Rainy Run and "Grown Up" Cooking

This morning was my long-run, 6 miles on the schedule again! I checked the weather before I left and it said it wasn't supposed to rain until 2 or 3pm. Much to my surprise, it was sprinkling at 7:15am! I figured, oh it must be one cloud, I'll just run and I'm sure it will stop. 

It didn't. 

By the end of my 6 miles I was wet and frozen - so I just kept running home! I slowed down to a jog but I didn't want to walk much because I was cold and wet and just wanted to get home! 

The run was actually very interesting though, because I didn't realize that there was a run happening on my usual path this morning. It was the Newton Ready to Run 20-miler, which is a run used to help marathon trainers get in that long run! I ran against the crowd (it was pretty thinned out) for the first 3.2 miles and then turned around and joined them! The bad part is that I would speed up to pass big pacing groups, so I kinda out did myself at the beginning and my legs were sore and exhausted for the last two. I pushed through though and finished the 6.36 miles in 56:56! 

Here's my mile by mile breakdown (and YES I finally figured out how to do this):

mile 1 - 9:07

mile 2 - 8:46

mile 3 - 8:48

mile 4 - 8:48

mile 5 - 9:05 <-- starting to feel it here

mile 6 - 9:03

last 0.36 miles - 9:13

So happy to be done and heading home! 

Not so pumped about my frozen hands...

When I got back I stretched, rolled and hit the shower! Then it was smoothie time! I figured I'd want some oatmeal since I was so cold, but I'd warmed up a bit by breakfast time and for some reason I feel like my workout is never complete without a smoothie! Today I made a peach banana smoothie. In the mix: 2 big handfuls of spinach, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 frozen banana, 1 frozen peach (from the farmers market!), 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1/4 tsp coconut extract and 1 packet truvia!

Mix-ins included the rest of my Multi-Grain Joe's O's, some freeze dried bananas from TJ's, and another great Trader Joe's find: a couple Cat Cookies! My best friend is obsessed with these cookies, so when I saw the ginger ones (she prefers chocolate) I had to get some!

Later on in the day, I decided to go ahead and make something I've been wanting to try and that will be part of my lunches this week: Butternut Squash Fries! I got the recipe from Chelsey on Clean Eating Chelsey. A ton of her recipes look great and I've been dying to try them out! 

First I had to peel the outside of the squash - I thought it looked so pretty with the green lines!

Then I sliced it in half (again - so pretty!) and then into fourths. I scooped out the insides and then cut them up into "fry" sized pieces. This was much more difficult than I anticipated - my arm was working hard to chop through the squash! 

I put them in a baggie with the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic powder and salt. Then I tossed around the bag to let it all mix together... 

CHAOS ENSUED. My bag broke open (okay, I was getting a little crazy) so I had to clean that up. But it was all good. I let it marinade for 20 minutes, and then cooked them on a piece of tin foil on my "grill", which is a mini grill that you plug in. They turned out delicious! Can't wait to eat them this week! 

I also tried a little something new for dinner! I made a salmon quesidilla and some stir-fried veggies! I had some leftover salmon from my lunch last week so I thought I'd throw it into a quesidilla! I used some chopped onions and cheese that I had left as well and put them on the new Ezekial tortillas I decided to try from Whole Foods. I microwaved this for 2 min.

As a side, I was going to just steam my chopped onion, squash and broccoli slaw, but I decided that I would get a little more "grown up" and cook them on the stove top! I added some garlic powder, salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and tossed them in a pan. The dinner was really good! I scarfed it right down! 

Have you tried out any new recipes recently? Or started to try and cook more "grown up" for those of you fellow recent college grads? Haha or older...

Diet Books for Children?!? What's Next??

Before I get to this "children's book" I came across, I want to tell you about all the cooking that happened yesterday! After my workout at the gym I came home for a peach banana smoothie! Gotta use up those farmers market peaches!

Then, I needed to make my lunches and dinners for the week! For lunch I made a Wheatberry Navy Salad!

Wheatberry Navy Salad
1 cup wheatberries
3/4 cup dry navy beans
1/2 chopped onion
1 cup chopped green beans
1 chopped bell pepper

I cooked the wheatberries and the navy beans first - both took forever! Most people suggest soaking both overnight, but I wanted to finish it today! So I used the faster methods. For the wheatberries, I boiled the berries just as you would for rice, until the water had evaporated. Apparently if you soak them overnight first, they have a different texture?

For the navy beans, I boiled them for 2 min, then took them off the heat and let them sit for 2 hours. Then, I boiled them again and then brought the heat down to a simmer for a little over an hour. The instructions I found said 1 - 1.5 hours.

Once that was all done, I steamed the green beans (also from the farmers market!) and then added all the chopped veggies together. I stirred in the wheatberries and the navy beans, and voila! Perfect lunch!

For a dressing, I'm going to mix a bit of olive oil, basalmic vinegar and lemon juice. But I'll add that before packing up my lunch each day. 

For dinner last night and for Tuesday and Thursday nights (when I'm actually back in time for dinner!), I decided to make a recipe that I saw on Peanut Butter Fingers by Julie: Semi Homemade Marinara Meat Sauce! 

I started off by browning some ground turkey, and then I added in 1 chopped squash (farmers market!) and 1/2 chopped onion. 

Then I poured one can of diced tomatoes on top. Julie used marinara sauce, but I wanted to see how this worked out! I also added some oregano and garlic powder. Delicious!

Just as Julie did, I served my sauce over spaghetti squash (ALSO farmers market!!!). It was delicious! 

About a week ago, I was in my gym and on the news I saw a preview for a later segment about a diet book for young girls. It definitely peaked my interest and I was lucky enough to come across an article about the book on the Today Show’s website.

