Food! Glorious Food!

I used to make my poor mom make my batch of chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips in them. I never thought that chocolate should be combined with any other food... that was just wrong. (And yes, I cannot stand Reeses peanut butter cups or donuts with chocolate icing. Who comes up with this stuff???) Anyway, that was only the tip of the iceberg on my weirdo eating habits. I don't like a lot of different foods and I love the ones I always eat (over and over.) Variety is for clothes, painting your house, or whatever...just not food.

Running has caused me to reevaluate this food issue in my life. I have found huge problems with digestion, energy, and just getting the right amounts of foods for overall nutritional health. Even as a kid I used to moan to my mom that someone just needed to come up with a really cool "meal pill" that would give you all the nourishment you needed, allow you more outside play time, and cut meal time down to all of 10 seconds and no cooked carrots (which I love now but couldn't even convince the dog to eat when I slipped them under the table.) Thank God Meredith Terranova came along and is working on my runner's nutrition!

Imagine Meredith's surprise when I told her I ate no processed food other than sugary things and no salt. "How do you get your salt/electrolyte balance then?" she asked. Silence. "Do you cramp frequently?" was her next question. "Uh, basically the entire time I am awake." was my answer. Oh boy, work to do, work to do.

I got a list of things to eat and not eat. I got some articles on healthy eating. I was told to keep a food log to see how I was doing. Ok. Six weeks later my food log is two days long. My bad. So, I decided to go to a website that I had used in the past when I was having some anemia issues (yeah, I don't like meat either) and I broke a rib (yeah, I am not a big dairy product fan either.) This website makes the whole food log thing much easier. It keeps tabs on calories, carbs, fats, proteins, as well as vitamins and minerals. You should check it out:

http://www.fitday.com/

So I have been keeping a log now for several days (I got inspired by all of Priscilla's posts) and WOW, what a wake up call. No surprise to me, I eat a little too much fat and not enough protein. Unbeknownst to me, even with trying, I am way lacking in iron, calcium, and several B vitamins. Basically some of the most important nutritional biggies for runners. And I am consistent with my faux pas as well. Well then, time for a change! I am gonna keep this log going for a little while longer and try to work on this.

Ya know, there are so many things in life that are out of our control...even botox only goes so far. So, if I can tweek my nutrition a little to help my body recover or energize well, why not?? The salt thing?? A miracle. I noticed the lack of cramping immediately with just the addition of a few salt pills. See! I knew the pill thing would work!