Feeding your body

Wow, what an interesting week its been for this girl. It is such an odd experience to be searching for ways to hit my macro and calorie requirements, rather than freaking out because I'm about to go over them. It's been rather liberating to be able to enjoy foods that I'd normally stay away from, and I even feel better eating them. Say what?! To honest I'm sticking to mainly paleo but I've definitely made the shift to about 80/20. I'm avoiding gluten for the most part, as it does tend to hurt my stomach, but I'm eating WHITE rice and using whey protein throughout the day. I'm also eating bananas like crazy, something I've been avoiding because of the their sugar content.

My biggest concern when I decided to try ETP was the weight gain, which I know is NOT what matters, but it is so difficult to get out of that mentality. Reading through the FB posts and ETP forum, I can tell a lot of women are having the same issue. When your muscles are properly fed, you're going to go up in scale weight. This is terrifying for those of us who've worked to so hard to loose weight.

Since starting CrossFit in January, I've put on a good 8lbs. My clothes still fit, I haven't had to go up in sizes, and my measurements are about the same. As far as I'm concerned that weight gain has to be muscle, so unless someone has another explanation, that's what I'm going with. Since starting ETP I've put on about 3, so total weight gain has been significant. Again, my clothes fit, I feel great, and even after just one week of ETP, people are making comments about me looking leaner. More importantly, I don't feel so damn lethargic! I've been running myself into the ground trying to kill the WODs and go to CrossFit even when I'm exhausted. Duh Britt! Maybe you should listen to your bod?! If I want to become a better athlete, I should probably give my body what it needs!

Getting started with ETP can be a little confusing, but essentially you eat your carbs around your workouts. Here is a typical week for me, and what I plan to follow at least until I get my BodPod measurement done:

2,558 calories

Monday- WOD: 200g carbs/155g protein/126g fat

Tuesday- WOD control day: 150g carbs/160g protein/145g fat

Wednesday-Rest  control day: 150g carbs/160g protein/145g fat

Thursday-WOD:200g carbs/155g protein/126g fat

Friday-WOD 200g carbs/155g protein/126g fat

Saturday-WOD control day:150g carbs/160g protein/145g fat

Sunday- Rest control day:150g carbs/160g protein/145g fat

In the mornings I have 1 serving of whey protein mixed in water, and some BPC, which puts my calories at about 470. I don't have my first solid meal until around noon, at which time I stick to protein, fat, and veggies. If I workout I have a banana and another serving of whey 30minutes to an hour beforehand. After I workout, I have a banana, whey, and a serving of creatine while I'm cooking dinner. On days that I'm resting but working out the following day, I have the majority of my carbs at night.

So I eat carbs around my workouts, when my body is able to utilize glucose most effectively to stimulate muscle growth and fat loss. This works out great, since I can sorta be like a normal human again. If I want to go have pizza with friends, I can do it! A piece of cake? Sure! This is known as "eating for joy" rather than cheat meals, which I totally love. They key is to not eat for joy at every meal!