Growing up I was always a pretty healthy eater. We were raised on a farm so a lot of the foods we ate were usually home grown. We butchered our own beef and chickens for the most part, drank milk straight out of the tank, veggies and of course potatoes from our garden. My family is big and we are big eaters too; in our house if you didn't eat quick, you probably didn't eat much! Therefore I have always had a big appetite for as long as I can remember.
When I moved out on my own I had basic cooking skills and I decided that I did not want to eat Mr. Noodles all the time so I taught myself how to cook. It was a lot of trial and error and Ernie being my guinea pig of course. I ate a lot of pasta and rice and chicken. As I said, we ate a lot of beef growing up so chicken was a novelty for me! I at least made sure that most of my pasta and rice was whole wheat for the fiber and nutrition content. I also ate a lot of granola bars and of course splurged more than I needed to on junk food; its almost expected when you're in college. I was moderately active in college still teaching and somewhat training Ju Jitsu and on and off going to the gym. I did accumulate some weight while I was in college and even after as I started working full time and not training much.
I got really into cooking after I graduated, it became a fun hobby of mine. I love to watch cooking shows and look up recipes online and try them out and use Ernie as my guinea pig! Most of the stuff I was cooking was not the healthiest which helped accumulate my weight gain, lots of pastas, anything with bread and cheese, deep fried stuff, etc. We don't eat out too much because I like to cook at home and be inventive with food. I wouldn't say that I became "fat" or overweight, however I was out of shape and sluggish. I gained body fat and didn't have much definition or muscle tone.
When I started my fitness journey, I started researching into the eating habits of bodybuilders to find out what it takes to build muscle and lose body fat. I will reiterate that I am not a nutritionist, this is just what I learned by doing my own research and applying what I find as I go. I found that most of the results in my research have a few similarities. One similarity is that they eat a lot of food! I figured that was pretty awesome because I have a big appetite. The other is they eat a lot of vegetables to keep full and help provide carbohydrates. I honestly didn't know that a person could get carbs from vegetables, so that was new information for me! The other similarity is keeping the more traditional carbs (grains, fruits, breads, etc) for pre/post workout meals and re-feed days. Most of the websites, books and nutrition videos I looked at had these things in common. I thought why not give it a shot since what I was doing wasn't helping.
I slowly started to apply these ideas to my everyday eating habits. I bought myself a huge lunch bag to fit all the food I eat in a day. I upped the amount of vegetables I ate. For example I eat a big bag full of cut up veggies and I eat a large amount of vegetables for my meals. I also monitored the amount of protein I was getting and started having post workout protein shakes to give me a quick boost afterwards so I wouldn't go home and raid the fridge. I use vegan protein powder because whey protein makes Ernie sick. It works for me, but it does have quite a bit less protein than regular whey. I don't personally feel like I need all of that based on my goals, I am not training to be a body builder or power lifter; I just like to eat like one!
I then focused on cutting unnecessary sugar out of my diet. I still had some not so great things like I would eat vanilla flavored Greek yogurt with granola in it. Its like crack to me, I could eat vanilla Greek yogurt and granola all the time; however the sugar content was not helping my goals. I eventually switched the vanilla flavor to plain and took out the granola. Coffee was a hard switch that took me a while. I normally drank coffee with quite a bit of sugar and cream, a Tim Hortons double double was my favorite thing in the world! I slowly started to switch over to one cream and one sugar and now I just have black coffee with a vanilla bean flavor shot in it. At home, I have french vanilla flavored coffee which I drink black.
Normally I could keep my shit together for my food during the week but on the weekends is where I struggle the most. At first I would just have a free for all, but as of recently I have been much more strict. I try to keep myself to one treat meal per week, however it doesn't always turn out like that, but I do the best I can. I have been experimenting with re-feed days and trying to get that into a weekly habit. Its a slow process but I am very happy with the results I have been getting. I feel like every week I am noticing a difference, so something must be working! I now eat more than I ever have in my life, which keeps me happy and satisfied.
I'm sure that most people would agree with me when I say that its the diet part that is the most difficult of all. I have a HUGE weakness for anything bread, pizza, cheese, pasta, cheese, chocolate, cheese..... So I do allow myself to have some of my favorite things but I try to keep it at a reasonable amount and not have it all the time. I figure I can still live my life and enjoy the things I love, but I can still keep myself on track with my goals too!
