350/365 Plantz a-Make Her Dance: Tips for Getting More Vegetables into Your Diet

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

We know fruits and vegetables are great for us but are we eating them as often as we should? According to the USDA, we are supposed to consume 3-5 servings of vegetables a day. I know it can be hard to add them into your diet but here are a few techniques I use that may be helpful to you:

- If you eat salad, put all of your chopped romaine, spinach, Bibb/Boston, etc. lettuce in a container at the beginning of the week.I have been reusing the same giant, plastic container I got months ago when I bought Earthbound Organics's Spring Mix. Every weekend I go to the grocery store, chop up all my lettuce for the week, and store it in that container. It makes it so easy for me to put handfuls of salad into my container to take to work in the morning.

egg white omelette with broccoli, celery, onions, and mushrooms

- I've always loved omelettes but, never thought I'd ever have time to make them. Not so! My dad is a genius when it comes to working smarter and not harder. He stores all his chopped veggies in a container so he can just take a handful to fry (in grape seed oil, of course) when he's ready for breakfast. You can be so creative with these. This week I'm enjoying red bell peppers, onions, shitake mushrooms, and Chinese eggplant. Putting in that extra effort to chop everything ahead of time cuts down breakfast making by half. This meal also gets an A+ if you're paleo, more on that later.

- Though it's better to have fresh vegetables over frozen, I understand it's hard to take time to chop your vegetables every week. An easy way to prepare vegetables is to steam them either in the microwave or on the stove. If you're microwaving, pour your veggies in a bowl and fill the bottom with water. Microwave it for 3-4min. They should be vibrant and tender. If they aren't, microwave them a minute more at a time until they are.

- If you've got a little more time and want to be a little more ambitious, try roasting your vegetables. Set the oven to 350F. Get your vegetables together. I recommend broccoli, bell peppers, cauliflower, and potatoes to start. Chop them all about the same size and put them in a bowl. Pour oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder over the vegetables. Toss until they are evenly coated. Spread the vegetables onto a pan and bake them for about 25-30 minutes. Your veggies should be fragrant and a little brown but, not burnt, toasty on the outside and tender. Who knew vegetables could be so dynamic? Roasted vegetables are amazing. I love them. I could eat them literally every day AND since they shrink down and are so tasty you can scarf a whole mess of them down without even realizing it. Heck, you could easily get all 5 servings from roasted vegetables. Moving on...


Vegetables are not as grab-and-go as granola bars or yogurt cups but they are definitely great for you. If you're not convinced that vegetables are super cool or want more of a challenge, watch this video. Jose Andreas is just the coolest:

In health,
Lauren

348/365 It's Me Again because Guess What...It's Never too Late!

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Wow, it's almost been exactly one year since my last blog post. I know you missed these blog posts blowing up your news feed  :)

So first off, this blog is a testament to the fact that it's never too late to hop back on the wagon. Maybe you set out to work out four days a week but, have only worked out twice in the last three weeks. It's OK! You can always start over. If you've taken psychology in any capacity, I'm sure you've heard of Prochaska's Stages of Change. Basically, you start out wanting to change a behavior, you plan for it, you're ready to go, you do it, you maintain it...forever. But, as we all know, life does not work like that. We get busy. It's the holidays. You've run out of steam and can't think of another fitness topic to blog about...there are plenty of reasons to get off the wagon. Prochaska says, "Ain't no thang baby! Get back out there and try again."

I feel like this post is appropriate since it's nearly February. At this point, you may be a champ and have kept up your New Year's Resolutions. You may be like me and never made a resolution for 2013. It's okay. We can make one now. We can make a new one. We can restart an old one. The world is your oyster, kid. Take hold and do something!

Here are my resolutions for 2013:
1. Finish this blog, maybe even post more than 365 posts
2. PR for my 10K time, shooting for under 53 minutes; under 50 minutes would be really nice
3. Practice yoga at least three times a week
4. Hike and get outside way more; I've got a calendar made already, look out for it and join me if you can! More on that later.

I'm back, internet friends, and it feels good.

In health,
Lauren

347/365 Trying for Triathlons

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Run, Forrest, Run! That's all I've been doing for the past few months. Running and yoga have been my exercise modes to train for this half marathon. One day while icing my knees after a run, I realized that I should probably cross train so I don't wear out my body one step at a time. Since I can't imagine running for 5 hours (the minimum I would be running for a full marathon), and I have a feeling that my body won't be able to take the pounding of running for long, I thought about what other activities I could do. Why not a triathlon?

