Week 2 of Paleo Trial diet

Workouts:

Monday: 1 mile warm up on treadmill, circuit room weights (3 x20 of light weights on each machine)

-          Breakfast: Oatmeal with apple and pumpkin and chia seeds.  Egg and tomato.

-          Lunch: Spinach salad with tomato, ¼ avocado, ½ can tuna in water, baked butternut squash, olive oil and lemon juice dressing.

-          Snacks: ½ apple, banana with almond butter, almonds

-          Dinner: Lamb braised in chicken stock, white wine and tomato puree, kale salad with avocado dressing, sliced beets and chopped walnuts. 

-          Dessert: Nut-butter brownie with frozen strawberries.

Tuesday: 32 min AM run (upper body felt sore from weights yesterday, had a hard time running with good posture, shoulders kept wanting to come forward), bike to class and lab.

-          Breakfast: Oatmeal with apple, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and pecans.

-          Lunch: Repeat of Monday’s lunch, with steamed beets instead of tomatoes.

-          Snacks: Banana and almond butter, almonds and raisins.

-          Dinner: Steamed salmon with leftover veggies and eggplant braised in tomato sauce (same kind as on lamb on Monday).

Wednesday: Quick trip to gym for abs, with 10 min warm up of the elliptical. 45 min trail run/hike (ended up trying to get as far up the hill behind lab as I could, the trip down wasn’t much fun, think I was following a rain run-off “trail” rather than a human-made trail.)  Was in a great mood all day!

-          Breakfast: 2 eggs (omelet style but not folded) with most of sautéed zucchini, ¼ tomato, 1.4 avocado, spinach and an orange.

-          Lunch: Butternut squash, beets, zucchini, chicken sausage and spinach

-          Snacks: Carrot sticks and Trader Joe’s trail mix pack

-          Dinner: Leftover eggplant in tomato sauce on top of microwaved red potatoes.  Attempted to make a smoothie with kale, beets, a pear and cranberry juice.  The flavor was good but the pieces of kale were too big/there was too much of it.  Very filling though; didn’t have room for the delicious-looking pork chops I broiled…

Thursday: Set up my bike trainer! (It’s weird how I have no problem getting up around 5:30 when I’m in bed by 10…)Spun for 30 minutes, got very bored staring at the garage wall, looking forward to watching lots of Netflix documentaries.  Biked to lab with bike shoes on for the first time since the crayfish incident.  Success! 

-          Breakfast: Oatmeal with whole peach, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and walnuts. Fried egg with spinach.

-          Lunch: Salad with green apples, toasted almonds, dried cranberries and vinaigrette dressing.

-          Snacks: Carrot sticks, pears, almonds, roasted pumpkin seeds.

-          Dinner: Broiled pork chop with apple sauce, leftover eggplant with tomato sauce on top of spinach.

Friday: 45 minutes of bike trainer (watched episode of NCIS online, sat up and drank during 30 s limited commercial breaks, worked well).

-          Breakfast: Sirloin steak, sautéed zucchini, peach.

-          Lunch: Spinach salad with steak, raw zucchini, tomato, ¼ avocado, balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

-          Snacks: Almond –milk yogurt, apple, banana, orange juice.

-          Dinner: Pork chop with applesauce, steamed broccoli and carrots, quinoa.

Saturday: 1:45 run (was supposed to be 1:30, but was exploring and ended going farther before I could re-cross I-80 and head home).

-          Pre-run: Banana and teaspoonful of almond butter, 3 Clif ShotBloks

-          During run: 16 oz water with Nuun tablet, Hammer Nutrition Gel (no caffeine)

-          Breakfast (Post-run): Oatmeal with pumpkin and chia seeds and raisins, 2 fried eggs with tomato and avocado, bowl of fruit salad, earl grey tea.

