Clean Eating on the Cheap: Variety may be the spice of life, but let's be real… that sh*t needs to be on SALE.

One thing I've always prided myself on is finding a good deal.  Now, I'm no thrift store shopper or coupon queen (not to say that I have anything against that, because I don't; it's just not the lengths I've ever gone with my bargain-hunting habits), but being raised the way I was, I learned early on that I needed to be able to make a penny stretch to the size of a dollar.  

I got my first "real-life" job serving ice cream at Haagen-Dazs just after my 15th birthday.  Since I was under the legal working age, my employer was able to take advantage of a labor loop-hole and charge me a full dollar less than minimum wage per hour. Still, every summer I would work my butt off because that would be the only money at my disposal to pay for my new school clothes and any other discretionary items outside of food and shelter that I would want.  

It was tough but it certainly taught me the value of a dollar, along with some other incredibly useful budgeting lessons that helped me survive college.  When it came to being a university student, not only was I now on my own to buy my clothing and such, but I now had to pay for books, tuition, food, and all my other bills as well!  I was a full-time student working part-time jobs to cover full-time adult expenses.  Therefore, naturally, one of the easiest things to control as far as expenses were concerned was the grocery bill.

Food is a funny thing, because most items really don't cost all that much.  $2.49 here, $1.99 there.  But boy, does it add up.  I think we all can agree that the difference between buying a regular apple for $0.69 and an organic one for $1.19 is rather trivial (is $0.50 really all that much???).  But if you eat one a day for a full month, we're talking about a difference of almost $16 a month. And that's just for apples! Add in all the other monies you would save by making cheaper food selections, and we're looking at a sum of money that could cover a utility bill, a credit card payment, or the cost of necessary monthly medications.  Simply put? Savings are savings.  And when money is an issue, opting out of organics is a non-issue.

Well, we can now fast forward several years to my post-collegiate life.  School loans are paid off, car is almost paid off, retirement account is [slowly] growing, and I have a respectably-paying job that allows me to live a decent middle class life.  I'm not buying a house anytime soon, but I certainly am not wanting for food and shelter.  Even still, limited resources are limited resources, and I seemed to have carried my same budget-conscious habits toward food into my adult life.  I wouldn't eat garbage food; I mean, I did make sure I got my fruits and veggies and proteins.  But I certainly would forgo buying avocados and nuts in favor of cheaper snacks like crackers or Easy Mac (Yes, I said Easy Mac... oh, the shame!)  So, one of the rudest awakenings I got when I undertook this clean-eating adventure was the massive shift in discretionary income toward my new food expense each month.  That was such a fat pill to swallow that I about needed the Heimlich each time I got to the front of the register counter. 

But you see, it wasn't that I couldn't afford "higher quality foods"; it was more the principle of the matter.  It was knowing that for the last 10 years I was able to feed myself 3 decent meals and 3 snacks a day, 7 days a week, for $65 or less...... but now my grocery bill has doubled!?!  Where is the logic in knowing that for organic produce -- with no added chemicals or labor to apply said chemicals, just throw a seed into the earth and let mother nature do the dirty work -- the price seemingly doubles?  It makes no sense!  But of course, the logic is there.  Chemicals off-set the cost of losing plants to bugs and blights, yada yada yada, I get it.  But what I don't like, is the notion that the second money becomes an obstacle, people take the path of least resistance by buying crap food instead of seeking ways around it.  And I can say that, because I used to be one of those people!  But now that diet has become something of importance to my life, I've felt the need to seek out methods of mitigating the colossal crush of rising food commodity prices and the added expense of eating clean and organic options.

I've done a lot of research on tips and techniques as well as trying out my own ideas.  This in no way is an exhaustive list, but it's certainly a start at creating a handbook of sorts for people of all ages and all degrees of income to find solutions that work for them in terms of increasing the quality of their diet while keeping costs static (or potentially at a minimum).

