Archive for the 'Eating disorders/ recovery' Category

12
Apr
12

Headwinds

By Feerlessfood 9 Comments
Categories: Eating disorders/ recovery, fitness, Motivation, Nutrition and Races
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This Monday is the Boston Marathon, for which I qualified, registered, and had planned to race. Until last Monday. I’ve done something to my knee and running on it doesn’t feel good at all. Admittedly, it’s getting better and feels ok today, but do I risk a month (or years or lifetime?) of recovering if I decide to do the race and create some irreparable damage?

Two weeks ago I had my half Ironman. Felt good after the race, recovered well, and didn’t do any running until Friday, focusing fully on biking and swimming. Oddly, though, I woke up Friday with some weird pain in my knee. Strange I thought, but after a good trainer ride that evening, I had a great run off the bike. The next day, I had a long ride scheduled, so a friend and I headed out on the Suncoast Trail for 51 miles. The course was straight out and straight back basically. We had a moderate tailwind on the way out, but as we turned around, we could see a storm rolling in. The winds picked up and it was a hard ride into a headwind the whole way back! We got 50 miles rain free… and 1 were we got drenched. So much for my brick run outside. I got home and did the run on the treadmill instead and everything was good. Although, I could still notice my knee.

New Fresh Wattie Ink speedo suit!

Sunday came, I got up to do my long run, and realized it was already 10AM, so being that it’s pretty hot in Tampa, I put it off till the afternoon and set out that afternoon for the run instead. Guess what—it’s even freaking hotter at 4:00 than at 10:00. The heat didn’t bug me too much, but I knew the run would be hard from the get go. I was physically tired from the previous 2 days and felt that as I headed out. As I got onto Bayshore, a straight road than runs along the water, I found myself plowing into a headwind in the blazing sun. Every bit of me was just like, “dude, turn around and head back now”, but I was getting my 18 miles damnit. I finally hit the turnaround, but my pace was all over the place for the run. Haha, when my coach saw the pace chart he was just like wtf did you do??

Recovery shake- coconut milk, goat milk, banana, avocado protein powder! Sooo good

I made it back though and felt great about myself—longest run I’ve done since November. But back to my knee—when I woke up on Monday, it wasn’t feeling too hot and pretty swollen. 2 weeks before the Boston Marathon. Wonderful. 30+ miles in 3 days didn’t help probably.

So since Sunday, I haven’t run at all. Just bike, swimming, and water running. I got a new bike trainer which is awesome so it’s making riding a lot more bearable, but this knee needs to heal… and quick! I don’t want to go run Boston and F myself up for the rest of the year… or more. It’s Monday… ask me again on Friday! I’ve been trying to get my rest, icing, nutrition, and supplementation spot on and I’m sure it’s helping. But it’s one of those, “Really? Now?” kind of moments. I just damn sure want to run this!

But the more I’ve talked about with a lot of people—coach, family, friends, I don’t think it’s the best option for me right now. I’d rather be a damn good (and healthy) triathlete than a decent (and possible injured) marathoner. Plus, I can be a good marathoner by being a great triathlete. So who wants to run a marathon with me after triathlon season? I’m thinking about the Richmond marathon in November (where I BQ’d in 2010) and planning to smash my time there!

I hope everyone had a good Easter—mine was spent on my trainer lol, but I did go see the Hunger Games, made some BBQ Turkey in my slow cooker, and had a Cadbury Crème Egg!

So. Good.

Solid enough right? Plus, the day before was the Final game of the NCAA Frozen Four here in Tampa—the championship for men’s college hockey. I was able to snag a lower level ticket which was awesome, for a great deal! The key is just to show up a little after the game starts when the scalpers won’t be able to sell the tickets anyway!
So please, say a prayer for me and hope that these winds change and blow in my direction for being able to run healthy for a long long time.

Boston College vs. Ferris State

  1. What would you do? Would you run the race? Or are you already?
  2. Favorite Easter Candy or tradition?
  3. Chocolate bunnies: ears first or no?
21
Mar
12

N = 1

By Feerlessfood 11 Comments
Categories: Dinners, Eating disorders/ recovery, fitness, Motivation, Nutrition, Races, Recipe and Workouts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

An experiment of one.  What works for one person may not work for another.  People are different and thus respond differently to different stimuli.  Some may be incredibly healthy on a vegan diet and some may thrive on a paleo style diet.  It’s all about what makes you look, feel, and perform better.