-          Lunch: Yam and sautéed zucchini and tomatoes

-          Snacks: Carrots, roasted pumpkin seeds

-          Dinner: Quinoa, steamed broccoli and carrots, steak

Sunday:

-          Breakfast: Omelet with spinach, avocado, mushrooms and ham. Fresh fruit

-          Lunch: Banana

-          Dinner: Fruit salad, steak, squash

Thoughts:

                So I’m one and a half weeks into my trial Paleo diet, and getting farther into reading The China Study by T. Colin Campbell – which outlines the multitude of connections between cancer and consuming animal protein.  I’ve been feeling pretty good so far, but I ended up with a pretty bad headache after my run on Saturday, which has never happened before.  This might’ve been due to the colder weather or the change in my diet; those are the only things that have changed since my last long run.  I’ll see how I feel after next week’s run, but at the moment I’m leaning towards switching back to something resembling my old diet after my 30-day trial.  I’d still cut out wheat, dairy and processed sugar (they go pretty much hand in hand anyway) and reduce my meat consumption to one or two times per week, as it was before.  My plan is to add legumes back in first to see how they make me feel, because if I’m going to reduce my meat consumption, I’ll need to be able to digest beans well.  I won’t go overboard on consuming grains in the name of carbo-loading, but I also won’t restrict my quinoa and brown rice intake to after workouts.  There’s simply no way I could cut out meat and limit grains and still get enough to eat.  But we’ll see, there’s a couple weeks left for me to change my mind several times.

                In other news, my knees were a little more sore than usual during my run on Saturday, I think this is from the new strain biking is putting on them; I definitely need to get back into yoga soon since this usually helps my knees too.  I still haven’t swam…  Biking on a trainer is definitely boring and holding an aero position for very long is definitely challenging.  School is simultaneously boring and challenging.  Actually part of the challenge is that my classes are so boring I have trouble paying attention, and subsequently don’t absorb much of the material.  Otherwise life is good.     

                 

Motivation:

http://www.waronals.com/about_jon.php

First week after marathon and first week of new diet plan

Workouts:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 30 min trail run (6 AM).  First run back and it felt great!  Rode bike to class and lab, quads  were definitely fatigued during this.

Wednesday: 44 min (5 miles) on elliptical and core at Field House.  First of 30 days following Paleo-for- athletes diet plan.  I’ll be strictly no dairy, wheat, legumes or processed sugar and restrict starches (such as oatmeal, brown rice pasta, sweet potatoes and quinoa to immediately before and after workouts).

-          Breakfast: 2 eggs (omelet style but not folded) with 1 head steamed broccoli, ¾ tomato, and handful of spinach.  Side of melon.

-          Lunch: 2 oz brown rice pasta, ½ C tomato sauce with grass-fed, lean ground beef, 1 C chopped spinach, some leftover steamed broccoli

-          Snacks: Apple and ½ C almonds, Trader Joe’s trail mix pack with nuts, seeds and dried cranberries.

-          Dinner: Salad with spinach, canned tuna (in water), tomatoes, cucumbers and lemon juice/olive oil dressing. Went to pot luck dinner after and avoided the chili, pumpkin bread and cupcakes and had lots of squash, sweet potatoes and salad (with more squash).

Thursday: Biked to lab. 

-          Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 chicken sausage, 1 orange, 1 apple with almond butter

-          Lunch: Leftover baked sweet potato with roasted nuts, steamed broccoli and 1 chicken sausage.

-          Dinner (with Lange, a friend from GU): Grilled salmon with pesto, steamed beets, carrots and white asparagus, sautéed zucchini, baked apples for dessert.

Friday: Bike to class and lab (twice each), 20 min run.

-          Breakfast: Sautéed zucchini, marinated steak strips, orange.

-          Lunch 1 (after run): Oatmeal with raisins and pumpkin seeds

-          Lunch 2: Spinach salad with tomatoes, zucchini, steak and olive oil and balsamic dressing.

-          Dinner: Jamaican chicken with steamed vegetables (at Ruth’s Diner with Lange).

