In the past month and change, I’ve encountered quite a few “well-known” pieces of advice when it comes to improving health through dietary changes. When wanting to lose weight, increasing protein and fiber and reducing calories is vital (fat and/or carbs being “the enemy” is negotiable). When training as a runner, you have to up the carbs or else you’ll hit “the wall” and not succeed at your racing goals, and reduce the fiber & protein at certain points.

Well, what if you’re trying to do several goals at once? Lose weight AND be a distance runner while becoming vegetarian? Can we do it all? The more I watch and read, the more I understand why the line “you can’t outrun a bad diet” exists.

The trouble is, which is the best to focus on in order to help my goals more effectively?

Determining my dietary needs has been one of the roughest parts of this transition to a more active and healthier life. When my Cronometer app started showing “macros” as a way to track my progress in my food intake, I had to look closer. Deep down, many of us are aware it’s not just how many calories go in, but what KIND of calories that determines how much extra weight we carry on our bones, and how hard we have to work.

“Macros” refers to fats, carbs, and protein as the big measurement groups for health. The difficulty seems to be navigating the difference between protein and carbs. There is no absolute ratio to work with, but a range. The only thing that seems to have agreement is that fat should never be the biggest percentage of the pie.

After checking multiple sites and resources, I’ve found a ratio to aim for as my goal, which leans more towards what a distance running food plan may have. The reason I chose this is my weight loss and energy boost will come from continuous activity as it is, as long as I am consistent. But I won’t have that energy to continue running and build my endurance if I don’t have the proper fuel.

Two legs of the triangle are working again: nutrition and exercise. Sleep is following easier each night as I wear myself out through glorious activity during the day (finally).

So, I decided to get closer to a 50-30-20 ratio, which initially I balked at, but began to look at my current reality.

• 50% Carbohydrates
• 30% Fats
• 20% Proteins

The reason for this at the moment is simple: fats just seem to come up in my diet a bit easier than protein right now. As I become full vegetarian in the next month or so, I’m sure the protein aspect will be easier to achieve and go higher, it’s just been a rough month for it so far. When fats were at 20 or 25%, my daily grams would end up in the red, even when I was avoiding most stereotypically unhealthy foods. And if I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the fat would boost WAY up.

This said, I’m not married to this system; it’s just a more manageable and achievable goal for my nutritional focus right now. I’m trying to get a feel for what my body wants and needs, if any cravings pop up and demand attention, or if I’m lethargic and should be energetic, etc.

I’m glad I looked into this the past couple of days while reading up on what I should or can do as I make the change to vegetarianism. My workouts are getting more complex starting next week and I’ll need a good game plan for my meals. That includes work, which other than a basic salad or fried veggies really has no vegetarian options, but I could maybe augment some recipes so I don’t just have to eat meatless salads all the time (while bringing my own dairy-free dressings for the hell of it).

So yeah, that’s the basic plan for the foreseeable future. I updated this ratio in my Cronometer app and planned out my meals for the day. So far, the numbers look far more manageable and less likely for me to be pushed into the red zone.

My issue is I just don’t get hungry like I used to, so I have to plan out and try to fit in the most nutrients possible per meal or snack time.

At least adding that smoothie I’ll have as dinner (or a late snack) pushed my protein way up for tonight. And I have sardines in olive oil as a backup in case I’m still hungry to avoid sweets. The sheer amount of sardines I have in the cabinet tells me I won’t be able to become full vegetarian til August at the earliest (hee hee).