You Are What You Eat

So I've been giving thought to my nutrition habits lately.

About 5 years ago I made a conscious effort to eliminate excess fat and sugar. It was not a total deprivation thing. It was things like switching from 2% milk to fat free milk; no dressing on my salad; no sugar on my cereal; swapping out sodas for unsweetened green tea or water; and in general watching my portion sizes. I allowed cheating though. I concentrated on being "good" but allowed myself a piece of cake at our work birthday parties for example and the occasional sweet treat or soda as a 'reward'. This actually worked for close to a year.

Then I was diagnosed with exercise induced anemia. This was easily brought under control by iron supplements but then I started training for my first marathon. So my iron counts were good but I was still tired. Two things kicked in. First, I "needed"to reward myself for reaching mileage milestones. Second, being tired makes me crave and give into comfort food. Same thing happens when I'm sick. And let's face it, comfort food is mostly junk calories. Good thing I was running a lot. And lately, I've been a little down about the heart thing lately so more junk calories.