It was recently Thanksgiving here in Canada and as many of you may experience, that usually means more food than ever. I managed to dodge the ‘food coma’ bullet by making some healthy choices, but I haven’t been so lucky in the past. I guess one thing about getting a little older is that experience is a good teacher. I can recall having a super upset stomach and falling asleep on the couch with an insulin induced nap after over indulging.
At holiday time, it’s unlikely that I’d over indulge in protein and veggie type choices either, I’d eat carbs, carbs and more carbs, especially breads and baking because that’s the stuff that I don’t normally eat. Well, I still don’t ‘normally’ eat that kind of thing and one of the reasons is that I feel lousy eating it.
Now I wouldn’t say I follow a ‘strict’ gluten free diet, but I’d say I have a very healthy one. I’ll actually go days without eating much in the way of gluten and the less I eat of it, the less I crave it. It’s sort of like the taste for sweets. I always tell clients: ‘eat sweet – crave sweet’. Once I cut out sweets in the form of candy or baking then I don’t crave it. I have to say there’s about a week that I still crave that sort of thing if I ever ‘fall off the wagon’ nutritionally. I know if I stick to it, I’ll crave it less and less so I stay the course through the cravings.
Here’s a typical eating day for me:
4:15 am – Greek yogurt with chocolate greens (I love this chocolate greens formula, it gives the yogurt a chocolate-y taste without the guilt and I get a boost of greens too)
5:30-7:30 teach boot camp
7 am – coffee (yup I allow myself cream and half a packet of Splenda)
7:45-8:30 train
8:45 – shake with whey protein, spinach, berries, greek yogurt, handful of nuts (almonds/cashews usually)
9:30-10:30 back to boot camp
10:45-noon GSD at my laptop or shoot video
noon (ish) – hard boiled eggs (one whole, 3 egg whites), 1/4 avocado, 2 oz cheddar cheese, celery sticks
12:30 – 4 More GSD on my laptop
4 pm – apple and natural peanut butter
4:30 – 6:30 Putter around the house, pick my son up from foot ball, laundry, make dinner etc
6:30 (ish) Baked salmon, asparagus
That’s pretty much it for eating for the day…I may have a pickle and cheddar cheese or almonds in the evening, but I’m not a big snacker.
Oh, I must admit, that I almost always have a bit of dark chocolate daily. It depends on the day, but my friend Sonia, who’s lost 116 lbs in the last year recommends eating it at lunch so there’s plenty of time to burn it off. I may have it at this time or later in the day. I figure I have a ridiculously clean diet that I can afford this indulgence.
Now I must say that this is typical, but on another day where I do have gluten, it’ll be in the form of sprouted grain bread or quinoa. I’ll have toast and pb at breakfast or I’ll have a quinoa salad at lunch or dinner.
This is how I eat to feel great, energized and it allows me to fit into clothes that I could when I was in high school (but even though I’m fashion challenged, I’ve managed to give away the high school dudes…;))
I had opportunity to speak with my friend, Dr. Peter Osborne and he talks about gluten as if it’s the devil incarnate. I understand his passion because he deals with very sick people that have dealt with gluten related issues. Once he’s gotten them off gluten, their health improves as does their energy and workouts. You may not have huge gluten issues neither did I but I didn’t feel my best. You never know how well you can feel until you do a bit of trial and error with things.
Peter and I discuss gluten and performance in this interview here:
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