Fabulous Friday

Fridays are always fabulous, assuming you don't have to work on Saturday, and I don't!  I love Friday!!

Today I did a good workout in Circuit, which is great cross training for all my other sports.  Two minutes on a cardio machine, 2 x 1 minute weight exercises, repeat, repeat, repeat!  I got a good workout in, but it wasn't one of those "I feel great!!" workouts.  It was more of a "Thank goodness, I really needed to do this today" kind of workout.  Everything felt heavy and hard and difficult.  And I think that had a lot to do with my diet.

Yesterday was Canada Day, and I ate Nanaimo Bar and lots of other little treats.  And I had a very naughty toasty for breakfast.  I haven't had enough vegetables - in fact, I don't think I've had a single serve of vegetables all day today, and probably had no more than 2 serves on any day over the last week.  I've had too many cups of tea, with a teaspoon of sugar each, and have been drinking it instead of water because I'm always so cold. I tried to eat a banana, but it was grossly under-ripe and I couldn't finish it, so I haven't had fruit for two days, and haven't been eating my two fruit consistently for weeks now!  I haven't had any good light dairy, except a splash of milk in a cup of tea, for a week.  I haven't eaten meat, red or otherwise, for over a week, maybe two (I honestly can't recall the last time I ate meat), and it's been at least a week as well since I had fish.  I have eaten several convenience meals.  I'm pretty sure there's nothing good to be had in anything that can be microwaved in under 2 minutes (never mind the fact that I have looked at the nutrition label of a Spinach and Ricotta Roll and the healthiest thing about them is the name!)  And oh so many other 'failings' too numerous to mention!

In other words, I have failed to fuel my body correctly.

And I am paying for it.  I'm tired. I'm sluggish.  My efforts are noticeably slower, lighter, less effective.  My energy is down and that kills my motivation.  I lack focus. I almost feel depressed!

And I wonder how I slipped off the good nutrition wagon!?

And I wonder how I am going to avoid falling off like this again.

Back on the wagon now, starting with a nice hearty stew and a side of wholegrain crackers, light philly cheese and chunky salsa on top for my evening meal.  I need to ensure I'm fuelled up and paying attention to what I eat.  I am considering keeping a food diary to see if that will raise awareness for me. I kind of object to this at a deep down level, because I find it odd to have to think about food so much, but I think it will be an enlightening exercise for me. Unfortunately, although I enjoy good food, my eating habit is to fill the hole rather than fuel the machine.

If I am hungry I will eat whatever is nearby, and sometimes that hunger is crazy voracious and insatiable!  I must eat NOW!  But, if I'm not hungry, I'm just not thinking about food, so I don't plan ahead and I forget to bring a good lunch, or enough snacks.  So although I've bought all the right stuff and have it at home, it doesn't make it to work with me.  And there aren't a lot of healthy treats available at our canteen.

Whenever I fall off the food wagon I go back to doing a meal plan and follow recipes and do really good. And then I get complacent, I get careless, then start to feel blah and wonder what's going on.  Time to beat that cycle.

My nutritional goals:
- 2 fruit daily
- 5 serves veg daily
- 1 serve fish weekly
- 1 serve other meat weekly
- other non-animal proteins daily (mostly through beans... I love beans!)
- 3 serves of dairy daily (can also count as my protein source for the day)
- no more than 2 cups of tea daily (not including tisanes and herbals (decaffeinated & unsweetened) which I will use as an alternative warm beverage)
- only one processed/pre-packaged "treat" per week (chocolate, pie, whatever)

I also think that I need to do an affirmation every day:

The better I eat, the better I feel.

Simple, but true! And as I've been learning more about positive thinking, I feel this might help me too.

So, I will start each day with that affirmation, and keep a food diary with planned and actual columns, as well as check boxes for each time I eat my fruit, vegetables, or dairy.

Fingers crossed!