Feeling good

One thing l have to remind myself constantly is that feeling good is really the key thing. A diet or fitness regimen that makes you feel bad can't be maintained can you'll bounce bak worse than before. Why not enjoy what you're doing?

So i'm again refocusing on making myself feel good in constructive ways. In the past, i might try to feel good by laying around all day, drinking a lot of alcohol, or eating a bunch of junk.

Constructive diet ideas:

* Green smoothies: Healthy, filling, low-calories, packet with nutrients, and delicious!
* Salad: you can make delectable salads that you look forward to, and will fuel you
* Fasting: yep, after you get used to it, intermittent fasting makes you feel energetic and clear-headed, and you can save hours on preparing and finding food

Constructive fitness ideas:

* Fun yoga classes. Pick the teachers i like, and classes where my friends are going
* Cardio/weights with great background music. Short. challenging workouts, or easy relaxing ones.
* Gardening. Walking/jogging/biking through nice scenery.

Overall mental health:

* Adequate sleep. Get the days' tasks done so i can can 8 hours of sleep and not feel i'm missing anything
* Find joy in my daily life.
* Meditate, learn to let stress wash over me. Letting stress pool leads to eating, and lack of sleep.

My first raw haul

Ok, saturday i picked up my raw food package. Here's a photo of the haul spread out, with a few extra items:

http://bit.ly/7bQPTf

So, monday and today have been about 50-60% the prepared raw food. Some of my own raw ( fruit ) and also some milk, yoghurt, whey protein.

macros:
cal carb prot fat
mon 2563 332 156 86
tue 2182 310 126 66

Note there is a lot of guesswork in these macros--i don't really know what is in the "raw cashew cheese"

So far, feel like the food is satisfying and tasty. Monday, i had to make myself eat to get up to those calorie numbers. I think i could easily eat under 2000 kcals on this diet and feel ok. And based on past experience, <2000 is serious weight loss territory for me.

Did a 19:29 stairclimb today without going all-out and with no rest, which is pretty good.

Note that i seem to be thirstier than usual. And it may be coincidence, but i've felt dead tired mid-day at work both days, and had to have a nap, after which i felt great.

I plan to gradually phase in more raw and see how it goes.

I will be tracking my strength, weight, and cardio performance very carefully.

If nothing else, i feel i will definitely be able to re-engineer my eating habits over these next few raw months. The idea of nut butter and raw brocolli and raw eggplant rolled up in a lettuce leaf with avocado is already striking me as a nice idea.

Welcome to Fit Yogi Dave

FitYogiDave first post

Hi. I'm Dave. Welcome to my blog!

I'm a vegetarian who does yoga and participates in stairclimb races. A few years ago, just the level of fitness i have now was an absurd dream, but as i've improved, i've learned how much more i can improve, and 2010 will be a banner year! So i've created this blog to show people what can be done with yoga, exercise, and a healthy vegetarian diet.

My next race is the aon center stair climb jan 31st. This will be my fourth stair race, and this race last year was my first race ever. I did all 80 floors in 17:20. My goal for this year is to do it in 15:20. I think this is realistic, as i have lost weight, strengthened my legs, and increased my cardio fitness over the past year.

I also have purchased a raw vegan food package--32 3-day food boxes of raw vegan food. I don't see myself being a raw vegan for the long term, but i think it will be interesting to try, and if nothing else, should help me change a few of my bad food habits. Bad food habits are, i think, my biggest challenge. Getting packaged yet super-healthy food will definitely help, and cousins food is scrumptous!

My big goal for the year is to cut four minutes off my sears tower stair climb time. I ran the sears tower in 21:39 about a month and a half ago. I had been dreaming of a time in the mid 17's and i am committed to doing that this time. In fact, my goal is to finish in the 16's. Here's how i think i will make up the time:

45 seconds : Running a smarter race tactically. Start right after the elites so i don't have to work to pass so many people. Pace myself better--i went too fast at the start in the race. Go in with more light energy food inside of me.
90 seconds lose weight. I weight 188 pounds right now. Cut to 168 pounds. That will mean less weight to carry up the stairs, so less energy burned, and also less insulation, which is key, as i always overheat in these races.
45 seconds : strengthen legs. This is especially crucial as i plan to do the whole building 2 steps at a time. I did the first 40 this way at the sears tower, then had to stop. Squats, lunges, and deep yoga poses will do this.
45 seconds : Increased cardio. Vary my workout more with LSD cardio sessions as well as flat-out sprints.

So if hit all three areas, this will knock 4:45 off my time, putting me just under 17:00.

And i will do all this while not sacrificing my overall strength ( i have benched 315 in the past ) and also expanding my yoga practice.

Here's looking forward to a great 2010!