Cleaning up my diet

I have been in denial about what I eat. In fact, I justify it that I am so active, I could burn off most of what I eat very fast. While that might be true, I am making myself work harder for results that I could have seen much sooner had I cleaned up my diet a long time ago. It has been said over and over again that diet is 80% of healthy living/body building. I am reluctantly becoming a firm believer in that. Following that, I have taken the following steps to try and clean up my diet further.

1. I am currently on week 2 of a no chocolate challenge. I had become addicted to dark chocolate, eating it almost every night. While it is the healthier option when it comes to sweets, candy....it is not a necessary part of my diet and in fact, had become a bit of an addiction. I don't feel the need for it.

2. Diet cola drinks - I took care of my sugar cravings a long time ago. Occasionally, I have a diet cola drink with my meal. I don't have to have it, I just do. Carbonated water with a piece of lemon would be just as delicious. Why I don't make that choice, I don't know. So now I will consciously avoid these low calorie drinks. Research has it that they make you crave for something sweet and those that drink copious amounts of these drinks actually have thicker waists than those that don't. The artificial sweeteners are also harmful to health in the long run.

3. After workout smoothies - I resisted them for soooo long but now, I have begun making a protein and fibre rich after-workout smoothie in order to aid recovery. Part of this reason is that waiting for dinner or lunch sometimes took more than two hours, I would feel finished and be very cranky by meal time. You also do need to energise after a workout. So far so good. I use some greek yoghurt for protein, I still haven't got to supplementing with protein powders, that is the next step.

We in Kenya are waiting for the results of the general election...it is difficult to concentrate on other things remembering the violence that followed the announcement in the last elections. Keep safe, keep active.

Have a peaceful day!