The Single Ingredient Diet

Along with my fitness program, my diet always needs modification.
It would also not be unreasonable to say that along with any good fitness
program, a good and effective diet also needs the SAME rigor and attention that the
exercise prescription requires.
My calorie demands, that is my need for energy, has increased and
the types of foods needed to satisfy those demands are really very simple.
I once wrote about or talked to someone about how food for me is less about an adventurous culinary
experience and more about adhering to a strict understanding between
the food-its micro nutrients and, its relationship to my workout.
Recently, and through a smart and attentive friend, it was delicately brought to my attention that I am
calorie deficient based on the demands I place on my physical self and my need for energy.
As an example, there are days when I eat more. On those days, I crest the threshold
of eating that is reminiscent of my 300 pound days--where quantity consumed was
an issue (although quality is not).
The morning following a significant carbohydrate intake, however, my workouts
have an extra power element that seems lacking on the days when I monitor those
calories [perhaps too] strictly.
The single ingredient diet means I eat sweet potato, egg, meat, fruit, vegetable, rice,
oat, pasta, black bean, nut. One thing. One ingredient. And, I do this every 2-3 hours.
So, from my diet, I had to omit: hummus, tortilla chips, marshmallow fluff, salsa, cottage
cheese, soy milk, wheat crackers, peanut butter, diet soda, bread, spelt cookies (ugh)
and maybe other sweets that I don't need anyway.
For someone like myself who has undergone such a radical change in her physique and
in her physical fitness (I have lost 170 pounds)--food failed to stop short at categorizing me
as playfully neurotic.
Never mind all of that.
It is very important to view nutrition as that which fuels our bodies for
the demands we place on it in a 24 hour period. What you do with your 24 hours is your business.
For me, I workout for approximately two of those 24 hours and my total miles run through the week
can vary from 42-80.
Having fun with food for people is an enjoyable pastime, they make friends, cooking appeals to their
creative side, they write blogs and make movies and write books about food (of course, everyone likes food, right?) But in America, with such an impatient crowd of eaters, and an increasingly high-maintenance crowd at that,
suddenly we have forgotten simultaneously that our legs are meant for running and our calories are meant to
fuel our bodies simply as energy.
There is such a systemic-asymmetric-relationship between our time spent exercising/moving/sweating and the time spent selecting/preparing/eating food. Geez. Such a crime.
And, we have forgotten--as we have evolved from our primate ancestors--that our diets CAN and SHOULD be so simple and so uncomplicated.
Our diet hasn't evolved.
We need basics.
We need grains, protein, fiber. It's so easy.
And, the added benefit of when you're in shape and powerful
and strong the food you eat, so long as you meet
those basic needs, gets put to work--honoring that machine that your body truly is and, dare I say, honoring a soul
that desperately wants that body to move.