What's Cooking at the house of B?

This post is dedicated to my dear friend L., who wondered about what we have been eating over here lately. You see, we did this pretty awesome cleanse back in November and December (www.cambiati.com) and it changed the way we eat, sleep, train...and all in a good way. I know, I know, we were health food freaks to begin with, but it was amazing how much of a difference the changes made. For those of you who aren't familiar with Cambiati, it is a 28 day program that aims to remove all of the major allergens and inflammatory agents from one's diet, thereby giving your body a break, opening up any lock jams that you might have impeding your metabolism and also gently cleansing your liver and colon along the way. To say that I was skeptical about the whole thing at the outset was putting it mildly. I figured that I ate healthfully enough, and that I could justify the junk and the "poor" habits due to my 50 miles a week of training. And I was REALLY not interested in giving up my lattes and my cookies. That said, I also had been feeling "off" for a long time. I was chronically exhausted, my running was sub par and my digestion was a bit unhappy. I had blood work done and nothing was wrong and I was really frustrated. So when a wise friend asked me to do the 28 day program with her I jumped at the chance.

As many of you already know, the changes were pretty dramatic...within 2 weeks I had lost 2.5% body fat and I took 90 seconds of my 5k time. That's 30 seconds a mile. I also started sleeping through the night again almost right away and I just felt like my old self again...physically and mentally. My wonderful hubby did the program as well and had similar results...he is sleeping better, he isn't achy when he wakes up in the morning, and he has a lot more energy than he did before. All this from people who were already eating healthy before we started! I am not going to lie and say that the program was easy all month...there were days when I was famished and by the end I was ready to add some more calories back in, but it was well worth it.

In the months since we finished the diet we have kept up a lot of the eating habits. Much to my surprise this really became a lifestyle change for me. After growing up in a household where we rotated our foods and I was unable to eat a bunch of common things (due to allergies...) and other ensuing "issues" I have long retaliated against strict diet programs that restrict or eliminate entire classes of foods. Cripes, I have just retaliated against placing any restrictions on what I would or wouldn't eat. It just didn't seem worth it to me...it scared me a bit and it didn't sound like any fun. But this safe, controlled environment really opened my eyes to how much of a disservice I was doing to myself by eating the way I was.

SO what WERE we eating? In the recent past we have been eating almost all organic, with not a lot of pasta but with a lot of bread, rice, oats and cereal (I LOVE cereal). We ate a LOT of ice cream and cookies too. And burritos. And lattes and diet coke. In September we ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's every night. (Maybe that was why I was running slowly?) On balance, we did also eat a lot of salads, tofu, lean meats and low fat dairy. Pretty good huh? Evidently not good enough.

It wasn't just what I was or wasn't eating, but when I was eating it, and one major thing I wasn't doing. Because I ran at night, after Z went to bed, I hardly ate all day...I had a breakfast of yogurt and some other stuff (I can't even remember!) and then a latte and a diet coke during the day. No lunch usually...I didn't want my stomach to be in the throes of digestion when I tried to run. And NO WATER. I hate feeling like I need to pee when I am running! Then after I ran, at 10:00 or 10:30 at night I ate my portion of whatever I had made for dinner, plus a bowl of oatmeal, plus sometimes a banana or a cookie. Or some ice cream. Or some cereal. Then I went straight to be and tried to sleep. (Maybe this was why I wasn't sleeping well?) I really thought this worked for me. I certainly wasn't motivated to change any of it!

And now? Now the day is turned on its head. First of all, since the program calls for ceasing to eat at 7 p.m. (so you aren't digesting while you try to sleep...who knew that could interrupt sleep?!?!) I had to begin running in the morning. Yeah, yeah, so I know I got up at 10 minutes to 5 for all my college years, but I thought I was no longer a morning person. I quickly rediscovered my love of the quiet mornings. So now I get up at 5, run from 5:30 to 6:30 or 7:00 and then get on with my day.

After I run and get Z out the door, I drink my breakfast. My breakfast is pretty consistently a banana and spinach shake. Yes you read that right :) I'm sorry, I know it sounds disgusting. Believe me, when someone first suggested I put vegetables in my blender I was plenty grossed out too. But it is GOOD. And I get a big whopping serving of vegetables before 9 a.m.! I use the following recipe:
1/2 banana, frozen
1/2 cup So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup water
4 ice cubes
1/3 bag of organic spinach leaves
a LOT of cinnamon. I shake the bottle over the blender about 8 times.
1 serving vanilla protein powder
1 scoop fiber powder
Blend it up well. I am sure it is not for everyone, but I have been quite content with it for a long time now. Creature of habit I suppose.

Then I drink a lot of tea. I drink tea all day long. All decaf...peppermint, lemon, decaf chai. Lots of tea. I sweeten it with Stevia (sometimes I cheat with a little Splenda because it tastes better in the chai) and I put a small amount of dairy milk in the chai for taste issues as well. I also drink a big 32 ounce bottle of water every day. I fill it in the morning and add 1/4 of a lemon and a nuun tablet. I used to make fun of those nuun tablets, but they taste good and have electrolytes without all the gross sweeteners ("corn sugar" anyone?) that other electrolyte drinks have. I don't think I could drink nuun while racing, but for training and day to day it is good!

