Strength Training and No Sugar

PRE strength training. CLEARLY!

Hello my Dears!

I am so pumped to go sub 3 at Boston that I have made some changes. Not just for Boston, but because I want to for me.

1. No more refined sugar. It's been 2.5 months and this former chocoholic has had no sweets, nothing refined. Only naturally occurring sugar. More on that later.

2. Strength training. I have a lifting schedule. Yes, it's great for me and my running but I am b-lineing for one thing: The gym self photo in the mirror with ripped up tri's! C'mon..isn't that what it's all about??!

NO REFINED SUGAR!

So, my friend Allison talked me into a sugar free September and I never stopped. I started out eating zero grams of refined sugar. To compensate I ate fruit. Lots of fruit. Like $10+ a day of raspberries, strawberries, blackberries. That mellowed out after a week. It was too expensive to keep eating so much.

Then it became stressful because everything has refined sugar. Pasta, bread, gu, sports nutrition, all cereal but shredded wheat. I looked at my kitchen and could not eat a damn thing. I had to have special stuff. Gluten free rice pasta, Think Thin protein bars...but I took the time and figured it out.

Now, it's easy. I just don't eat anything with refined sugar EXCEPT pita bread and pasta. They have 2 grams. I hated the rice pasta and I eat sandwiches daily so for my lifestyle this worked. In the end, I'm a runner and need carbs and pasta. I can't say for sure but I can guess my performance would drop without the carbs I get from pasta and bread. And I'm freakin' Italian! Mangia mangia!

 I would never in a million years think of a pastry. Initially, I bought sugar free candies but as time went on the sweetness was overwhelming and I stopped buying them.

No weight lose. I didn't want to lose weight but I'm surprised I didn't lose anything. In the end it's all about calories and I have been eating nuts and cheese like a crackhead locked in a Pepperidge Farm outlet store.

But I think I'm not as puffy. I rarely get food babies. It is slowly helping my abs. And moreover, I feel sooooo much better!!

STRENGTH TRAINING!:

So my super awesome coach Eric who trained me for my 3:02 is in agreement to PUMP IT UP! He gave me a lifting schedule that is done after I run a few days a week. It's a lot of fun and because I have twig arms I can already see results a week later. Woohoo!

Here are some pics:

in pursuit of the self pic at the gym

wasting time in the gym....I need to work on not slacking betw sets.

I'm going to do one more blog on FOOD! Stand by...

LaBella!