So beginning last week, I have been seriously trying to be better about my eating plan the my nutritionist has helped me design.  Yes, Chuck, embracing eating a little more and seeing what my performance does.  Now, granted, I’ve only been doing this for about a week, and my sleep hasn’t been on point, but I have felt good, especially amid a big training week.  I have been focusing on workout recovery, even when it comes to the times when I know dinner will be coming soon after the workout, I am still eating.  And it’s good, because it always turns out the dinner never actually occurs soon after the workout, ha!  Why does it take me so long to prepare it every night?  Damn squash fries…

The  biggest changes are just working on being more consistent, even on lower volume days, knowing that I’ve created a deficit during the big days.  I’ve been reading a lot from some of the top pro athletes who have experimented with optimizing recovery and eating more, better, quality foods.  We’re not talking Snickers bars that I’m shoving down, but sweet potatoes, coconut milk and oil, grass-fed meat, chicken, etc…. even all natural, organic bacon! (Yes, me!)

As Robb Wolf says, “try it for 30 days” and if I don’t like it better, I can go back to the way I was before… but we all know that wasn’t getting me anywhere.  I’m RACING this weekend!!

Will be the Rockin The W in my new kit and helmet

And I’m determined to focus on eating appropriate calories during this race so that I perform optimally.  I usually just try and eat “just enough to get me through” so that I can “save up” calories for my post-race dinner.  This is moronic.  If I want to be great, I need to fuel that, plus that deficit is going to be so big all of it will be used (including that dinner) to fuel me and help me recover.

Speaking of previous race, I’m realizing that I’m good, but I’m not great.  I’m stuck maintain habits that have kept me “good” as well.  I have a world champion coach with 16 years of experience who is asking me to change a few things.  If I want to be great, wouldn’t listening make sense? Clearly, my way is adequate, but not ideal.  So embracing this, I am ready to move forward.

Look at the new toy Felipe got me... thanks. Yay.

We had a great training day at Fort DeSoto this weekend and it was a lot of fun to just hang out and enjoy the beach afterward.  Can’t complain about having this in my backyard:

North Beach at Fort DeSoto

And speaking of good food—here were some delicious, however, not very appetizing (and I’ll admit to that) meals from the past weeks!

Coconut milk cheddar cheese sauce

Meatloaf topped with the cheese sauce! Like I said, not really appetizing from my iPhone camera, but so delicious

So I can’t wait for the half ironman Sunday!  Wish me luck!

  1. Have you made any big changes in your life lately?
  2. What’s your n=1 for 30 days?
  3. Anyone racing this week??

Get it

 

15
Feb
12

Rants and Raves

By Feerlessfood 14 Comments
Categories: Chicken, Dinners, Eating disorders/ recovery, Motivation, Nutrition, Podcast, Races, Restaurants and Vegetables/ Vegetarian
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I know I haven’t done a written post in a while, but that’s because I’ve been putting together some podcasts that I hope you all can listen to!

First I want to talk about a few things that have been awesome lately… and then a couple rants I have- one being really important.

So- things I’m loving:

  • As I’ve said before, that my computer can read articles to me–but this time, the WAY it reads some words. My favorite is “Paleo”, which it reads “Pahh-lee-oh”.  Also, if anyones types “xoxo” it reads it as “Sockza”  Haha, explain that to me.  And just to let you know, I imagine you all in real life sounding like a computer robot since I have the computer speak your blog posts lol.
  • Brussell Sprouts.  Really! I love vegetables and they are a new way to incorporate more variety.
  • Full fat coconut milk: Check it out- here I mixed it with spaghetti squash and cinnamon… so bomb:

Coconut milk, spaghetti squash, and cinnamon

  • The fact that I still got some high-intensity workouts while I was traveling to Nashville last week. Also met up with my man JC there, who owns www.JCDfitness.com.