The book is called “Maggie Goes on a Diet.” Honestly, my first reaction was to be appalled! Don't get me wrong, I am 100% for beating childhood obesity and teaching children healthy life habits, but young girls already get enough negative messages in society today – do they really need a book to tell them about it too?

“Maggie Goes on a Diet” is a rhyming picture book about an obese and unhappy 14 year old girl named Maggie, and has yet to be published. The book shows how she starts out bullied and obese and how through exercise and hard work, she becomes a confident and popular soccer star, and of course “average sized.” Some of the images in the book include a picture of herself holding up a dress and seeing herself in the mirror as a much smaller person. Another shows her standing in the fridge and binging on foods.

You might be thinking – well 14 seems old enough to understand that being obese is unhealthy. However, the author claims the book is recommended for girls ages 4 to 8… FOUR TO EIGHT?!?! The author, who struggled with weight as a child, claims that the main message is that Maggie went on a diet so she could become a better soccer player, not for looks. Right…

I realize the author may be trying to teach the benefits of healthy eating and exercise to children at a young age, however, this book is not the way to go about it. Although childhood obesity is a huge issue in our country, I think this book sends the wrong message to young girls about body image. They should focus on exercise and healthy eating as a great attribute to any person’s life – not just for the purpose of losing weight.

The book shows that once Maggie loses the weight, her life changes: she gains friends, the attention of guys, gets higher grades and is invited to her first sleepover. The book is teaching children that by being slim you are going to be happier. This is the wrong message – being skinny doesn’t make you happier or make your life magically change! Children need to understand that eating healthy and exercising is a part of a healthy life and is not merely for losing weight and becoming “popular.”

What are your thoughts on this book? Do you think it’s helpful or hurtful? 

Weekly Workouts and Resting

This morning I had a workout with my trainer, who's leaving my gym on Wednesday! So I scheduled one more workout with him for Wednesday. I'll be sad to see him go, and I'll be honest, nervous about working with someone else for the rest of the sessions that I have! But change is good... I guess. Haha.

When I got back I made myself a Peach Banana smoothie and packed up for school.

In the mix: 1 frozen peach (from the farmers market!), 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup almond milk, somewhere between 1.5 and 2 cups spinach (got a little crazy..), 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, and a heaping tsp of flax! I also added a packet of Truvia and a splash of vanilla to add to the flavor, although I'm not sure I could taste the vanilla... too much else happening.

Speaking of scheduling workouts, on Carrots N Cake this morning, Tina talked about how she schedules her workouts every Sunday for the week, and this is something that I do as well! I love reading Tina's blog because she has such great advice about running and strength training workouts to go along with it, as well as great recipes! Her book actually helped me out a lot this summer and got me off of calorie counting! You should definitely check her out!

(source)

This week, here's a look at my workouts: 

Day	Workout
Sunday	5 mile run + 75 min hot yoga class
Monday	Workout with trainer
Tuesday	3 mile run + hot yoga class
Wednesday	Last workout with trainer L
Thursday	2 or 3 mile run + hot yoga class
Friday	Power sculpt yoga class
Saturday	Strength training workout at gym

You'll notice I don't have a rest day planned in, that's because I took a rest day on Saturday instead of Monday this week because I had to work in some time with my trainer. I might end up just taking off Thursday, but sometimes I don't schedule the rest day because my body just says NO! one day! (I'm already thinking Thursday is going to be rest day... maybe just 2 miles and no yoga). 

I typically decide my workouts on the weekend, and then put them into my Google Calendar. I have everything in there! All my classes, social events, meetings, and workouts! I even have different colors for different things, and since it syncs with my phone, it makes it so much easier to keep up with everything!

The Importance of Rest Days

My first 10K 1 year ago!

Talking about how I need to schedule a rest day into my workout-week got me thinking about why it’s so important to have rest days. I found an article on sportsmedicine.about.com that discusses just this issue. Back when I was trying to lose weight last year, I’ll admit I would go 2-3 weeks without taking a rest day. I had the mentality that taking a day off was weakness and it made me feel guilty. Now I’ve learned that rest days are essential to help our bodies recover and perform well.

The article discusses how recovery allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues and without this time to repair, the body will continue to break down, which results in over-training.

The article also mentions that there are two types of recover: short term recovery and long term recovery. Short term recovery, or active recovery, is the time immediately after intense exercise. An important part of short-term recovery is eating the right meals after exercise to replenish energy stores and fluids lost, as well as optimizing protein synthesis (proteins are used in our body to build muscle, among many other things). Long-term recovery are those built into what the article calls a “seasonal training program”, which includes recovery days and recovery weeks that are built into a training schedule.

5K with my dad! 

One of the most important parts of rest days are that they help you avoid over-training, which is definitely an issue I dealt with. I was doing so much interval running on the treadmill last spring that I pulled my IT band. Even after my injury I kept trying to make up for not being able to run by over-using the elliptical machines. I thought I wasn’t burning as many calories as I was running, so I had to work longer and harder! This just made my injury worse!

And personally, I think rest days are good for your mental health too! Sometimes we can get so set on achieving our goals that we forget to find balance in our lives, and eventually the exercise we are doing is no longer fun! When I couldn’t run anymore, I realized that I missed it not because of the calorie-burning, but because it was a great stress-reliever! I enjoy running and am so glad to be able to throw on some tennis shoes and go run when I feel the need to! I really learned a lesson from my injury and I’m being cautious to not over-do running! Slow and steady and I’ll be running a half-marathon before I know it!

How do you feel about rest days? How many do you typically take during one week?