Lately nutrition has been a big topic on a lot of blogs I read. Chuckie V really drilled it into the ground a couple weeks ago, and The Everyday Athlete had a great series of posts recently. The main emphasis? Eat simple.
Avoid foods with huge ingredient lists. Your body has to process that crap. Generally, if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. In other words: If it can't come out of your mouth, don't put it in your mouth! Chuck has been on a rather extreme (but convincing) caveman bit recently. The idea is to eat the foods that we evolved on. It's more extreme than a lot of people would go, but sadly it does make sense. Heidi had a great list of Ten Super Foods recently. Her list is simple too, foods like: cottage cheese, apples, fish, eggs, almonds. Simple foods.
Recently I've been trying to revamp the way I eat once again. I'm taking it in steps, though, otherwise I have a feeling I wouldn't stick with it. Every week, a few new foods to add to the mix. This week I added eggs, almonds, raisins, and tuna. So far, I'm enjoying the variety. More filling food for breakfast and healthier snack choices -- its so incredibly easy to grab a handful of almonds on the way out the door!
I'm not sure what I'll add next week, but I'm open to suggestions and will be trying at least one or two new foods. What healthy foods can't you live without?
On a completely different note, I've decided to make some changes to my training plans this year. Remember the goal for a 1:20 half marathon in May? I'm throwing that out the window. It isn't that I don't think its possible, I do, but I don't think its smart. Going for such a fast time so soon would be absolutely begging for injury. I need to keep building my base. I can't be stupid.
The result for my training? I'm getting rid of my ultra-fast tempo runs. Faster runs are staying on my agenda, just none of the six minute pace stuff. I'm going to back it off a bit and train below my lactic threshold for a while; the goal is to keep my HR under 175 on my hard runs. Once I no longer see any benefit from this, I'll start working in faster stuff. For now, though, I'm noticeably improving every single week, so why risk the injury? My major races are ages away!
My race schedule is getting altered a little bit as a result. I'm only going to run one of the half marathons (St. Louis, April 6th) and then focus on triathlons through July. In June I will have my tri for TNT, then in July I'm strongly considering the Half Ironman in Racine, WI. After I survive that, its back to a focus on running to Hammer. Like. Hell. At. Chicago.
Two major peaks for the year: the Half IM and Chicago. Everything else I'm mostly going to train straight through.
Sound like a game plan? I think so!
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8 comments:
Now there's a conflict Paleo and cottage cheese! I did the Paleo for three months and it's great, restrictive, but great. I will be 85/15ing it again later this month.
On Paleo: Chicken breasts - you eat a lot of these, cashew butter, golden delicious apples
Off Paleo: Oatmeal, Fage F/F Greek Yoghurt and good cheese
Foods I totally live on and how I lost 30 lbs!
cottage cheese (Knudsen nonfat)
apples (Fuji or Gala)
fish (Fresh caught from the Cap)
eggs( Brown, Organic)
I only eat Almonds only once in a while becuase I tend to over do it with nuts.
Sounds like a great plan. I'm glad you aren't trying to kill yourself.
oatmeal
apples
tuna
chicken
cottage cheese
I'm starting to see a trend here.
Here's my new favorite snack. Core a granny smith apple, then slice it through, use the slices like a sandwich and put a piece of lean ham or turkey between. Add cheese also if you like.
I'm totally in the process of really and truly eating better, so this was just what I needed today! Thanks for reading my mind!
WHOOOAA WHooooAA Whooooaaa this is too much good food talk for me LOL. I know, I know, I gotta get with the program . . .but it's soooo hard *whine* (Could you pass me some cheese :P)
For nutrition, I simply try and eat lots of fruit and vegetables and a white meat or fish. Stay away from baked snacks and fast foods. There aren't a lot of ingredients to decipher if you eat fruit, vegetables and a simple slab of meat/fish!
Hi, Doug,
My fave healthy foods for this time of year are plain yogurt with good local honey, kale sauteed with olive oil and salt, whole wheat bread, and winter squash. We buy all our food from a farmer's market, but I realize that won't always be possible on a busy student's schedule.
Great idea on the new kind of tempo run! I'm really enjoying following your progress.
Your training adjustments sound really smart. I was just reading a CTS article that contained similar advice.
Also, the food.
Good on ye.
I have been struggling in the past week to meet my lean protein requirements as I haven't had as much time to cook and I am burnt out, for the moment, on cottage cheese.
Enter the hard-boiled egg - another favorite I'd forgotten. Egg whites only, usually, unless I can fit in some extra fat and want to get the Omega3's from a yolk or two. I buy eggs by the flat (60) and steam them instead of boiling them.
I'm telling you, man, I'm the hard-boiled egg master!!
Greens. Greens are what I haven't been doing well at lately. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
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