Archive for March, 2010

28
Mar
10

Power to Push 72.34 miles

By Feerlessfood 4 Comments
Categories: breads, breakfast, Eating disorders/ recovery, Eggs, fitness and Peanut butter
Tags: , , , , , ,

Awesome day!  New personal best for me–farthest ride I’ve ever done of 65 miles.  Took 3 hour 28 minutes…loonng.  Total workout for today:     

  • 65 miles bike- 3 hours 28 minutes- 18.8 mph avg,
    • Brick with
  • 6 mile run- 41:22- 6:51 min/mile….slow for me, but I’ll take it after that ride
    • then headed to the pool
  • 2150 meter pyramid workout

Total calories burned: it doesn’t matter!

…I’m a little pooped.  I tried really hard to focus on having the correct nutrition during this entire workout, but it’s hard without someone telling me exactly what to do.  The coaches I’ve worked with have suggested about 300 calories on the bike when pushing hard.  I was able to bring 940 calories with me for the entire workout, with probably kept me going, but was insufficient for optimally recovery from that workout.  Therefore, I probably didn’t get the results that I could have from this workout! In my defense, I only have one water bottle holder on my bike…BIG mistake- need to get a couple more if I’m going to keep riding this kind of distance that way I can carry more “fuel” and one for just water.   

Speaking of fuel and calories, reframing exactly what a calorie is has been a good coping mechanism I have developed to help me have better thinking about food.  If I need a lot of “fuel” for a hard workout, as well as day-to-day life, that’s easier for me to think about than just a lot of calories.  Plus, I actually do need this fuel!   

I use a similar technique for eating fat, which as I have discussed before, if where I have the most trouble with eating.  Instead I call it “nourishment”.  Therefore, I have to make sure I have my “nourishment” at each meal.  See my previous posts on why fat is so important to our bodies.  This all may seem weird or funny to some of you, but it’s what I do and if it helps anyone else then I am glad   

And speaking of high quality fuel, check out this awesome french toast I made!  It was totally spur of the moment when I realized (gasp) I was out of real eggs.  Not a big deal, but I had cereal or oatmeal and protein shakes the past 3 days (I was brining breakfast into work with me) in a row before this and didn’t want to have that again.  So I thought this would be a good way to get a balanced breakfast.  Here’s the recipe for my “Rocket Fuel French Toast”   

  • 2/3 cup egg white or substitute or preferably 2-3 real eggs (you SHOULD use real eggs, unless are out of them like me!)
  • 3 slices bread (I used one whole wheat slice and 2 Ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread since it was lower calorie)
  • Cinnamon
  • Sliced banana
  • 1-2 tablespoons Peanut butter or Almond butter
  • Natural Jelly, honey, or syrup

When the skillet gets hot, spray it with non-stick spray.  In the meantime, put the eggs in a wide bowl.  Here, I mixed the cinnamon in so that it would be absorbed into the bread.  Dip in the bread slice and let them soak up the mixture, then transfer to the pan.  When the light crust has formed, flip and let the other side cook.  This is when to add the peanut butter on top of one of slices.  Then add the jelly if you want it.   

Put the other slice on top of the slice with peanut butter and jelly and let it heat briefly in the pan so the peanut butter is warm and melty (but not so much that you lose any!)  Move to a plate and cover with the sliced bananas.  I also served with a tall glass of milk because the meal needed more protein.  Overall, healthy carbohydrates? Check.  High quality protein source?  Check.  Healthy fats? Check.  Serving of fruit?  Check.  Serving of dairy? Check  Awesome breakfast? Check!    

   

Soakin'

Griddlin

Peanut butter and Black cherry jelly

Peanut butter, jelly, cinnamon raisin toast, bananas--yum

Sorry the last picture is blurry!   

Thanks for reading everyone, and I’ll make sure to post more frequently from now on!  Plus, I’m going to be a featured blogger on www.TriathleteFood.com, so check that out too!

21
Mar
10

Sham(Legs of)Rock Half Marathon

By Feerlessfood 5 Comments
Categories: Chicken, Dinners, Pizza and Races
Tags: , , , ,

Today was the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon at the Ocean Front!  It was gorgeous weather!  Although, as the half marathon started at 7am, it was still pretty cold when we started.  I can’t believe that I had to get up at like 5 on weekend. 

Parking sucked and I was barely able to get my bag checked as was literally trying to sneak into Corral 1 as the race started.  Therefore I didn’t get to warm up at all which is never good.  I don’t know whether or not it would have made a difference, but my logs felt like logs as we started.  At around mile 3 I was literally like, “maybe I’ll just call it a day here…”  My GPS also ran out of batteries before the race started haha.  Luckily, I caught up with a guy running like the same pace as my goal pace and ran the entire race with him.

