The Purge

So it’s time to get rid of everything in my life that isn’t necessary.  #1 on the list was, well, refer to my last post.   Honestly that one is so big, it probably takes the #2, #3, #4 and #5.  Next is junk food.  Ok, I’m not getting rid of it.  I am looking at it differently.  It’s a treat or reward.  It’s not nutrition or something to eat when I’m stressed.  I really do need to get rid of caffeine.  The kicker is that I love coffee…  Decaf!  I also love Coke Zero.  Actually, that’s ok because in my purging of things I’m also picking up some new habits.  One is drinking about 2.5 liters of water a day.  With a big water bottle it’s pretty easy to do.  Anyhow as the things come along I’ll try to remember to list them here.

Day 6: End of wonky house

Well we’re all better now or close to it, somewhere around 90% I’d say.  I was reading a magazine this morning and it had “11 steps to better eating in 2008″.  As I read through them I realized that we already had the fundamentals of eating healthier as a habit.  I’ll summarize a little bit.

Eat several meals a day.  Why?  When you eat a large meal your body will only use a portion of that meal as energy, the rest gets stored away as, you guess it, fat.  Eating several meals keeps your body in a constant state of energy consumption.  You don’t get the ups and downs of eating 3 large meals, or worse, some people eat 1 gigantic meal a day.

Balance your meals.  This is a combination of a couple of the points in the magazine.  When I say balance I mean you have ratios of each nutrient you intake.  The three big ones: FAT, PROTEIN, CARBOHYDRATES.   Balance does a couple of things.  First it helps regulate blood sugar and keeps you from getting a rush then crashing.  Second, protein is essential to good health because your lean body mass (muscle) is built/maintained/repaired from it.  Some diet plans have different ratios (zone, atkins, etc).  You’ll see them like this 40/40/20  or 30/40/30  (carb/protein/fat).  We try to stick to 40/40/20 with each meal and if each meal isn’t that ratio we try to end the day with the ratio.  It is literally a balancing act!  FitDay provides a chart to show you ratios.

Drink water.  This should go without saying but water is vital to the body.  We’re mostly water and all of our body functions depend on water.  A half gallon a day is sufficient but if you train or if it’s a very hot dry day, you might need more.

Caffeine!  This was a little surprising to me as I’ve heard that this one is sometimes frowned upon.  A little caffeine in the morning with a meal is something of a catalyst for the metabolism apparently.

That was just a couple of the pointers the article gave.  Small balanced meals with sufficient water intake is probably the keystone to healthy nutrition.  The other half of the total equation is actually training and since I haven’t been the gym in a couple of weeks… I’ll hold off on that topic for now!

until next time . . .

Day 4 Status: Wha?

This year so far has been not at all what we planned. We’ve all been ill ranging from pink-eye to strep to pharyngitis, in the past 4-5 days. Talk about derailment! Well I’m finally back to par and the pink-eye is mostly cleared up so that’s two of us that are set. The wife should be bouncing back soon and the baby lives in a constant state of sniffle, hence his nickname. Mother in law is worse off than the rest of us, diagnosed with strep. Very nasty and painful. Good news is that with medication you generally feel better in a couple of days (at least in my case).

I’m going to avoid beating myself up for making a few ill choices on nutrition the past day or so. I’m also not going to make any excuses. Sick isn’t an excuse because #1 I’m not sick and #2 sick doesn’t justify eating badly. If anything, you either don’t eat much or eat things like chicken soup and drink Gatorade.

I’ve maintained my FitDay updating but it’s getting skewed now by those ill choices. I know that if I continue to make those choices I won’t make my goals. It’s an eye opening experience to see it all laid out in front of you.

Now a link of the day