So my diet has just been really random for awhile now...somewhere in between really awful and ok. I've gotten into the habit of just saying yes to anything. Do I HAVE to grab a mediocre workplace cupcake? MUST I dump a handful of shredded cheese into my mouth? Am I REALLY hungry when I continue to shovel fries into my fryhole? I'm making it sound worse than it is, but what I really miss are ways to incorporate unique (to me) HEALTHY foods into my menus. Enter two sites that I've recently found; two places I need to use more often: Cooking with Quinoa and No Meat Athlete. [The latter I discovered via J&M's blog!] As I've gushed to pretty much anyone who knows me, quinoa pretty much kicks ass when it comes replacing the same-old, same-old brown, or God-forbid, white rice. It's particularly great when you're cutting meat out of your diet because it's jam-packed with protein.
"But I don't wanna cut meat out of my diet!" That's fine...I had a turkey taco tonight! But yesterday I had black beans, pineapple, red cabbage, spinach, and onion topped with soy sauce/pineapple juice/smoked paprika over brown rice (I'm bringing it back IN after my quinoa rampage last month!) My point is that I've found that when I make vegetarian-centric meals, I feel a lot more adventurous. Meat's expensive too, and I'm a cheap bastard. If you're looking for a place to start, I'm sure at LEAST one of these sounds delicious!!
With my resurgence of running, I've noticed that I'm just not as *there* whilst exercising. "I shouldn't be this tired" I say to myself. So I just don't think I fuel properly before/after...protein, electrolytes, etc. Well, last night I made my own protein bars...the syrup doesn't make it THE healthiest thing in the world at about a TB per bar, so here's No Meat Athlete's version. Definitely going to try it next.
For the past two weeks, running HAS been getting easier. Well not "easier" per se, but less daunting. When I first started and tried SO HARD to eek out a 3miler, I thought: HOW in the HELL am I going to run a half marathon. I don't wanna :( Today I ran 4 and it felt great! Tough, but great! Baby steps ;)
My First Stroller 5K
2 weeks ago
Yay! You have really gotten around the No Meat Athlete site! I'm glad I found it for you ;)
ReplyDeleteThe half wasn't "too" bad lol.. the longest I ran before was a 10K. I definitely recommend doing more than that!! I am super duper sore! And remember, the first time you do it, it's automatically a personal record! :)
haha! YES! When I was falling asleep I remembered "wait a minute, Myra was the one who blogged about NMA!" and I made a point to update my blog this morning...you beat me to it ;)
ReplyDeleteBetween the Half that I trained for and the Half that I didn't, the difference was clear. My times were only three minutes apart, but the race itself was insanely more difficult! I'm going to stick to it, this time around!
Ok, so I'm a douche and haven't used the quinoa you so generously left me :(
ReplyDeleteI didn't cook as many dinner recipes in April like I normally do cuz we got so busy on the weekends, but I'm getting back ON it this month. I NEED to learn some quinoa recipes and just DO it already! I think I'll start with your balsamic recipe since I know it and like it :)
Aww! My first link up :-) you're sweet to do it!
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