Inside of the Gaylord Hotel in Nashville

  • My swims the week before last–I swam over 15,000yds! Hoping to repeat that this week
  • I signed up for 2 races next month- The Gasparilla half marathon on March 4th and the Ocala HITS Half Ironman triathlon on March 25th!  I really need these to test my readiness for Boston so I’m really looking forward to it!  Not thrilled that I have to race against my coach though… but at least he’s not in my age group!
  • FEARLESS NUTRITION RADIO! The podcast I have started with a friend of mine.  We did our bios in the first episode and had an interview with expert Sean Croxton last week.  Pretty cool that we’ve been able to line up some VERY acclaimed and esteemed guests to interview!
  • I ate bacon.. no really!  For the first in my life and all on my own!  Here I made bacon wrapped chicken:

Bacon?!

  • I went to Disney last weekend and rode the Rock n’ Roll coaster for the first time… fun picture:

Ahhhh!

  • New threads: Fly?
  • I downloaded Instagram

First picture My baby

  • Joined Pintrest.. not a bad way to collect recipes and workouts I want to try

Now a couple rants!

  • First, I don’t know if any of you have listened to the podcasts!  We haven’t had many questions come on or any comments.  These take a lot to work and I really want to bring you guys a lot of benefit!  Please let me know if you have any questions that we can answer and guests you’d like to see.  I’ve got nutritionists, pro athletes, and health gurus lined up and I really want to keep this up!
  • Next- I was watching the show “Fat Chef” on Food Network.  I love Food Network and I appreciate what they are doing but it just highlights again to me how many (I didn’t say all!) “Registered Dietitians” really have no idea what they are doing.  The nutritionist wanted to put a 340 pound woman on an 1,800 calorie diet. Clearly she had no idea about the actual laws of thermogenisis where that woman’s metabolism is actually going to be HIGHER than an average-weight person. Not to mention she’s probably burns twice as many calories as the average person as rest due to the fact of supporting and moving all that weight around and the calories needed to maintain it. The right way to do this is to lower calories below maintenance, but this is still going to be a significant amount of calories which will slowly be tapered down as the woman’s weight decreases proportionately.  Sorry, but that just drives me crazy, same with the Biggest Loser, that these “Celebrity dietitians” don’t know things such as this.  Sorry.

Ok, if you read one, read this one.  My dad sent me an email last week asking if the changes I had made in my life lately were truly benefitting me.  And he was asking completely earnestly.  I took this back to my nutritionist as she has been helping me with a lot of things- prioritizing nutrition, sleep, and all that etc. Basically, she called me out real hard.  I had to be honest with myself and my dad and to her!  Have I done any of the plan that I’ve time, money, and focus on doing?  NO!  Not really.  Yeah, I’ve changed my diet for the better, but what good is that if I am not sleeping enough and not making the lifestyle changes that will allow this better, healthier paleo diet to actually work!

How can I expect to increase my testosterone, beat the iron deficiency that has caused me to become anemic, and to release my fears and comforts with foods if I don’t take the first steps to get me there? So basically, I need to harden the fuck up and step it up.  If I can focus so hard on the other things in my life like working out and eating, why can’t I put the remaining piece of the puzzle into place? I am committing to do (I’m sure you’re laughing and saying “gee Chuck, you’ve only said that a MILLION times!”) but now, the harsh reality that my nutritionist has brought to light has got me focused.

Thank you all for reading.  Now go listen to my podcast!

Questions:

  1. What questions do you have for the podcast?  What guests would you like Max and I to have on the show?  We really can get some “famous” people on there!
  2. Do you have any tasty recipes or ideas using coconut milk?
  3. What are you ranting and raving about this week
17
Dec
11

Leap

By Feerlessfood 8 Comments
Categories: Eating disorders/ recovery, fitness, Motivation, Nutrition and Workouts
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Leap: that term can be met with one of two answers:

  1. Skepticism and what are you talking about? Leap? What??
  2. How high?

I find myself being on both sides of this answer depending on who the direction is coming from.  And I think this is the simplest factor in success of your goals and overcoming your fears and restraints.
For years I’ve been struggling with eating right, exercising correctly for my goals, and devoting more time and brain power to thoughts about food and workouts than to the people who matter most in my life.

That’s where the skepticism occurs.  I can do research all day online about the best ways to eat or exercise, listen to different experts in the industry speak on health and nutrition, or have intense conversations with loved ones about how much more I could be getting out of life.  But if you don’t truly BUY IN to this, and are willing to Leap, you won’t meet your goals if you’re the one holding yourself back.

