Eating to run

Over the years I've played on a lot of dietary playgrounds, everything from calorie counting to point counting to going low-carb to no carb to doing juice fasts.  In the past few years, I've gotten more and more careful about choosing more organic, whole, natural, and locally sourced foods.  I shun artificial sweeteners and HFCS.  But one thing I've never really hopped on board with is vegetarianism.  I love meat.  I really do.  Big, thick, medium rare steaks that bleed on the plate.  The melt-in-your-mouth prime rib with the amazing herb rub at one of our local restaurants.  Dry rubbed ribs.  Free range Thanksgiving turkey dark meat.  Bison.  Deer jerky.  All of it.

On the other hand I realized long ago that most of us these days eat far too much meat.  We've gotten used to the idea that a meal needs to be anchored by something meaty, usually a portion that's far too large.  Health experts for decades now have pushed us to eat more fruits and vegetables and whole grains.  Yes, we need protein.  But when we started eating more local and natural foods, our meat consumption decreased as well.  And I've started to question recently whether eating meat is the best way to get the necessary protein in my running diet.

And I've come to the conclusion that it probably isn't.  So I've decided to be a vegetarian runner.

So a couple of weeks ago I started removing meat from my diet.  Already I really like the changes it's produced.  It forces me to choose foods more carefully.  Instead of the easiest options (like the always-available roller grill food or Lunchables or cheap sandwiches) I'm more likely to grab some nuts or popcorn or a protein bar for a snack at work.  At restaurants the vegetarian options are generally (though not always) less likely to come deep fried or slathered in a rich sauce.  It severely limits my ability to eat fast food.  And none of it has proven difficult.  That's the crazy thing -- for somebody who really likes meat, it's been really, really easy to say goodbye. I still have plenty of sources of protein in my diet, and many of the meals we eat on a regular basis at home are easily made meat-free, usually just by, you know, not putting the meat in it. 

Before I went ahead with this, I did a little research into whether one can properly eat to run on a vegetarian diet.  And it turns out not only can you, but many runners find it helps them.  As long as one makes sure they're still getting enough protein, cutting out meat usually means eating more and better carbs and less fat, which usually also means easier digestion and more energy for running.

So that's my new thing.  It's not that I have any moral objection to the consumption of animal flesh.  I just think it's not really supposed to be the center of our diets. And if cutting it out makes me select the rest of my diet more carefully to support my running, then I'm game.  I'm not going to be militant about it.  I refuse to give up sushi altogether (not that I have sushi that often, anyway), and I'm not going to refuse to eat in social situations that don't conform to my dietary preferences.  But I don't imagine there will be that many situations in which I can't find SOMETHING to eat.  We had a big meeting at work last week, and although they didn't give us any choice at all for lunch I traded my turkey to another manager for all her veggies and ended up with a bigger meal than everyone else got. 

I hit the gym four times this week as planned, even with some lazy days and long meetings.  Running quarter mile intervals now, and working my way up to full miles.  I'm gonna make a "real" runner out of myself yet. 

The funny thing is that it feels like forever since the marathon, and it hasn't even been a year.  It's been nice to get back on a workout schedule and find that I haven't completely lost my fitness level.  I couldn't go out and do a marathon today, of course, but my running ability is pretty much where it was when I started my training plan last time.  So, you know, all systems go.