David Hasselhoff...and sushi

I think that without sushi there would be no David Hasselhoff, because sushi is like the perfect way of describing the insides of David Hasselhoff.  He is like a protein, clean and easy.  That's how I feel about myself. -- David Hasselhoff

Make sure that when you look at your plate, it's a beautiful blank canvas to start with, and you wants lots of color on there.  You want to make sure you have whole grains and protein.  It should not be beige in color; it should be green and bright red, and orange and yellow. -- Summer Sanders

Some people have asked me how I get the quotes for my blog.  I'm not terribly clever, so I just type whatever my topic is into Google, along with the word "quote"...and voila.  The best source is usually BrainyQuote, but there are some other good repositories of quotes out there.  I like quotes - I feel like they provide context and a hook...not just for blog readers, but also for me as the blogger.

But there are times when I go looking for a quote for this blog that I happen upon unexpected things.  Most wonderful and ponderously unexpected things.  Magical things.  Like David Hasselhoff and sushi (or David Hasselhoff is sushi?)...anyway.  So much love for things that tickle my sense of humor, especially when all I'm thinking about are boring things like protein and vegetables.

Why am I thinking about protein and veg?  Because it's time to take another step forward in building ATHLETE 2.0.  A few weeks ago (well, 10 days, but who's counting...oh, wait - me, I'm counting because I'm trying to methodically make changes in my life...)  Anyway, a few weeks ago, I explained how I'm trying to improve my body composition and health to avoid any sorts of "hiccups" during my 2017 race season.  Rather than a wholesale overhaul, I've decided to make small, sustainable changes, focusing on something small for 10-14 days until it sticks or not, and then making adjustments as needed or adding a new small change.

My first two changes, let's call them shifts...because they were small...my first two shifts were to start logging my food again and to limit my liquids to wine, water, and coffee.  (Yes.  Wine is listed first.  There are priorities here.)

LOGGING:  I've logged my food, every day, for 15 days so far.  Even when it was utterly painful...like Saturday night, when we had date night with another couple and I enjoyed so much good food.  And so much good wine.  And MyFitnessPal told me that if I ate like Saturday every day, I'd gain about 20 pounds.  But that's OK.   The other days have been better and more importantly, it does seem like there are some days I may not eat enough.  Useful data, which is the whole point.

LIQUIDS:  Yep - I'm working this one.  Plenty of wine, but also only coffee and water otherwise, and the strangest thing - I'm actually enjoying water.  Weird what happens when you stop drinking other crap.  I did have a glass of Skratch after my "long" run yesterday, because it was hot for October and I was sweating a lot...but otherwise, on track.  As my sessions get longer/harder, I'll definitely be adding something back in - probably Skratch for now...but more on that another time.

Both of these shifts are working well for me - and I think they have stuck and I plan to continue with them, so it's time to add another shift or two into the mix.

PROTEIN:  So I've been reading the Roar book, like I told you, and apparently I do not get enough protein.  Like ever.  (I also don't eat enough carbs, or enough generally...but that's a bigger change and I'm not ready for it yet.)  But protein - this seems like something I can really work on.  I'm adding a protein recovery drink after my workouts - better recovery and more protein generally in my diet. One of the nice things about having already tracked my food for two weeks is realizing that I'm totally not even close.  So for my new shift, my plan is to intentionally up my protein intake, with a goal of hitting 145g/day.  (According to the book, this is somewhere at the high end of my resting day goal and low end of my endurance goal, and no where in the ball park of my strength goal - but baby steps, little shifts, at a time.)

VEG:  I know I don't eat enough veg.  I just don't.  I've been adding more in and sneaking them into my menu here and there, but it's time to methodically add them in.  I'm actually starting to like how they taste - it's not that.  It's just that I don't really think about veg as being something that I want.  Ever.  So my new shift, my goal, is to try to eat a veg at every meal.  At least one.  At least a little bit.

So...what does any of this have to do with David Hasselhoff?  Pretty much nothing, but there is that horrible video of the drunk Hoff vegging and eating a cheeseburger, so that's kind of like protein and veg.  Oh, and also, Hasselhoff - he's like sushi.  So.  Well.  There's that.