WIAW #18 From Running to Lifting, Food Matters

Running created the foundation for my passion of cooking and eating all things healthy. After completing my first marathon with no regard to proper fueling, training, and recovery, I bought a book by Runner’s World called Performance Nutrition for Runners: How to Fuel Your Body for Stronger Workouts, Faster Recovery, and Your Best Race Times Ever. This book opened the door to the world of food and the way it affects our mind and body.

Each successive year I ran the same marathon with both better recovery and faster times. I eventually qualified for the Boston Marathon (twice) and ran it in 2009. The fact that I could see and feel my body change once I began preparing my own wholesome meals has turned me into the obsessive foodie I am today. Ask my Mom, Kelley, and others close to me; they’ll readily validate this judgment. 

Kelley and Me in Boston for the marathon

Even healthier cereals like Rice Chex or Heritage Bites have worked their way out of our pantry. I miss it every now and then, but Ezekiel 4:9 cereal or Arrowhead Mills Puffed Millet, Kamut, or Corn suit me just fine. And there’s always the numerous ways to make delicious overnight oats with pumpkin, whey protein, peanut butter/flour, and mashed banana to name a few.

After “running” a strict training program with little time off year after year, I became burned out on the monotony of running. Plus, I could tell my strength had diminished since I would hardly eat enough to support my 50 to 70 miles per week. To gain strength, you need resistance training and to eat more than you burn to assist muscle growth. This is referred to as "bulking" in the world of strength training.

Kelley and me after the San Antonio RnR Marathon. This was my PR at 2:53:17

I’m not good at “bulking” since it requires over 3k calories to support growth, but I’m trying my best. I know I could use it, or at least try, but since I was a fat kid up until high school, I have a fear of instantly ballooning up again. I'm getting better at eating more, but I will never try drinking a gallon of whole milk a day like the GOMAD diet used by many newbie lifters use to gain strength (as well as fat) fast. Craziness!


My current routine consists of either a 4 day upper/lower split or 3 day full body compound barbell movements. I focus on the squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, and bent row. I make sure to do sprints, short runs, biking, and walking each week. I have a fear of losing the endurance I built up from running, so I feel I must do some form of cardio. I also keep active by mowing the lawn with a reel mower twice a week, doing jumping jacks first thing in the morning, always taking the stairs, and even heavy punching bag work.

I enjoy my increase in strength, and know I still have a ways to go. Keeping active is the main thing, and doing something you enjoy keeps you coming back for more. Please make sure you value to importance of food quality for recovery and fuel and choose something you like doing; you’re body will thank you!

Was this post long enough for you?  How about we have a look at my eats. I’m going to just post the pics in chronological order to keep it shorter. Let me know if you like this or what you want to know more about. As always, I’d like to send a big thanks to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting this ever-growing foodie event!


Happy WIAW and 4th of July!!






Breakfast

Homemade PB Protein Bread with homemade cherry chia protein jam....more than one slice was had.

No-cook peanut butter protein bars with puffed millet and corn.

Lunch

Tuna stuffed cremini mushrooms with mustard and cayenne make an awesome snack or salad topper!

Remake of my non-McGriddle I posted about the other day. Love the little honey with pepper!

Dinner

Cold Quinoa salad with beets and greens.

Homemade 3-pepper salsa. I didn't eat this whole thing, but it was the dressing on my big salad with steamed veggies and chicken. Forgot to take a picture...sorry.

Healthy Dessert that Doubles as 2nd Dinner

Overnight "Proats" with frozen blueberries, PB Crave CoCo Bananas, and CHO Greek yogurt

Green Protein Smoothie with spinach, pumpkin, and pineapple. Looks....green...but tastes great!!

Microwave Overnight Oat PB Muffin. The recipe (it's easy) is coming up soon!

Exercise Cooking and a Change in Routine

Care for a sugar-free chocolate microwave cake in a cup?  Recipe inspired by Katie on her blog at ChocolateCoveredKatie.

This is going to be a good week, I can feel it! Is that too much too soon for Monday? I agree, but “mind over matter”….right? Kelley and I are excited this week because we ordered a new pull-up / chin-up station with an area for a heavy punching bag. And yes, we ordered a heavy punching bag too and can’t wait to set it up and start knocking it around. Kelley even got some new pink boxing gloves, and she sure looks something fierce with those things on; can you sense my sarcasm?

