Flunking Nutrition During My Half Marathon Training

Four weeks into the Half Marathon training program my cousin (professional coach to skiers and runners) & his wife graciously sent to me, I feel great all except for the fact that I kinda feel....draggy.

I have noticed that I actually WANT to run in the mornings. My body is responding.  My resting heart rate is down to 48 from 56, my split times for miles have come down a minute and a half from when I started.  But something is....off...

One of the things I used to love when I was an athlete in college was how much I could EAT!  I LOVE EATING!  And I love eating whatever I want - who doesn't?  When my little monitor says I've burned so many calories during my work outs, that gives me license to just eat with abandon, right?

I burned 720 calories today!

Yeah.  Well first of all, sweet cheeks, you are NOT 20 years old anymore.  Second of all, do you notice how you drag on the mornings after you've had two glasses of wine or chocolate or an enormous helping of chips and salsa (or all three?)?  The whole "food as fuel" concept has not really stuck with me yet.  Food as enjoyment, food as reward, food as comfort?  Yeah - got those concepts in the bag.

And the more I read and understand about inflammation inside our bodies and blood vessels, the more I realize, I'm flunking out on the nutritional portion of my training.

From Dr. Dwight Lundell, cardiac surgeon from Mesa, AZ.

There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.

When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.

Click here for Dr. Lundell's article.

In my normal food cycle, I would take time to beat myself up about how poorly I was doing nutritionally, how I was essentially taking sandpaper to my blood vessels with my chips and salsa and then go ahead and continue on the downward spiral.  Seeing as that strategy does not work, it's time to double down.

If I were flunking or really struggling with something in my pre-med classes, I would double down and  be really intentional about carving out more time, making notecards, recopying notes, relistening to lectures.  Time to take that tactic for myself in relation to my "nutritional training".

What I'm wanting for myself in this part of my journey, is the feeling of satiation that comes from eating well and fueling my body well.  That feeling of getting up in the morning (having had enough sleep!  But that's a topic for another day...) and knowing that my body has what it needs for my workout, but also for my day of work, class, lab, being with my family, etc...

Wish me luck!  Here's to continuing on the adventure!

Post run on a cloudy, humid Phoenix day

Day 120... Eating, Med School and a Household Notebook

 Kale Pesto with Chicken and Gluten Free Pasta

Eating...I had my 120 day visit last week with my doctor (Eastern Medicine, Homeopath, Chiropractor) and tested as clean as I ever have.

Dr. Jeff Robinson then tested to see which multivitamins my body "liked" the best.  I have had trouble with getting nauseous and throwing up with vitamins my whole life, but the herbs and supplements that I get from Dr. Jeff (from Thorne) have never given me a problem.  I can even take them on an empty stomach, which has always been unheard of for me.


Med School...I am also venturing into the territory of getting my last pre-reqs to apply to medical school.  My first two classes are summer term courses which means I'm in lecture and lab 4 days/week.

This leads to another level of doing life in a new way.  For the last four months I've been the lion's share of the cooking, as I've needed to try new recipes and modify them.  With me going back to school, my partner and I will need to share the cooking duties.

Hence, I started a Household Notebook (it's actually a 3-ring binder).

It has a section for weekly menus, shopping lists, freezer and pantry inventories, monthly chore list and seasonal project lists (e.g. trim/thin trees before monsoon season begins in mid-June).  I found printable calendars and such, here.

We're starting by planning dinners, and I've added a pocket folder to store recipes needed for the week.

Anyone else have resources for planning life and food?  Please post 'em or send me the link - I'm happy to link up.


Grateful...I am grateful to have taken the last four months to really figure this out, to feel EONS better and to launch into a new way of life. I think there are many people out there like me with sensitivities and many more with major food allergies. If that is you, then the points below are probably very similar and parallel to what you do each day to navigate your life. If you're curious, here are a few of the things my 'new' way of life involves:

1. Navigating life without caffeine.  I started drinking coffee as a teenager, and probably haven't know how much sleep I truly need my entire adult life. Turns out my body likes 8-9 hours of sleep per night, which has been tough to comply with so far.  
2. A lot of new recipes at home.  (See previous posts and the new Recipes page of this blog)
3. Struggling to order anything besides salad and meat at restaurants when out with friends or celebrating
4. Being very "planful" about taking snacks that I know I can eat everywhere to avoid blood-sugar crashes.(see the new Snacks page)

Big No-No's:

• Dairy
• Combination of dairy & wheat
• Caffeine
• Solanines (Solanaceae Family: potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and all things called "pepper" - cayenne, chili, (Not black pepper), green pepper, hot pepper(sauce), paprika, pimiento, red pepper)
  

Major Caution:

• Wheat
• chocolate

To Avoid, if possible:

• Eggs
• Corn

What happens past day 30... AND Polenta, Mushrooms & Greens Recipe

Have you ever been so focused on a goal - achieving a certain weight, a yoga pose, an academic goal, saving for a trip...and then you made it? What happened after you made it? Anything?

I was so excited to make it to Day 30 with my clean eating. And then what happened? Nothing.

I got to add garlic back into my diet but was essentially told to "carry on" as I have been with my diet for the next 30 days.

