With the 90/10 diet I'm on I stick to the rules 90% of the time. Basically, for every 9 meals I eat following my rules I get a cheat meal. Up until this weekend I'd eaten 31 clean meals and 2 cheat meals. Pretty much perfect, and even better than my allowed ratio.
Then the weekend happened. I was in an awesome weekend of Restorative Yoga teacher training (read: lazy yoga. No calories were burned this weekend!) which took up 27 hours from Friday through Sunday. Meals Friday and Saturday were on task, and I was very much looking forward to the big cheat meal Sunday night we had planned for a sushi extravaganza at Akahana. Although I'd packed a healthy lunch for training Sunday, we decided to get out of the studio at eat at Krazy Fish (which is krazy awesome). That resulted in a delicious bowl of green curry coconut mussels (and the delicious white bread to soak up the juice), and tacos of fried sea bass and falafel shared with Melanie. Yummy. Delicious. Not playing by my rules.
(Look! It's me! Upside down in a supported, no weight on the c-spine headstand! Oh, how I love you, Restorative Yoga).
Akahana was pretty awesome, as it always is, but honestly I didn't enjoy the sushi as much as I wanted/hoped to. I'm not sure if it was because I'd already had a cheat meal earlier in the day and was starting to feel a bit crappy from it, or because things like white rice just don't appeal to me anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love sushi, and Akahana does it better than almost anyone in Charlotte, but it'll probably be a while until I make a cheat meal out of sushi again! Meanwhile, enjoy this picture of Jeremy throwing up gang signs with the chopsticks while saying "I'm on a boat, y'all!"
After double-cheats on Sunday, that brings us to today. We were lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of one of our student's and his fiance (who we're also lucky enough to consider friends!). They had a sweet ceremony in a park uptown and then we headed to City Tavern for a really amazing lunch. An 8 ounce filet mignon, parmesan risotto, and grilled asparagus. Plus the rosemary focaccia, olive oil & balsamic. Plus the 2 types of 'Smore's wedding cupcakes. Plus the glass of champagne and red wine. Holy. Cheat. Meal. I have no food pics for this blog, so enjoy this one of what I've termed "15-pounds-lighter-skinny-faced-Megan" and Jeremy at The A Team's wedding!
This was my first consumption of beef in over 2 months, I believe. I actually don't remember the last time I had it. I'm interested to see how my digestive system handles it. I can tell you that mood-wise, my body isn't reacting well to 2 solid days of cheat meals. I've been lethargic, grumpy, short of patience, and otherwise a little bit bitchy. It's amazing how my mood really is affected almost immediately by what I choose to eat.
On top of all of this, my planned menu for last week fell to pieces, thanks to my total lack of ability to eat a normal size meal (my portions are so tiny now!) and my crazy schedule. I ended riding it out on leftovers for days. I did, however, make this awesome Vegan Stuffed Portobello Pizza with a Basil Cashew Cheese Sauce. It was YUM. Really, seriously good, and takes about 5 minutes to throw together and another 5-10 to cook. I grilled it rather than broiled, but the 'bello's I used were a bit thin and kind of shrunk down to mush on the grill. It was a messy dish, not picture-worthy, but the taste more than made up for it. I could eat the basil cashew cheese sauce with a spoon (and maybe I did.... don't judge!).
I've been holding steady at between 5-7 pounds gained back since ending the fast. They say gaining about 33% of what you lost is normal, from water weight and holding food in your digestive system, so I'm within normal range. I've got 2 more juice fasts planned before the wedding (in 75 days!) in the months of July & August. I've really been enjoying the running, and the fact that longer distances are getting easier, and I'm not willing to sacrifice the running on the next 2 fasts. So, I'm currently working on how to plan an intelligent, effective juice-based fast with weight loss as the primary goal (rather than detoxification) and continue exercising on it. I'm thinking it might include some carb and protein loaded smoothies on run days and/or some raw food meals here & there. Still working out the details and I'm sure I'll have to tweak as I go to find what works for me! I'll probably start the next one a little earlier than intended since I don't plan to do juice only.
My goal this week is to clean the diet back up, get back on track with the 90/10 (which means sticking to my rules and no cheat meals for another week or two!), and up my running distances and yoga intensity. I hope to have a new menu planned out to share with you in a couple days, but I've still got another portobello pizza prepped in the fridge, tons of salad makings, fresh squash and zucchini's from friend's gardens to grill, and ingredients for avocado & chicken salad wraps. I won't have to grocery shop for a couple more days as I want to eat up what's left in my fridge before filling it up again.
On a final note, the June Salad Challenge is in the final two weeks. I inadvertently missed getting a salad in on Friday and didn't realize till Saturday. Due to that I'm -1 on the challenge which means I need a double salad day to get back on track. It's much needed coming off of these cheat days! I'm not beating myself up about my cheat days... they're needed in more ways than one. It's important to treat myself to food that I love (especially when it's good quality!) to help me stay on track in between cheats. It's also helpful to see how immediately my cheat meals effect me, both physically, mentally, and mood-wise. It's my body telling me that it much prefers the clean, healthy eating it's become accustomed to!
That's such a beautiful picture!!!!! And Jeremy's boat picture is awesome.
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