Daily food.

The question I get asked most frequently about my weight loss journey is "so what do you eat?"  American culture has been following fad diets for so long, it shocks people when I say "whatever I want."   I found that with any diet that completely eliminates my favorite foods - I will eventually fall off the wagon, get back into bad habits, and of course the weight comes back on.  Now obviously this is not without a caveat, because if we always ate whatever we wanted I would easily be the most frequent diner at the local Chinese buffet and have needed to buy stock at Coldstone.   

When I decided to seek the help from a nutritionist, I was not looking for specific recipes or food that I would now only eat for the rest of my life.  I wanted to know what nutrients my body needs to build muscle, promote loss of fat, and fuel my workouts.  She looked at my goals, current activity level, and shockingly told me that I needed to actually up my calories and eat more!  The difference is now instead of just counting calories I would need to count my macronutrients.  

I will do a more detailed post about it soon, but a quick google search of "If It Fits Your Macros" or IIFYM will give a more detailed explanation of the process and even online calculators that can help you set your own macros.  My nutritionist set my daily goals to between 1350-1500 calories with 150g of protein, 135g of carbs, and 40g of fat.  Using this I can eat whatever I want, as long as it fits my macros and calories.  She also mentioned to look for nutrient dense foods and to watch my daily sugar levels.  

With that preface, here is the first of many daily feeding posts that show how I ate:

Post run breakfast: 310 calories, 31g of carbs, 6g of fat, 31g of protein
Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Rocky Road protein shake mixed with 8oz of cold coffee
1 slice of cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread with 1/2 TBSP of natural roasted almond butter
4 oz of raspberries 

Morning snack: 122 calories, 15g of carbs, 0g of fat, 16g of protein
Half of a grapefruit mixed with a 5.3 oz cup of Chobani plain greek 0% fat yogurt and sweetened with 2 drops of Stevia

Lunch: 352 calories, 22g of carbs, 13g of fat, 34g of protein
A turkey sausage, spinach, kale, and egg white omelet 
2 TBSP of sabra red pepper hummus with cauliflower and celery
1/4 C of blueberries
1 Ghiradelli intense dark sea salt chocolate

Mid afternoon snack: 200 calories, 21g of carbs, 10g of fat, 20g of protein
Peanut butter and Jelly Questbar

Dinner: 283 calories, 16g of carbs, 9g of fat, 37g of protein
Shrimp and chicken sautéed in olive oil with kale, tomatoes, onion, and garlic

Evening snack: 195 calories, 19g of carbs, 8g of fat, 16g of protein
Homemade popcorn with coconut oil and 1/2 serving of About time Birthday cake protein shake

Total daily profile looks like this for 1,460 calories:

Ideally I would not have eaten so many carbs at night, but overall I'm happy with the day and glad I got in my popcorn and dark chocolate I was craving.

30th birthday recap

Ben surprised me with the most amazingly fun 30th birthday party.  It was with a few of my favorite friends on the beach near our house.  The moms and dads were able to drink wine and chat while the kids splashed and played in the sand.  We had beautiful weather and a picturesque sunset.  I may or may not have gotten pooped on by a seagull, but a little shit couldn't break my good mood.  

The cute set up

Afterwards we ran home, washed off and went out for some celebratory drinks.  My body may look better than it did at 21 but I certainly can't drink that way anymore.  When you work hard, you get to play hard too and not feel guilty.  Definitely hungover, bloated, and tired...but not guilty. 

Saturday Long Run

The most important runs to do are the ones that you almost talk yourself out of.  It's easy to be a runner when you are well rested, the temperature is perfect, and your legs feel great.  Today was not that day.  July 5th - a day of being hungover from too much beer and picnic food, staying up too late with fireworks, and of course dealing with the sweltering summer heat.  I really would have stayed in bed and slept in if it wasn't for telling my running buddies I would meet them at 6 am.   Jerks.

Despite, the heat and the fact I felt gross after drinking/eating more processed carbs than I had had in the previous 6 weeks combined - I still went out to run.  No excuses.  Halfway through I figured if I'm doing 8, why not just round up to 10 and finished it as my quickest distance training run yet!  I had an awesome friend pushing me at the end and did that last mile in 8:25.  Great way to start the day and now I won't feel as guilty eating leftovers later :)



And lastly a gratuitous picture from last night of my sweet boy who loves "sparkles"

Hump Day Hustle

My new favorite training run is the tempo run.  Why?  Because it's a confidence boosting run that in my opinion shows how realistic your race day goals will be.  Speedwork is awesome, and long slow runs still will always have a place in my heart...but you don't do intervals in races and hopefully you're pushing beyond your "talk-test" comfort zones even when you race half marathons.

Now with tempo runs, the ideal is to hold a steady pace that is at about 90% of your maximum effort. It is a mental exercise as much as a physical one.  To quote Runner's World "Without getting too technical, threshold pace is the effort level just below which the body’s ability to clear lactate, a by-product of carbohydrate metabolism, can no longer keep up with lactate production. Daniels states that this pace is, for most people, about 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than current 5K race pace."  My current 5K PR is a 25:51, or 8:20 per mile.  When I do tempo work, I try to stay around 8:40-8:55 per mile.

So how did it feel yesterday?  Awesome!  I felt great at the 2 mile turn-around so instead of holding the 8:45 pace I was shooting for, I had negative splits and sped up...making it my fastest 4 mile run ever.  How do I celebrate a new best?  With mac n' cheese pizza and Kentucky Bourbon Ale while watching a beautiful Florida sunset.