Garbage That GOO!

Habit #1

I promised to write more on the eating habits I follow, so here we go!

Eat every 2-3 hours. (That's waking hours!)

It sounds like I'm eating really often, right? It's similar to the 3 meals and 2 snacks per day idea. Except the snacks should ideally be well balanced!

Does it mean I absolutely have to eat like clockwork at, say, 8AM, 11AM, 2PM, 5PM, 8PM etc...? Well, I do try for every three hours, but life happens, if it swings a half hour later or earlier for some meals or even as much as four hours, it's not critical mass. I just want to establish regular meals. Eating when I get up, or within the first hour I am awake and then regularly throughout the day afterwards.

I did feel like I was eating a LOT at first! But, digestion burns calories and keeps my metabolism running. It also keeps my blood sugar levels on an even keel and that keeps cravings to a minimum. After all, if you feel a little hungry, you know you can eat again in a couple hours!

Sometimes these days, I actually AM hungry for my next meal! That has been a new experience! In the past, I've skipped meals often, but then hours later, I am REALLY HUNGRY and eat far too much! So I'm regaining a feel for what hunger is and a more normal style of eating.

Eating this way helps fight my body's natural reaction to a calorie deficit. The body is programmed to define a calorie deficit as "starvation". Back in the caveman days, if you weren't getting enough calories, starvation would be the end result. So our clever bodies can slow metabolism to stall off what they think of as "starvation". Unfortunately, this can also stall fat loss. With a steady stream of nutrients the body is happier and less likely to perceive a calorie deficit as starvation.

Eating frequently takes some planning... these are balanced meals. It's important to have plenty of lean protein, veggies, fruit, nuts, etc... in the pantry and fridge. For some meals I do cottage cheese or yogurt based protein smoothies/shakes. Breakfast is usually an egg white omelet with veggies. Other meals might be simple pan fried or grilled fish/lean ground beef/chicken and veggies and maybe a small serving of nuts or drizzle of olive oil on the veggies. And some meals are recipes I fix ahead.

Having healthy food in the house makes it easy to eat healthy often!

More about my eating habits

Yeah, everyone wants to know what other folks are doing and eating.

It's like the grass is always greener on the other side. Or maybe it's just plain old curiosity. Truth is, different plans can work for different people, and whatever you do needs to make sense to YOU in terms of a lifestyle change. This makes sense to me... this is good sound nutrition, but if it doesn't feel right for you, then you need to find what does!

My eating habits are NOT my own creation... they are courtesy of John Berardi, author of the Precision Nutrition system.

10 habits

1. Eat every 2-3 hours.
2. Eat complete lean protein with each meal.
3. Eat vegetables with each meal.
4. If fat loss is your goal, eat veggies and fruits with any meal, starchy carbs only after exercise.
5. Eat healthy fats daily.
6. Drink only non-calorie containing beverages, preferably water and green tea.
7. Eat whole foods instead of supplements whenever possible.
8. Plan ahead and prepare meals/feedings in advance.
9. Eat as wide a variety of good whole foods as possible.
10. Plan to break the rules 10% of the time.

Pretty simple, eh? Easy to remember! No food groups are excluded, nothing freaky or faddish! Following these habits, I eat fewer refined or processed foods which is not a bad thing.

When you see me talk about compliance, that's simply whether my meals have followed the above habits or not. If they have, I'm good to go... otherwise, a meal that does not follow the habits is counted as a 10% meal. If I'm eating 5 meals a day, 7 days a week, then I can have three 10% meals. If I'm eating 6 meals a day, then I could have as many as four 10% meals. The catch is... a skipped meal also counts as a 10% meal! That provides plenty of incentive to keep me on top of habit #1!

Now, there's another habit that must be mentioned...

EXERCISE

Ideally, a minimum of 5 hours a week that includes resistance training and cardio. I'm not quite at that mark, but hope to slowly increase again, especially when my plantar fasciitis is better. Currently, I get 3 hours a week from water aerobics, which combines both resistance and cardio and 1 hour from doing my Nordic Track skiier (cardio) on alternate days.