1.  WATER

It goes without saying that an instantaneous (and free!) way of reducing cost and increasing diet quality is to abandon all fluids besides water.  Juice, coffee, soy milk, almond milk, regular milk, soda, booze, coconut water, and even tea... none are necessary.  So when it comes to you being able to afford Ezekiel Bread over that cheap loaf of white bread devoid of all nutrition and chock-full of empty calories, ditch the decaf and opt for a glass of water instead.  And further, STOP buying bottled water.  It's the same stuff as tap!  Added minerals to alter the flavor doesn't make bottled water "cleaner" than tap.  Both are filtered, both are fluoridated, and both are perfectly safe to consume.  If you can, buy a Brita pitcher or another knock-off; one $7 filter can purify 40 gallons on water.  If you can't stomach the taste of water, buy a lime at the grocery store; it's usually less than 20-cents a fruit, can produce 4 water-flavoring wedges, it alkalizes your gut upon consumption, flavors your water, and adds a boost of natural vitamin C to boot.

2.  KNOW WHEN TO BUY ORGANIC PRODUCE, AND WHEN NOT TO

Not everything "needs" to be organic.  While it is ideal to eliminate all exposure to potentially harmful chemicals and pesticides that riddle our produce, sometimes that is not an option.  So pick and choose your own battles.  The rule of thumb is to definitely buy organic produce for which the peel is thin, or where you eat the peel.  Examples of produce you'll want to buy organic:  Apples, peaches, pears, berries, cucumber, zucchini, celery.  Examples of when you can buy regular:  Bananas, oranges/lemons/limes (assuming you don't consume the zest or peel), pineapple, spaghetti squash, cantaloupe, avocado, corn.

The 2012 list of the "Dirty Dozen" was just released by the Environmental Working Group recently which details the current top 12 "dirtiest" fruits and vegetables contaminated by pesticides and chemicals, as well as a list of the top 15 "cleanest" produce items.  EWS recommends that foods on the Dirty Dozen list should absolutely be purchased organic, whereas the "Clean 15" can be of the "regular" (non-organic) variety.

Lastly, it goes without saying that shopping at Farmer's Markets tend to always yield better deals than grocery stores since you're cutting out the "middle man".  There are no grocery store worker salaries, property rents, insurance and utility bills and all other expenses associated with operating a grocery store that you need to worry about paying for via the overhead applied to the cost of your food.  Buy straight from the farmer and you will naturally reduce those expenses.

3.  BETTER THAN BUYING:  GROW YOUR OWN!
Since I was young, I've had a fascination with life (which is ironic, considering as how I NEVER want children).  But cultivating plants was always an art and a thing of beauty to me.  So it's weird to me that it took me 20 additional years before I took a stab at my long-lost green thumb.

If you are like me and live in an apartment with no yard, fear not!  You can always buy potting soil and seeds for cheap and plants herbs and leave the pots by your front door, in the shared back yard, your balcony or window sill, even on the roof if you have access!  If you can't afford pots, just use old tupperware containers (though being mindful that the plant will eventually outgrow that bucket.)  Also remember to poke holes at the bottom of the container so liquid can drain.

If you have a little more room to spare, or have some significantly large Tupperware containers, you can try planting other things like zucchini, carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes.  I recently stumbled upon this idea (see picture) and think it's brilliant! My mom has TONS of these old Rubbermaid bins from back when all us kids lived at home that she does absolutely nothing with.  Granted it will cost some money to purchase potting soil, but in the long run remember -- growing your own produce is the gift that keeps on giving! Drop a couple seeds in, give it some water, sun and a little TLC, and put ole' Mother Nature to work :)

4.  MEAT, POULTRY AND EGGS
When it comes to meat, you'll have to pick and choose your own battles here too.  My rule of thumb which helps is to stick with what's on sale and then make decisions that way.   Sometimes it's a matter of altering your recipes to accommodate seasonal or sale meats than the other way around.  Regardless, you're just always going to want to buy hormone-free, antibiotic-free, growth hormone (rBST)-free, grass-fed/cage-free/free range meats and eggs as often as possible.