We ordered new equipment to help change up the monotony of running both of us have been feeling for a while now. After training for marathons and making running the only form of exercise, it (surprise) became more of a burden than something enjoyable. To be consistent, your exercise routine must be somewhat enjoyable. So, I’m putting strength training in focus and have high hopes that the punching bag will keep things interesting. Maybe it will make for a good bonding time with Kelley; nothing like punching a bag together with your spouse!

On the topic of exercise, I recently bought a pair of New Balance Minimus Trail 20’s and wore these while cooking this past Sunday. I own a few barefoot / minimalist shoes, including the previous version of the Minimus 20’s, and love them for their functionality when lifting weights, running, or general everyday use. Since the weather was so wonderful, I felt it was a shame my marathon cooking for the week ahead takes me all day. But wearing my New Balance shoes inspired me, and I found a way to cook and get some fresh air……intervals!

I like this color, but there are other, less extreme choices.  These were the only ones on sale....

“Exercise Cooking” is pretty basic; anytime I put something in the oven, microwave, or was waiting for something on the stove, I would charge out and run hard around our ~.5 mile block. I was sucking in the fresh air by the time I completed a lap, and no time was sacrificed in the kitchen….Awesome! It felt good to get my heart rate going in between cooking, and the short, intense running isn’t as monotonous as long distance. If that seems odd to you, you should have seen me when I wore a 20 pound weight vest the whole 8 hours I would cook in the kitchen. Thanks, Kelley, for still loving me!

A friend at work had proposed that if I made an extra dish of each meal I cook for Kelley and me, he’d reimburse me to make him lunch for work. I was excited to think about cooking for someone else who eats out a lot to show how good healthy, home-cooked food can be. Most people at work go out to eat or don’t know much in the ways of nutrition, and they have the mindset that all healthy food is nasty food. This could be my chance to prove otherwise, but then I worried that it may not be good to him and everything would backfire; stupid worrying mind.

This week, I just put a few samples in small containers for him to try; just make sure he’d like a full meal version. I decided I couldn’t make an extra meal for each day since it takes me long enough already, but maybe just one or two (if he likes my samples) meals will be a good start. Today’s sample is a quinoa pilaf with green and yellow split peas, and mixed frozen veggies. Quinoa has become a staple in our home since it’s quick to make and very good for you; I usually have a lot of this left over anyway.

I never made popped quinoa as I mentioned on Friday’s post, but I still made several treats using NuNaturals stevia (review and giveaway contest to come soon) with peanut flour, protein powder, whole grain flour, etc. Check back tomorrow to see one or two of the treats I made.

Now excuse me while I anxiously await the arrival of our new fitness equipment. Maybe I can start punching, kicking, and doing pull-ups in between cooking next weekend.

To all of you cooks, do you try to fit in exercise (a.k.a “Exercise Cooking”) while stuck in the kitchen? If you’re not quite the cook, what about when you are at work or just at home with nothing to do? The benefits of exercise are plenty, so get up, get out, and just MOVE! 

Tuesday Thoughts

Back to work today…..boo. It’s never fun getting back into the groove of things after having time off from the holidays, but I am always glad to be employed.
The Texas “winter” has been very mild and hardly stays cold for more than 2 days; this is really confusing and makes me wonder when/if the cold will hit. I’m just fine with skipping winter and moving along to Spring, but it will probably get crappy around the same time we have the Cowtown Half Marathon at the end of February.

Speaking of the half marathon, my running has become infrequent as I am trying to focus more on gaining some strength. So, I’ll just have to depend on the few runs (one 45+ min along with some short, high intensity runs) and the base I have from running for several years now. No worries, I have no goal for this race, just finish the thing. For gaining strength, the common procedure is to consume more calories than you expend in order to provide for growing muscles. This is not easy for me as I pay attention to every food I eat, and don’t choose a lot of high calorie packaged foods that would make it easy. It is a lot of prep work, but hopefully I will report back with some gains in the near future.

