Friday, March 23, 2012

Spring Food Plan

Ahhh, it's spring! It's very spring, like almost summer. Like it's nice to see that the screenplay I wrote where the girl is freaking out about global warming is still au courant. Anyway time to change my menu, there was a moment where I thought I would just keep on eating the same old winter menu because what's going to be easier to cook than slow chicken. But I was thinking that because I was depressed! Even though I was depressed, I knew that eating the same old winter menu was going to make me even more depressed. I have this whole system, of course I do, where I try to make life more manageable by making certain tasks, like cooking, as rote as possible. Which means that I eat basically the same five recipes for thirteen weeks, which isn't as terrible as it sounds because there are a lot of variations. And at the end of the thirteen weeks, I always think I'll just keep going like this. Which is just inertia talking, and which is always a recipe for disaster. Because a couple weeks later, I'll start to ideate that life has lost its flavor. Which hello, it has, literally, which I always use correctly, but it'll take me another week to figure out, yes, literally, it must be the foodz. Like it's not weltschemrz, and thank god for that. Because food you can do something about, you can change your menu every thirteen weeks to remind yourself that you're alive. I mean, your mileage may vary.

Basic guideline for eating around workouts:

BEFORE
complex carbs &
light protein

IMMEDIATELY BEFORE
simple carbs
 
WORKOUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER
simple carbs &
light protein
AFTER
complex carbs &
heavy protein
BETWEEN
complex carbs &
heavy protein

Immediately before/after means within 45 minutes, before/after means within 1-3 hours, and between means more than 3 hours before or after workouts.

In fact I am working toward a year-round menu and once it's perfected, I will presumably eat those twenty recipes for the ...rest of my life. Let's see how that goes.

Spring is going to be:

  • Dinner - complex carbs with light protein - pasta with sauteed vegetables
  • Workout Drink - simple carbs - CocoOJ2O
  • Post-Workout Snack - complex carbs with light protein - raisin bran with sliced almonds
  • Breakfast - complex carbs and heavy protein - greek yogurt with baked fruit
  • Lunch - complex carbs and heavy protein - baked chicken with curried veg stew
  • Snack - complex carbs and heavy protein - peanut butter apple

I was eating some really good things at the end of winter, though. And you never know with the weather, it might drop forty degrees and I'll be too cold to eat yogurt or cold cereal. So I'll be throwing in the last of my winter recipes for the next few weeks.