The one big thing you can do to reduce this expense is to choose frozen over fresh meats.  While fresh meat is always ideal, if it's a matter of buying a frozen organic chicken breast versus a fresh "regular" (read: tampered with) one, go the frozen route.  Just make sure that no preservatives were used in the freezing process.  Frozen meats are usually always significantly cheaper than fresh since they store for longer, ship more easily, and require less of a rush from slaughter to sale.  One final note - egg whites can be expensive.  A carton of cage-free Trader Joe's egg whites is $2.99, and produces 10 3-tbsp servings.  Each 3 tbsp serving equates to one egg white.  Which means this carton only contains the equivalent of 10 eggs.  You can buy a dozen of Trader Joe's cage-free whole eggs for $2.99.  There are a variety of things to do with the yolk, including making a hair mask out of them, using them in other recipes, feeding them to your dogs to make their coats shiny, mixing them with water and fertilizing plants with them, yada yada yada.  So it's more economical to go with the dozen eggs than the carton of whites and come up with ways to use the yolk if you don't want to consume it!

Lastly, there are many mainstream organic meat providers like Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm that offer coupons on their websites which is always a good thing.

5.  CELEBRATE MEATLESS MONDAYS :)
Another way to cut back on budget expenses and still eat clean, is to actually forgo a day of animal products.  Meat (especially the organic kind that we really should be consuming) is the most expensive item on anyone's list.  Even when you consume animal products that are in season, or produced in abundance for certain holidays (turkeys, hams, etc), that price still adds up.  Not all of us have a rifle and a forest or stream in our backyards to go collect our proteins ourselves, so Meatless Mondays is always a decent way to save a dime (my mom calls this Poor Man's Vegetarianism, haha).  Essentially, you trade out all of your meat items for non-meat proteins -- preferably, you buy a bag of kidney or black beans and cook them up at home ahead of time, and eat them instead. (Stay away from the canned varieties which can be tainted with BPA).

But there are other options.  Quinoa -- a great grain substitute -- is loaded with protein.  You can buy a box of Trader Joe's brand organic quinoa which yields enough to feed you for a whole week, for only $2.49.  Not to mention it can be added to just about any meal, including oatmeal, to boost protein content and improve food consistency and satiation.

6.  BUY IN BULK AND BEFRIEND THE ARCTIC!

Another major saver tip is buying in bulk and freezing what you don't immediately need to use.  And sometimes you don't even have to buy in bulk; sometimes just regular sales are too good to pass up!  Recently, Ralph's (Kroger) had a MASSIVE sale of Driscoll's organic raspberries.  They were selling entire pints of them for only $2.00.  The problem is, raspberries are extremely perishable, even when kept in the fridge.  So I bought up about 6 pints of those suckers, kept 2 in my fridge for mass [guiltless] consumption, and froze the rest.  Berries are delicate and don't thaw the way something like grapes or peach slices would, but that still doesn't mean they can't be used in any number of ways -- in your protein shakes, in baked goods you make... heck, I even just baked a pork tenderloin in half a bottle of leftover Charles Shaw "2-Buck Chuck" Cabernet with a 1/2 cup of those frozen berries and it made the most delightful raspberry-cab reduction sauce to go with the meat.  

The point of buying bulk is that, even though the price tag is higher, the per-unit cost is lower.  So hypothetically speaking, if you can afford $14.99 at Costco for a package of 15 frozen organic chicken breasts that will last you three weeks, that would be better than spending only $6.99 per bag for 5 breasts that will only last you 1 week, and end up costing you about $6 more than the price of the $15 bag at Costco in the long run. Another helpful trick with this tactic is to cook (or prepare) everything all at once, and then freeze the items.  That way, you can bypass repeated food prep chores, dirty dishes, etc.

7.  KNOW YOUR ECONOMIES OF SCALE
Along the topic of buying in bulk, another tip which I personally find to require the most time and attention but is REALLY helpful in the end  is to know your math.  Especially when you buy in bulk.  Sometimes, some deals aren't as appealing as they seem.  Other times, something might look like an excessive and extravagant purchase, but when you break it down by serving size, it becomes much more palatable (pun intended).  Case in point:  Shakeology.  Just about the healthiest protein shake you can find.  Problem?  One bag costs $120.  That's twice what I was used to paying for an entire week's worth of food!  BUT -- it provides one meal (one shake) a day for the whole month.  And we're talking a complete, WHOLESOME meal.  It breaks down to the following:

So, that's to say that that $120 bag actually provides an entire meal each day for you for less than a cup of your favorite coffee drink.  Economies of scale, people!