I’ve spent years meeting with different registered dietitians trying to find the right ones.  The majority I haven’t been able to make progress with.  Either they didn’t understand me and my goals, or they were completely wrong about nutrition and the sessions were spent with me educating them!  I’ve had a few who have been amazing—they knew what they were talking about, I believed them,  I respected them, and most importantly, I trusted them and looked up to them—almost like a boss or celebrity.

These are the ones where they told me to “Leap” and I respond “how high?”  Maybe you don’t have this problem with your goals.  I have no problem doing many things where I trust myself, but nutrition and exercise are the points in my life that I need the most guidance on.  Currently, I am putting my team together to help get my life in order.

  • I have an amazing family who I trust and love and who I know will always be there for me
  • I finally have a doctor who understand the implications of what disordered eating and strenuous exercise can do to your health and is keeping tabs on me
  • I have a great triathlon coach and friend who is helping me with my plan and racing who I really trust, and I also have a number of close friends in the triathlon community who support me
  • Finally, I have a new Dietician who is incredible.  Not only does she know far more than I do, she GETS me and she has been through the same struggles I have.  She is also extremely responsive and I can tell she actually cares!  I’m sure you all know what I am talking about—when someone truly cares, their input makes a world of difference.  She was straight up with me and said “do exactly what I’ve told you to do—I will not get you fat, I promise!”

So what do I think one the keys to success and change is?  Trust.  You must buy into the commitment you are making and trust those who are there to help you.  This goes for all goals—if you’re trying to lose weight or gain weight, you need to find a nutritionist you can trust.  Find a personal trainer who cares about you and wants to see you succeed and buys into that goal WITH you.  Finally, connect with your family and friends and get them on your team.

Thus, I’m ready to embrace this change heading into 2012.  But I’m not waiting until January 1st to start—instead I am already embracing next year and the ones to come after that.  After all, health and happiness aren’t annual  entities—they are life long.

My nutrition is improving too and I’m making the adjustments that my nutritionist and I have planned.  I’m eating much more fat from natural sources than I ever have in my life.  It really is so much more satiating and makes you feel so much better—grass fed meats, avocados, coconut butter and coconut oil, olive oil, nut butters, eggs, and raw organic full-fat dairy like whole milk, whole yogurt and cheese, and real butter.

Cedar plank salmon... Yeah I did light the plank on fire at the very end- shut up

Grilled chicken, raw cheddar, and avocado on corn tortilla

Paleo banana, pumpkin, peanut butter, coconut pancakes!

Paleo Energy Cookies

Recipes coming soon!

I’m also focused on eating better around my workouts and during my workouts!  I made my first batch of paleo energy cookies last weekend and I’ll start posting some of those recipes.  The biggest limiter for me is sleep.  What do you mean 4 hours isn’t enough?  I know, I know… Amy, my nutritionist has also given me guidance on my strength training as well and her number 1 rule is, if less than 6 hours of sleep, not allowed to workout.  You won’t have the energy and your body will instead just secrete more Cortisol which can lower testosterone and other factors of increasing fat storage and hampering muscle gain.

My triathlon support team is also making progress.  I want to have my most successful year to date in 2012 and know I can improve when pairing a better diet and sleep with better training.  I looked at a few of my results this morning and I noticed that I have gotten faster, and raced longer, but not substantially from when I was a new triathlete to now.

So, 2012 goals—besides being healthier, happier, and a better friend and family member!

  • Do a full muscle-up!  Check out the video—basically a full pull-up into a dip (Means I’ve got to get stronger!)
  • Break 3 hours at the Boston marathon and possibly at another marathon later in the year
  • Qualify for ITU Long Course Duathlon Worlds
  • Qualify for ITU Long Course Triathlon Worlds
  • PR in every distance race
  • Break 4:50:00 in a half ironman race
  • What else?  I know I’ve got more that aren’t so result oriented and I’ll add them as I think of them

Speaking of change, I’m thinking about changing the name of my blog… the content wouldn’t change, but being that I write about more than just recipes, I’m considering the change.

Vote here and let me know what you think!

  1. What are your goals for 2012?  How are you going to achieve them- do you have a plan?
  2. Merry Christmas!
17
Oct
11

Mile 6.5 got really dark…

By Feerlessfood 11 Comments
Categories: Dinners, Eating disorders/ recovery, fitness, Nutrition, Races and Workouts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon was last week… on Saturday NIGHT, starting at 10:00PM.  It was cool, but makes for a really hard day to plan for?

