My strange nutritional adventure

I have been a naughty vegetarian (i.e. one who eats some meats with some frequency) for about 2.5 years. I love to cook and I eat fairly well, but not well enough to sustain a marathon training program.

Every tiny little issue you may have never noticed about your physical life becomes a giant crisis when you're running all the time. That slightly creaky left hip becomes seven different injuries on the left side of your body. And an inadequate diet leaves you completely drained of energy and potentially covered with mystery bruises.

Leading up to my first marathon, I was finding it hard to simply eat enough food, and was losing weight for the entire duration of my training. I like losing weight and would like to lose some more, but this was the kind of weight loss where I was looking and feeling kind of gross. (Sidebar: I received the most praise for my slimmer physique when I was feeling least healthy. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to what that says about our culture.)

It is a firm goal of mine for this not to be the case again. My analysis of the issue, based on lots of reading on the topic, is that I felt it hard to eat because I was anemic for a long period of time--a cause for appetite loss--and the problem would have been solved by eating better foods, not necessarily more.

A common recommendation I've found, which seems easy to follow without becoming fanatical, is to eat a 1:1:1 ratio of protein, fat, and carbs coming from a wide variety of mostly-whole-food sources. The variety ensures that you get all kinds of vitamins and nutrients without having to think about it too much. Whole foods contain more good stuff by volume than processed foods, allowing you to meet your nutritional needs without consuming excess junk or calories.

So there's the reader's digest version of my plan. A tiny detail I've yet to mention is that I'm doing a vegan experiment this time. The theory is that I'll cease to eat cheese and drink milk (the only dairy products I consume a significant amount of), neither of which provide me nutrition I can't get elsewhere, and thereby pay more attention to what my body actually needs.

My previous marathon-training diet followed my long-time vegetarian error: filling the fat and protein-shaped hole in my stomach with cheese and bread or pasta made with white flour. Although I probably got enough protein and (too much) fat from this default, it's no good as a staple. So the vegan deal is a way to force myself to get creative and eat better.

So far, it's gone very well. I've snacked on dry grape nuts (which I don't expect anyone to salivate over, but I like), spanish peanuts, fruit and carrots. For meals, I've had delicious tofu & veggie stir fry over brown rice made for me by a friend, curry vegetable soup I made in about 15 minutes, toast with avocado, and soymilk/banana/peanut butter smoothies. These are much more exciting and delicious foods than I normally eat, which makes me look forward to meals and cooking.

I've also cut down to 2 cups of coffee a day. I don't want to 'fess up to the amount I was previously drinking, but I will say that the significant reduction has only had positive benefits in my energy level, athletic performance and mood.