8.  BRANCH OUTSIDE OF YOUR RECIPES "COMFORT ZONE"
So you were raised being Butler'd caviar on a silver platter, eh?  Well, circumstances change, and so do your tastes.  But there are plenty of good substitutes for what you're used to, and when it comes to eating healthy on a dime, you may want to switch out your old Betty Crocker cook-book for something more -- how shall I say this, "flexible"? -- to the constraints of your wallet.

This really needs to be your best friend.

For me, I've found that a FANTASTIC way to eat healthy and clean on the cheap is to really embrace my inner-stew lover.  Stews, soups and chili are all hot, hearty, healthy and SUPER inexpensive to make organically.  Buy whatever produce is in season (particularly the varieties sold at the Farmer's Market) and make a stew in the crockpot.  Don't have a crockpot?  No worries, there are plenty of stew and soup recipes for just plan old soup pans on the stove:  Here's an example.

***************

So, obviously not an exhaustive list of tips and tricks (after all, I'm still learning these things as I go), and yes there are other money-saving ideas like using whole butter instead of olive oil in your cooking if you are able to be careful about portion controlling, but this is what I've come up with so far.

I would love to hear any ideas or tips you may have come up with to help save a dime on organic, clean eats.  Leave a comment! :)

"The All-Natural Taste That Wasn't"

"Isn’t it amazing how many additives it takes to make something taste natural?”

--Dr. Gary A. Reineccius

Once upon a time in a lifestyle far, far different than the one I have now, I was addicted to Penguin's.  It was a frozen yogurt joint that boasted the new CarboLite brand of ice creams in the era of Atkin's being all the rage, natural sugar was Satan reincarnated, and artificial sweeteners eaten by the boatload ensured you fit into that coveted size 4 miniskirt.

This addiction was in a time I like to refer to as the 'Dark Ages' of my life, when appearances meant the difference between attracting boys or not, which invariably equated to me believing I was lovable or not.  I was one of those girls who cared about one thing, and one thing alone:  The number on the scale.  And I didn't care about what I had to do to get there.

I would buy a medium-sized dish, which contained 10 oz. of the froyo concoction.  And that's what I would have for lunch.  This was back in the day when eating disorders still had a fast hold on my life and every single decision I made in each and every day was dictated by what I'd allow myself to eat, how my starvation would affect my ability to function in social settings, and how many workouts I planned to cram into the day.  It was an all-consuming obsession that I couldn't escape, but CarboLite was one thing that I felt I could count on - for one thing, I knew it had some protein in it.  But I also knew it was fat free, low calorie, and most importantly, it was one of the most filling things I'd let myself eat all day.

Now, this blog post isn't to resurrect old demons from a life so alien to me that I feel like I am talking about the past of a stranger, not of my own.  But I do have to say one thing:  Not everyone concerned about their weight and fitness is a clean eater.  In fact, the average dieter (who, mind you, often sees much success) follows a low fat / low cal / low sugar plan and disregards the tenets that we follow in terms of avoiding processed foods, preservatives, and artifical crap.  I know SO many people who still eat fro-yo religiously and see it as a healthy option.  Case in point -- this is the first review on the Yelp! page for Penguin's (link HERE):

"Healthy, delicious and reasonably priced."  Perhaps the latter two, but where did the notion come from that low carb yogurt was healthy?  Misconceptions, misconceptions.

CarboLite preceded a slew of other 'frozen fakies', as I call them.  Pinkberry, Yogurtland, and of course whatever other local shop you have around the corner (Menchies, Twist, etc etc etc).  I've been wanting to do some research for a while on the ingredients of these "healthy treats" as they are perceived, to deduce just how damaging that "harmless cheat" really is.  Fact of the matter is, I've developed a bit of a nasty habit with Yogurtland.  I've gotten into the habit of treating myself to it every Sunday.  I probably will still allow myself a little treat here or there (moderation is key!), but I wanted to do the research nonetheless, so I thought I would share it.  It wasn't easy, but this is what I have discovered...





Pinkberry's first store opened in Los Angeles in 2005.  Its famous "tart" flavor attracted a cult-like following for its fresh taste to a palate virgin to sorbets.  There was some controversy not too long ago that Pinkberry was false advertising that it was a Frozen Yogurt chain since scientific analysis of the product concluded that it did not meet the minimum bacterial count required by the FDA to be considered a yogurt.  In any event, the chain thrived and people flocked.

