30 day paleo challenge…

When I was losing weight I felt in most in control when I had a plan.

An eating plan and an exercise plan.

When I am only doing one (i.e. an exercise plan) and not the other (i.e. an eating plan) both sort of fall to the wayside. The moving part (the exercise) of the plan right now is working up to running my first marathon in May and over all I think I’m doing pretty well. However I’ve discovered there is much more tweaking I need to be doing. Don’t get me wrong I am running my little tush (and I say little because well it is 110 pounds lighter than when I started this whole life changing journey) but there is more I should be doing. The miles are coming along nicely and with my first race of the year just a few days away I am feeling pretty good about strapping on my faithful sauconys this coming Sunday and running 25k (15.5 miles).

But…

I am missing something.

The other day Meegan and I took a tour of Canada Games Centre (I remembered to spell it the “Canadian Way” Eh!) and it was when the very nice lady was showing us the pool that I realized what I was missing…I miss being a gym rat. I miss the sound of opening a locker at the beginning of a workout and setting up my plan of action in that tiny box of metal. I would always work out (boxing usually) and then head to the pool for some intense swim. I would change before heading to the pool and take a moment to look at my baseball cap or my shirt and take notice of the sweat (and salt) that soaked my clothes. I miss spending an hour or so in the pool and the repetitiveness of going back and forth and feeling my muscles work. I miss the routine of what it took to get from point A (the gym) early in the morning to point B (work) on time.

I also miss the routine of eating…

(routine is extremely important in my sanity)

When I was losing weight I counted calories until it became obsessive. Then I stopped and my eating sort of went willy nilly. Ever since then I’ve been trying to find balance between my relationship with food and my level of exercise. When my focus shifted from weight loss to maintenance and then to endurance training I found my most success when I left the gym, joined Jowers Training and started following The Zone as I was still on the fence about Paleo. During those months I felt my strongest, looked my leanest and while I wasn’t running as much I was pretty fucking fast when I did hit the streets.

Okay Tara, so what’s the point to this blog post?

The point is I’m going to be changing things up a bit around here. I need a food plan. I need an exercise plan. I also need to figure out how to do both of these things while not working (i.e. working out at home). Of course I have to continue to run so the working out isn’t going to be hard to change up. I need to add some core work in and I need to stop thinking that I need a gym/trainer to do that. I’m smart enough to know that doing sit ups or planks at home is just as effective as if I were doing them in a boxing / cross fit class. So with the running I will also be trying to stick to a home work out plan as well…

I’m also pulling in the reins on my food. It’s been out of whack. I can feel it in my clothes that the choices I’ve been making haven’t been the best all around. Too many times I’ve not been eating the way an athlete should eat. Granted you will never see me compete in any competition but I am an endurance athlete. My body tells me so. My heart tells me so. My relationship with food has always been one that is tied to emotions…except when I have a definitive plan that allows me to be in control. Meegan and are both athletes. Of that there is no doubt. We need our brains and the relationship with our food to coincide with what we’re asking our bodies to do. We want to push them beyond the limits of what we think we can do to find out what they were meant to do.

We’ve both decided to take the 30 day paleo challenge.

She’s been more paleo than me and when I moved here to Halifax it became a basis of what we were eating. But other choices have been getting in the way. I felt it in my run just this morning when we attended a baby shower last night full of sugary sweets and I had more than my share of cakepops, brownies and cupcakes. I felt hung over. Lethargic. Unfocused.

We decided last night that changes needed to be made. For me food was starting to control me instead of the other way around. I can’t speak for Meegan but I would guess that she’s been feeling the same way. I’m not eating as an athlete and I’m certainly not fueling my body the way it was meant to be fueled.

Thirty days. Paleo. It won’t be much of a shift as I try to keep the food I’m cooking as paleo as possible. Thirty days mean no eating out. Means no sugary snacks. Means dairy is out. Means when Meegan bakes cookies for her dad I am not the taste tester, bowl licker or spatula cleaner. No “it’s okay because it’s just today and tomorrow I am running (insert # of miles here) because “just today” has turned into “too many days” and it is starting to affect me physically and emotionally. It’s more than just food though. It’s a shift in thinking. Getting back to thinking like an athlete because I am an athlete.

The gym rat status will be back as soon as I have my car (which has both my swimming suit and my gym bag packed inside) and of course a job in which to pay for said gym rat status but until then I’ll just plank / lunge / squat / push up / sit up in the kitchen while cooking up some delicious paleo meals…

#30DayPaleo starts today!

(p.s. send recipes)