
nuts, eggs, dairy, and whole grains are all a go on a clean diet.
Avoiding chemical based-preservatives,
food coloring, trans fats, and artificial sweeteners.
If there is a Label on it, look at an
ingredient list, and consider each ingredient individually. Is it something you
would buy separately to cook with in your own kitchen?
Refined grains such as white bread,
white rice, and white pasta are considered "dirty" foods. Their
eat-clean equivalents are 100% whole grain bread, brown rice, and 100% whole
grain pasta.
No refined sugars.
Use fresh herbs!
No processed cheese, grain, or
well, anything.
No trans or saturated fats, but monosaturated and
polyunsaturated fats as well as omega-3 fatty acids are ok.
After this heavy researching
(aka Pinterest searching), I can safely say that…No, we do not eat clean. We
aren't walking masses of chemicals or anything, but there are definitely some
simple swaps I could be making that would be more the better. Husband and I had
discussed early last week that we wanted to focus on eating organically/cage
free/fresh exclusively at home. Not only for our own health, but for health of
our someday maybe children and family. So I think it is time to start putting this into action, slowly but surely. when I run out of something, replace it with the clean/organic option. It shouldn't be too hard that way. The big problem will be when I need to run in "Really Quick" for something.
That will be the stumbling block.
I wish we were in a position where we could afford ethically raised meat (that wasn't Halal goat) right now. It definitely bothers me that we can't afford the best meat for us.
ReplyDeleteHave you been doing any core work? I found that I lost a bunch of inches off my waist/hips/thighs once I started doing core exercises three days a week. (This was after I'd already lost 10 pounds without losing too many inches.)
Not yet! I will look into that. I do a Cardio Barre (which works my core) once a week, but I should start working that into my 3 days a week running plan.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel like I need to weigh a specific number. It is mainly just inches off the waist/hip/thigh area I am interesting in losing as several pants/skirt/dresses are not fitting well right now. If you could, email me what exercises you have been doing/refer me to a blog post about them.