Food!

One of my good friends, Kaker, sent me a message the other day saying he was getting ready for a 5k race and wanted to know about some healthy food options to consider during his preparation.  So this post is dedicated to Kaker, hopefully I can give a little insight as to what I do on a typical daily basis to try and maintain a mostly healthy diet.

First of all, I have to mention that I am not a morning person.  Being that I need to be out my door no later than 7 on any given weekday morning, breakfast is typically one of the toughest meals for me to make sure I get in.  I think the morning rush is normal for most people, but I've found a way to make sure I eat in the morning because it really is the most important meal of the day.


BREAKFAST:

My breakfasts are pretty plain, but that's fine with me.  Here's the three things I cycle between in the AM:

- Oatmeal (I do maple and brown sugar version), sometimes I'll throw 2-3 tablespoons of canned pumpkin in for some extra flavor
- Hard boiled eggs.  I never have time to actually cook eggs in the morning (I don't want to get up earlier to cook eggs is really what I mean).  If I hard boil them, I just grab 2 out of the fridge and head out the door.
- Toast.  I usually throw just peanut butter on two pieces of toast, sometimes I'll put on honey or jelly.

Things I eat every morning:
One piece of fruit.  Usually its a banana, but lately it's been a clementine or tangerine.
1/2 cup of yogurt.  I like Greek Gods honey flavored greek yogurt.
Coffee.  You can infer why.

LUNCH:
Sometimes I eat meals at school if I'm out of food at home, but I try and make a big enough dinner the previous night that I take leftovers for lunch.

Typical Lunch:
Salad (Spinach, dried cranberries, walnuts, bleu cheese, balsamic vinaigrette)
Yogurt (low/no fat)
String Cheese
Sandwich or leftover dinner
Apple


DINNER

Dinner is another struggle for me.  I usually get home between 7 and 9 PM, and being exhausted from the day I don't want to spend 30 minutes cooking dinner.  What I try and do is have as much precooked as I can (for example, if I'm having rice as a part of dinner, I precook the rice on the weekend and keep it in my refrigerator so I don't have to wait for rice to cook when I get home).

Some typical dinners:

Ravioli 'n' veggies
Trader Joes has some kick ass packaged ravioli that I'll just throw some olive oil over (and maybe a little parmesan cheese).  Refrigerator section of most grocery stores has ravioli.  I'll also either steam or sautee some broccoli/cauliflower.  Glass of red wine to top it off.

Mexican Salad
In one pan, I'll throw rice, cilantro, black/pinto beans, peppers, onions, salsa, crumbled corn tortillas and cheese.  Really easy, quick and decently healthy.  You get your protein in the beans and a solid helping of veggies.

Stir Fry
Whatever veggies I have in my refrigerator with rice and teryaki stir fry sauce.  Goes well with beer.

Mac 'n' Cheese
Kaker, I eat mac 'n' cheese and  I love it.  If you want to add some minor benefits to it besides just being fat and carbs, you can throw in some spinach and black beans along with the cheese.  It's a great meal to eat the night before a run.

Pizza
If you make it at home, pizza can be something that actually pretty good for you.  Make your own crust, throw a bunch of veggies (I like green and red peppers, mushrooms, onion, zucchini/yellow squash, tomato, pineapple) and hold back on overloading with cheese and you've got another great pre-run meal that can last you several days!

SNACKS
There's no way I make it through my day without snacking.  I'm currently building my "snack" repertoire, but here's what I most commonly carry with me:

Nuts (almonds and pistachios are my favorites)
Hummus (really good with pretzels or wheat thins)
Peanut butter with pretzels
Apples
Carrots/broccoli
Granola bars/Cliff bars
String cheese

POST WORK-OUT

Eating within 30 minutes of completing a workout is really important.  Especially getting some protein (15-25 grams) so your muscles can start to recover.

Post-workout snacks
- PB&J/ PB & honey sandwich
- Chocolate milk
- String cheese
- Yogurt
- Smoothie/protein shake

I hope that gives you some ideas to get you started.  There a lot of places online that have great recipes that are healthy for you too!  I would recommend runnersworld.com, nomeatathlete.com, and traderjoes.com.  Good luck!

Cheers

Best of 2011!

My favorite time of the year is when I get to share all the best/coolest/most interesting things over the past year.  I think you get the game, so let's play...


Best of 2011...

Beer - Tom Johnson's Pumpkin Ale
Wine - Brother Bonarda, Wollersheim Winery
Purchase - Apartment in downtown Chicago
Moment - Getting the Ph.D. call
Movie - Inception
Song - After the Storm; Mumford and Sons
Album - Island in the Sun, Shwayze and Cisco
Artist - Mumford & Sons
Run - Along Lakeshore watching 15 foot swells
Bike - Up Grandad's Bluff
Swim - Loyola Pool smashfests with Baker
Place - Siesta Key Beach with the boys
Restaurant - Q
Food - Grilled BBQ pulled pork panini
Team - Packers
Athlete(s) - Raramuri
Book - Born to Run
Thing I learned - Balance, life is too short to work all the time
Game - Aggravation
Discovery - Amtrak (notably the lounge car with all the booze)
Accomplishment - Becoming a UWL Alumnus, BS in Bio-Medical Sciences and Chemistry Minor
Regret - Not doing a triathlon this year
Race - Hot Chocolate 15k
Most influential person - Jess
Car - Bugatti Veyron

2011 was great.  It brought a lot of changes for myself, my friends and my family.  I got to be a proud older brother when my sister accomplished her goal of landing an internship with Omni Hotels for this coming summer.  I got to make a whole bunch of new friends coming to Chicago for graduate school.  I'm looking forward to 2012 and hope to make it just as memorable.

Happy New Year
Cheers