I thought I would go into a little more detail about how I am eating for the Fit Female
Rachel Cosgrove has you eating 6 meal/snacks a day. Really, 3 meals and 3 snacks. She stresses to eat enough of the good food to fuel your body and not starve. She also stresses the importance of protein so that you don’t lose muscle as you lose fat. Always a good thing to keep in mind. Who wants to be skinny fat? Not me!
Rachel does not advocate calorie counting, at least not in the beginning. She just wants you to focus on getting the processed food out of your diet, limit wheat, make sure you eat protein and a fruit/veggie with every meal/snack and don’t be afraid of fats. Gee, sound familiar?? That was a big appeal to me for this program, I have to say.
One term I loved that she used in her book was called “nutritional freestyling.” This is how people eat most of the time. When you eat whatever, whenever without planning. Then there is being compliant and the various stages of that (70%,80%, 90%… 50%)
An example of a workout day would be:
1. 1 to 2 eggs, 1/2 to 1 cup of oatmeal, a banana
2. Postworkout shake: 1 scoop of protein powder, 1/2 cup of milk, water, ice, strawberries.
3. Mixed salad with chicken breast, olive oil and vinegar, an apple.
4. Rice cake (ewww) with peanut butter and an apple.
5. Turkey, brown rice, and asparagus.
6. Yogurt (no sugar added) with walnuts and blueberries.
Note there are no real measurements of food here, but to try to use serving sizes as a guide. The caveat is to have your workout shake right after the workout. I have to alter this because I workout before breakfast, so I drink mine half before and half after the workout – then eat breakfast when I get home. Gotta make things work, right?
An example of a rest day or cardio (oops) day would be:
1. 1 to 2 eggs plus as many egg whites as you want, spinach, mushrooms (double ewwww), Ezekiel toast, 1/2 an avocado and a small orange.
2. Cottage cheese with walnuts, cinnamon and chopped apple.
3. Turkey breast on Ezekiel bread with lettuce and tomato. Carrot sticks.
4. Ground turkey chili with beans
5. Broccoli (yay!), lean meat, sweet potato.
6. 2 hardboiled eggs and cantaloupe.
So, a good amount of food during the day. And you all see how I make this work with the types of food I eat. No rice cakes, no mushrooms, no avocado, etc. Rachel says to not worry about calories or even changing the eating *at all* unless you stop progressing. That’s kind of refreshing. However, I do log my food so I do know how many calories I am eating.
So, the compliance part comes in with being 90% compliant. This means that 4 to 5 meal/snacks can be indulgent where you can have the other things you like such as pizza or cupcakes or lasagna, beer. That way you don’t feel like you are deprived. When you get to a maintenance mode, then 80/20 comes more into play.
The weekends are where I use more of my indulgent meals. We usually go out for either lunch or dinner on Saturdays and have a pizza wrap or I will get a sandwich and fries. Nothing really crazy, but definitely tasty! Sunday morning is our usual Bagel Day. And then I will have a treat with coffee one of those days. That could be a cookie or some type of dessert with a latte. I really enjoy those and don’t let myself snack and indulge all day all weekend. I am not sure what will change with this as the warm weather really comes on and John and I are doing our distance biking and I need to eat much, much more. I don’t know if I can do the 6 meal thing on those days or not. We will have to see. It certainly wouldn’t hurt me to bring a protein drink to chug down while riding and that might be a good experiment.
One thing Rachel also says is to really not care about the scale number. She says if you fit into the size pants you want, what does it matter what the weight is? And she is right. If I can fit into smaller pants and be heavier, who cares? It is just so ingrained to have a goal weight and get there – sometimes unrealistically.
As far as the scale, I am really trying not to focus on it. Again, my scale doesn’t have numbers, but it does tell me how many pounds above or below my ‘starting’ weight I am. I am trying more just to focus on the workouts and hopefully make myself smaller and stronger even if the scale doesn’t tell me that.
The meal plan looks great. Very much like that Bobay plan I was following. Also very ‘clean.’ I found that I wasn’t comfortable with quite that much protein, and backed off a little. But I am eating more protein than I used to (I think.)
Love the thought that what does it matter what the number on the scale is if you can fit in the pants that you want to fit in. That’s kind of what I hope is happening to me at the gym–making myself smaller and stronger.
I think this looks like a great meal plan. When you eat “real” food which to me means the not overly processed stuff it fills you up and you feel good!
I love that she says if you fit into the pants you want to who cares what the scale says! Yes!
There are people who are skinny but not healthy. I am going for healthy and fit. I will never be considered skinny and that’s okay by me. I am being the best me that I can be.
Hi Lori, very interesting post. I’m hunkering down on food choices too. Today, I ate vegetarian chili with curry seasoning in it, lots of egg whites, frozen bananas, and iced tea.
🙂 Marion
What a normal-sounding plan! Quite refreshing to see. And of course you know I agree on the scale/pants thing! 🙂
I definitely like this way of looking at the food we eat. I’ve started (following your example) the 90/10 way this week and planned my indulge moments at the weekend. On weekdays it’s easy for me not to have something extra, weekends are my biggest challenge. That’s why I choose to have my extra things at the weekends.
About the scale, my scale has numbers and I weigh myself at least once a week, sometimes more but the number has never bothered me. If I gain I know exactly how it happened. I don’t let it effect my mood for that day, I just know I have to watch more what I eat.
Remind me what scale you have?
That looks like a healthy way to eat to me – nice that you have enough knowledge to make it fit to your life.
It’s MaryLou’s Weigh (aka the gymnast).
Sounds like food on a bodybuilding or fitness person diet! 😉 I think if you have to modify a bit for you, that is what it is all about. There is not one set program for everybody.
I use the scale & clothes as I have said many times. I really prefer that. especially with age because right now I can weigh the same but body fat & BMI are a tad higher & the bod looks different.. damn hormones! Clothes actually do not fit quite like they did at the same weight – aging can suck at times! 😉
I can’t help myself but eat every 2 – 3 hours. I get SO nibbly. Not necessarily hungry, I just nibble out of boredom. My job is a desk job and I can’t stand sitting for so long. On the weekends, I’m in constant motion so it’s tougher to think about those 6 x daily meals/snacks.
Rachel is right, though. It’s not good waiting until your hungry because then the possibility of overeating is pretty darned good…uh..BAD!
I think you made an important point worth mentioning again – we *do* get fixated on numbers more than how we look and feel.
I know so many women who want to lose 5 or 10lbs and when you ask why it never has anything to do with how they feel or how they look – it’s just a vanity number.
Being so far away from a goal weight, I don’t have any idea how I’ll look 20, 40, or 60 lbs from now. So I make small goals and assess as I go along.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this, Lori. I’m really trying to keep my eating in check so I can lose weight while I’ve upped my workouts. One thing I was scared of when I went back to running and more intensity at the gym was not losing because of the hunger or water retention in my muscles.
Maybe I’ll look that book up. If you have hints, please feel free to email me… bascially I tell myself I should eat “Lori style” and I’ll lose. 😀
Haha – don’t eat like me! I am far from perfect 😀
Okay… weird… my reader just coughed up 10 comments from readers on an old blog post of yours from January!