Hungry Triathletes

I've been thinking a lot about food recently. Plus we get asked about our diet quite a bit so thought I'd write my thoughts down. Since the weather hasn't been the greatest, we have been stuck on the trainer quite a bit. I came home from the gym one day to find Brian on the trainer watching a documentary called Hungry for Change. My next trainer workout, I decided to also give it a view. I actually found it pretty well done. I liked how it talked about why we crave certain things. It also talked a lot about evolving your diet over time, instead of trying major changes very quickly. After we had both watched it, we talked a little about trying to cut out more processed foods. We didn't eat a whole lot of processed foods in the first place but we decided to be more careful. We decided that we would buy something "processed" if we recognized all the ingredients as something we would keep in our own pantry. For example, one of my favorite snacks are brown rice cakes (with nut butter, honey and cinnamon). The ingredients are brown rice so I was excited to not have to give up my favorite snack. We also didn't want to give up all grains, but we opt for "better" grains like brown rice, quinoa, etc. The hardest thing for me has been cereal, because I looooove cold cereal and soy milk as a snack.

Around the same time I saw this documentary, I also read an article in Triathlete Magazine (which I now can't find). It started off talking about how so and so top elite triathlete uses the paleo diet so that must be the right one....but then again so and so other top elite triathlete uses a gluten free diet, and then this other one uses a vegan diet and so on. So which diet is best? The article stated that there are benefits to all of these but it really just depends on the needs/wants of the individual as to which diet will be best. It also talked about how the best diet is one that you really believe you can stick with. I am pretty sure I have no chance of making my hunter husband into a vegan....so that was out. However, I cook vegan/vegetarian once a week for dinner, and usually we only eat meat for dinner on the other days. I didn't want to do the paleo diet, because, as mentioned earlier, I didn't want to give up stuff that was processed but I felt was still ok because I could technically make it myself (ex. rice cakes). Plus, we really didn't want to eliminate all grains. However, I incorporate paleo meals/recipes into our diets. I also have some meals/recipes that are gluten free or raw, etc. etc.

Looking back, our diet has evolved really gradually. We will be eating one thing, and then we will find something similar and we will switch to eating that instead. We gradually incorporate "better" stuff into our diets and then there just isn't room for the "bad" stuff. We have recently added in some super foods like spirulina, chia seeds and nutritional yeast. I've also started throwing fresh beets into my smoothies a few times a week. I plan our dinners out at the beginning of the week so that we aren't scrounging for stuff to make a healthy dinner with. I try to plan it so we have at least one vegan/vegetarian meal, fish meal, venison meal etc. We do Mexican Mondays, and pizza on Fridays. I always did pizza night with my family on Fridays growing up so I started it with the two of us, however our pizza night is a little different. We use a whole wheat or cauliflower crust and load it up with veggies. Instead of chips or fries, we pop popcorn on the stove with just a little peanut oil and put a movie in to enjoy a nice night together.

Here is a picture of our fridge at the beginning of the week after our one big grocery shopping trip:

And this is our fridge before our shopping trip the following Sunday...minus the fruit in the bottom drawer

This particular week wasn't too bad actually, but usually we spend close to $200 a week just for the two of us and we are scraping the cupboards and drawers come Saturday. And that beer has been in there for a really really long time....

One of the hardest things to find non-processed alternatives for is snacks. Three meals isn't quite enough for us... and Brian was already taking almost 5 pieces of fruit a day. I started making our own hummus (favorite flavor so far is chipotle) and introduced Brian to jicama for dipping in the hummus. He was a little sick of so many veggies (we both eat a big salad for lunch and lots of veggies in the evening plus veggies in our morning smoothies), but jicama has a cool flavor, almost like a hybrid apple and veggie. I also bought a book called Artisan Bread in five minutes a day and have been making our own bread. I'm still learning but they are turning out better and better. Once we can get the dry blade for our Vitamix (best thing ever invented), we may start grinding our own flour. Other snacks we have are homemade pickles, rice cakes with nut butter/honey, fruit, dried nuts/dried fruit and homemade granola bars (Brian's kitchen sink bars, he just throws whatever is in our pantry as far as dried fruit, nuts, nut butter, oats etc. and they are always awesome).

This is my typical bag of food for the work day (Brian takes something similar but almost double the amount):

Leftover veggie frittata with some homemade bread, small salad (since I actually had leftovers), grape fruit, apple, dried fruit/nuts, jicama and hummus and a homemade granola bar.

Side note: you can sort of see a bit of the Feed Zone Cookbook. It's awesome, fast and easy recipes to make with ingredients that aren't impossible to find, that taste awesome and are tailored to endurance athletes. Other cookbooks we use are recipes from Scott Jurek's Eat and Run book, Skinny Bitch, Ultimate Guide to Everday Cooking (Vegan) and Cooking Light magazines (although a recipe for 4 usually just feeds us....with no leftovers...), and then there is Pinterest, which is a great way to find new recipes and ideas.

Typical breakfasts before workouts are hot cereal or steel cut oats with dried fruit, nuts, agave etc.

After I swim I usually either have a fruit/veggie/greek yogurt smoothie or a egg/veggie wrap.

Dinners vary a lot, I love cooking new stuff, but they all usually involve whole grains or sweet potatoes (I love these little purple potatoes I get at whole foods too), veggies and lean protein (venison, fish, tempeh, tofu - yep Brian eats tofu, chicken etc.).

A lot of people tell us, well you're really fit so you don't need to be careful about your diet. What many people don't understand is that it has more to do with how we feel then how we look. Plus getting that perfect balance in weight for racing/training also has its advantages. I used to actually track what I ate. It had its positive side, I learned I needed to be better about my sodium and potassium ratios. However, I stopped tracking when I became too concerned about calorie intake. Now we both eat to our hunger. If I'm hungry I eat. I actually give in to some of my cravings too. Sometimes when you are really craving something, its your body trying to tell you something...within reason. I usually give in more after longer/harder workouts. Believe it or not, in the summer I crave vegetable juice after a long, hot ride (maybe the sodium?). Or you just make your cravings more healthy. We have gotten better at making healthy junk food. I make zuchinni fries and bake them, or Brian will make baked chicken nuggets with an oat breading etc. etc. Brian loves popsicles but the ones in the store have additives so I got him a Zoku. We received an ice cream maker for our wedding so Brian made green tea soy ice cream. The possibilities are endless. Healthy eating doesn't have to be boring, we love incorporating different diets and trying new things. One thing I'll never give up is chocolate, but I've limited myself to a square of quality dark chocolate after dinner. 

Anyway, sorry this was so long, I've been thinking about all this quite a bit lately. I've been pretty happy with the recent changes to our diet but I'm always on the lookout for new ideas. And also, I'm not saying our approach to diet is the best for everyone, we just get asked about it a lot so thought I'd put it out there :)