THE WHOLE POINT OF FLEXIBLE DIETING

When I started following a flexible diet, I had no idea the impact it would have on the way I eat, the way I look at food/nutrition, and my relationship with all of it.

You could say I've always been mindful of what I ate, and as a young child, I was given the standard set of US Government education on the food pyramid: Grain in abundance, sweets and fats as sparingly as possible. I knew fruits and vegetables were good for you and red meat was considered bad.

Now, there's certainly a LOT I could say about the school system and I could give my opinion about what we are teaching to our children these days, but I'll leave that for a different time. The gist of it all, though, is that what I was taught as a young child in school is so far from what "healthy" really is.  

I kept this whole "food pyramid" mindset pretty much all through high school. I once believed that Powerbars would increase my athletic performance, so I would eat a bunch before game day, on game day, and everywhere in between. I once believed that red meat would give me a heart attack, so I gave up red meat. I once believed that protein would make me "bulky", so I gave up meat all together (it didn't last long). I once believed that rice would make me fat- and let me tell you, as an Asian, this was HEARTBREAKING. I once believed that gluten was the devil, so I caved into being true Paleo for about 2 weeks until my wallet and my stomach were screaming at me to stop. (#disclaimer: I'm NOT against Paleo). So you can see how warped my sense of nutrition was and the effect food had on my mind.  

The female mind is also a tricky one. We are led to believe that "skinny" is good, "fat" is bad, blah blah blah. We are also led to believe that eating less means we lose weight, cardio burns fat, and planks and crunches give us abs.  I remember being done with collegiate sports (I played Lacrosse for UC Davis) and thinking, "Well WTF am I supposed to do now?..." The little knowledge I had up until that point (although I thought I had a TON) led me to joining a globo-gym. I would go to the gym about 3x a week, hop on the elliptical and go until I couldn't stand it anymore, which was about 30 minutes at the most. Anything more than 30 minutes was a mental accomplishment for me. After that, I'd MAYBE do some tricep pull downs, who knows. I only knew what to do from my days of playing lacrosse and being required to do strength training, which I thought was so dumb at the time. Why strength train? It has nothing to do with my sport! ...you're starting to see how completely inept I was with all of this...

After starting CrossFit, I was in better shape than ever before (yes, even better than during my years as a collegiate athlete), and I wanted to take my nutrition to the next level. 

I had read a blog post by Nicole Capurso that first introduced me to Flexible Dieting (see my "About Me section for the link to this post!). It really intrigued me, so I decided to try it out so I calculated my macros and hit them every day for 2 weeks. I really had no expectations for this, but just knew that I wanted to see how it affected my performance in the gym. Could I really "get abs" if I changed my nutrition??

After 2 weeks, I didn't really notice a difference in the mirror. I wasn't weighing myself or anything, but what I do remember is feeling fueled at the gym. After another couple of weeks, I started getting comments from my friends and gym mates. "Tiff, you're looking lean!" And after another few weeks and a random picture of me on social media with my abs showing, people were asking me what the hell I was doing to look like that. And while I didn't mind at ALL getting these compliments, my evolution as a flexible dieter and as a mindful eater led me to realize that flexible dieting has given me so much more that just a lean body. The lean body is awesome, don't get me wrong, but what I've learned from this entire process is worth so much more than a body fat %.

FLEXIBLE DIETING HAS GIVEN ME CONTROL

Whether you want to blame my need for control on my gender or my Type A personality, everyone desires control over their food. No one wants to feel guilty after eating cake and everyone wishes they knew exactly how certain types of foods and certain volumes of food affect their body. WELCOME FLEXIBLE DIETING.

I no longer feel slave to food...EVER. The reason people feel so anxious or guilty about food is because they don't understand it. Flexible dieting has allowed me to actually learn what the hell a macro is and how each type plays such a vital role in how my body is fueled, how it recovers, and how it feels. I know WHY I feel crappy, or bloated, or whatever. I understand the consequences of not hitting my macros- sometimes it's okay, and other times, it's not, BUT I know exactly what to do to recover from a horrible weekend.

I also look at food completely differently now. I don't look at ice cream as ice cream- When I look at ice cream, I see carbs, fat, and a teeny bit of protein. When I look at a doughnut, I see carbs and fats. When I see honey, I see carbs. When I look at broccoli, I see fiber. I no longer see foods as I once did, but rather, I see them as energy sources that I allocate my macros to each day.

Flexible dieting is a long term way of eating for me that allows me to manipulate my body composition (to a certain degree). It constantly changes and it constantly evolves. When I first started flexible dieting in September 2014, I was eating 2000 calories at 35/35/30%. I ate, my body became balanced, and I got lean. My knowledge of why my body changed and how it did was minimal at best. I just knew that I had found a system.  In January 2015, I increased my calories to 2200 with the same ratios, still not understanding exactly why, but I had lost about 5 lbs, so my rationale was to increase my calories to maintain my weight. In May 2015, I decided to drop to the 58kg (~127 lbs) weight class for Olympic weightlifting, so again, I changed my caloric intake to start dropping weight. I achieved 58 kgs on a 1650 calorie diet (~ 7 lbs) in about 1 month. Now (June 2015), I am on a reverse diet (slowly increasing calories with minimal weight gain... specifics to come in a later post) eating 1923 calories while still sitting at 58 kgs/127 lbs and ~13% body fat... I can't tell you how sold I am on the science behind food and our bodies.

Flexible dieting is an amazing and SIMPLE way to track what you eat, understand how  your body reacts, and allows you to make adjustments- THERE'S NOTHING MORE CONCRETE THAN THAT! Sure, you can "eat clean" and not measure anything, which works for many people, but for me, knowing exactly what goes into my body has made me understand SO much. I still have a lot to learn, but I'd say the basics have gotten me pretty far.

So when you really sit down to think about what the whole point of flexible dieting is, it's not necessarily to gain or lose weight. For me, anyway, the point of flexible dieting is expanding your knowledge to be able to have control over what was previously NOT. It's achieving a psychological sense of well-being and fueling your body right.

...and eating ice cream while keeping my abs :)

On left: January 2015 at WODapalooza. On right: This morning (June 2015) after a full breakfast. Maintaining at 127 lbs on a reverse diet. Flexible dieting and knowledge... gotta love it.