Two stomachs are better than one

What's harder than maintaining a workout routine?  Regularly eating healthy!  My eating has slowly fallen off (as is typical with marathon training), and I've recently found myself craving sweet treats, potato chips, and a gazillion other things that do not keep my body healthy.

You are what you eat and eating good makes me feel great.  Eating junk makes me feel terrible (physically).  This is usually enough to keep me eating a mostly balanced diet.  However, every now and then I eat junk, and then eat more, and then more, until I become so used to feeling crappy that I forget what "great" feels like.  I start craving the junk.  When this happens I make an effort to hit the restart button.  Eat clean until eating bad feels bad again.

I possess the self discipline to make a choice to eat well (though sometimes encouraged by upcoming beach vacations lol), but those first few days are always tough.  When I start craving my junk on day 1, it's easy to give into temptation with the decision to "start tomorrow."  And its easy to put "tomorrow" off for weeks.  But this week I've found a secret weapon: an eating buddy!

I decided I would start my clean eating this Monday (did you know you are more likely to stick to a routine if you start on a Monday?) after a very long week and a weekend that was too short.  I picked up some groceries on Sunday and set myself up for a good day.  Then I realized how beneficial it would be to have a friend eat clean with me.  I suggested this to one of my buddies, who surprisingly was enthusiastic and agreed to do it with me.  Three days in, and we have both been successful in sticking to it.  Significant, because the first three days are always hardest for me.  The reset button has been pushed.

Most people understand the benefits of a work out buddy, but I'm discovering the benefits of an eating buddy:

1. you have someone to hold you accountable; you have to start today because you and your buddy said you'd start today
2. you automatically have someone to exchange recipes with
3. you have a friend to keep you motivated; each partner can use the other's momentum
4. you can do it without being in the same place; with technology it's easy to share what you're trying and what's working for you
5. you have someone to share your successes (and temptations) with

Never say diet diet alone. :o)