A Box of Chocolates

Hi. It's Laura.

Thursday morning a package showed up in the mail. It was from The Mom. I knew exactly what it was before I even opened it. It’s Easter Candy.

The box contains two hand crafted solid milk chocolate bunnies, two peanut butter chocolate eggs about the size of my fist and a glad storage bag of jelly beans. I am sitting here staring at the box debating on whether or not I should or should not indulge (its only Thursday and sweets are for days that start with "S"). I know I shouldn't because once I start on the jelly beans it’s all over. I will eat every last one of them and then feel guilty for doing so. The OCD part of me will log it into MyFitnessPal where I can brood over it all day.

I do have to say "thank you Mom"! I love the gesture. I will indulge on Sunday.

I also have in front of me my afternoon snack: a homemade geen smoothie (spinach, celery, cucumber, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup pineapple, 1/2 nonfat plain Greek yogurt). YUM! It really is quite tasty and my two pieces of citrus chia food superfood power snack (also yum but the damn seeds get stuck in my teeth). Oh the dilemma. But the "rules” win. SWEETS ONLY ON DAYS THAT BEGIN WITH "S" (thank you Michael Pollan).

In years past I would not have even hesitated and I would have dove right into the box. It would all be gone, if not by the next day but definitely, by Sunday. That was before. And by Before I mean, before I knew where in the body that sugar was going and exactly what it was going to do to my body. Once you know something, you cannot un-know it.

So how do you go from eating a box of chocolates without hesitation to actually embracing the green smoothie?

Nutritional education.

It is amazing to me that adults do not know what or how to eat. The more I think about it, who would teach them? A piece of fruit is not breakfast. Orange juice has more sugar in it than full fat ice cream. Doritos are not food.

Little things.

I know there are so many ads and TV programs and magazines that are talking about the latest superfood (chia seeds, goji berries). There are the latest diets, when to "fuel" and how to "recover" that I think we kind of all forgot the basics. Once you have got down the basics then we get more advanced.

Somewhere along the line we went from, eat an apple a day (sound advice FYI) to superfoods and boosters and gels. What happened to the step in the middle where you eat food like spinach, celery and chicken? You are supposed to get your nutrition from whole foods. “The basics”.

Let's start with knowing how much you are supposed to eat ad when. You should eat when you are hungry and drink when you are thirsty (one thing you are going to start to hear about is WHEN to eat for athletic recovery and we are not there yet). You should also stop eating when you are no longer hungry not when you are stuffed.

Your body is pretty smart it can actually tell when you need food. How much to eat? Aah that is the tricky question. There is a formula for that called the Basal Metabolic Rate. That number will give you the right amount of calories based on your age, height, weight and some calculators also have an additional button to add how active you are.

For our purposes, we are going to use a 50 year old, 5'9" male who works in an office [Editor’s Note: Hey!!!!!].

He will need to consume 1900 calories per day to maintain his current weight. I used this calculator from about.com. Right now we are not going to worry about if he wants to lose weight or gain weight, just what he should eat per day.

I bet you most people just don't know their true caloric need and eat too little or too much and usually the wrong things (especially if you think Doritos are food). And get lucky because they are not fat (yet).

What would a day of food look like for this man? Taking into account 3 meals and one snack, he should eat approximately 583 calories per meal and a 150 calorie snack or a little more.

This is not exact science so 10 calories here and there would be ok.

Breakfast: whole wheat English muffin - 150 calories

1/2 cup of egg whites 75 calories

Two slices of Canadian bacon 40 calories

1 cup of skim milk 80

8 oz of V8 60

Breakfast is 405 calories. If he is hungry mid-morning he has some left over calories for a small snack. What is a small snack? Almonds, 10 of them should do the trick.

Lunch you ask? easy easy. 6 oz. of turkey breast 228 calories (of course this a turkey breast with no skin) or he can mix and match turkey and chicken or ham. lean protein!

Add 2 cups of spinach, cucumbers, radishes, onions, broccoli, asparagus or any other vegetable of choice into a salad. 2 cups of spinach has about 13 calories. He can have more if he wants! His salad so far is pretty low in calories we have room for 2 tablespoons of reduced fat salad dressing ( 150 calories), add a piece of bread ( 100 calories) wheat NOT WHITE and lunch is 478 calories. He even has room for dessert, maybe a cup of strawberries.