Saturday:  Ran lots of errands, carried ~20 lbs of food around the farmer’s market, helped a friend move a couch.

-          Breakfast: Paleo pancakes (almond butter, banana, egg, walnuts and strawberries all mashed together).  Two fried eggs with some tomato.

-          Lunch: Steamed beet greens and leftover steak.

-          Snacks: Grapes and orange juice, apple with almond butter.

-          Dinner: Tuna with pesto and tomatoes.

Sunday: “Living Room” hike above campus with friend Jackie, would make a nice (hard, uphill) trail run.

-          Breakfast: Oatmeal with apple and pumpkin seeds, fried egg with tomato

-          Lunch: Banana, broiled lamb chop

-          Dinner: Paleo brownies (with a base of ground nuts), dried apples, stir fried beef.

Thoughts:

                It was much harder trying to plan new meals this week, especially ones that didn’t include quinoa or brown rice.  It was also hard getting enough to eat for breakfast without also ingesting 3 days- worth of cholesterol .  It has been fun eating new foods, but I spent a lot more on groceries this week than I normally do, so I need to figure something out to decrease that.  Part of the problem is that my portions are all screwed up; with my normal diet I knew exactly how much of eat food I needed to eat to get enough, but now I’m not really sure, so I end up eating a mountain of vegetables with every meal.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just gets expensive.  Until now I hadn’t realized how filling starches are.                  

It hasn’t been as hard as I thought to cut out cookies and other desserts.  Not eating oatmeal every morning has been much harder, as has not drinking a beer if I feel like it.  I’ve decided that wine is acceptable; its fermented, which you’re supposed to avoid, but doesn’t contain any gluten or wheat byproducts, which I’m more concerned with avoiding.  I’ll experiment with new breakfast foods this week that aren’t egg-centered and see if that helps.  Or I’ll just get up and run before breakfast so that oatmeal is allowed.    

                 It was a nice change taking it easy after last weekend’s marathon.  I’ll start increasing my activity level, but I think I’m going to explore new types of exercise for the next few weeks.  I don’t want to be feeling at all burned out on swimming, biking and running when I start official training.  I will do some of each so that my body is prepared for it, but I think I’ll do lots of yoga, hiking and unstructured trail running.  And I will get back in the pool (I haven’t swam since my tri…).

Motivation:

Chrissie Wellington winning her first World Championship in 2007.  Pure joy...

Catching up on some photos

The only photo that exists of me from the Stansbury tri (apparently I was invisible in the official photographer's shots).  I should probably crop this so you can't tell I was the only one in my age group...

At dinner after the marathon with my friends Sarah and James.  The medal on the left is my finisher's medal, the one on the right is my 2nd place medal.

Post-race dinner of veggie pizza (with chicken) and Red Rock Brewing Co's Nut Brown Ale (only one of the beers is mine).  The Paleo diet starts Monday...

It was pretty good.  Then we had peach cobbler for dessert...

First Marathon!

So I didn't write much during my two taper weeks because I wasn't really doing or feeling anything exciting.  I did have a bad dream two nights before the race in which I: slept through my alarm and got the race late, forgot my watch, forgot my handheld water bottle, forgot to put my timing chip on, started the race 3 minutes late and then discovered that the entire 26.2 miles was an obstacle course.  Luckily none of those things happened today, probably because my dream made me so paranoid.

Anyway, my first full marathon was a success!  My goal was to finish in under 4 hours, but also not to walk, not to have stomach issues and to have as strong a finish as possible.  I finished in 4:05, right next to my friend and training partner, Holly.  The course was a little hillier than I expected, or at least the hill at mile 4 was bigger than I expected (over a mile long...).  My stomach behaved, I did walk through some of the aid stations so I could eat gels and refill my water bottle more easily, but other than that, I ran the whole way.  I REALLY wanted to walk portions of the last half, especially the last two miles; I think the only reason I didn't was that I still had hopes of finishing in under 4 hours, but knew walking would quickly undermine that.  I ended up getting 2nd place in my age group (Holly got 1st!) so we both get free entries in to next year's race, which even at this point doesn't sound too awful.

