Sugar In The Gas Tank

Oh, clean eating, you make me feel like a frigging rock star!  I can tell the second that I wake up how I ate the day before.  When I’ve eaten “acceptable grain free” but not clean, my fingers are swollen little snausages, my mouth is parched and my whole system feels sluggish.  When I’ve kept my wits about me and stuck to fat, protein and veggies I feel like a little race car, ready to go.

 

There’s something to be said about quality fuel.  (Nutrition and weight loss loves a car analogy, so here I go…but I’m going to use a motorcycle since riding season IS coming).  We’ve been out on vacations where the only option for fuel has been somewhat sketchy and our bikes notice the difference immediately when we start them….or try to start them.  Poor quality fuel is like throwing sugar in your gas tank, the bikes are sluggish and smoking and they pop and fart all the way down the road.  When we eventually run the bad fuel out and put quality gas in our tanks, the difference is amazing.  Aaaaand same with my body (and yours maybe?).  If I put fuel in which has too much sugar or is ‘watered down’ nutrition, I run like shit….popping and farting and smoking and sluggish.  (OK, maybe not the smoking part!).  🙂

 

I took a couple of days of what I normally eat (minus the booze and lindt bunnies which are NOT approved fuel) and worked out the calories and the macronutrient breakdown (fat, protein, carbs).  I do the calorie count every so often because it’s a good idea to know approximately how much I’m eating.  This time I also worked out percentages.

 

So in a day (for example, yesterday), I ate a little over 1650 calories.  The breakdown was 41% from fat, 37% from protein and 22% from carbs (fruits/veg).   Excuse my ridiculous graphic below, the red arrows are where I fall on average……..and a note that I’m not obsessing over where I fall on the targets on a daily basis….just overall.  I thought it was interesting though that eating mindfully and as my body was requesting landed me right in the target zones on all three macronutrients.  Super! 

 

 

I'm the little arrow...on average. I guess I would be technically considered "low carb"...even though if we're measuring VOLUME of food, carbs would win. Whatever, it seems to work for me!

 

See??  Fat doesn’t make you fat!  I’ve actually always hated that sentiment.  Because fat actually DOES make you fat……..if you eat the way the majority of the western culture eats.  If you eat fat and sugar and carbs that are not just produce, fat makes you fat.  Fast.  

 

I got to thinking about the phrase and I thought it deserved some modification.  “Fat doesn’t make you fat if the fat that you’re eating is pure and unadulterated (coconut, avocado, animal, olive) and your diet does not contain packaged carbs.”  If you are reading the ingredient listing to find out the fat content, that fat is NOT unadulterated, it’s mixed in there with carbs and sugar and chemicals.  If there’s a label, there’s ingredients and if one of those ingredients is a high fat content along with a high sugar/carb content….you’ll be shopping for new pants soon.

 

I did morning gym again this morning, really loving that.  Today I attempted to do lower pushups….I set the bar at mid thigh level rather than hip level…but it didn’t go so well.  I was supposed to do 2 sets of 12 reps…..but I did 1 set of 10 and 1 set of 9 and that ninth one there was significant grunting…..and then I had trouble shampooing my hair this morning.  Rubber arms.  LOL!  But improvement so I’ll take it!

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