So much has happened since I last blogged, it's hard to know where to begin! The major event was that I finally achieved my ultimate running goal: I ran the Delaware Marathon in May and qualified for Boston! I know!! It involved a ton of hard work, a very consistent training schedule and the power of positive thinking, all of which I'll get into in more detail later, but it was worth every bit of body pounding effort.
Next up, the San Francisco Marathon in July and Marine Corps Marathon in October. I'm going to San Francisco with my running partner and we are doing it mostly for fun and to say we ran a destination marathon. Neither one of us are ready to take the distance seriously - she is coming off Boston and I off Delaware - our mileage isn't up high enough but the idea was never to do it for a time goal, it was to bring our cameras along and see the sites stopping to take photos along the way. I'm really excited as I've never been to San Francisco before and I think it will a blast to take this trip with Amy. It's like our big reward for all the crazy hard training we did over the winter.
Marine Corps is simply because I deferred last year so it's paid for so I really should do it and everyone whose ever run it says it's a 'must do', blah, blah. I need to get to training for it soon though. It takes me a crazy long time to get used to running in the heat so I know I'll need to build my mileage up slowly. Speaking of, I met Amy and some others for a 13 mile run on Sunday and it didn't go so well. I've been escaping the heat by running inside for a few weeks now (top mileage of 13 miles) so the heat and humidity hit me like a brick this weekend. It wasn't pretty. I was dehydrated for sure by the end (didn't bring enough water) and had to walk several times. Lesson learned: stop hiding from the heat during the week because you will only be screwed on your long run on the weekend. Next Sunday we are meeting a bit earlier (7 instead of 8) and running 16. Oy.
So besides the running, I've switched gyms (hello Body Pump! I think I've bashed it in the past but I'm not a convert and love it!!) and made some pretty big changes in the food department. This blog may shift in focus a bit...it will still be about running and training but I'm in the process of totally changing the way I eat and will probably blog about it quite a bit as I fumble my way through.
A bit of background first: I've considered myself a pretty healthy eater for a long time now but I also have a crazy hard core addiction to all things cracker-like, salty and processed. I've noticed that no matter how much I run or workout, I always have a bit of the blahs and more than a bit of the bloats. Also, I would never have more then a day go by without experiencing some sort of stomach pain. Some days would be worse then others, but it was always there. I knew I needed to stop with the bad habits I had like, oh, I don't know, taking the entire box of Wheat Thins to the couch with me when I get the 3:00 hunger pangs, and while that sandwich I was eating was healthy, the bag of salty chips next to it was not, but I never had that major kick in the butt to get me to change. The fact that stomach pain on a daily basis (and sometimes being 100% laid up on the couch after a run because it was so bad) apparently wasn't enough.
Then one day, my husband and I were on a routine trip to Costco and everything changed. We could hear one of the many demonstrators that are there from time to time and didn't think much of it until getting up close and seeing that she was making smoothies in some major blending machine. Honestly, I was hungry and just wanted that smoothie sample so I pushed my way up, grabbed a little cup and drank the yuminess that I assumed was maybe one piece of fruit laced with a ton of sugary juices. Oh how wrong I was! She told me there was spinach in it. Um, what the wha?? So she made another one for me to see. In that one, I can't remember the exact mixture, but I know there was baby spinach, a full orange, a banana and then for the liquid, she used Welchs 100% White Grape Juice (something I chose not to use because I don't think it's a "clean food"). We stood there for a good hour eating soups and tons of different veggie smoothies and I was sold. We brought our Vitamix home that day and I haven't looked back since.
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The first couple of weeks I had the Vitamix, I used it almost on a daily basis mostly making smoothies but I did make a couple of soups and salsa too. I didn't cut out all the other crap I was eating though, I was more familiarizing myself with the mixer. This was 2 weeks before the Delaware Marathon and I got a bit freaked out because all that fruit/veggie/fiber (!) was having a, um, interesting effect on my digestive system and no way did I want to be caught on YouTube having one of those marathon trots moments so I put the machine away and kept doing what I had been doing in the eating department. I'm crazy superstitious when it comes to running and routine and I wasn't about to change a single thing that close to marathon day. You should have seen my shoes, they practically had holes in the bottom but there was no getting new shoes before the big day!
A couple of weeks after Delaware, I pulled it back out and started blending. This time, I decided to make a major effort to cut out processed foods. Also, at that same time, my husband had several back to back business trips so dinner changed too - no more fatty meats, it was all fish or all veggies for dinner. Now I'm not trying to sound like an infomercial here, but I swear, after only 2 weeks (today starts week 3) of having a 'green' smoothie a day in addition to cutting out the processed foods and very little to no meat, I'm feeling 100% different...better. The stomach pain is gone (again, no lie!) and my skin has cleared up (a major thing for me). Also, while I knew I was having bloating issues, I had no idea just how much until I made this change. I dropped 2lbs (not a goal of mine, this is NOT a diet for me, it's a lifestyle change for health) of pure bloated nastiness. I should also note here that around this same time, I also saw the movie Food, Inc. which if you haven't seen, you absolutely must. It will blow your mind and change the way you shop for meat.
Also, my energy level is so much better in the afternoon - gone are the grab something salty/crunchy at 3:00, now I have a smoothie. The smoothie carries me to dinner. In the past, I'd have the processed snack at 3:00 then by 4:30 I was crabby and hungry again so I'd grab something else. An endless cycle. The smoothies have really helped and I have to say, I don't even crave the old stuff anymore. Occasionally I do want something crunchy so I'm in the process of trying to find better options for when that happens. For example, I find that I like, not love, Doctor Kracker Flatbread. It's a crunchy option just to take that edge of a craving off but honestly, I don't eat them much at all. I have had the same box (contains 8 crackers) for 2 weeks.
So basically, my routine has drastically changed and the results have been incredible. Because I noticed such a huge change so quickly, I became borderline obsessed with researching all things healthy, veggie based. This is not to say I'm becoming a vegetarian, with two kids and a meat loving husband (who recently said, "All your veggie containers are taking up the entire fridge!"), I'm not ready to make that big of a leap, but I will say that I eat 99% plant based foods. And there have been several meals where my husband and boys are eating chicken and I bake a piece of fish for me. I've found many helpful blogs on the subject along with some great books. One I like is "The Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Be Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life" I found this to be a good introduction to going more plant based. But so far, my favorite cookbook is by Tosca Reno, Eat Clean Cookbook. There are so many fantastic recipes in there....many do have meat for the meat lover who wants to eat 'clean'. There is also a magazine of the same title, Eat Clean, that I enjoy.
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Have I given up my wine? Hells no. Is wine considered 'clean'? Nope. But seriously, a girl can only make so many changes! I have 2 elementary age boys, I simply cannot give up my wine.
Right now, I'm on the hunt for a source that will help me eat this way but still have enough energy/calories/endurance to keep up with my training. I have noticed that once I get to about mile 5 on my runs, I start to fade in the energy department. I think I may not be getting enough carbs which as runners know, is so important. But what carbs to choose? There is probably a good protein powder I should be adding to my smoothies too but I don't know if this is totally necessary. So you can see, I still feel a bit lost and this is all still very new.
Now that I've written the longest post to date and probably lost a few readers, I close it out simply by saying, this is quite the journey and if anyone out there is on a similar one and has any advice, please please please leave a comment because I'll take all the help I can get!