Do you see where I am going here? Actual food and vegetables. Items with names that are identifiable. Gogurt? What is that? I am always shocked when I go into the snack aisle to get peanuts or popcorn and see things with wacky made up names that mean nothing so that kids will beg their parents to buy them. (ah marketing)

Tips and tricks: leafy greens, greens, lean protein, more vegetables (even I eat Brussels sprouts these days) skim milk, eggs or egg whites, nuts & seeds, then fruit and save the treats for the weekends.

Like I said once you know how added sugars and non-food foods affect your body, it makes it very difficult to consume things that are not so good for you (or just are not food, did I say potato chips?). We get so caught up in the latest and greatest that if we just stuck to the basics we as a whole would a lot better off at least when it comes to food.

Thank you Mom ;)

Play hard & eat well.

Laura

TMI? You Decide.

Hi. It's Laura

I must begin with an apology for providing TMI. The content today, at least in the beginning, may be too much. I promise not to linger too long on the embarrassing parts.

I know every home and every person is different. This is why some people choose to wear matching neon caps and sneakers while they run and others like to stick to basic black or blue and not stand out too much.

I started thinking about people's person rituals and habits before they go out to exercise. I went back to pee for the third time before I left the house this morning. As said earlier, you may learn more about me in this blog than you really wanted to know. If that is the case stop reading and wait for Friday's entry.

On the days when I work out in the morning, my routine is pretty much the same: hit the snooze button at least twice. This is a very important piece of my morning. I do not wake well, and at 5:10 when the alarm starts going, the 10 extra minutes of lolling around and trying to get my eyes to open is the key to my day. My eyes are very sensitive in the mornings and they take a little time to open (this is only the case when I wake up with alarm, natural waking does not have the same effect).

Once out of bed, the parade starts: first the black cat, then the white cat, then me, then the dog and we all proceed into the kitchen. The cats beg for food, the dog begs for attention all while I struggle to find the coffee cups because my eyes are just not quite open yet (thankfully they are in the same place every day).

Once the first cup of coffee is poured, I move to the end of the sofa, mutter a good morning to The Husband and figure out how I feel before I start my day. This all takes about 15 minutes.

Do I feel energized? Do I feel sore? Tired? Do I really want to go out and do whatever exercise I have scheduled for myself (99.9% of the time that answer is yes)? On my tired days I try to figure out if I can somehow make the workout shorter (rarely does this happen) or not go at all (even more rare). On my energized days, there is no thought there is just go or must go. And on the sore days, I talk myself into it by reminding myself that the soreness will work itself out once I get going (I know soreness can be a huge factor for a lot of people to call it quits for the day.  If this is you, I promise if you start moving it will feel better).

Now for the second cup of coffee. Technically it is not really a second cup. I usually only get about half way through the first one before It gets cold and it needs to be refreshed. About this time, it's time to move.

I have learned from past experience it best that I lay my clothes out the night before. The weather is a big deal in our house. The Husband and I take turns walking the dog in the mornings. If you are going to spend an hour outdoors, it’s best to know what is going on out there. Not to mention, I prefer running and cycling outdoors. So I do need to know how to dress to be comfortable. There is no sense fumbling around in the morning. If you know you are a procrastinator, you may want to try putting your clothes out the night before. If you don't work out in the morning, and go after work, you may want to pack your gear and put it near the door and grab it when you leave. One less excuse!

My dressing ritual is fairly easy since the clothes are on the dresser along with Vaseline for my feet and Glide for other parts. The trickier part is which hat and which gloves. I have cold gloves and colder gloves also a cold hat and a colder hat not to mention two different baseball style running caps (usually not an option below 40 degrees). FYI, I am a basic black or blue not a neon green.

Now the hard part, leaving. Along time ago, I suffered from serious anxiety about leaving the house and commuting to work. I am sure it was NOT agoraphobia but something like it but more mild because I actually did leave the house every day. I guess some days are just like that. I start thinking about the actual park where I am going to run, the run itself, the hills that I am going to have to climb and the people I will see. So instead of walking out the door, I pee.

I am ready to go again and think “what if I hurt myself?”, “What if I get hit by a car or a bus?”, “What if I have to pee during my run?” so I pee. At this point my mother would say I am silly. I think about how beautiful the sky will be rising over Central Park. I think about how great I will feel when I am finished and how proud I will be of myself for completed my task. So I pee again. And then I leave.

