Yesterday--a day of phenomenally bad eating--I got an email from Martha, my nutritionist, asking if I could meet today (Tuesday) instead of Thursday. I said yes even though it meant re-scheduling a way-overdue eye appointment (if someone wants to pay for Lazik for me so I can stop the contact lens merry-go-round, I'd be so grateful...but I digress).
So I had a good hour with her--my last, unfortunately, since I paid for three sessions--lamenting my out-of-control sweet tooth, my meals and snacks that seem to bleed into each other, and the unhappy discovery that most kinds of nuts, my favorite form of snack protein, give me horrible stomach cramps and gas. I tried to put a positive spin on the situation. After all, I maintained my weight over the holidays, which I know can be hard to do. But I'm really tired of maintenance, which seems like code for "plateau," and I have no idea how I'm going to manage to eat protein, which isn't my favorite food group anyway, with every meal if I can't include nuts.
As usual, Martha was upbeat and reassuring. We did some goal-setting. My two goals are 1) to stick to an 1,800-calorie daily plan involving set numbers of servings of each kind of food (protein, grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy and healthy fats, plus 195 "discretionary" calories) and 2) implement a strategy or two to help deal with the sweet issue. These strategies are simple: the one I'm going to try out this week is to put a stick of minty Extra Dessert Delights gum in my mouth when I know I'm going somewhere in the library that co-workers tend to leave chocolate chip cookies and other such tempting fare. That means I'll be chawin' on a lot of gum, a habit my dad deplores, but hopefully this is just temporary until the new norm of not taking every sweet that appears in the building takes.
As for the nut situation, I'm still not really sure what to do. I'm supposed to be eating a modest portion of protein with every meal and snack. I don't eat pork or beef, and chicken and fish work much better with meals than they do with snacks. Martha tells me in order for something to count as protein, it needs to have iron in it--so yogurt won't cut it. Any ideas out there for this? I'm all ears (and stomach).
Anyway, the upshot is, I'm feeling a bit better about the food front after meeting with her. Since the holidays are over, the gravy train at work should slow down a bit, too. Fingers are crossed!
Today's Workout: Today's 6 x 800 at a 7:20/mile pace was hard. I did it, but I did it on more than the prescribed minute-thirty rest between intervals (at least for the last three of them). Hopefully it still counts. And hopefully one bad workout doesn't mean I'm losing my edge. Just in case it's a rest issue, I hereby vow to you that I will turn off my light by 9 p.m. tonight.
