Healthy Eating Battle
I am still struggling with healthy eating. I do really well in the beginning of the week, but start to fall apart as the week wears on when I run out of energy and food for healthy meals. On Thursday night, I woke up after my nap and ordered a pizza for the boys and I, then on Friday night, we went out to Original Joes where I had fish tacos. I have still not managed to solve my issues.
I guess what I need to do is look at the reasons I fall apart, and find solutions.
****************************
Problem One - Sometimes I am too tired to think about what to make for dinner and/or I don't have the ingredients for a healthy meal.
Solution - Take 20 minutes to plan a WEEK's worth of dinners every Sunday. Shop for the ingredients I need on Sunday (when I have time and energy). Continue to make my big pot of soup for my weekday lunches. Pre-cut veggies for a quick easy snack.
****************************
Problem Two - The boys often want to eat tastier, less healthy stuff, and it's sometimes tiring to make two meals. Not all meals are easily converted to healthy. If we have tacos, I can make mine meatless and can have a taco salad instead of using a wrap, but other times, it's not so easy. Also, if I'm really hungry, I'd much rather eat (and taste) the unhealthy version. I can eat healthy if the bad food's not around but I have lousy self-discipline when bad food is available.
Solution - When planning the week's meals, choose foods that have an easy meatless or healthy option so there's not a lot of extra work in making myself a healthier choice when I'm feeding the boys.
****************************
Problem Three - I'm not eating breakfast lately. I drink a cup of coffee in the morning and that takes the edge off my hunger so I don't even notice I'm not eating. Then I sip on my thermos of coffee all morning at work so I never really get hungry. I know that in theory, not eating breakfast is a bad thing, although it's not like I'm overeating at lunch because of it....
Solution - Be sure to plan the breakfasts as well when I'm doing the meal planning for the week. I have several easy-to-eat breakfasts that I enjoy. I just need to follow through.
****************************
Problem Four - Since fall began, I seem to have stopped drinking water. I have my water bottle on my desk, but I'm not sipping on it all day long like I normally do.
Solution - Add ice to my bottle (I drink more water if it's really cold) and take a glass up to my room. Make myself drink a glass of water before I'm allowed to pour coffee from my thermos into my cup.
****************************
Problem Five - I'm hungry after school, and/or REALLY hungry when I get home from work, then I make poor food choices.
Solution - Bring healthy snacks to school and have them handy at all times.
****************************
The Race Plan
Today, I picked up my race packet (#2958) for tomorrow morning's the race. I'm pretty low key about it - I just love the race atmosphere and I am enjoying racing for fun. My shins have been sore since my hard-ish run last Sunday - what else is new - but I know if I stay off my feet, I'll be ok for tomorrow. I think sub-60 minutes is going to be a stretch so I'm ok if I don't meet that goal, as long as I do my best.
The biggest challenge is going to be to start off slower than the rest of the crowd. However, some of the 10kers are walking so it won't be as bad as the half marathon last March. There should be enough people who run slower than me to make me able to keep to my planned paces.
My goal is to run the first 2 km at 6:15/km, then the next 6km at 5:45/km, then try to keep to under 6 min km for the last 2 km - depending on how I feel.
As a side note, Erik was painting earlier this week and put his back out (again). He's still at the 'hard-to-walk-without-pain' stage and it's difficult to say if he'll actually be running tomorrow or not. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Race Time: 8:15 am
Goal time: 59:45-65:00 minutes
Expected weather: Partly cloudy but dry, 5-8 C (mid 40's F)
Gear: Tights, Sugoi mid zero zip LS jersey, hat, Newtons, headband to cover ears.
2 comments:
sounds very familiar B, I have been very hungry in the late afternoon early evening. My solution has been to have lots of vegges cut up and ready to snack on as soon as I get home. I also will have a hand full of plain almonds to get some protein down there. I could drink 10 glasses of water but it will not stop the cravings and the vegges don’t really but by the time I have my huge salad I am so full!
I like your solutions to your problems, shows that you're really thinking things thru. Planning meals really doesn't take that much time and I found that when I take the time to do it, I spend less money, am more satisfied and never have to worry about what to make for dinner. BUT I need to plan again, it's been a while since I did it.
Post a Comment