Sunday, March 2, 2014

Low Car or Metobalic Efficiency Training . . . .

That's the big question (see the title of this post).

Today on my run, the timing was perfect.  I had saved a podcast of an interview with Sports Nutritionist (and amazing athlete) Sunny Blende, who was a guest on my favorite podcast, Trail Runner Nation.  By the way - if you haven't listened to these guys, they're great.  They strive to bring information that can be used by any runner at any levels and I will save up podcasts - or even relisten to some - just so I can listen to these guys while out for the long (*sniff* lonely) runs.

But I digress . . . .

As I said, my timing was perfect in listening to their podcast today because of their interview with Sunny Blende, who talked about metabolic efficiency training and eating and how it differs from just a low carb diet.  I then went to her web site and read her article on the same and am quite excited about the information.  (www.eat4fitness.com)

In reading about low carb diets, I have been trying to figure out where dairy, such as milk and yogurt, fit in and beans, if at all.  I am a dairy girl.  I love my milk and yogurt (cheese is a given on a low carb diet), and Shorty and I supplement our food budget quite a bit with beans.  Could I still eat these mainstays?  According to Sunny, yes!  Metabolic efficiency is all about a balanced diet and training, but the big thing is to stay away from grains and white starches completely for 4-8 weeks: no pasta, no rice (white or brown), no bread, no chips, no potatoes (not even sweet potatoes).  Doing this forces your body to use your fat reserves for energy, as opposed to just your small carbohydrate reserves, thereby allowing you to run longer and more efficiently with fewer calories.  That's the simplistic explanation, because there's a whole thing in there about heart rate training, but I won't go into that.

So I am looking forward to discussing both aspects (low carb vs. metabolic efficiency) with  my coach to see which way I should go.

Oh - the whole metabolic efficient eating?  Makes you a better fat burner / better butter burner.  AND, she basically guarantees that if you follow the program, you lose the gut.  Who doesn't want that?!?

This whole switch has my mind reeling . . . and it's only been two days.  Today we went grocery shopping and bought a ton of veggies and lettuces and cheeses, and I spent the better part of an hour preparing stuff to take to work for snacks for the next few days.  It was kind of time-consuming, and I hope that once I get the hang of it, it'll go faster (i.e., veggie sticks, slicing up cheese,  preparing lettuces ahead of time for salad during the week).  You may be asking, "Why not purchase the already prepared stuff?"  Simple Answer - We can't afford it, so it ain't gonna happen.

So how'd the last two days go.  I'm not sure if I'm hungry here at 7:30 p.m. or just think I'm hungry because I'm talking about food.  And I know I'm craving tortilla chips only because I can't have them.  But the way I look at it, if my husband can stop drinking and . . . wait for it, wait for it. . . STOP CHEWING!!  (41 days and counting!!) . . . surely I can go a few weeks without some rice or pasta or bread or chips or even my delicious homemade granola.

My weight at the start of this: 147

I need to find my sewing measuring tape and measure my waist to see where I end up in about two months.

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