So, I updated my blog/instagram/facebook name from PrettifiedPaleo to Food, Fitness and Foucault, the main reason for this is a change in the way I am approaching my nutrition and I think the new name reflects this better.
Previously I was around 80/90% paleo and generally the only time I 'offroaded' was when I ate out. I was intaking about 1200 calories and was continuing to drop weight. At the same time my fitness focus changed, instead of undertaking exercise solely as a tool for weight loss I began Crossfit and found a new passion for being stronger and fitter. This meant my energy output was far exceeding my energy input and after consulting my doctor it was decided I had reached a maintenance weight and needed to reverse diet and increase my calories. So off I went trying to eat an extra 100 calories a week of which needed to primarily be sourced from carbs and each day was failing miserably at hitting that goal. I was flat, tired and again still losing weight. On top of this I then picked up a really gross stomach virus that knocked me over for about two weeks and resulted in a huge weight drop, and at this point I realised that I was struggling. I couldn't feed myself enough food on paleo without 1) feeling overly stuffed or 2) upping fat intake which I couldn't do because of my previous health issues. I was also beginning to feel rather restricted in what I was eating, staying so strictly Paleo was feeling like a chore, and guilt would creep in when I ate something none paleo. After some research I decided to settle on IIFYM, you can google it to get the details but basically it's about eating what you want as long as you get the right amounts of carb, fat and protein in your day. My version of IIFYM was to continue to eat paleo/whole food as much as possible and then in order to meet the nutrition targets discussed with my doctor that are required to fuel and improve my fitness performance sub in non paleo foods such as rice, oats, yoghurt and (insert look of horror here) even things like pop tarts and chocolate.
So an average day for me now is 5am pre work out of rice cakes, banana and peanut butter, a paleo egg based breakfast, usually with a side of oatmeal/yogurt with fruit, a paleo based lunch, usually protein and vegetables, a paleo based dinner with non paleo additions of white potatoes, rice and gluten free pasta as needed then a flex bowl made up of delicious carby goodness to make sure I hit my macros. If needed I'll snack during the day on gluten free protein bars, eggs or nuts. My current intake is getting closer to where I need to be in order to build muscle, I'm sitting at around maintenance now and have already seen vast improvement in my performance at Crossfit. stepping back from being so strictly paleo has been hard, and upping my intake has been harder... having come from 130kgs to being told you need to eat more is a bit daunting. My current focus fitness wise is improving my weight lifting and cross fitting, I am still doing boxing for cardio, have taken up Pole Dancing classes to improve core strength, am still doing swims for recovery and riding my bike everywhere... I am no longer running on such a regular basis as I was feeling frustrated by it, and burning out from an overload of cardio. Since changing to IIFYM and increasing calories and macros my weight has remained pretty consistent, there was a slight increase due to the reintroduction of a higher volume of carbs but that seems to have stabilised. My physique is noticeably leaner though, my muscle defintion has increased, my clothing size has remained the same and I feel so much more energetic.
Blog wise, my focus will primarily be on reviewing the places on my food bucket list :) Hence far I have found some absolutely amazing places to eat in Adelaide and am on a mission to find many more! The Foucault aspect of my blog reflects the fact that my PhD topic is very Foucault influenced, and I plan to spend some time reflecting on my PhD work via this blog as well. Hopefully the paleo police will stop emailing me now, and I hope that you continue to enjoy the random ramblings I post here :)
No comments:
Post a Comment