On Networking

So, since I spend a good chunk of my time on the Internet, specifically on Twitter, I thought it would be a good idea to create a “running” group. It still baffles me that Twitter doesn’t have a group for those of us who like to run, exercise or just workout. I’ve seen other athletic types on Twitter, but I guess no one thought of creating a group for athletes? I dunno. In any case, it is my hope that those of you who like to run will :

a) Join Twitter
b) Join the “Running & Exercise Enthusiasts” group

The link to this group can be found here.

Also, once you join the group, feel free to post whatever you want, just make sure you include the group tag somewhere at the beginning or end of your post.

The group tag is:  #running

It is my hope that this Twitter group will not only foster discussion about running, but also that it will help those who love the sport (as well as the idea of fitness) to network with each other and develop meaningful relationships 🙂

Even in a country like the USA where fitness has become an obsession, most people exercising do not seem to think it illogical to drive automobiles to gyms while doing their best to avoid walking. -Dave Wilson

Great Sources of Nutrients

If you’re trying to eat healthier, there are a ton of books available out there to help guide you into healthier eating. Now, I do not profess to be a cook by any stretch of the imagination, so when I ventured out to look for a cookbook, I looked for something that had simple recipes- something that I felt confident I couldn’t screw up. In the process, I not only found such a cookbook, but I also managed to find one that provided a few tips on healthy eating as well. The book I’m talking about is called Superfoods- Cook Your Way to Health by Jyl Steinback. That being said, here are some things I picked up related to vitamins and the food sources in which they can be found:

25 Vitamins & Minerals and Their Food Sources

Vitamins

  • Vitamin A: carrots, sweet potatoes, dark green leafy veggies, pumpkin
  • Vitamin D: sunlight; dairy products, cod liver oil
  • Vitamin E: veggie oils, nuts and seeds, wheat germ
  • Vitamin K: green leafy veggies, cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, broccoli, chickpeas, green tea
  • Vitamin C: orange juice, brussel sprouts, citrus fruits, melons, broccoli, strawberries, cabbage
  • Vitamin B1 (Thiamin): legumes, whole grains, enriched cereals
  • Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): dairy products, whole grains, enriched bread & cereal, green veggies
  • Vitamin B3 (Niacin): lean meat, dried beans and peas, brewer’s yeast, poultry, tuna, whole grains, brown rice, enriched bread and cereal
  • Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine): salmon, nuts, wheat germ, brown rice, peas, beans, nuts
  • Vitamin B12: clams, oysters, salmon, sardines, tempeh
  • Pantothenic Acid: meat, eggs, whole-grain cereals, legumes
  • Folate: leafy green veggies, legumes, brewer’s yeast, beans, nuts, liver
  • Biotin: oatmeal, soybeans, green veggies, liver


Minerals

  • Magnesium: bananas, dried beans and peas, whole grains, dark green leafy veggies, nuts
  • Phosphorus: lean meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, legumes, eggs, nuts
  • Calcium: dairy products, dark green leafy veggies, broccoli, shrimp, salmon, legumes, tofu, fortified orange juice, clams
  • Potassium: bananas, potatoes, spinach, broccoli, chickpeas, strawberries
  • Chromium: lean meat, orange juice, whole grains, brewer’s yeast, vegetable oil
  • Copper: shellfish, whole grains, legumes, nuts
  • Fluoride: fluoridated water and toothpastes, seafood
  • Iron: lean red meat, organ meat, legumes, enriched cereals and breads, dried fruits
  • Manganese: tea, spinach, raisins
  • Selenium: organ meat, seafood, whole-grains, potato with skin, turkey, chicken breast, wheat germ
  • Zinc: lean meat, poultry, fish, whole-grain cereals and breads
  • Boron: apples, dates, nuts

Few of us know what we are capable of doing…we have never pushed ourselves hard enough to find out.

-Alfred A. Montapert

using your head

If you think that you can’t do something, you’re probably right. Your mind is perhaps one of the most important and powerful tools you have at your disposal. Once you’ve got the physical part down, running is nothing more than a mind game. Your mind can make or break you. The world’s best runner can have the worst race on any given day if they don’t have it together mentally.

From College to Career

When I was in college, we sometimes had to get out of bed at 5am to go for our runs and/or workout because of other things that were going on with scheduling conflicts, etc. Now that I’m out of college and working, it’s not that different. I sometimes have to get up early in the morning to do a quick 30-40 minute run-otherwise, I know that I won’t want to do it later. Additionally, now that the days are shorter, if I wait until just after 5pm to run, it’s already dark out.

Finding the Motivation

I am not sure why, but there is something that sucks about waking up at 7am and leaving a warm bed to face bitingly cold air. However, that’s the most difficult part. Typically, if I can make it past my front door, I’m doing well. There is nothing that compares to the satisfaction and feeling of euphoria I get after finishing a difficult run in crappy weather. After having traversed miles of trails or fighting an uphill battle on the roadways with pedestrians and traffic, running makes me feel better (usually).

I’d like to think that being a distance runner has taught me a lot about myself-mostly about what personal limitations I’ve chosen to set as well as the ones I’ve decided to go after and break. In my opinion, distance runners (people who have trained and raced the mile, 3,000m, 5k and beyond) are the real runners. They have more time to think about why they choose to run upwards of 5 or 6 miles each day. They have to maintain their focus for a much lengthier period of time during races, ignoring pain and fatigue; counting laps and trying to remain upbeat all the while.