As The New York Times stated in their article The All-Natural Taste That Wasn't (full article found HERE), "[Pinkberry] initially touted its product as healthy, nonfat and all-natural, but did not say exactly what was in it."  Only a class-action lawsuit brought the chain to post the ingredients of it's products on it's website.

Healthy?  All-natural?  According to the same article, the Original flavor at Pinkberry had 23 ingredients, including 3 forms of chemical sugar derivatives and 5 food additives.  Current ingredients for Pinkberry Original Tart flavor include the following:

Nonfat milk, sugar, nonfat yogurt (pasteurized nonfat milk, live and active cultures), nonfat yogurt powder (nonfat milk, culture), fructose, dextrose, natural flavors, citric acid, guar gum, maltodextrin, mono- and diglycerides, rice starch

Fructose and dextrose are derivatives of high fructose corn syrup.  Guar gum is the product of grinding the endosperm (seeds) of the Guar Bean.  It forms into a paste of sorts that is eight times more potent than corn starch in thickening water-based products.  Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide, which is a long-chain sugar molecule (poly = many, saccharide = sugar).  But it is also a food additive.  According to Wikipedia, maltodextrin is created via hydrolysis of a starch (in the US, this starch is usually from corn).  A starch is a form of sugar, and hydrolysis is the process of rupturing a chemical bond of a substance by the addition of water molecules.  Essentially, adding water to the starch degrades the chemical structure of the molecules and separates them into an acid and a base component. The result is a much more rapidly absorbed and easily digested sugar-like powder.  While these are all processed components, they aren't ALL that heinous... yet.  Here's where the dirt begins. Monoglycerides and diglycerides are essentially the same thing; they are both "glycerides" formed by the combination of  glycerol and either one ("mono-") or two ("di-") fatty acids.  I reeeeally had to peel back the layers of the onion on this one to understand the chemical formulation of glycerides and their application to the food industry.  The first thing that became apparent was that these are obviously chemical food additives.  Glycerol is used in everything from pharmaceuticals and personal care products to antifreeze.  It has such a wide variety of uses that I won't bother listing them.  For the purposes of food additives, it is used as a filler in low-fat goods like cookies, as a humectant in tobacco products, as a thickening agent in liqueurs, an artificial sweetener in some goods, a preservative in others, and in the case of Pinkberry, an "emulsifier".

So now, what the hell is an emulsifier?  After a little research, this is what I learned (in laments terms):  an emulsifier is an agent that allows two substances to be mixed into a consistent  substance that normally would not be mixable.  For instance:  Oil and water.  They don't mix (they naturally separate).  But add an emulsifier, and it helps the two substances mix into a consistent substance.  So let's bring this full circle:  Glycerol (which, mind you is a main component of bar soap) mixed with a fatty acid (usually vegetable oil) creates a glyceride (either mono-, di- or tri-, depending on how many fatty acids are involved).  And these mono- and diglycerides become the emulsifying agent that keeps the consistency of a mixed food concoction uniform.  It's made in a lab, it is not natural, and it's sole purpose is to hold together all the random shit that is thrown into a food product and preserve it.

You still with me?  Or does Pinkberry still sound healthy to you?  As Dr. Gary A. Reineccius (a professor in the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota) said so poignantly in the New York Times article discussed above, "Isn’t it amazing how many additives it takes to make something taste natural?” 

Yogurtland surfaced about a year after Pinkberry's debut, no doubt riding the coattails of the "all natural, healthy froyo" craze, and boasts just as impressive a laundry list of ingredients.

Pasteurized and Cultured Skim Milk, Maltodextrin, Whey, Sorbitol, Polydextrose, Vegetable Mono & Diglycerides, Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum, Aspartame, Acesulfame Potassium, Locust Bean Gum, Carrageenan, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Caramel Color, Yellow 5, Red 40. 

