Dealing with fitness "obsessiveness"?

ctooch99

You may be a good candidate for carb cycling. I would research it. This helps break up the monotany and can help you actually achieve better results by confusing your metabolism. Like all things this needs to be done carefully. Your at a stage where, unfortunately, precision is required.

Thanks for the info - I had never heard of Carb Loading. I am open to trying new things, but reading up on it quickly, it just seems to be sort of an "abnormal" way to eat. What I mean is, I consider any sort of extreme diet (like Atkins, Paleo, etc.) to be sort of an unsustainable way to live - obviously when done properly they give extreme results, but I question the health impacts of things like this. Certainly Atkins could be argued to be a loaded gun for raising cholesterol. I just can't picture myself eating mostly protein for 3 or 4 days and then jacking up the carbs for 2 or 3 days. I think I would lose track quickly and screw it up.

I definitely like eating in a "normal" fashion (ie a mix of carbs and proteins). I was just curious to see what people's methods are for maintaining their fitness levels without burning themselves out.

It's a good suggestion and maybe I will read up on it more - many people have certainly appeared to have achieved pretty amazing results carb loading and it certainly seems well know in body building circles.

I just want to make sure we are not mismatching terms. To me, carb loading is completely different that what I'm talking about. From my marathon days carb loading means you deplete yourself of all carbs for a couple of days then max out on carbs the day before the race to load up with max fuel for the run. That is fairly radical but not what I was talking about.

Here is my typical health diet day:
Breakfast; greens, some fruit, lean protein
AM snack; soaked almonds
Lunch; greens, lean protein, flax seeds
PM snack; greens, avocado
Dinner; cooked veggies, greens, lean protein

I guess this could be considered sort of a Paleo diet. But my emphasis is to eat whole foods and not eat starches, grains, sugars (except the natural sugars in AM fruit) or alcohol. Occasionally I will substitute a serving of gluten free grain (like Quinoa) instead of lean protein). When on a maintenance level my trainer suggests carefull amounts of gluten free grain or sweet potato at lunch and dinner in addition to lean protein but I'm not there yet.

About once a month I will take 3-4 days to go on a "normal diet". I call this carb cycling- for lack of better terms. This combo, as long as you are 100% adherent to the 'health' diet has worked miracles for me. It is not from a book or from a website. It came from my trainer who is also a Nutritionist. I'm working with her on a book about it.

Thanks for the detailed explanation - I think I mis-typed when I put in Carb Loading (which is what body builders do)

ctooch99

OBSESSION is a word the lazy use to describe the DEDICATED!

Hmmmm... I am not lazy at all and I do think there is a line between dedication an obsession. Dedication is making time for stuff and not making excuses and getting it done (which I do) - obsession is doing something because you have some psychological dysfunction (which I feel like I am developing). Eating healthy is dedication. Anorexia is obsession.

ctooch99

Bumping this because I notice I am getting really...dependent on exercise. My dependence is non scale related...it relates more to the 'regulating' effect that exercise has on me. I mean it is like I get a 'high' from a good workout...so on rest/lower intensity days, I feel almost kind of depressed...then again, that is how I used to feel EVERY day!

Yep - I experience this too now - and I don't like it. Like if I have a day that I should really relax, I feel guilty for not training. Not good...

ctooch99

This is a great topic. I am getting more obsessed trying to ditch the last 20lbs of fat. I get anxiety just thinking about not logging my food or missing a workout. Eventually I will want to live life without constant logging and find that balance...

Yes - exactly what I am talking about...