All this being said, I set a new PR of 1:27:24- over a minute faster than the Colonial Half a few weeks ago!  Legs were smmooooked.  Check out my results if you want: http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=75423234&rsID=90124.  These are the results for Ashley Williams, haha, since I bought her spot at the last minute on Craig’s List because she couldn’t race and it was sold out.  If I compare my time to the overall time, I 98th out of 6546 overall, 84th in males, and 9th in my age division.  So I was happy with that

For Half Ironman practice, I went right to the gym and made the 9:15 cycling class with was a hard workout.  Then I came home, ATE (more- I ate after the race), took a nap, then rode my bike to they gym to do a good lift and long stretch.  Surprisingly, my body is hurting and tired, but I’m not mentally tired really at all….like I don’t think I could go to bed and fall asleep right now if I tried.  Which is weird considering what I did today and what time I got up?

Anyways, I made bagel pizzas for dinner and they were awesome!

  • 1 large whole wheat bagel
  • Tomato slices to cover the bagel hole
  • Grilled chicken breast
  • Sauce (Trader Joes)
  • Cheese of choice
  • Oregano and garlic

Toast the bagels, add the toppings, and bake for 10 minutes.  On one of the half I used cream cheese!  I was inspired by those new Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercials that talk about adding cream cheese to pasta sauce or mashed potatoes, etc.  It’s really good, haha check out www.spreadphilly.com for ideas.

Bases

Half 1

Half 2- with light cheddar and provolone

Ok still hungry…After all I did today, have I earned a treat for tonight?

18
Mar
10

Mayan Chicken

By Feerlessfood 1 Comment
Categories: Chicken, Dinners, fitness, Mexican, Nutrition and Races
Tags: , , , , ,

Good news- I got into the Shamrock half marathon this weekend!  Bough me a nice spot on Craigslist haha.  So I’ll be running as “Amy”…but hey I only paid like half the price!  I’m thinking about trying to do a long ride and a swim after to do basically a backwards Half Ironman (run, bike, swim lol).  Any thought on whether or not this would be a good idea from any of you triathletes out there?  I’ll be sure to post my results.

So you saw the picture I posted of the Aztec Chicken that I was going to try.  Well I tried it the other night and I’ll show you what it looked like below.  The recipe picture looked crispy and melty, but mine was very soggy…I knew that would happen though, but I tried it anyway.  Here’s what I did

  • Pounded out the chicken breasts and heavily seasoned them
  • Rolled the cooked peppers and onions with the cheese inside the chicken
  • Then rolled the chicken up inside the tortilla and wrapped it all in foil
  • Baked then for about 30-40 minutes at 425

They tasted awesome!  I just would have like them crispy.  But if I hadn’t baked them in the foil, the tortillas would have been burnt to a crisp before the chicken was done.  Here are the pictures:

Pounded and seasoned

In a Garlic and Herd whole grain tortilla

After cooking

I also had a good workout today- I did:

5 Rounds of:

  • 5 Hang cleans
  • 6 high box jumps
  • 7 Hand stand push ups on the box

Then 4 rounds of: 10 Barbell curls, 6 underhand barbell rows, and 12 push ups on the barbell

Finished with 4 sets of: 8 wide grip lat pull downs, 10 dips, and 4 negative pull ups

Then got in 6.75 miles in 45 minutes and 20 minutes intervals on the “harder than elliptical machine” haha

I’ve been focusing big time lately on nutrition after my workouts…like immediatley.  This is so important for muscle and glycogen recovery, having energy for the rest of the day and you’re next workout, and to prevent soreness!   So I’ve been bringing a homemade drink of Heed carbohydrate drink mixed with some protein to get a 3 or 4:1 carb protein ratio.  I’ll let you know how this affects my performance etc.  This part of my new goals: Better workout nutrition, eat more fat, get more sleep!

Night yall

13
Mar
10

I got a Sponsor!

By Feerlessfood 3 Comments
Categories: Chicken, Dinners, Mexican, Uncategorized and Workouts
Tags: , , , , , ,

I finally got an official sponsor!  Perfect Foods has given me a sponsorship for Triathlons for this year!  They make awesome products ideal for fueling active and healthy people including great, all organic bars, vitamins, protein powder, and Omega Oils.  Check out their website at www.perfectfoodsbar.com  

I’m pretty wiped out from my workout today.  I did:  

  • First circuit- 5 rounds
    • 5 Hang clean
    • 8 1 arm shoulder press
    • 10 push
  • Second circuit- 4 rounds
    • 8 (each leg) barbell step ups on to a box
    • 8 Low cable back rows
  • Third circuit- 4 rounds
    • 8 Heavy DB chest press
      • followed immediately with 10 lighter DB flyes
    • 10 Medicine ball slams (haha I broke the ball- yeah!)
    • 10 1 leg ham string curls
  • Then:
    • 47 Minute run–7.03 miles
    • 20 minutes “Harder than elliptical machine” (it doesn’t have a name on it?)
    • 20 minute time trial on bike
    • Abs and push-ups

Kinda tired now…  Anyways, here’s a new recipe I want to try.  I got it from Edible Antics.  The picture and procedure are hers, but I have adjusted the ingredients  

Aztec Chicken  

Aztec_chicken  

  • 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 sweet green pepper, sliced thin
  • 1/2 sweet red pepper, sliced thin
  • 1 medium onion, sliced thin
  • 2 Tablespoons cumin
  • 2 Tablespoons chili powder
  • 4 1-ounce slices Provolone or Swiss cheese
  • 4 Whole Wheat tortillas

Cover each chicken breast in plastic wrap (to avoid splashing) and pound until about 1/4-inch thick. In a frying pan, in olive oil, saute the peppers and onion over medium heat for 10 minutes. Dust the peppers and onions with the cumin and chili powder. Place the vegetable mixture evenly on top of the flattened chicken breasts. Top each with one slice of cheese. Roll up the chicken breasts. Place the rolled chicken breast in the center of the tortilla and roll it up, tucking in both ends, burrito-style. Wrap each in tinfoil. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Serves 4.  Haha or 2…

What I think is so cool is that the chicken goes into the tortilla raw and so it’s totally cooked when you bring it out!  I’m going to try this recipe tomorrow (I’ll post updates) but since all the chicken I had in my fridge was already cooked, I made my own concoction.  I call it, “Chicken Inca”

  • Spelt and Millet spinach tortillas
  • Cooked chicken breast
  • Peppers and Onions
  • Mexican seasonings and spices
  • Cheese of choice

Peppers and onions

Spreadable cheese

Peppers, onions, cheese, and chicken

Then I rolled these up and baked them for about 10 minutes to get the tortilla crispy.  Don’t over bake these though!  You’ll burn the tortilla which will ruin the flavor of everything else.   I guess I also forgot to take a picture of what this looked like when it came out of the oven…Lets just imagine they looked something like the picture of the Aztec Chicken!  I’ll show you guys what my version looks like tomorrow!

Leave me your nutrition and exercise questions!

07
Mar
10

Achieving the Balance, and Half Century to North Carolina!

By Feerlessfood 6 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized

Before I get into today’s post, I want to talk about a new, personal endeavour I am taking on.  For years and years I have been petrified to eat fat; I’ve blogged about this a number of times.  I’ve also written a lot of posts in favor of eating fat.  But, on this issue it has been very hard for me to practice what I preach.  But in meeting with my nutritionist this past week, Jim White (who is one of the nutrition consultants for Men’s Fitness Magazine), we talked a lot about this issue and the importance of eating the correct balances between my carbs, fats, and proteins in order to perform and function optimally.  For the demands of my diet (which is different for everyone) I need at least 20-25% of my calories to come from fat.  Currently, I was getting about 12-15% tops.   

I’ve always had an issue of feeling like my skin was loose and not tight even though I have a very low body fat and workout really hard.  Jim said that one the reasons for this was my low intake of dietary fat.  He explained to me how fat is crucial for the skin’s health, and firmness and tautness.  He had even worked with a woman living the same lifestyle as me, complained about the same skin issues, and upon finally switching to a healthier diet, developed the six-pack she had always tried for.  You can check Jim out www.Jimwhitefit.com  

So my mission is to increase my intake of fat and get it where it needs to be.  I’m going to increase my intake from healthy nuts, lean meats, healthy cheese, flax seeds, Omega-3s which I will get from Flax seed oil and fish, and nut butters.  Also, healthy amounts of saturated fats from things like butter as well, to an extent.  The key here is consistency in order to make this happen.  I think this will also give me the energy I need to take me to next level as an athlete.  As easy as this sounds, I appreciate any support you can give!  

———————————————————-  

I had no idea that I lived this close to North Carolina!  It was finally nice enough to train outside today, which was great!  I was able to get in some much needed training now that the Half Ironman is only about 9 weeks away, and that means Alcatraz is only 8 weeks away.  anyways, I did a 50 mile bike ride followed by 4.5 mile run.  Then headed over to the pool and swam 2200 meters (88 laps).  Man I’m pooped!  

But on the bike ride, I really didn’t know where I was going, I figured I would just head out and then come back the same way and try not get lost.  At about mile 21 there was a big sign that said “Welcome to North Carolina”–definitely surprised me, but it’s fun to say I rode to North Carolina and back.  As a note, there was no sign greeting me back in Virginia…come on now VA!  

When all this was finished, I decided to cook up the Pot Roast I bought at Trader Joe’s last week.  It was a super-lean and already trimmed, Cabernet flavored pot roast.  I cooked it in the crock pot on high for 4.5 hours.  I also added some extra garlic cloves and onions on top.  

Cabernet Pot Roast

  

In the CrockPot with extra garlic and onions

  

All cooked

  

It tasted great!  But I think I’m cooking things too long in the crockpot because they seem to losing so much liquid.  By weight, I was hoping this would last me 4 meals, but I’m not sure it will now…  I served it with a baked potato and broccoli and REAL butter.  Not only can I count all the ingredients of butter on one hand 2 fingers, I also know what they all are!  See previous posts for my thoughts here.

« Previous Entries

FoodBuzz


Categories

Feerless Food

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 377 other followers