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 :)