90 Days...

90 days until Marine Corps Marathon.  90 days to do everything I can to hit that sub-4 mark.  90 days to get down and dirty...by going clean.  Today I cleaned out my cabinets and my freezer in order to clean up my diet.

More or less, I'll be following Matt Fitzgerald's plan, as described in "The New Rules of Marathon & Half-Marathon Nutrition," which focuses on food quality using a hierarchical list of categories:

- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Nuts & seeds
- Fish and lean meats
- Whole grains
- Dairy products
- Refined grains
- Fatty meats
- Sweets
- Fried foods

Basically, the idea is that for any given level, you should eat more of the foods above it.  So for every fried food, you should eat 10 servings of veggies, 9 of fruits, and so on.  

The fish/lean meat category was flip-flopped with nuts/seeds in his earlier book, "Racing Weight," and he says that if you're running as much as I am, it's okay to bump whole grains up above either of those.  So I don't feel the need to be strict about the particular order of that little trio, as long I get more fruits/veggies and less of everything below. 

There are a few little exceptions here and there.  Thankfully, tiny amounts of dark chocolate don't count as sweets because they give you anti-oxidants!  And per Fitzgerald, the rules are suspended for workout nutrition. 

I'm also adding a few of my own rules (which I'm posting because if I put them on the internet, I have to stick to them, right?):

- No deep fried foods
- No cokes
- No kid foods!!!

Though this may not sound like much to some, those who know me well know what a challenge this will be for a girl who has historically eaten like a 5-year-old: no fruits or veggies and plenty of chicken nuggets, tater tots, and spaghetti-Os.  Since January, I've made a concerted effort to eat healthier, try new foods, cook more, and eat fewer "kid foods."  But eating like a grown up for 90 days will be taking it to a whole new level for me.  Here's hoping it takes my running to a whole new level, too!