Contains Live and Active Cultures: S. thermophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium ssp., L. rhamnosus, L. casei 

Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine

So what's the damage here?  We know what maltodextrin is, as we do mono- and diglycerides and guar gum.  Aspartame is an obvious no-no.  Locust Bean Gum is the same thing as Guar, just a different type of bean.  Cellulose Gum (also known as carboxymethyl cellulose) is a synthetic (read: manmade!) chemical additive.  According to Wikipedia, carboxymethyl cellulose "is used in food science as a viscosity modifier or thickener, and to stabilize emulsions in various products including ice cream." So it's a chemical that keeps things thick, helps keep the consistency stable, and is a tool of "food science."  Don't you just love that??  Oh and to make things better, according to the same webpage, carboxymethyl cellulose is also used in K-Y Jelly, toothpaste, laxatives, diet pills, water-based paints, detergents, textile sizing and various paper products.  YAY!! :S

Carrageenan is one of the items I've been most interested in researching, because I find it in endless "health" products.  Carrageenan is another polysaccharide extract kind of like maltodextrin, except that this one isn't from corn starch, but rather "red seaweeds". Apparently, carrageenans have been used in China since 600 B.C.  They are vegetarian, vegan, and have been used for hundreds of years as food additives.  Their inherent chemical structure allows the substance to create a gel.  Here's an interesting flow chart showing the process of extracting carrageenan from seaweed:

This is all fine and dandy, but check this out -- Carrageenan has been found to inhibit the transmission of HPV (and possibly HIV) in women when used as a personal lubricant, and further studies have shown that it can cause gastro-intestinal cancers and colon cancer.


*********************************************************************************

I tried researching the ingredients of CarboLite and other "low sugar, healthy, natural" icey treats, but I couldn't come across a list of their ingredients.   But I don't think it really matters, just from this list I think we get the point.

So, use this information as you please.  Obviously a treat here or there is perfectly fine.  But I think it's important to not dismiss these ingredients and turn a blind eye to them, as they are quite prevalent all sorts of the foods we consume.  Knowledge is power!

Of Pilots and Precedent (secrets we can learn about dieting from lawmen and engineers)

Two days ago, NASA's prized Mars rover, "Curiosity", landed on the face of the red planet without a hitch. From an outsider's perspective, one might find oneself thinking, "Well, of course it went off without a hitch; these guys are rocket scientists, after all!"  But just because someone is a genius -- much like with any expert, academic or athletic or anywhere in between -- it by no means is a guarantee that enormous challenges will go flawlessly.

Give a look at this video to get the gist of what sort of hoops this one-ton intergalactic laboratory-on-wheels had to jump through in order to call the first stage of it's mission a "success":

From a dieting perspective, there is actually one major thing we can learn from Curiosity through this.  It's a secret that rocket scientists, engineers, and pilots of all kinds know very well:  The concept of the "autopilot" feature.  According to Wikipedia, in the times prior to the invention of autopiloting, "...aircraft required the continuous attention of a pilot in order to fly safely.  As aircraft range increased allowing flights of many hours, the constant attention led to serious fatigue.  An autopilot is designed to perform some of the tasks of the pilot."

"So how does this apply to my diet and training?" You wonder.  Well, I'll tell you.  Did you watch that video above?  So many complex measures to combat so many unpredictable variables with little-to-no room for error, and yet it went without a hitch.  Why?  AUTOPILOT.  There was no thought, no emotion, no psychology or pressure felt by that little rover's driver.  That's because it's driver was a non-thinking, non-breathing robot built to make decisions in lieu of a human being whose many qualities which MAKE them human - fear, anxiety, and fatigue among them - create an atmosphere of increased probability for failure.  Simply put, some of the most wonderful qualities which make us who and what we are, can simultaneously work against us when we are up against a strict challenge.

If it's one thing I've learned thus far in my dieting, it's that the best way to ensure as easy a journey as possible is to put your mind on autopilot.  Too tired to go to the gym?  Shut your mind off and go anyway.  Don't listen to your mind.  Craving sweets or being terribly tempted?  Turn off your mind.  Go onto autopilot.  Keep going about your business and do not allow yourself to think or dwell on or crave those items.  Summon your inner robot and quarantine your feelings and emotions; it's okay to have them, and to express them, but if you refine your autopilot feature properly, you will soon develop the ability to segregate your thoughts and feelings from practical tasks you simply must just accomplish regardless of how you feel.

Sounds easier than in practice, huh?  Well, that is true without a doubt.  Downloading and installing a mental autopilot is no easy feat, especially if you don't believe you possess the power.  But I have good news - there's an app for it ;)

In the world of common law, we have this concept known as "precedent".  Precedent is a rule established in a previous legal case that was fully researched, presented to a judge and jury, and decided upon.  Some of these cases produce new laws (think Roe v. Wade).  In other instances it is more a matter of interpretation, such as whether an unborn fetus is considered a murder victim if it's mother is killed, or if through a physical crime to the mother the fetus dies.  The point is, how these decisions are decided upon in legal cases absolutely affects future cases, because prosecutors and defendants alike can use the rulings to support or refute new legal matters on the grounds that these prior cases were fully researched, fully presented, and fully decided upon.  No need to go through the motions again when the work has already been done, right?  Precedent also helps to ensure consistency in law and rulings, as well as expediency of trials and predictability of outcomes.

To tie this all together, when you are first setting out to control your mind and develop a sort of mental autopilot to help you either avoid temptations or stick to fighting the good fight in your workouts, you'll find that you naturally will develop a system of precedent in the beginning stage.  The more you stay strong and overcome adverse desires,  the easier it will be the next time you find yourself in a similar situation.  Don't get me wrong, the temptations don't fully go away, and the fatigue or laziness or general lack of motivation will occasionally creep in and dissuade you from working out.  But I can guarantee you that the more you ignore those negative thoughts and just force yourself to do what you gotta do anyway, the sooner you will develop that little autopilot function which makes getting through the less glamorous times much more manageable.  You realize you will survive.  You realize that no, you won't die if you don't get a slice of that cake, that the temptation will go away, and you'll remember how good you felt when you avoided the temptation.  The more you stick to it, the better of a case you will develop and the larger a library of precedent you will have to draw upon with each subsequent trial you face.  Your discipline will become more routine, and the outcomes much more predictable.

I have a coworker who brings pizza into the office everyday, and that's where the inspiration for this post came from.  I realized as she was heating up her customary four (FOUR!!) pieces in the convection oven, that I would just as easily pick up a raw onion and eat it like an apple as I would eat a slice of that pizza.  I wasn't tempted by it at all.  5 months ago, 4 months ago, I wouldn't have been able to say the same.  My mind still errantly associated psychological satisfaction with the physical act of eating pizza.  The tastes, the smells, and the textures all screamed "EAT ME!!" when I saw pizza.  But over the course of 6 months I have said, "No!!" enough times to realize I'm strong enough and perfectly capable of not succumbing to temptation, and now it isn't just a matter of using autopilot to help me avoid caving in; now, I'm not even tempted by it at all!  Pizza has no hold over me :)

So, regardless of where you are in your journey, whether you're the NASA Curiosity rover about to enter it's "7 minutes of terror" or you're already starting to colonize Pluto, I suggest you view overcoming challenges in a new light.  Attacking things systematically is always best especially if you have a logical thought process to lean on when the emotions come flooding in.  If you can learn to develop a little more of a mechanical approach toward the things in your life so easily derailed by human error, who knows where you'll land???  And I imagine the view will be spectacular once you arrive :)

Back on the Horse

Well, it is the Olympics and I am sure everybody is fully engrossed in the spirit of athleticism at this point.  We expect greatness from these athletes - after all, they have been training for these events for how many years??? They are experts in their field, and thus we expect nothing short of pure gold from them!

But those kinds of expectations are unreasonable.  Even just having those expectations can be enough to set someone up for failure, due to no other factor than the sheer psychological pressure alone.  For the rest of us, when it comes to just our regular lives (and the goals and ambitions we set ourselves upon), I feel like we can sometimes sabotage ourselves in like fashion by putting unreasonable pressure on getting results, even when it's with the best of intentions.  As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with them!

Now, I'm not saying we're going to hell, of course (although dietary cheats are considered a grave sin in my life at this point!).  But what I am saying, is that life can be like a pommel horse sometimes and not all of us will land gracefully each go around.  July was a bit of an "off month" for me; it started and ended just like this video:

But even though I am only 6 months into diet and training, I feel like in 6 years it will be just the same:  moments of highs, moments of lows, and in the end, just a merry-go-round of getting up and 'back on the horse' until I see the success I want.  After all, I do expect gold of myself.  I just need to be prepared to peel my face of the mat each time I fall in the process.