We all have habits and rituals that are important to our success. I am sure some shrink somewhere would call them OCD or some kind of syndrome. These are the mechanisms that help us cope. Whether it is to go to work or out to exercise or even for an evening out with friends. Knowing these things about ourselves aides us in our success if we embrace them and own them.

Know thyself.

Laura

Week One Day One

Hi. It's Laura.

It’s been a long time (forever in technology days) but, unfortunately, shit happens.

After a rough January and February, March is off to a rocky start.

Where to to begin? December is probably the best place to start. The Saturday before Christmas, walking around the apartment in bare feet, I slammed my pinky toe into one the cubes in our living room. OOOH the pain!

We left for a week long ski trip the next morning. Although the pain was severe in regular shoes, I was able to put on ski boots and ski the entire week. Once we got back, a visit to the podiatrist proved the toe was broken. I was on strict orders: no running for at least six more weeks. Of all of the things that I like to do, running is on top of the list. Imagine my disappointment. I knew I had until the end of March before I had to start training for the triathlon so I was not overly concerned. There of course was the need to stay in shape and build cardio endurance without running.

I swam, I took spin class, I boxed and then, finally after six weeks, I was given the nod to start running again. I immediately signed up for a half marathon in April without a whole lot of thought as to my upcoming schedule. I figured I can run 13.1 no problem! I have done it before and I thought I would have plenty of time.

I did have the time until I looked at my calendar for March. The second week in March I was at a fitness conference in Las Vegas. Everyone says, Woo-Hoo Vegas. Uh,no. It did not work like that at all.

I flew into Vegas on Monday afternoon in order to get settled in and orientated to my environment. I have been to Las Vegas once before and that one was a hazy blur (tequila anyone?) So I thought it in my best interest to walk around and find everything before class starts at 7:30 AM on Tuesday.

I found everything I needed to find. I moved my dinner reservation up to 5:15PM since it was originally 6:45 but, being on East Coast time, I was never going to last that long. I ate at Gordon Ramsay Steak, (where is my expense account please?) had one glass of wine and tucked myself in at 7:00PM. It felt strange to be going to bed in Vegas of all places at 7 but it was 10 at home and I had an early start. I was exhausted and passed right out. I was well rested by 6:00 A.M.Pacific time (when is the last time you had 10 hours of sleep and slept through all of them?). As it turned out, I was going to need it.

Tuesday’s classes started at 7:30AM and ended at 7:30PM. When it was all said and done, I was a Schwinn certified spin instructor. It’s a lot like getting a driver's license. I have the license with no on road solo experience. That will change.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much the same. Workouts started at 6:45AM classes with workouts and workshops running all day with no scheduled break until 7:45pm. I was never so exhausted or in so much pain.

Red eye home Thursday night. You would think after all of that sleeping on the plane home would be easy. Nope. Perhaps because it’s not natural to sleep sitting up.

Home, Yay! I was grateful to be home, even for a short period of time. My time here was only 24 hours before we left for our ski vacation. This sounds great right? An intense conference for four days to be followed immediately by a ski vacation for one week. It was great but now I need rest!

Ski conditions started great (hard packed, blue bird skies) and then it snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed. We skied through it all which, if you have never skied or have never skied powder, is a lot of work. There was plenty of napping après ski. We could not have asked for better conditions for our ski vacation. Last year, we were gone the same week and we played golf but only because it was 85 degrees every day.

Now we are home and back to work and today is the first day of official triathlon training.

In my mind's eye, the day did not start the way I would have planned it. If I could have designed the day, it would be at least 10 degrees warmer and sunny with no threat of snow (I love snow in VT not so much in NYC). I would have had a better night’s sleep. Sadly, I tossed and turned. I was hot, I was cold, I had to pee and I was thirsty. Let's also add to the list, some girl stuff.

5:30AM time to move, first the dog, then me. The first workouts of the week are a 45 minute run and a 1500 meter swim. There is only one problem with that. The pool at the JCC is closed for its annual maintenance (Passover apparently is a good time to do pool work).

What to do? I could do nothing but I chose to row instead. Rowing utilizes a lot of the same muscles as swimming so I thought it would be the best option for me until the pool reopens next Wednesday. The run was good. A little windy but the park was empty and the temperature was not all that bad.

Overcoming so many obstacles on day one, I am taking as an omen that things can only get better from here.

Play hard!

Laura