To quote Jay-Z

I guess I got my swagger back!!!

Two weeks ago, I felt so defeated and awful. Today, I feel great!! While I still think the sugar-free challenge is a great program, it is so definitely not for me and I am SO happy I gave it up when I did. Two weeks ago, I ran a 15k and ran out of steam early; by the time I crossed the finish, I wanted to cry and I felt awful for the remainder of the weekend. Today, I ran a 15k, felt great thru all 9.3mi and felt great after!! Please don't think I'm boastful, I'm not fast and do not place in any of these races; for me, it's running at my regular pace, the accomplishment of finishing and feeling great during/after races that is most important. Today, I succeeded.

After giving up the sugar-free challenge, I still wanted to eat healthy, just add back sugar and carbs. Last week, I increased my daily net carb intake and had tons of fuel in my muscles to do a 5mi social run yesterday and 15k race today. I don't have any planned runs/races this upcoming weekend, so I plan to backoff on my daily net carb intake.

Breakfasts will continue to be eggbeaters and turkey bacon, because I'm addicted and that's my favorite weekday breakfast. Lunches will vary between soups (still have a freezer-ful!) and leftovers. Snacks will include yogurt, fruit, nuts, the usual and here's what we'll be having for dinners this week:

Tonight - french dip sandwiches and smashed red potatoes
Monday - chicken stir-fry with brown rice
Tuesday - healthified chicken fried, leftover smashed red potatoes and green beans - I made this for the first time a few weeks ago and it was tasty; this time, I'm tweaking the recipe some to suit our tastes and will post it once I get it perfect
Wednesday - individual mexican pizzas - whole grain tortillas topped with ff refried beans, turkey taco mix, olives, jalapenos and rf cheddar (and whatever else Dan finds in the house to put on his)
Thursday - not sure yet, we have a few meals in the freezer so it will probably be whichever Dan picks; the options are meatballs, baked pasta, soup (with grilled cheese or tuna sandwiches) and chicken enchiladas
Friday - going out for date night since I don't have a planned run on Saturday - yay!!!

Are any of you still keeping up with your New Year's Resolution to eat healthy, exercise, etc.? What are you doing to stick to it?? If you're reading this, would it help if I listed what exercise I'm adding in with my healthy eating?

PS - Dan looks fabulous and he's not exercising! I've kept him on the reduced carb/sugar diet (he was never sugar-free) and he really likes it, loves how much I pack for him to eat all day long since he's more of a snacker/grazer than one to sit and eat full meals mid-day and he really enjoys all the cooking I'm doing!! He's such a great help during the week with heating/finishing whatever dinner is planned, I could not do this without him and all of his support.

500 Miles

Making the decision to go sugar-free for January was easy. Cooking and prepping all my meals ahead of time so that I wouldn't be tempted to hit Fuzzy's was easy. Eating delicious meals, lots of fruit, nuts and other healthy things was also easy. Running a 15k with zero glycogen stores from avoiding all things carbohydrate sucked!!

For those of you new to the blog or those who do not know me, I run ... a lot. In 2011, I competed in over a dozen 5k/10k races, ran a half marathon and completed a triathlon, all with energy to spare. I had never "hit the wall" before, not even in training runs. I'd been running 6-7mi pretty consistently on the weekends and although I hadn't run more than 7mi in awhile, I was pretty confident going into Saturday's 15k race (that's 9.3mi). Then I hit the wall. The first few miles were fine, my pace was a little slower than usual but I chalked that up to the chilly temperature. Around mile 4, my legs started to slow, I couldn't force them to go faster and I started to tire. About 7.5mi in, my body decided it didn't feel like running anymore; it took every ounce of willpower within me to force myself to the finish, but I finished. My poor friends were stuck at the finish line waiting for me, but I finished.

I have never been happier for a race to be over, to be home, and to take a burning hot shower. I thought about the race and my [expletive] performance, what I'd eaten, how I'd slept, etc. and decided I needed to work harder to prep for long runs if I wanted to keep up this sugar-free challenge. Then I got incredibly dizzy and nauseous and caved ... I slammed a low-calorie gatorade and had a pb sandwich on whole wheat bread. Less than 10min later I felt better. I decided to quit the sugar-free challenge. Why? Because I hate being nauseous that much and because I never again want to feel that awful feeling of hitting the wall during a run.

I run because I like being fit and feeling healthy but most of all, I realized I like running because it means I get to eat what I want (within reason). I won't say that I can't complete the sugar-free challenge, I just don't want to complete it. I like food too much to do this challenge!! So it's over. I do still plan to healthify up our meals since I was a bit of a slacker towards the end of 2011, I'll reduce the amount of carbs/sugar, but I will never again cut them out completely (I say that now, give it a week!).

