Adios, high-fiber diet. It's been real...aggravating

The bowl of Raisin Bran I had for breakfast today officially marked the end of my attempts at a high-fiber diet.

The family-sized box of bran goodness is finally empty. And not a moment too soon if you ask me.

Fiber may be healthy, but in the context of my copious running habits, it's really just been a bathroom-inducing annoyance. I've lost track of the number of times I've had to stop running on a treadmill at the Y because my "bodily needs" conspired to sabotage my workout ambition.

In an effort to aid my weight loss goals for marathon training, I adopted a high-fiber diet about four months ago. According to Runners World and the Mayo Clinic Web site, fiber requires more chewing time and generally helps make your meal feel larger, thus aiding in curbing your appetite. There are numerous other benefits, like improving blood sugar levels, lowering your cholesterol and normalizing your bowel movements. But in reality, all I really cared about was the weight loss aspect of it.

I resorted to a variety of measures to incorporate more fiber into my diet. I ate Fiber One bars every morning. I bought Raisin Bran for breakfast cereal and snack food. I mixed old-fashioned oatmeal into pancake batter. I even went so far as to buy the high-fiber banana bread mix at Cub Food (I know, yuck).

Well, after four months of working fiber into my diet, here are the results:

• I've lost roughly 10 pounds in that time span. Though that could also be attributed to the 30 miles a week I've been running and the other healthy foods I've been eating. My appetite did not feel any more or less curbed as a result of the fiber. In reality, if a person wants to eat less or eat healthier, they really just have to make a conscientious effort to do so.
• My overall health (i.e. cholesterol, blood pressure) is good, but it was already good before I started up on a fiber diet. Again, I really only cared about weight loss.
• My bathroom habits are ... normal, I guess. But that wasn't really an issue beforehand. All the high fiber has really done in this regard is the aforementioned annoyance of having to go to the bathroom while running.
  

Realistically, the fiber has probably helped me somewhat in my overall health and energy level. But considering the rest of my diet (reasonably healthy, minus a few doughnut indulgences at work from time to time) and exercise habits (on the par with an average marathon runner), it hardly seems necessary to keep consuming fiber diligently. Weight loss will happen as long as I stick to regular workout routine and watch what I eat.

One last thought on fiber: The last bowl of Raisin Bran may have signaled the end of the fiber era in my diet, but my run outside today only hammered home the point even further.

I started running at about 4:00 in the afternoon, hoping to get about 10 miles in before it started getting dark. The weather was pleasant, so I decided a t-shirt and shorts would suffice so long as I kept running the whole time.

The first six miles breezed by. I was keeping a good pace, checked out the marathon course around Sibley Park and was pumping along to a solid classic rock mix on my iPod.

But after the six-mile mark, everything went downhill in a hurry. My iPod died at that point (in the middle of "Freebird," no less) and one mile later, Mr. Fiber decided to rear his ugly head in my digestive system.

I had to go the bathroom, badly. Unfortunately, I still had three miles to go to get back to my apartment and I couldn't run more than 300 yards at a time without having to stop and walk because my bowels were essentially at a boiling point. The bouncing and bounding aspects of running do little to calm a digestive system; any runner can attest to that.

I basically spent the last three miles rotating between running and walking in short spurts while wondering how many bathrooms (home-installed or grouping of trees) I was passing along the way. I resisted the urge to make my own bathroom in a tree line off the trail because: a.) I didn't want to have to explain myself to anyone who might pass by, and b.) There wasn't anything to wipe with, unless tree bark and snow count.

So picture, if you will, a man in running shorts and a sweaty t-shirt in 38-degree weather trying to get home before losing control of his digestive system all together. He's clenching his teeth, cursing his iPod, and probably walking/jogging as if he's doing so on egg shells. That was me around 5:30 in the evening today.

So congratulations, high-fiber diet. You managed to get one last laugh before disappearing from my eating habits.

A little indulgence never hurt anyone

I'm definitely what you would call a breakfast person.

Starting the day off with a good meal is about as regular for me as showering and brushing my teeth. My cupboards are perpetually stocked with pancake mix and my fridge is never lacking in the provisions to make a good omelet.

The benefits of a good breakfast are endless. It jump starts your metabolism, gives you energy for the day and has been proven as a workable method of weight control. Growing up, my mom was always adamant about making sure my brothers and I had a big bowl of cereal before heading to school and woke us up early just to make sure. Mom was right: breakfast IS the most important meal of the day.

I usually try to make breakfast my largest meal of the day, but recently, my weight loss goals for Grandma's Marathon next summer have gotten in the way that. I started committing the unforgivable sin of looking at the calorie content on the sides of boxes. I had no idea the cholesterol in a good omelet was so high, nor did I know a frisbee-sized pancake had so many carbs. For me, finding out the nutritional value -- or lack thereof -- of pancakes was a lot like finding out there's no real Santa Claus: you might have felt more grown up for knowing it, but you didn't really WANT to know it.

Because of this discovery, my breakfast habits have been considerably scaled back: something along the lines of a small bowl of Raisin Bran, a toasted bagel, a banana or a granola bar. Heck, I even tried make an egg-whites-only omelet last week, which resulted in a gag reflex and a quick disposal of its contents into my garbage can. Good cereals like Peanut Butter Crunch have been eradicated from my grocery purchases and my trusty box of pancake mix is currently collecting dust in my cupboard.

Well, at least it WAS collecting dust.

I say "was" because yesterday morning, after a trying day and little sleep the night before, I decided I needed more than a wimpy granola bar to start my day off right. I broke out the skillet, threw dietary inhibitions to the wayside and indulged in a breakfast that can only be described as amazing: chocolate chip pancakes with a side of sausage made from bear meat. I even used real maple syrup for good measure and washed it all down with a tall glass of orange juice.

Was this a healthy breakfast? Not if you're trying to lose 20 pounds. But was it an enjoyable breakfast that made the whole day more bearable for me? Very much so. My day wasn't anything significantly different from the previous day, mostly work and a workout at the Y, but my outlook on the day improved immensely thanks to that momentary indulgence

And that's where the line gets drawn when it comes to dieting, at least it does for me. It's good to have a goal and the discipline needed to achieve that goal, but if you can't give yourself a break once in awhile, life can start to feel pretty overwhelming.

Blog updates: I've added a few things to the blog rail on the right. Rather than posting updates on Eric and Christie Nelson's bike trip, both their blog and their GPS location can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate link. I also added a Grandma's Marathon training log, which will chronicle which week of training I'm in and how many miles I've ran so far.