FOOD!!!!

(I’m warning you ahead of time, this is a seriously rambling post…way more than usual)

I’m seriously having a FOOD obsession crisis! As in, that’s all I think about..what should I eat, what shouldn’t I?

on and on and on…..

So, I’ve told you I’m part of Nia’s  Fitness Challenge over at Nia Peeple’s Elements of Life site right? If not, or you don’t recall, you can follow my progress through the challenge by reading my blog posts over there.

That’s what began this “food” thing as I’ll call it.

Our “Team Malibu” signed up with Intrafitt to follow their program through this 6-week challenge. Once I signed up with Intrafitt, I had to answer a bunch of questions about my eating and working out habits. I’m going to admit, I’m usually not very open to  anyone getting “into” my eating choices. I’m a vegan for goodness sake…haven’t I given up enough?!?!?

I actually scored really high on the “food” survey I’m happy to say. This, in it’s own way, calmed my approach to the whole program as, yes, I can be quite a baby at times.

What I realized though, as I got to the “menu” planning phase, is that it’s somewhat complicated to make sure you get enough “protein” according to other’s ideas of what we should have.

I know, you’re thinking, “duh!”

I’m not saying I haven’t heard the whole “as a vegan, where do you get your protein” question before. Certainly, I have. But, truly people, gorillas don’t eat a lot of protein and aren’t we somewhat close to them DNA wise? (please don’t laugh if I’m way off here).

So, needless to say, I struggled with the Intrafitt meal options even though I know of many more vegan protein options out there than they have available in their drop-down lists. I did complete happy, qualified meal plans within their program though, through a lot of maneuvering.

Throughout this whole process, I even got to the point of wondering if I should maybe add some eggs back into my diet?!?! Just for the protein…

I haven’t made any decisions yet, I’m letting it all sit there and sink in because, then, I spoke with my friend, Brad (from yesterday’s post) about his thoughts on my vegan diet plan. He had a complete other approach to eating. He was actual editor to “The Primal Blueprint” written by Mark Sisson.

Their thoughts are that we really, really need to cut back on the quantity of grains we consume – to the point of total elimination. His exercise advice was also quite a bit different from the “plan” given to me from Intrafitt.

The Intrafitt plan is that I need to do a minimum of 4 hours of cardio at optimal heart rate each week and also some weight training. This sounds like a real “plan” to me…a tough plan, but one that will work at dropping weight and then…again, I spoke with Brad.

Brad liked my current plan of working out (walking 2-2.5 miles each morning, gym 3x’s a week with 25 minutes of weightlifting and 25 minutes of cardio plus 1 yoga class a week and daily stretching) and his thoughts were that if I worked out as much as the Intrafitt suggested I would only end up “hungrier” and would probably create feelings of deprivation and then suffer until the end but after 6 weeks want to eat more and not stick with the plan. He even sent me this link to an article in Time magazine about how exercise won’t make you thin.

Now, I’m going to admit, what Brad tells me sounds realistic. This is simply from my own experience as I’ve been a “Jenny Craig” girl and know that I can obsess, commit and complete a goal, but not necessary be healthier for it.

Example, pre Jenny Craig, Pops and I rode bikes across Italy on a tour. I was one of the strongest riders on that trip. Post Jenny Craig, we rode our bikes down the California Coast and though I was 40 pounds lighter, I was extremely unfit and suffered horribly on that ride.

I’m not hacking Jenny Craig here at all. Trust me, if you do their program and follow it, you WILL lose weight. I just happened to slowly but surely put most of it back on over the years (I’m an emotional eater and trust me there were years where I was feeling a LOT of emotions around here).

So, I know that “food” is key in losing weight. I don’t think just cutting calories and deprivation are the answer for me right now though.

See, my goal is to be the healthiest Jen (Lita) I can be. Not for the next 6 weeks, but for the rest of my life. I started working this plan back at my 42nd birthday 2 months ago. I’m happy to say I’ve lost 6 pounds so far….6 REAL pounds as I feel that they are truly gone and I can live with this program I’m on – though I’m willing to tweak it a bit.

I do feel, though, that there is a purpose as to why this “Fitness Challenge” and my conversations with Brad are occurring in my life right now. I’m open and I’m listening and we’ll see what path I try. I want the path to speak to me, I want it to be “of” me as it were.

I really believe this is possible. I’m striving for it….and I’m hoping to have lovely, lovely blog readers to support and encourage me…and possibly JOIN me! As I would love the company….the “no pressure” just loving and supporting each other kind of company.

So, after all this rambling, and if you’re still reading, will you come along for the ride? It won’t be all I blog about, but it will come up from time to time. We can chat more often about it via my Facebook or my Twitter if you like.

After all this rambling..I may just go have a glass of wine now…I promise only 1…and it will be red too…isn’t that healthier?

Lots of Love to all who have stuck with me through this post…
~ Lita