I've always written off triathlons saying, "Well, the biking I could do but, swimming? Pssh...swimming is not for me." With a pool at my gym/work, there was no way I could continue ignoring that aspect of training. The lifeguards at my pool are super friendly and were eager to help me work on my form. I'm now into my 3rd week of swimming and am in love with it! Swimming well really just comes down to form (teaser...get excited for a post all about swimming!)

Running? Check. Swimming? Check. Biking? Pending.

Again, using my undergrads as resources, a girl on the cycling team was able to direct me to a sweet road bike by Specialized. I still know nothing about bikes, what you should look for, what's good, what isn't but, I'm told that the Specialized Dolce for Women is an excellent bike to begin one's love affair with cycling.

My next step is to actually get the bike and ride. There are tons of resources on the web for how to train for a triathlon. My modus operandi for now will just be to get all three activities in during the week with some yoga and strength training too. Eventually, I'll have to work on transitioning from cycling to running but that will come in due time. Until then, perhaps give triathlons a second look...the swimming part isn't really that bad!


In health,

Lauren

346/365 Fruit and Veggie Smoothie...Wonder Drug?

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

In my family, my dad is notorious for health fads, specifically fruit/vegetable smoothies.  Every few years since I was young we have welcomed a new blender into our kitchen and the smoothie craze would begin. We drank everything from carrot juice to green juice to mangosteen and back to carrot juice again, and so on. These phases would last a few months then die out. My father has always had an obsession for juicing. This time I think it's here to stay.

My dad showing off the variety in our daily smoothie

After watching a documentary on food and healthy eating, my father made a list of foods that we should eat on a daily basis. These foods include kale, beans, cauliflower, red wine, mushrooms, beets, and so much more. It's a lot to prep and cook these foods. My father is all about working smarter and not harder; enter smoothie phase 2012. He decided to invest in the Ninja Kitchen System 1100. Here he can stuff all the veggies and fruits possible (pears, beets, radishes, an apple, grapes, acai juice, celery, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, kiwi, a banana, berries, and flaxseed since variety is key!) and blend them to a pulp. In about 1 minutes and 30 seconds you have a variety of nutrients blended and several servings and fruits and vegetables gulped down into your body.

We certainly don't do it for the taste. We drink this mad concoction because we know it is a great way to prevent disease and infection. Note the dominance of vegetables in this smoothie. Vegetables have less sugar than fruits and are still packed with antioxidants. I think we can all agree that we get plenty of sugar in the rest of our diet and it's harder to eat lots of vegetables compared to lots of fruits. I don't feel particularly healthier just yet but I'm sure the unseen processes in my body are singing. With all the running and swimming (more later) I'm doing, I'm certain my cells are thankful for the antioxidants to battle the stressors and free radicals floating around inside me. I will say this, my dad's hair is darker and thicker than it's been in a long time. "Pope head," as my parents have lovingly called balding, seems to have been staved off at least for now. Cheers!

In health,
Lauren

345/365 Thrills of Running Down Hills

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Running hills are a great way to train to run faster. The motion of running on an incline is an exaggeration of how we run on flat ground. By training up hills, you can work on your knee drive upwards and your leg extension as you propel yourself forward. If you find a nice stretch of hill (like 400m/0.25mi), sprint up and jog down four to six times for a quick and exhilarating work out. Form is crucial for running up and down the hills to avoid injury and increase performance.

As you may know, my cousin and I are training for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in March. Our neighborhood offers a nice variety of terrain for us to run including those dreadful hills. Too many hills on our runs seems to have caused my cousin's knee to bother her. She went to the local running store to purchase a sleeve for her knee. The sales associate however advised her to wait on the sleeve and to just try to take it easy and not run so many hills. Since we cannot just make perfectly flat routes out of thin air, he coached her on how to approach declines.

When running down a hill, I usually just let my body fly while still maintaining a toe strike; I feel my knees a little more when I do that. Instead, he suggested to run with a gentle heel to mid strike and to lean forward. Your lean doesn't start at your waist but at your ankles to keep your posture the same as if you were running on flat ground. This requires you to bend your knees more on your landing and be more aware of your posture. I tried doing this and in fact, I did go down a lot faster with more control and no knee pain. Speaking of knees, be sure to ice after a tough run especially if you have previous injuries. Icing will decrease inflammation and speed recovery; 15-20min is ideal.

