Flex-a-what? Period-a-who?

If I had to put a label on 'what' I am doing as far as my nutrition, I would have to say I am a flexitarian. I eat mostly green veggies, squash, fruits, nuts, seeds, fish and other sea foods. I have made no hard or fast rules about what I will eat or won't eat. If something appeals to me and is a clean whole food source, it is fair game to me. I am currently not eating a lot of oats or grains. I do have a little in the a.m. with some nuts, seeds, dried fruit and coconut milk. The reason I am currently not eating oats is because I noticed when I didn't have them for a while that my stomach felt better. I don't have problems with bloating and other intestinal issues. As far as chicken or red meats go, my body is just not liking them right now. I don't like the taste or the texture at this time. Believe me, this is no something I set out to 'accomplish' this is just the path my body is leading me on and I have learned to respect the needs of my body.

I have heard some concerns from people who care about me that they are concerned that I may be losing too much weight. I want to respect those concerns to make sure that I am not having any body dimorphic type experiences. From people who I know care I have heard, tiny, stringy, lanky, dainty, thin as a rail. These are not goal body types or images I desire. I work hard for my muscle development, health and fitness. It is not my goal to lose any more weight. There are no scale victories on my list of goals.

As some of you may remember I do a training style called periodization. Basically, every three months I change how I am training and how I am fueling to meet the demands of my training. I am in the peak phase of my training. I do this during the summer months to prepare for endurance events. In the months leading up to peak (the day of the event I want to perform my very best), I am running longer miles, more frequent runs. I am biking longer miles, more frequent rides. I am doing circuit style cross training to strengthen my core and the get a full body functional training workout. Push ups, pull ups, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, jump rope, balance and stability work, track interval runs. Calories, calories, calories being burned like crazy! It is next to impossible for me to keep up with the caloric demands of this training. So, yes, I lean out pretty rapidly near the end of peak training, especially with my diet change. I am eating very nutrient dense, low calorie foods . . .more bang per bite! After my events, August 13 and October 15, I will enter a different phase of training. I will enter my muscle building, bulking phase and work on speed instead of distance. I do that for Nov - March. This method works well for me and my life style.

My son, who lives with me, says "if anyone doubts that you eat enough, tell them I said you never stop eating!" LOL!! Because I am so active and the type of things I like to do (yoga, run, bike, hike) I do not like my tummy to have too much food in it at any time. So, I have a handful of food every couple hours. Sometimes it's two handfuls. A typical snack for me would be two tablespoons of natural almond butter with flaxseed and two - four dates.

I thought I would take some pics today of some of the foods I have eaten, just so you know I do eat!


Started my day with a small bowl of california cherries and a glass of lemon/ginger water.


about an hour later I had a little organic granola, with chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, dates and coconut milk added.


Lunch was two handfuls of raw spinach, one handful of shredded brocco-slaw, alfalfa sprouts, and this delicious dressing I found at a whole foods market in Virginia!


I added a tilapia fillet to the salad for lunch

Then headed to the gym for my duathlon training! It is toooooo hot for this chicky outside!!! Today was ride/run training. I started with 30 min. bike ride. I alternated one song of standing out of the saddle climbing, with one song of seated recovery. Then I hit the treadmill for 30 min. of running. This is not a speed training day, this is just to get in the training 'brick' to help my body adapt physiologically to be at it's best for the event day.


A little post workout sweaty face shot! Oh, believe me, more than my face was sweaty! My clothes were sticking to me!


After my workout I had a handful of this yummy homemade granola I made before I went to the gym! And a green monster smoothie!


Tonight for dinner I will have an egg frittata with spinach, garlic and maybe a little feta cheese. It has been a lovely day and I am feeling amazing! I hope you did something today that made your day special!


Be blessed. Be beautiful. Be YOU!