Ok, enough with the rambling ... here's what we're eating this week:

• My breakfasts - turkey bacon and eggbeaters
• Dan's breakfasts - cereal, oatmeal, turkey bacon and eggbeaters, whatever he's in the mood for
• Morning snacks - yogurts, and not those organic, plain no-sugar-added ones either, whew!
• My lunches - soups, I still have a stockpile of soups in the freezer from last week's plan
• Dan's lunches - salad, soup, deli meat & cheese roll-ups
• Afternoon snacks - fruit and nuts, cereal bars

Dinners:

• Blackened chicken - baked instead of fried in butter - with dirty rice and veggies
• Chicken stir-fry - seriously we eat this too often but we love it
• Turkey burgers with roasted broccoli and healthified mac n chz (ok so I know it was only a week but I really missed my mac n chz!!)
• Beef stew - this is in the crockpot right now and smells awesome! I threw in some red potatoes, celery, carrot and onion then did half wine / half beef broth - can't wait for this meal!!
• Whole wheat linguine with bolognese

I'm planning to run another 15k next Saturday, weather/temperature permitting, hoping it goes better for me!! I will go back to my normal pre-race meal of eggs, turkey bacon and either pancakes or waffles :)

Sugar-free Challenge

Hello again, I just realized I haven't posted anything in almost a year! It's January 2012 and like many people, I resolved to make my new year healthier than the last. In 2011, I went from having a semi-healthy diet with minimal fitness activity to a much healthier diet mixed with a lot of exercise and I saw great results. For 2012, I'm ready to take it to the next level. To kick-start my efforts, I've decided to take the sugar-free challenge and starting tomorrow, will avoid sugar and sugar-like foods through the end of the month.

If you google "going sugar free," you will find a ton of great online resources. I took everything I read, combined what I liked, ignored what I didn't (yes I'm talking about you, sprouts!) and created my own little plan. Raw veggies are totally not my thing, but if you're doing this challenge and you like raw carrots or grape tomatoes, I definitely encourage you choosing more of those and less of the fruit servings on my plan. Dan is a total sugar-addict, even worse than me, so creating a plan that worked for the both of us proved quite challenging and we will be eating slightly different foods to suit our different tastes AND so that I don't accidentally starve him like I did last year, he will get a tiny little bit of carbs each day.

The biggest thing I learned from reading all the different websites was simply this: watch out for hidden sugars; if you can, make as much as possible from scratch. Thankfully, I really enjoy making things from scratch so this won't be too hard for me; however, I know a lot of people don't have the time or patience to do this so just remember to pay attention to the ingredients lists.

In addition to the below, I will have extra fruit, nuts and low-fat dairy on hand for in-between snacks to hopefully stave off those sugar cravings:
Tuesday 1/3

• Breakfast - 1/2c scrambled egg beaters, 3 slices turkey bacon (shredded cheddar for Dan)
• Morning snack - yogurt
• My lunch - roasted tomato soup
• Dan's lunch - romaine and tomatoes with homemade mustard dressing; tomato soup; slices of deli turkey rolled in sliced cheese
• Afternoon snack - 1/4c peanuts, 1/4c almonds, 1 apple
• Dinner - grilled chicken with roasted broccoli and carrots (and some red potatoes for Dan)

Wednesday 1/4

• Breakfast - 1/2c scrambled egg beaters, 3 slices turkey bacon (spinach and salsa in the eggs for Dan)
• Morning snack - yogurt
• My lunch - lima bean soup
• Dan's lunch - romaine, carrots and tomatoes with homemade balsamic vinaigrette; lima bean soup; slices of deli roast beef rolled in sliced cheese
• Afternoon snack - 1 pear, 2tbsp natural almond butter
• Dinner - ground turkey with chili powder, cumin, garlic and onion mixed with black beans and corn, topped with shredded cheddar; black bean soup (giving Dan two corn tortillas so he can make tacos)

Thursday 1/5

• Breakfast - 1/2c scrambled egg beaters, 3 slices turkey bacon (spinach and mushrooms in Dan's eggs)
• Morning snack - yogurt
• My lunch - black bean soup
• Dan's lunch - romaine, carrots and tomatoes with salsa/sour cream dressing; black bean soup; leftover turkey taco mix
• Afternoon snack - 1 banana, 2tbsp natural peanut butter
• Dinner -  chicken stir-fry (1/4c brown rice for Dan)

Friday 1/6

• Breakfast - 1/2c scrambled egg beaters, 3 slices turkey bacon (cheddar in Dan's eggs)
• Morning snack - yogurt
• My lunch - lima bean soup
• Dan's lunch - romaine and tomatoes with homemade mustard dressing; lima bean soup; leftover chicken stir-fry OR slices of deli turkey rolled in deli cheese
• Afternoon snack - 1/2c pistachios, 1 apple
• Dinner - pork medalions in mushroom sauce, sauteed veggies (smashed red potatoes for Dan)

I'm running a 15k Saturday morning so I will almost double my normal breakfast serving of eggs/bacon and maybe add some turkey sausage; for lunch that day, I'll heat whatever soup is left and Saturday night's dinner is supposed to be chicken breasts stuffed with pesto and feta which I'll serve with roasted asparagus and a tiny bit of risotto for Dan. After the normal breakfast on Sunday morning, I'll plan the upcoming week's menu and post it here!