My current workout routine is a 4 day Upper/Lower body split where I do upper body on Monday and Thursday, and lower body on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday is a rest day, but this is when I usually work in a longer run. The weekends are in the air to do nothing or something that won’t hamper workouts for the following week. Now that I have a standing desk at work, lower body days can be tough, but after warming up I’m just fine.

I have been incorporating a lot of Greek yogurt and mixed nuts to help raise the calorie intake using wholesome foods, but feel I am not using enough still. I’ll keep working on this and update when I feel it is necessary.

Not much to contribute on the food front today, but I wanted to mention how funny/annoying it is to see the new year weight loss commercials mixed with fast food chains heavily promoting their “Big Boy Burgers” (see below for a funny pic I felt like sharing)  at the same time. These industries are a big business and can only benefit from consumer confusion. So, try not to take information from these self-promoting businesses too seriously; even if they say it’s good for you…it’s only good for their bottom line. Anyway, pills or extreme diets are and always will be a short term solution; you have to educate yourself on a healthy lifestyle that you can enjoy to make something last.

Go read a few articles from reputable sources and find wholesome foods you can enjoy and work into your diet along with an exercise plan you can keep. Remember, just walking for 30 minutes is more than nothing; the main goal is to keep your heart elevated and working for 30+ minutes almost every day.

A healthy lifestyle is not that hard, and pays huge dividends in the years to come. Quality family time and less doctor visits come to mind.

What (if anything) are you doing or plan on doing for a healthy lifestyle?

Back to Posting in the New Year....

So, it's been a while since I've posted anything and I'm hoping to get back into it.  One problem I had before was trying too hard to find something to post about and then searching for / taking related pictures.

For now, I will make my posts more on just what is on my mind.  Topics will mainly be food related, but I might mention something on the work out I did, what happened at work or home that day, car related, just pictures, or maybe another article I read and feel like sharing / discussing.

Maybe I'll even rant about something with all of the crazy things happening out there!!

Since my last post in October, when we were in our temporary < 800 sq/ft apartment, we've been pretty busy...

Kelley and I both trained for and ran the Rock n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon the beginning of December.  The race was less then stellar with overcrowding, lack of support (for the slower runners...sorry, Kelley), and generally just poor organization.  And what's up with the food provided at the end of marathons?  Big companies bring their "healthy" energy foods to promote (i.e. Snickers) but none of really seems that great.  If it doesn't have a lot of "carbs", then it is probably full or artificial sweeteners to make sure it still tastes sweet and the general population will want more and more.  Whatever, it shouldn't bother me, but in my Foodie head, it's hard to comprehend.

After getting back from the marathon, we almost immediately closed on our new home that was built and moved in the weekend after the race.  We are still working on getting things unpacked and Kelley is diligently finding curtains, drapes, rugs, etc.....this will probably last a while.  I sold my motorcycle, bought a '98 BMW 540i, then traded it in for a 2006 Subaru Legacy GT a month later.  I think I just belong in a Subaru....I feel most comfortable with these cars.

Also, I had an idea I submitted at work to offer standing desks several months ago, but it was denied and waved off.  So, I made a request to another department and was able to get a standing desk for my work space.  I am happy, and it wasn't anything hard to change, so success!!  Oh yeah, Kelley got Abby back since we are now moved in....yay.

It's great being in our new home; cooking was less than inspiring while in the apartment, but I'm getting back into it now.  Roasted veggies will have to become more frequent in household again.

I'm not running like I was during training, I'm hardly running at all.  There is one day in the week where I'll go for over an hour long run, but the rest of the time I am focusing more on strength training. After logging many miles and hours running, I was left feeling pretty weak and useless for anything else.  Now I am trying to increase strength with free weight training and a little cardio on the side.  I may post on this at certain times if I feel the need.

In the old home, we did not have cable, or anything besides what the antenna could pick up.  In the new house, we got nothing with the antenna and decided to get cable.  So, now we are exposed to more annoying commercials and shows; I might rant about these at times as well.

For those of you reading, what would you be interested in seeing for future posts?  I plan on keeping the focus on food related topics, but might inject a few bits of my everyday life should I feel like doing so.

Until next post (hopefully sooner than 3 months), take care and try to learn to know what you are eating....never be afraid to ask questions...it's your body!!