When I moved out on my own I had basic cooking skills and I decided that I did not want to eat Mr. Noodles all the time so I taught myself how to cook. It was a lot of trial and error and Ernie being my guinea pig of course. I ate a lot of pasta and rice and chicken. As I said, we ate a lot of beef growing up so chicken was a novelty for me! I at least made sure that most of my pasta and rice was whole wheat for the fiber and nutrition content. I also ate a lot of granola bars and of course splurged more than I needed to on junk food; its almost expected when you're in college. I was moderately active in college still teaching and somewhat training Ju Jitsu and on and off going to the gym. I did accumulate some weight while I was in college and even after as I started working full time and not training much.
I got really into cooking after I graduated, it became a fun hobby of mine. I love to watch cooking shows and look up recipes online and try them out and use Ernie as my guinea pig! Most of the stuff I was cooking was not the healthiest which helped accumulate my weight gain, lots of pastas, anything with bread and cheese, deep fried stuff, etc. We don't eat out too much because I like to cook at home and be inventive with food. I wouldn't say that I became "fat" or overweight, however I was out of shape and sluggish. I gained body fat and didn't have much definition or muscle tone.
When I started my fitness journey, I started researching into the eating habits of bodybuilders to find out what it takes to build muscle and lose body fat. I will reiterate that I am not a nutritionist, this is just what I learned by doing my own research and applying what I find as I go. I found that most of the results in my research have a few similarities. One similarity is that they eat a lot of food! I figured that was pretty awesome because I have a big appetite. The other is they eat a lot of vegetables to keep full and help provide carbohydrates. I honestly didn't know that a person could get carbs from vegetables, so that was new information for me! The other similarity is keeping the more traditional carbs (grains, fruits, breads, etc) for pre/post workout meals and re-feed days. Most of the websites, books and nutrition videos I looked at had these things in common. I thought why not give it a shot since what I was doing wasn't helping.
I slowly started to apply these ideas to my everyday eating habits. I bought myself a huge lunch bag to fit all the food I eat in a day. I upped the amount of vegetables I ate. For example I eat a big bag full of cut up veggies and I eat a large amount of vegetables for my meals. I also monitored the amount of protein I was getting and started having post workout protein shakes to give me a quick boost afterwards so I wouldn't go home and raid the fridge. I use vegan protein powder because whey protein makes Ernie sick. It works for me, but it does have quite a bit less protein than regular whey. I don't personally feel like I need all of that based on my goals, I am not training to be a body builder or power lifter; I just like to eat like one!
I then focused on cutting unnecessary sugar out of my diet. I still had some not so great things like I would eat vanilla flavored Greek yogurt with granola in it. Its like crack to me, I could eat vanilla Greek yogurt and granola all the time; however the sugar content was not helping my goals. I eventually switched the vanilla flavor to plain and took out the granola. Coffee was a hard switch that took me a while. I normally drank coffee with quite a bit of sugar and cream, a Tim Hortons double double was my favorite thing in the world! I slowly started to switch over to one cream and one sugar and now I just have black coffee with a vanilla bean flavor shot in it. At home, I have french vanilla flavored coffee which I drink black.
Normally I could keep my shit together for my food during the week but on the weekends is where I struggle the most. At first I would just have a free for all, but as of recently I have been much more strict. I try to keep myself to one treat meal per week, however it doesn't always turn out like that, but I do the best I can. I have been experimenting with re-feed days and trying to get that into a weekly habit. Its a slow process but I am very happy with the results I have been getting. I feel like every week I am noticing a difference, so something must be working! I now eat more than I ever have in my life, which keeps me happy and satisfied.
I'm sure that most people would agree with me when I say that its the diet part that is the most difficult of all. I have a HUGE weakness for anything bread, pizza, cheese, pasta, cheese, chocolate, cheese..... So I do allow myself to have some of my favorite things but I try to keep it at a reasonable amount and not have it all the time. I figure I can still live my life and enjoy the things I love, but I can still keep myself on track with my goals too!
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