Saturday, May 26, 2012

May 26


Day 13 of my "diet."   Here's my food log, weight, exercise, and thoughts.

breakfast, 9 am:  about 1/8th serving of housemate's smoothie, lots of grapes (3/4 lb), carrots (1 lb) and sugar snap peas (1/2 lb).

lunch, 2 pm:  1 lb strawberries and homemade soy yogurt.

snack, 5 pm:  some spinach and cabbage, not much, just felt like nibbling.

dinner, 7 pm:  steamed asparagus, mushrooms, and onions, with tomatoes and beans served over a bed of lettuce.

Nutritional information:
Calories: 1400; protein 58 g; fiber 76 g.

Weight:  128.0 

Exercise:  ran 3.5 miles, walked 1/2 mile.  a little yoga in the morning when I woke up too early.

Thoughts/notes:
  • everything was yummy today.  We've only recently started getting organic grapes at the co-op and it was the first time I bought them (this season).  yum.   I ate them while prepping housemate's smoothie fruits for the week.  Then, the strawberries and yogurt--YUM.  I'm eating this outside on the deck:
  • Dinner was an example of low-calorie density food, which goes hand-in-hand with high nutrient density and BIG portion sizes.  Here I am for scale.  That's a big bowl!  (sorry, I'm not wearing a bra!  hee hee).
  • my run was surprisingly fun.  I ran to a bike shop to get some chain lube, so it was a new route which I liked.  I also ran faster than usual.  I've started to ignore some advice I got on good-form running, which is to have a high cadence.  About the only thing I've got going for me with my long legs is a long stride.  If I were an athlete, I could combine the two and run really fast.  But for me high cadence requires short stride and that seems to translate into very slow; longer stride and slower cadence feels more natural and turns out to be faster.  Maybe it's just because I enjoy it more since it feels more natural.  
  • I had a lovely day.

3 comments:

Shanna said...

Good looking salad! Some pictures I see of big salads leave me with ??????-that tiny pile is a salad? Mine usually ends up about 8cups if it's all I have for a meal. After chewing and breaking it all down I think it would be about the size of a stomach (1 quart?) since there is so much water. I was interested in the mason jar salads but they were so small! I guess I just prefer one huge salad as a meal not a side dish. I'm always amazed too, at how energetic and light I feel after absolutely stuffing my self with a salad.

I'm loving the food journal posts.

Anonymous said...

Food looks great. I'm loving the strawberries and soy yogurt too. I top it with a little homemade granola which makes it extra yummy for me.

I had an interesting conversation with some neighbors yesterday. One guy has what sounds like out-of-control diabetes (A1c > 12, glucose > 300, etc.) and he has been trying to control it with diet and exercise. He went to a vegan cooking class and got convinced to go vegan but his sugar is getting worse. He still eats a lot of refined grains, high sugar fruits, etc. It's no surprise to me considering what he eats and what I think he should be eating. Surprisingly (to me), he has read ETL but obviously hasn't really absorbed the info or applied it. He made the comment, "there is so much advice out there about how to eat and exercise, it's hard to know what to do." His comment (and another unrelated conversation with someone this weekend) got me wondering how to communicate about my own understanding of nutrient dense eating and why I'm convinced that it is the best way to eat. I read ETL and became convinced right away that it made the most sense and was backed up by peer reviewed scientific research. It also gave me great results when I applied it to my own body.

I don't have any interest in converting people to the ETL diet-style, but when people ask me about it and challenge me about why I do it, I find myself at a loss for convincing explanations. I don't have the research studies on the tip of my tongue. I end up usually dropping the subject and saying that ETL isn't likely to be widely adopted because it is too far away from what most people think that they want to eat. At the same time, while I don't want to be an evangelist, I don't want to discount the benefits I've experienced either

How do you answer people who ask about ETL?
What could I say to people who have already followed Dr. X, Dr. Y and Dr. Z, with no good results? Isn't Dr. F just the next flawed doctor with the next flawed idea? It feels sometimes like trying to convert people from their lifelong religion. It may be that the people asking are in a defensive position and not one of true curiosity. But then again, I don't know *for sure* that ETL is the right answer for everybody. Maybe it would be best just to encourage people to try the six week plan for themselves (if they really want to know) and see if they feel better.

Any ideas?

kneecap said...

Hi Shanna, oh good, thanks for sharing that. mine are typically i 8-cup bowls too! I prefer a salad as a meal too. If I were cooking for more than 1 person, I'd make more than one item and we could share. but it's not worth it to make several small dishes for me--takes too much time.

Kristi, I responded to your comment with a whole new post. as I stated at the beginning "I don't know" but that didn't stop me from writing a bunch of stuff. :)

-barb