Tag: Grain-Free

Carbs, Carbs, Carbs!

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha! Oh wait, this isn’t The Brady Bunch. Things don’t get resolved in a single half-hour episode!

Although I could go for some sweet 70s fashion right about now…

KEEP ON KEEP ON KEEP ON KEEP ON DANCIN' ALL THROUGH THE NIIIIIIGHT!
KEEP ON KEEP ON KEEP ON KEEP ON DANCIN’ ALL THROUGH THE NIIIIIIGHT!

Ahem.

Today I had been feeling run down and I got to talking to my soul-twin Elaine. She’s big into weight lifting and has fully switched to clean eating over the past few months and is an overall badass bitch (this is a good thing). She thought I was missing some nutrients and asked me what my carb/fat/protein ratios were in what I was eating now.

I was all like “uh…I eat foods and stuffs” because I had no fucking idea. I’M NOT A ROBOT.

She ordered me to figure out what I had been eating so I started calculating my food intake for the day, and two things became glaringly obvious:

1. I wasn’t eating nearly enough calories.
2. I wasn’t eating enough fat or carbs.

The beauty of the plan I’m doing now is that I don’t have to count calories. The downside is that while I’m not hungry, I had been inadvertently been starving myself nutritionally. While I’ve been eating very well, those vegetables are really low in calories! Also, since I’m training for a half marathon, I really needed to make sure I was getting all the carbs I needed.

Thus, she gave me marching orders to consume more carbs – and good carbs! Guess I need to go to the store!

Oh sweet potatoes, how I love you so.
Oh sweet potatoes, how I love you so.

Since I was really low on my carbs today by the time I talked to Elaine, I made the call to add a pseudo diet-friendly bit of quinoa to my chicken Mexican bowls1 tonight. I say “pseudo” because it’s technically a grain, but since it’s so high in protein, the less-strict grain-free/dairy-free2 people out there say it’s “ok once a week.”

Now I need to really make sure to keep my carb/fat/protein percentages (40/30/30) in check and to make sure I eat enough calories. Blah blah blah….PROFIT!

Fun stuff!

———-

1 – Chicken and jalapeños sautéed with a bit of chili powder and cumin served over 1/2 cup of quinoa, a bunch of halved cherry tomatoes, an entire avocado (healthy fats, y’all!) and some salsa and lime juice. Fucking delicious.

2 – the diet I’m on is based on the paleo plan, but I’m not going to be all crazy-strict about it. Plus I like butter, so I’m gonna use it.

I Got Lucky!

Today was the Get Lucky 7k race!

Start time was 9am and the temperature was a “balmy” 22F. I wore one less set of layers than I did at the Polar Dash, and it seemed to work well.

In fact, since there was little to no breeze and it was nice and sunny, I ended up taking off my outer layer and ran with just my wicking undershirt and my lightweight running shirt for more than half of the race. Ended up with a respectable time of 47:26 (10:51/mi) – not too shabby since I only ran twice this week at two miles each and had to stop to take off my outer layer.

However, my morning pre-race routine was thrown into chaos since I started my grain-free/dairy-free diet yesterday. I had to figure out at 7am what I could eat and not 1) puke and/or 2) bonk out mid-race. My typical pre-race meals have been one of the following (with coffee):

  • Peanut butter on multigrain bread.
  • Oatmeal or Cream of Wheat with brown sugar.
  • Peanut butter and banana smoothie with vanilla protein powder.

See a pattern? Grains, grains, grains1!

Instead, I ended up having a fried egg and three clementines washed down with some green tea. I didn’t have coffee because my stomach was feeling a bit upset this morning so I didn’t want to make things worse by throwing coffee at it.

Overall, I think that the egg + fruit plan was a solid one. Although in hindsight, I would have had two eggs before leaving the house, then eating the fruit 45 min before the race start time so I can take full advantage of the sugars for race time. Also, if I had been thinking clearly, I could’ve done the smoothie using almond butter – but I was tired and I didn’t feel like waking up my husband2 by running the VitaMix3 at 7am.

If I stick to this eating plan after the 30 days are up, I’ll need to really assess my fueling strategy for the half marathon in June. I’m pretty sure the Tri-Berry Gu Energy Gel packets are out since it’s nothing but a packet of pure sugar (a no-no on this plan).

I also discovered that there are only two things available at a post-race food area that I can now consume: bananas and water. The rest of it is all chips/pretzels, yogurt, candy bars, etc. Well, those two things are better for me anyway!

Back to the race – I really liked the swag they gave out:

Finishers medal.
Finishers medal.
The front of the hoodie. Ignore my crazy hair.
The front of the hoodie. Ignore my crazy hair.
The back of the hoodie.
The back of the hoodie.

The only downside is that I’m wearing the hoodie now and every time I look down or see myself in the mirror, I get Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” stuck in my head.

And now you do too. You’re welcome.

———-
1 – well, technically “grains, grains, legumes!” but that didn’t sound as good. 😛

2 – he’s been sick most of the week and based upon the lack of warming tents at the last race by this organization, I thought it better he stay home and not get sicker. They have a great bag check system, so I wasn’t concerned about wrangling my stuff.

3 – it sounds like a jet engine revving up for takeoff. It’s not quiet. 🙂