Physically, I feel really good at this point.  After all 3 of my half marathons my stomach has really hurt and I've barely been able to stay awake long enough to drive myself home.  This time I was able to eat plenty of food walk around and I even felt hyper on the drive home!  And I think I only had two gels with caffeine in them.  I finished the race 5.5 hrs ago, I just ate a full meal, and I'm still full of energy!  My legs are starting to hurt more so I am in bed as I write this, but I'm surprised I'm not asleep yet.  Must be those endorphins I hear so much about.

Anyway, I'm really glad I did this race; the aid stations and finish line were really well-stocked and all the intersections had police directing traffic, only one lady was an idiot and almost hit me.  I'm glad that Holly and I got to train together and finish the race together.  And I really glad that I enjoyed most of the race!  (as much as you can expect to enjoy running for 4 hours at least...

Okay, now maybe its nap time. 

3 weeks to marathon and musings on nutrition

Workouts:

Monday: 2.31 mile (19 min) AM run, bike to class and to lab.

Tuesday: 4.7 mile (43 min) AM run, stomach hurt/felt unusually fatigued.

Wednesday: Bike to class and to lab, 3.4 mile (33 min) PM run.

Thursday: Feeling fatigued, rest day, tried to walk up extra flights of stairs.

Friday: Same as Thursday.

Saturday: First 20 mile run!  Didn’t go too badly, the last 20 minutes were tough (as usual) but doable.  Took a 3 hour nap afterwards.

Sunday: Played soccer

Musings:

                I’ve been thinking a lot about nutrition lately (even more than usual).  One of the training books I’m reading recommends a “Paleo for Athletes” diet, which basically means eating lots of whole fruits and vegetables, lean protein with every meal, and limiting starches and refined sugars to during and after workouts, when your body is best suited to replenishing glycogen stores.  This diet is compatible with foods that I know I don’t tolerate very well (wheat, dairy and sugar) and consequently try to limit.  These are also the foods I love (bread, ice cream, desserts…) so I’ve had a hard time successfully limiting.  I understand most of the reasoning behind this diet; it cuts out processed foods and emphasizes a whole foods approach.  You give your body high Glycemic Index carbs when it needs it, but not at times when it doesn’t.  Removing dairy and increasing fruits and vegetables makes your blood more “alkaline,” which helps you retain muscle mass and bone density as you age.  Overall this eating plan seems well balanced, maintainable and supported by basic research.   

                Removing meat from my diet is another option I’m considering.  One of my best friends (who’s also training for Ironman CdA) recently mentioned that he’s thinking of becoming a vegetarian, and recommended that I watch the documentaries Forks Over Knives and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  These documentaries are really interesting; I would recommend them to anyone who suspects that their diet might not be ideal (which is probably pretty much everyone, including me).  FOK talked about the ramifications of our highly processed, meat-centric diets.  I’d heard about the connection between meat and cardiovascular disease, but hadn’t heard as much about the connection between various types of cancer and animal protein (including the proteins found in dairy).  I’m going to do some more research into it, but it seems as though minimal amounts of animal protein don’t have the same detrimental effects as the amount found in most American diets.  I already don’t eat much dairy (I don’t like cheese unless it’s on pizza), and I have one or two 4 oz servings of meat a day.  I’ve been trying to only eat meat that is grass-fed and free range, or sustainably-caught wild fish, and since these tend to be more expensive, eating less of them is appealing.  So I think I’ll just try to replace a little more meat with plant protein, but continue to eat it.

                Overall, I’m just going to aim for moderation.  I know I can’t cut out all desserts or breads or steaks, but I can reduce my intake of those while increasing fruits and vegetables.  This way I’ll get plenty of nutrients and naturally find my way to an optimal race weight, while still enjoying life.

Motivation: