Diary of a Nutritional Challenge

So it’s a new year and a new you, right? As far as I’m concerned, I’ll always be me, but hey, there’s always room for improvement with food…unless you are Giselle and have a private chef….yup, still just me in the kitchen. Regardless, with the start of 2016, my husband and I decided to do nutritional coaching. Or more accurately, he wanted to do it and I declared that we would be doing it TOGETHER. So here we go:

Day 1…Signing Up: It’s okay, we can do this. We can all benefit from some nutritional help. We eat fairly well anyways, so what’s the big deal? If I can walk away learning how to tailor my fat/protein/carbs more accurately for my body then I’m in. I could definitely use some more energy chasing after these yahoos, so if this will help, then I’m in. Wine totally doesn’t count, right?!

Day 2…Food Logging: Today was a good day, I’m not ashamed to admit what I consumed today. Oh wait, hello sugar content. COME ON! Trader Joe’s Fancy Medjool Dates are insane with the sugar. If you are so “fancy” then what gives? “Nature’s candy” my rear-end. Again, wine doesn’t count if you drink it while you are logging food.

Day 3…Competition: “So here’s my food log for today…what did you log, DEAR?” In other words, let’s do this. I like a good competition. I bet my sodium intake was less than yours! Oh my, what have we started?

Day 5…Ignoring: Oh crap, I haven’t logged food in a day and a half! And we ate in a restaurant last night! How the heck am I going to log those risotto balls? I’ll pour a glass of wine and deal with it while the kids watch their bedtime shows…

Day 6…Counting: I’ve submitted my food log, workout regimen and weight goals to the coach and received feedback. So here I am counting macros and trying to figure out what the heck macros are and why they won’t match up between what I’m eating and what is “suggested.” How am I ever going to meet these protein requirements? Thankfully I gave up vegetarianism in college. More bacon is prescribed!

Day 8…Clarity?: It has become abundantly clear to me that I know very well how to eat proper foods and stick to a work out routine. I just have to pay someone good money to hold me accountable. Is this the good or bad side of peer pressure?

Day 10…Begrudging Admission: Soooooo, I’ve noticed that I’m not really experiencing 12pm and 3pm energy slumps like I used to….that can’t possibly mean that the nutrition coach knows what he’s doing, right?

Day 11…Protein!: Today will go down in history as the day of my first protein smoothie ever in my life. I don’t believe that it lives up to it’s name of “Fudge Brownie”….but I won’t discredit it for trying.

Day 12…Butter: Butter and I have always been friends. Among my personal mottos, my favorite is: “If it’s grass-fed, then you don’t have to measure it!” Well, I just looked at the nutrition info on my beloved grass-fed butter today and found out what is crushing my fat macros every day. So does this mean that I now have to ration my butter intake?! Oh, the indignity.

Day 14…Pitfalls: One big nutritional pitfall has become painfully obvious…I need supervision, even if the supervisors are two feet tall. I have a horrible craving for crappy foods while the kids are napping and after they are in bed and I am left all alone. Hi, I’m 35 years old and I can’t handle being alone without eating.

Day 15…Disdain: Look for my new book! It will be titled “The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Carbs.”

Day 17….Mindfulness: It’s insane how much “mindless eating” I do with the kids! When I’m making breakfast, packing lunches, packing snacks, passing through the kitchen, at the deli counter….how many times a day do I shove food in my mouth without really thinking about it? It’s a bit shocking when you are trying to add it all up at the end of the day. Those quacks that talk about “mindful eating” might not be barking up a dead tree…

Day 20…Bargaining: If the serving size of the tortilla chips says “10 chips” then the broken ones clearly don’t count. Truth.

Day 24…Laziness: After doing pretty good and following the plan for awhile, I started to get cocky and went off track. It’s interesting how quickly bad decisions beget bad decisions, and you feel like you fell way off track. I’ll blame it on being snowed in for the weekend with three children. It always comes back to the children. And all the wine you drank while watching Shameless.

Day 26…Pride: I made literally the prettiest dish ever to come out of my kitchen today! Packed with protein and veggies and deliciousness! The kids acted like I was offering them gruel. Bloody ingrates. If it came in a squeeze pouch, they would have downed it in 10 seconds flat.

Day 30…Reflection: So this was not a 30-day challenge, it is a lifestyle choice; we get to choose how long we wish to work with the nutrition coach. I just needed an end-cap to the post and 30 days sounded nice. Overall, we both agree that we are feeling great. This was not a diet of deprivation, which I think is why we have been successful. The nutrition coach gave us macros to meet each day (protein, carb and fat) and it was up to us to fill in those blanks as we wished (whole foods choices advised, obviously). So on days that we planned to have pizza, we ate less carbs and more protein earlier in the day to have room in our macro plan for the pizza. Going forward, I can say that I have learned quite a bit from this month. I never thought it would be possible to get that much protein in my body in a single day. I loved the extra energy and lack of midday slumps that the protein increase gave me – I felt stronger in workouts and felt a mental clarity that I have not had in awhile. One night early on in the month, I had so much energy that the kitchen cabinets had a serious cleaning out…now that’s an addictive side effect. Hitting PRs in the gym is also great motivation to stick with it. And my yoga game has been seriously on point this month – I have never in my life held Tree Pose…until last week. I only see a moderate outward physical change, which I will not lie, is disappointing. But it is part of my journey of accepting my postpartum body. The inward changes (feeling stronger, having more energy, mental clarity, better sleep at night) have been enough to keep me from getting too discouraged. For now, we will continue with the coach. And I will continue eating steak and eggs for breakfast with a moderate amount of butter.

Have you ever done a nutritional challenge? What has your experience been like?