Next up is lunch. Usually I end up making a big salad with whatever is leftover in the fridge. Yesterday I had arugula, red pepper, cabbage slaw (cabbage with lemon juice, cilantro and salt) a homemade garbanzo bean veggie burger (http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001567.html), some broken up oriental rice crackers (for crunch) and some Galeo's miso salad dressing. It was filling and super delicious. Every lunch is some variation on the salad. The day before I had coconut curry tempeh and Trader Joe's yellow curry sauce as a dressing over kale that had been massaged in olive oil and lemon juice. The list goes on and on. I really look forward to these salads...I haven't had one yet that I didn't love.

In between lunch and dinner last night I did have half of a chocolate chip cookie from my local Nob Hill grocery store. When I was doing the cleanse I just wasn't getting enough calories in to support my running, so I decided that a nice treat every day (as long as it didn't disagree with my digestion) would fit into the plan well. I think it is really important to not feel deprived and to enjoy our food! So when we finished the 28 day program I found that while coffee doesn't really agree with me, wheat seems fine. (I will write some other time about my feelings about the current believe that gluten and dairy are evil...needless to say I don't agree with such sweeping statements.) My vice of choice is a soft baked cookie, so I have become good friends with Roz, my friendly Nob Hill baker-woman and I frequent her counter almost daily for my fix. I am running 60 miles a week, so I am pretty confident that I have fit it in to the plan!

Last but not least dinner. Many people have asked us if we have put Z on this diet as well and the answer is no, not really. He is a small kid and needs to get as many good calories in him as possible. I handle it by making one dinner for all of us and then supplementing it with extras for him. Usually that means adding in some whole wheat noodles or a quesadilla or some rice for him. He is a pretty adventurous eater...we have doggedly given him a varied diet for his entire life. I offer him a green vegetable and an orange vegetable every single lunch and dinner and try to regularly introduce him to new foods. But more on him another time! Last night we had fish tacos. We had the aforementioned cabbage slaw (http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000002010966) which I make without the chili, some marinated mahi mahi from the freezer section at Trader Joe's, an avocado sliced up, tomato salsa, tomatillo salsa, some shredded cheese and organic blue corn crispy taco shells. Sometimes we also have beans, but last night it was just fish. It was super easy to make...the only thing that required prep was the cabbage slaw, and it was delicious and very filling.

See now, that isn't so bad sounding, is it? After dinner I did have the other half of the cookie, and then by 7:00 I had brushed and flossed my teeth and was done for the day. While that is a pretty typical day, I will continue to post the lunches and dinners we have for the time being so that I can share the recipes we have been using with those of you who are interested. I will caution you that not all of what we eat is in line with the protocols of the cleanse...we have added back in some things in moderation that are not a part of the 28 day program, so if you are currently doing the cleanse you will need to alter some of the recipes to suit your needs.

Despite the reintroduction of cookies, a little dairy and some other elements that are not permissible on the program I have found that the really important benefits I enjoyed have stuck around. I still sleep infinitely better than I did before (although a short experiment with drinking cocoa at night was a massive failure). I am mentally much more calm and more clear-headed. I am more patient with my son. And much to my amazement I can run more, and faster. I am most surprised by this development over all the others I think...it really flies in the face of everything I thought I knew about eating to run. I am eating fewer carbs (in the forms of grains) than ever, and yet both my speed and stamina are vastly improved. I can (and have) make it through an 18 mile run at the end of a 65 mile week and eat nothing before running, take in no water during the run and consume only one Hammer Gel mid-run. It just makes no sense to me! But week after week it works. And week after week I have the energy for grueling tempo runs (10 miles at 6:40 pace...are you kidding me?!?!) for hard speed sessions and for longer, more challenging long runs than I have done in years. And week after week I recover easily. I am not sure what it is about the plan, but it works. And if you look at the total calories in versus calories out I can't quite wrap my head around how everything is working...but it is! I did lose 2.5 pounds while doing the cleanse, but I have regained that (although I didn't regain the lost body fat so I must have gained it back in muscle), so I am not wasting away, and clearly I am getting enough in to fuel my body. So what gives? Damned if I know....but I am not complaining!

So L., I hope that gives you the information you are looking for! See, I told you the meals aren't necessarily all that labor intensive! I am sure I will contradict myself some in the future on that part, but I HATE spending a lot of time cooking, so I do try to emphasize easy to prepare meals. And I can't promise you that EVERY meal will be healthy...we are heading out in a couple of hours for lamb curry burritos. Particularly healthy? Not so much. Delicious? Definitely! The important thing is that we are not defining any particular success or failure by what we eat in a given day...so one lamb curry burrito is not going to drive us back to our old Ben & Jerry's ways. We have found a new way of eating that works for us, that satisfies us and that fuels our bodies for the stresses we place on them every day. I am sure it is not for everyone (especially the whole banana and spinach shake thing), but it works at our house!