Nutrition

My nutrition is generally pretty controlled which I like. I have certain "guidelines" that I follow. They are guidelines and not rules because there are exceptions to rules and rules break. With a guideline I create a standard that cannot be changed. Here are a few:

-No red meat
-No chicken
-No pork
-No fried food
-No white breads**
-Take your vitamins

It is pretty simple really. The ** represents a new item. I am not staying away from breads or going gluten free but I recently decided not to eat any white breads. I only eat these when out at a restaurant or friends house because I don't buy them personally but I have come to the conclusion that there is no reason to eat them so...gone! Sometimes at the end of the day I feel awful about myself and have to remind myself it is ok if I ate 2 of the muffins I baked for an event or that I had 2.5 bowls of cereal with my breakfast. Especially when the cereal is raisin bran and plain shredded wheat. I think this is partly because there is nothing better than the feeling at the end of the day when you have been completely healthy. I love knowing that I was conscious of my body all day and really treated it well.

I read a really nice article on Slowtwitch about a month ago about an elite level triathlete who had his blood run through all these tests. It cost like 2K for this blood panel and all the consults required to interpret the results. I am lucky because this guy has a very similar diet to me so I was able to take some things away from this article. He was lacking in Omega 3 and 6 FAs. The nutritionists recommend you get these different types of fatty acids from different sources such as flaxseed and fish oil. By not eating red meat or inhaling quinoa everyday  it is critical to take a B12 supplement. I also take a general multivitamin. These vitamins were it until I noticed that I do not heal from bone bruises very well, based on the 2 that I acquired through clumsiness over the past few months still hurt. So now I also take a Ca+D supplement. The final tally is:

-1 multivitamin
-1 B12
-2 Ca+D (1 morning and 1 night)
-2 fish oil (burpless kind :))
-1 flaxseed oil

That's it! I take them at night to avoid stomach upset and I figure this is the time when my body is doing the most rebuilding so why not give it the proper tools.

I have been doing this for a month now and I hope it pays off. I haven't gotten sick recently which is awesome because I usually get sick all the time. Maybe it's the vitamins! Fingers crossed.