Over the past 3 weeks I’ve completely overhauled the way that I eat and I wanted to explain what I’ve done and why.
You’ve no doubt seen how much I was complaining about not losing any weight and as much as I’m learning that change doesn’t just happen on the scales, there’s still a part of me that wants to lose body fat and look leaner.
Enter the Alkaline Diet. My friend Anna introduced it to me via way of a cleanse as outlined in the Honestly Healthy cookbook. The basic concept is that to allow your body to work to its full potential and protect you from nasties, the PH level needs to be more alkaline than acid.
Acid-forming foods include meat, fish, eggs, dairy and grains while alkaline-forming foods are pretty much anything green plus fruits, nuts and seeds.
During the 10 day cleanse, you stick to these rules rigidly, consuming huge amounts of green vegetables in solid and liquid form. Lemon water (hot or cold) is also a major part of the cleanse as believe it or not, citrus fruits are alkaline when they’re inside your body! I know, it took a while for me to get my head around this one.
After 10 days of this I had lost 1lb and had got through the feelings of tiredness. Onto the next stage! This is when you reeducate yourself into the proportions of different foods that you have on your plate. Protein, especially animal protein, should play much less of a role in your meals. the majority of what you eat should still be green and leafy vegetables, including spinach, watercress, kale and seaweed)
I’ve adapted it to fit my lifestyle and training schedule to aim for 2 vegan meals and 1 snack each day with 1 meal incorporating animal protein.
A sample of my daily food looks something like this…
Breakfast:
Green smoothie (1 x banana, ½ cup blueberries, 6 slices of cucumber, 1 stalk of celery, 1 big handful of spinach or kale, 1 tsp each of chia seeds, linseed and flaxseed, 4 broccoli florets, splash each of coconut water and almond milk)
Lunch:
Green salad (watercress, spinach, cucumber, tomato, celery, broccoli, avocado, radish sprouts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chickpeas, lemon + olive oil dressing)
Afternoon snack:
Fruit and almond butter (apple/strawberries/blueberries/pear + 1 tsp almond butter) OR homemade seeded flapjack (check out the Honestly Healthy recipe, it’s amazing…)
Dinner:
Chicken salad (watercress, spinach, cucumber, tomato, celery, broccoli, avocado, radish sprouts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaked almonds, chicken, lemon + olive oil dressing)
All of this is supplemented by a cup of hot water and lemon first thing in the morning and 2-3 litres of cold lemon water throughout the day.
1.5 weeks later I’ve lost another 3lbs and I’ve got bags of energy! My running is stronger than it’s ever been, I don’t get stitches and I feel much more focused during training sessions. It’s paying off as my body fat is dropping and my little baby muscles are starting to poke out. Watch this space for more vegan-related updates!