Hmph... You mean I need to do this for 60 days?

The question I have for myself now is, "Is this the way I am now to live my life? Gluten free? Dairy free? Free of eggplant, tomato and pepper?"

I'm not going to lie. I've been gloriously ANTSY to GET ON WITH IT! But perhaps this IS it...

More to be revealed...

A Polenta recipe to tide you over

Polenta, Mushrooms & Greens










1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
2 c. baby bella mushrooms
Red pepper flakes, to taste
Salt & pepper, to taste
cumin, to taste

Chop and saute the above in the oil of your choice until onions are translucent (7-10 min).

Add lots of greens (spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, or kale) and saute until they are all wilted

Thinly slice 1 tube prepared polenta and lightly saute polenta around and in your greens/mushroom/onion mix - viola an easy lunch or dinner!

Halfway Point Update: Attempting a new way of (clean) eating

See below for the halfway update and two new recipes!

It's day 14 of 30 of my attempt at cleaning up my diet. I checked in with Dr. Jeff to update him on how it's going:

I've been off all dairy, solanines (tomato, potato, eggplant, paprika, tobacco, gogi berries, ashwaganda, peppers - all but white and black), fungal foods (sweeting juice, dried fruit, vinegar, alcohol, soy sauce, Miso, cheese, yeast), gliadin foods (foods containing wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut), caffeine and garlic.

After the caffeine withdrawl headaches ended (about the first 3 days), the detox symptoms lasted for another 3-4 days.

I've lost about 5 lbs and the intense sugar cravings are gone. I've noticed that my night sweats have totally subsided and my skin is much clearer of break-outs. (Yes!)

I have also noticed my Raynaud's symptoms are less hyper-reactive, which I can only attribute to the healing going on.

Anything I should keep in mind or you think would be important for me to know at this point?

Dr. Jeff's response:

Glad to hear you are sticking to the diet. It obviously is working for you. Congrats, it is not easy but the payoff is huge.

• Increased water intake and fiber (ground flax seeds) are great ways to accommodate detox.
  
• Check out Chia seeds too, they are an excellent thing to add that detox and reduce hunger.

30 days of my life doesn't amount to much in the long run.

Two new recipes from the food adventure are below - YUMMO!


Curried Quinoa with Sweet Potato and Black Beans
Courtesy of Tia Salmela Keobounpheng
serves 4-6

1 cup Quinoa
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, chopped (again, I used shallots - EH)
1 large onion, chopped
1 extra large sweet potato, sliced in "sticks"
1 can black beans
2 heaping tsp cumin
2 heaping tsp garam masala
2 heaping tsp curry
1/2 c currants (wasn't able to add these on my diet. Tastes great w/o them, but sounds DELISH with them, too!)
Salt to taste
Oil for sauteeing (grapeseed, olive, etc...)


-Use broth to make the quinoa, as direted on the package
-Saute garlic, onions and the sweet potato in a pan with some grapeseed or olive oil,
-Add the curry/cumin/garam masala spices & salt towards the end of the sautee time.
-Add the cooked quinoa to the pan, along with the black beans, and mixed it all up until everything is coated (and colored) with the curry.
-Add extra oil at this point to assist in the even coating of flavor and to keep the "salad" from getting too dry. -Taste and adjust to your liking (more spice or more quinoa depending) ....
-Last step, add the currents and do one final toss/mixing and it's good to go!

Great, served both warm and cold.


Original recipe is here.


Spicy Mustard Greens
serves 2-4

• 1 bunch mustard greens, stem removed and leaves chopped
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 3 large garlic cloves, chopped - As my diet doesn't have garlic right now, I used shallots - EH
  
• 1 Tbsp ghee or coconut oil - I used EVOO - EH
  
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• red pepper flakes or aleppo pepper, to taste
• unrefined salt, to taste
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Heat ghee in pan over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic, and saute until translucent. Add mustard greens. Cover pan and let cook for 2-3 minutes, then remove cover and stir. Replace cover and continue to cook for 3-5 minutes until greens are tender and vibrant green, adding a splash of water as needed. Remove cover and add cumin and red pepper flakes. Add lemon juice and salt, to taste. Serve.

Original recipe (and other delicious and modified diet recipes) found here.

Taking a stab at a new (clean) way of eating...

As it turns out, I may have a sensitivity to a bunch of things, including wheat, caffeine, vinegar, potatoes, tomatoes & peppers.

I knew about the caffeine, as I had cut down to mostly decaf coffee in the mornings, but for the next 30 days, on the recommendation of my doctor, this month I'm taking a stab at a new, clean way of eating and cutting all these things out.

Today is day 10 of 30 and I already feel less cloudy, less sluggish and my sugar cravings are gone (whew!). I'm also watching my break-outs diminish and have not experienced any night sweats either.

One of my new favorite recipes is a quinoa taboule (fromBobs Redmill package):


2 cups cooked and cooled Bob's Red Mill Quinoa
1 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped scallions
2 tbsp. chooped fresh mint
1 garlic clove or shallot minced
1 tbsp minced fresh basil
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Toss together all ingredients. Chill for 1 hour or more to allow flavors to blend. Makes 6 servings.