When it comes to falling off of the horse, there is strategy even in that.  Very often, when we find ourselves losing our grip, there are a couple options at our disposal to mitigate the damage (or at least to save a little face).  For me, when I saw myself falling face-first into a stress-induced cold/flu last week, I referenced some advice I gave just a few days beforehand.  I subscribe to a page on facebook called Fit Chicks and they posted the following question from a fellow subscriber seeking advice:

How many of us can't identify with this, right???  We've all been there.  I left my own two-cents in the comments section, as follows:

Yes I am aware that there is a typo - it should say *aren't, not 'are'!

Now, I want to take a quick minute to discuss over-training.  To be fair and honest, I have never allowed myself a one week break from training other than for illness or injury.  I have reached overtraining and burnout points MANY times in my life, but up until only just recently, I never really knew what overtraining was, or the signs and symptoms of it.  I viewed it only as laziness, which made me push harder (which undoubtedly resulted in illness or injury, and thus the break my body desperately needed).

I posted on my Fan Page the other day about going through month-long spells of insatiable hunger and lethargy, and month-long spells of diminished appetite and abounding energy.  I could never figure it out.  For years I tried to understand what was going on, and was convinced it had to do with hormones.  I have had my thyroid levels checked more times than probably someone who legitimately has a thyroid problem!  Always normal.  Always.  Well, it wasn't until I re-read this post and my ensuing response that it dawned on me -- my spells of lethargy and hunger had nothing to do with hormones; they were 100% overtraining.

Bodybuilding.com posted a great article (found HERE) that details overtraining on a summary-level.  Overtraining, at its very basic, is simply pushing the body physically (or also mentally / emotionally) to a point that is beyond what it can recover from.  But it's not resultant of a sprint - that is to say, we all have workouts that are of higher intensity than others.  Rather, it is an accumulation over time where the body simply just breaks down because it can't keep up.  Signs and symptoms range from sleep and appetite issues to chronic muscle pain and fatigue during workouts to moodiness, depression/anxiety, and elevated blood pressure / heart rates even while at rest.  Teh strain can also deplete the immune system, resulting in colds and flues one normally would have been able to fight off.

According to the article "The Real Dangers of Overtraining" by QualityHealth.com (article found HERE), the process of overtraining can be described as such:

"What happens when you overtrain?  The goal of progressive exercise is to stress muscles enough to make them stronger.  If muscles aren't allowed adequate recovery time though, they rebel with fatigue, pain and poor function.   Tendons and ligaments that are put through too many repetitions or exposed to too much weight become inflamed.  Not only is this painful, it can cause such serious injury that it can shut down an athlete's career.  For less serious athletes, it can result in weekend warrior-type injuries that reduce your enthusiasm and capacity for future exercise."

I posted my response to the Fit Chicks status update literally ONE DAY before I found myself in a dilemma with falling deeply into sickness.  The lethargy I was feeling the couple days prior had become unignorable.  I thought perhaps I had fallen victim to overtraining myself (after all, just a couple days before I had gone on a spontaneous 10 mile beach run which lasted 2 hours!).  I told myself I would rest Thursday and let myself eat whatever I wanted but by the time Thursday was over, it was clear that I was in the throes of a nasty illness.  So, I took my own advice.  Just as I had said, one week of a training / diet break wouldn't be enough to throw me off course.  So I embraced it.  I slept, I lounged, I guiltlessly rested.  The result?  I got a one week break to rest my muscles, recover my health, and do a CRUCIAL re-grouping before I start completely over with intensity anew.  I am so excited!

I also learned a lesson in all of this.  I no longer am going to fear overtraining, or beat myself up if I feel my body is begging for a break.  I am thinking about actually planning a full week of rest every other month as a way to recover and re-group before pushing again.  Treat it as a vacation, you know?  Catch up on sleep, catch up with old friends, maybe do some laundry???? Hahaha :)  I mean, I can't believe all the great things I got to do in the past week even while dying of illness.  I caught up on some reading, got to place some phone calls with out-of-country friends, it was really nice to not be rushing from gym to work to gym to errands to bed, wash-rinse-repeat.

But with that said.... I'm ready to get back on that horse and give it another whirl!  Happy Friday!