The True Test is Now

It’s interesting to look back at my relationship with running over the years. In high school running was nothing but great fun and I loved the competition involved. In college, it was more of a profession-something I was forced to do each day, and now…Now, there’s no one holding my hand or telling me that I need to get up and workout at 6 or 7am…

In the stillness of the morning just before most people are getting ready for work, or in the middle of the day when I’ve managed to find solace on a well-beaten path somewhere at the park, it’s just me out there-alone in my thoughts but always telling myself to move.

You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

-Steve Prefontaine

hanging in there!

So, the first day of attempting to eat healthier went fairly well. Here is how it broke down:

Day 1

7am run -ran 48 minutes at the park

Breakfast

  • small bowl of fresh fruit (mango, kiwi, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon)
  • hot cup of green tea

Lunch

  • leftover wonton soup w/ soup noodles
  • hot cup of green tea w/ splenda
  • 1 ginger cookie

Snack

  • 1 lowfat yogurt

2nd Run- ran 20 minutes

Dinner

  • 1 cup of salad (lettuce & sliced tomato w/ EVOO & dried Italian seasoning)
  • 2 cups of organic lentil soup
  • 2 ginger cookies
  • small handful of raisins
  • hot cup of green tea

Late Night Meal (9pm)

  • 1 lowfat manwich (made with ground turkey) -5g fat including bun
  • 1/2 roll
  • several french fried potatoes (cut red potatoes brushed w/ EVOO & seasoning)
  • a couple of hushpuppies (appx. 4 oz)
  • hot cup of green tea

My Thoughts:

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I ate the way I did towards the end of the day. I know for a fact that had I gone to bed around 10ish, I wouldn’t have eaten that late night meal. I, however, had some work to finish and was up until just after midnight. It seems like the longer you are awake, the greater the tendency is to want to eat more.

Additionally, eating healthy after you have spent a considerable amount of time NOT eating healthy can be a shock to your body. After breakfast and pretty much inbetween all of my meals, I was STARVING. Towards the end of the day, it got to the point where I would stand up after sitting at the computer only to feel like my body was off balance.

I didn’t quite meet my goal of having 8 glasses of water/fluid, but it sure felt like I did! It seemed like every five minutes I had to use the bathroom. Today, I am going to try to do a little better. I’m going to shoot for drinking at least two glasses (8oz) of fluid with every meal. If I can get it up to 6 glasses from 4 yesterday, then I’ll be heading in the right direction. I have also begun to plan ahead what I’m going to eat later for dinner, this way my mind won’t be allowed to wander onto things that are unhealthy 🙂

I don’t diet. I just don’t eat as much as I’d like to.

-Linda Evangelista

changing my diet for the better . . .

We all know how to eat well. The fact of the matter is, however, that we often choose not to. And even if we think that we’re eating relatively healthy, we can always do a teeny bit better. Well, lately, I’ve been eating like crap. I don’t really get the same enjoyment out of cooking as many others do, but I’ve decided that enough is enough with this nonsense. After speaking with one of my other cross-country/track buddies tonight, here is just one sample of what a healthy diet should look like:

*It should be noted that Karen is a vegetarian.

Breakfast:

  • all natural cereal w/ milk
  • fresh blueberries
  • banana
  • raisins
  • pineapple
  • walnuts
  • almonds
  • orange juice

Lunch:

  • whole wheat sandwich w/ cheese or hummus, lettuce & tomato
  • grapes
  • blue corn chips

Snack:

  • carrots
  • crackers

Dinner:

  • mixed green salad (carrots, broccoli, peppers, tomato, onion)
  • sauteed boneless, skinless chicken breast w/ brown rice & veggies [this is my addition for an option]

Ok, now that you’ve seen a sample of what someone else eats, here’s what I have been eating lately:

Breakfast: 2 cups of cereal w/ non fat milk, one lowfat yogurt, 2 cups of tea
Snack: one yogurt, one slice of bread with butter on it
Lunch: one yogurt, 2 cups of tea and/or water w/ lemon in it
Dinner: 97% lean burger with yellow onion sliced on top, tater tots on the side
Late night snack (after 8pm): something usually high in sugar like cookies- though not all the time

Sometimes the choice for dinner will vary depending on where I am though. In the past few weeks, I was astonished to see that I had been eating out more than I thought- stopping in at fast food restaurants with my boyfriend (who is a personal trainer, mind you!), and even though I am choosing grilled chicken sandwiches at these fast food establishments, I could probably stand to not eat the sandwich with the bread, french fries and soda that comes with it.

You Know Your Body Better

I know better. And I’ve never eaten this poorly in my life, so what gives? Eating well and taking care of your body takes discipline. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how counterproductive it is for me to go and run for an hour only to then turn around and stuff my face with something that is unhealthy only hours later. The problem lies in the fact that I don’t like preparing meals. In my mind, it seems like preparing a meal takes more time than it does to actually eat it.

My Solution?

Come up with a written meal plan. Talk to other people who exercise like you do and find out what they are eating. Get an opinion. Visit a few supermarkets, compare prices and compile a healthy shopping list. GET IT IN WRITING. Depending on the type o f person you are, it may be easier for you to stick with something if it is written down. Eating healthy is challenging in the fact that you have to have the mental discipline to absolutely refuse to eat the things that you know are bad for you despite the fact that they are downright d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s.

But enough talk. Tomorrow is a new day, and it is never too late to make a change. The hardest part is getting started. The thing about my diet is that it’s the little things that need to be changed. My diet isn’t horrible; it’s just not great. I’ll be documenting my diet as I progress, this way we can all sort of see how a diet can affect or effect athletic performance, if at all.

Runners just do it- they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first.

-Anon.