My parents were in Orlando visiting–my aunt got some rooms so they came down to stay.  Kind of cool that the race fell on the same weekend!

I did a short run and dip in the pool in the morning then ate and headed to Disney… what a magical place

I made the expo cut off by about 10 minutes since it somehow ended at 4 and I guess I didn’t even think about that.  I then checked into the hotel and saw my parents before taking a HARD nap lol.

The busses took a while to load, but I got the start line eventually no problem.  The gun went of and we were serenading with music, fireworks, and Mickey and Minnie.

Not the actual Mickey that sent us off, but I'm sure this guy was around somewhere

Fireworks over Epcot

I started strong, running at about the pace I wanted to. The course was “flat” but a lot of it was on the roads that connect all the Disney Parks so we had a lot of On and Off ramps on the highways to climb as well as bridges.  Honestly, my favorite part was running through different parks and actually sped up. Everything was going great till I got to about mile 6.5…

Something hit me… not a bonk but just that odd feelings of “this is kind of hard… am I enjoying this? Do I have to run 18 miles in the hills of Las Vegas next month? Am I ready? What am I doing with my life?”

Finish Line

Like, for a while I just felt …unhappy? May that’s not the word I’m looking for but I can’t put my finger on it.  I continued to push through the race and my overall pace was not where I wanted, but I ran hard.  I ended up doing like 1:29:21 for 13.3 miles which came out to a 1:28:00 even for 13.1.

Classic picture

Nowhere near a Personal Best but it was ok, especially running at night.  I finished 32 of 8300+ and won my age group. But I didn’t feel right.  I felt bloated and fat, which I know I looked, but had no idea why.


I drove back to Tampa that night with the plan of a good dinner (since I wasn’t going to eat a true dinner before the race) and getting a long ride in the morning.

Wild salmon with mushroom, onions, and steamed broccoli

I ended up going to bed too late and knew I couldn’t ride far on that little sleep.  I slept in a little and did a medium length ride with a solid brick run!  I then headed back to Disney and spent an awesome day in Epcot with my family!  I stayed the night and we went to Animal Kingdom in the morning.  That’s kind of where the trouble started for me.

Uh oh, trouble...

I just didn’t feel good.  All I could think about was that I was tired, hadn’t worked out, and didn’t know when I would be able to.  At about noon, I decided I was going to go home so I could eat food that didn’t make me anxious, get a nap and get a workout.

I got home and ate, but then couldn’t drag myself up to get a good workout.  I barely did a bike workout and realized how freaking upset and mad I was at myself- I had a horrible training day and basically bailed on my family who I had no idea when I would see again.  Things sucked.

The following day, I smashed a workout which was good, but I still felt bad about leaving my family.  When you have problems like that- suck that shit up and find your priorities.  I decided to clear my schedule and take one more day off from work Wednesday.  I had a great workout in the morning then headed back (AGAIN) to Disney to spend one more full day me family.  Just me, my mom, my dad, all day in the Magic Kingdom.  It was seriously one of the best days I’ve had in so so long and it was so amazing to see them again.

Magic Kingdom!

Buzz Lightyear ride- my score on the left, beating my dad. He didn't say anything, but he was pissed ha!

This brought me out of that dark place I went into on Saturday night.  I know this sounds like it was just me feeling sorry for myself, but it’s not.  Take every moment you get to do some magical and savor it.  Tell your family you love them, prioritize your life, avoid things that aren’t moving you in a positive direction.  I am so glad I made that decision to go back and spend the day with them- the weather was gorgeous and I basically got to re-live some childhood memories on Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain.

Put ya hands up

I’m in a much better place now, but there were parts of that week that were still tough.  Suck it up, learn from it, move forward, live life, enjoy life!

Make sure you know where your priorities are and tell those who you love just how much you love them.  Tell your friends how much you appreciate them.  A lot of you guys I have never met, but the impact you play in my life is without match.  Thank you all.

Right now I am in Chicago and in the morning will be running the Urbanathlon!  I’ll be sure to post on this next week so stay tuned.
Thank you all

  1. How do you overcome a tough struggle?
  2. Are you excited for fall?? (Ever made fries from pumpkin?)
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