Tuesday, March 13, 2012

And now for something completely different

I really don't like to go out on a limb and say things like, "Best ever," "Nothing like it," and "Life-changing," because those are pretty big words that could lose a lot of their oomph if you use them haphazardly.

Keeping that in mind, you may know that last October I took the first step on what has turned out to be a truly life-changing journey for me. I signed up for Bodyback, a more intense program from the fab mama who created Stroller Stride that includes workouts and a food component and it ended up to be one of the best decisions I've ever made. When I tell people about it, I have a hard time talking about the food part of it because it is definitely not a restrictive diet or calorie counting. I guess I haven't exactly found the right words to describe that part of it. The next eight-week Bodyback session begins next Monday (my third!) and I was looking back over my food journals to see how I was eating when I started this process.

My very first day of Bodyback, when I came home from my first group workout with my new food journals in hand and I had done no shopping to prepare any of the meals included, I had a bowl of cereal and a protein smoothie (one of the Bodyback recipes) made with a banana, yogurt, rice milk, protein powder, flax seed and peanut butter (because we are the type of family who has all these things in the house at any given time). It was a few days before I was only eating one of the breakfasts at a time - I did a few days of the peanut butter protein smoothie with something else, like the egg breakfast sandwich or the breakfast quinoa.

It took me about a week to incorporate the two snacks into my day, and then a few more weeks to actually eat them consistently every day. Looking over all of the week's of food journaling since October 24, there hasn't been one entire week where I didn't have at least one after dinner snack, be it healthy or not!

Now that I am working out six days a week, my eating and need for energy has changed so dramatically from my needs the first few weeks. Add on top of that I am achieving a personal best for running distance each week as I train and prepare for the Capital City Half-Marathon, and some days I find myself needing to eat every hour and a half to two hours! Certainly a change from the beginning.

Anyway, I promise to update this more as I move through this next session of Bodyback., My goals are different and my body is different from when I started, so I really have no idea what to expect.