As always, stand tall, tuck your pelvis underneath you, drive your knees straight up (to avoid twisting of any kind), keep your shoulders and head back, and have a great run.


In health,

Lauren

344/365 New Year's Goals

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

I was talking with my client and friend Anthony today about New Year's Resolutions. We've decided to scrap "resolutions" and replace it with "goals". Behavior changes can happen anytime. Although the new year is a nice round reason to make a new change, I and my fellow gym staff members can tell you that these behavior changes die out by February. Instead, we shall make goals of things we'd like to accomplish over the year.

Since I have this neat blog, I can look back to what my goals were last year. Out of my four fitness related goals, this is how I did:
- Beat my 10K personal record (PR)
    - I injured myself before my 10K race in June and didn't run one for time afterwards
- Participate in at least 3 races of any distance
    - I signed up for one race but got injured before it
- Take kickboxing or some martial arts class
    - I taught a kickboxing class when I worked for Verizon, not sure if that really counts
- Become or work on becoming a yogi starting with 1 session/week
    - I do yoga 2-3 sessions/week, success!


My scorecard does not look very good at the moment... However, I am determined to do better this year! I'm so excited about it that I wrote it down yesterday. 


- Continue to be a yogi
- Participate in 3 or more races (I'm already signed up for 2!)
- PR for 10K
- Go hiking in at least 5 places I've never been

Who wants to share? Happy goal making and have a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration!

In health,
Lauren

PS: As my mother still says, "Don't drink too much tonight."

343/365 What's GU, Pussycat?

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

My cousin and I are training for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in DC next year, who's in? "But, Lauren," you think to yourself, "how could I ever run a half marathon?" Well, I am still asking that question to myself even as my cousin and I are doing our long runs on the weekend. How does one train for a half marathon?

I am certainly no expert on the subject of long distance running, I just do whatever my cousin tells me otherwise I probably would stop training altogether. Our game plan though is to run just 3 times a week. On off days, I do yoga to stretch out my calves, hip flexors, hamstrings, and core to help recover and prevent injury. Day One of running is 2 miles run and Day Two is a slightly longer run. These runs are meant to keep the wheels greased, to train our minds to easily conquer that first leg, and to work on speed. Our long run on the weekends started at 4 miles and have gotten longer by 1-1.25 miles each week. Once we got over the 10K marker (6.2 mi), it was time to whip out the energy gel.

Energy gels, GU Energy, Sport Beans etc. are products that give you a boost of energy. They are mostly made with sugar to deliver energy quickly to your body; they also usually have electrolytes and protein. On a long distance run, you're burning a mixture of fats and carbs, carbs being glycogen floating around in your blood or stored in your liver. Conditioned endurance runners will be able to burn more fat since their bodies are more efficient and can take the time to use fat. At some point though, all of us will burn more carbs than fat since it takes a shorter time to burn carbs and we need the energy immediately. To top off those sugar levels, energy gels come in to save the day! By taking in a bolus of sugar that is easy to digest, we refill the bank of sugar our body can withdraw from to create more ATP, energy.

The thing to keep in mind with energy gels is timing. Though you may not feel tired 30-45 min into the race, a few more minutes longer at that intensity without fuel could be your end. It's recommended that you take a "shot" 15 min before running to top off your fuel levels and then every 30-45 min. GU Energy says to take the whole packet at once but for me, it's a little too much and I feel really weird and shaky. I take about a third each time interval and it has worked out well for me. I have yet to hit my wall, just my lactate threshold on some hills.

Before trying it, I joked about goo packs and how weird or gross they were. After two weeks of goosage (goo usage ha ha) I can truly say that they're not so bad. My gel has been hard and cold since it's been frigid outside which is fine by me. I can't imagine soft, warm gel; maybe that's just me. I've only tried GU Energy's Tri-Berry. I've also taken a few punch flavored Sport Beans before running because I actually have time to chew it. These are also pretty good, I'd just be slightly afraid of choking if I took it while running. The best thing I can recommend is giving it a try and seeing which kind/brand you like. And as always, drink water! These companies don't really say why you should drink 24-30 ounces with it but my guess is to help wash it down. Of course, you should absolutely stay hydrated whether you're running or hanging out anyway because Mama Lauren said so.

If you are a gooser (goo user ha ha), let me know what you think, what flavors you like, and which brand you enjoy the most.

In health,

Lauren