Food

Food.

”Please sir, I want some more.” from Dickens’ Oliver Twist. I can hear the music now…Food! Glorious food! from the musical version, Oliver. But the biggest challenge in losing weight or preparing for a competition is nutrition. I wish it wasn’t. I would much rather live in the fantasy that I can do a few hours a week in the gym and then eat whatever I want. The truth is, most of our fitness issues are nutritionally related. This is not to say that American’s shouldn’t get exercise, but the excuse of…”well, I am overweight because I don’t have time to work out” is pretty lame. Because I love the gym and I love to hike and do active things, I think that some people would attribute my weight loss and fitness to that. It is a big part of my life but honestly my nutrition or diet or meal plan (whatever you want to call it) is the biggest tool for my success. I have heard for years that diet comprises 80% of our weight loss success. I have also heard, repeatedly, ‘abs are made in the kitchen.’ So…a huge part of my plan centers around food.

I spend about six hours every weekend preparing my food for the week. This involves shopping as well. I shop at Costco, Sam’s, Wal-Mart, and King Soopers. I also spend about 45 minutes a day doing some sort of meal prep, whether that is preparing a coleslaw, cooking up a batch of custards, packaging up food in portion sized containers, packing my lunch or cleaning up my mess. It is a lot of work. It was much easier a year ago when I ate Lean Cuisines and other pre-packaged diet foods. But what has become helpful has been routine and repetition. Several of the foods that I eat, I eat often and I make all the time. I have gotten the prep for these items down to a science. I will be sharing some of these recipes with you over the next several months. I will also share my adventures in creating new recipes with you. Some of them are really good, but sometimes we have food disasters. It’ll be fun…really ;).

So, this is an introduction to my nutrition. I do have a disclaimer to add here. While I eat clean most of the time I regularly commit a couple of clean eating ‘sins’. First of all, I use Splenda. I know, right? Sorry. I know it is probably bad for me, but obesity was worse. So I cook with Splenda and I use it in my coffee. Some of the recipes I will share use it. Feel free to use something else, such as agave nectar or honey or Stevia or whatever. It’s my blog and I’ll sweeten it the way I want to. I also use supplements and probably drink too much coffee. I will share some of these things with you as well.

Oh, and I will also tell you one more thing. The diet (yes, I know it is a dirty word) that I am on has been created for me by my trainer, Nik Zaharis. It is proprietary so there are only so many of the specifics that I can share. He is great and I am sure he would write one up for you as well. He balances out my meal plan with my workout schedule so it is uniquely designed for me. But I can share general things. And I can be more specific about recipes and real menus.

On that note, it is time for me to eat lunch. Bon Appétit!