The not-so-glamorous side of running...

I got a little inspiration from another runner/blogger today as I read Shut Up and Run's 10 things that are not so fun about running. Check it out here. Pretty funny, yet true, stuff!

From my own personal experiences I would agree with most of them, including:

1. The not cheap part. I totally agree with this! When you figure even running a 5K is about $25-40 a crack, that can add up quickly. What I've learned as I've up'ed my mileage is to not waste money on smaller races. That is not to discredit smaller races by any means. I ran 11 of them in 2011 to keep me going. But I've learned I have to run at least 3 miles most days so paying for a 5K is kind of silly for me now. I also don't look to do any big, commercial races anytime soon like the Rock 'N' Roll series or Disney that are $100+ for a half or full marathon. That's a lot of bank for a race!

Not to mention the extras you need to buy like moisture-wicking clothes (not cheap!), good shoes (not cheap!), and all other things you think you need like compression socks, chews, gels, a hat, sunglasses, compression shorts, winter clothes, summer clothes, and it could go on!

But I still keep truckin' along and have learned to run with a few basic things and try to go without others.

2. There's always another goal. I felt like once I did a 5K, I'd be legit. Well that just fueled my fire to do more races. Then I jumped into the half-crazy group of doing half marathons. Now I'm doing the fully-crazy marathon training. There's always a better time you can go for, more distance, more hills, etc. so it's always challenging. Yet, that's the fun part right?

3. Dogs. Ugh, can I just say I HATE dogs that chase me. Really, I just wouldn't mind taking a gun and shooting them. Wrong of me yes, but when they come across the road just to try to bite me, I think that is absurd on the owner's part. I've gotten pepper spray, tried to be nice, all that stuff, but I still avoid a part of our road two houses down just because of a stupid, vicious dog.

4. Friends who think you've gone crazy. Yes, most of my friends think I am obsessed with running, and don't really get it. I am also by no means a great runner so it's not like I am going for a Boston qualifying time either. I just do what I can to stay healthy, and I like to run. I do avoid a lot of foods, don't drink alcohol other than once or twice a year, and sometimes forgo activities just to fit in a run. Running, however, has helped me feel better about myself, gain confidence that I can push my body to do something BIG, and create a healthy lifestyle for the long-term.

Comfort food...

We love to eat at our house. Most celebrations center around food. We spend weeks planning our get togethers because of the food prep. My husband also does not like "diet" food or anything healthy for that matter. Me, I prefer not to eat it, but am learning I need to for energy and my health. I've mastered a couple of new recipes lately I'd like to share.

First, the balsamic chicken with veggies.

I saw the marinade on Pinterest, which is really nothing more than a bottle of balsamic dressing. I put chicken breasts in the dressing and marinaded overnight in the refrigerator. It smelled delicious once I was ready to put it in a 9x13 casserole dish. I then cut up potatoes, tomatoes and green beans to add to the mixture. I placed all of the ingredients in the dish and poured more of the marinade over the veggies. I baked for half an hour with foil on top at 350 degrees then took it off for another half an hour at 400 degrees. Delish!!!

To balance my Christmas party for Mary Kay the night before, last night I made a Pizza Casserole. I also have seen a crockpot version of this on Pinterest. I failed to cook up the Italian sausage the night before so I made it in the oven instead. Now, you can totally make this much healthier without the sausage, but it's a personal taste preference. The ingredients I used, otherwise, were all very healthy. I used whole wheat Barilla Cellentani pasta, homemade pasta sauce, two cans of low-sodium tomato sauce, turkey pepperoni and reduced fat Italian shredded cheese. 

I put the uncooked pasta in the 9x13 cassrole dish, layered the Italian sausage over the pasta and put the pasta sauce and tomato sauces on top of that. I added 1.5 cups of water to the mixture to make sure the pasta would cook. I then layered about 25 pepperonis on top in rows then placed the shredded cheese in between that. I didn't go overboard on the pepperoni or cheese to make it a bit more healthy yet tasty. I seasoned the top with Italian seasonings and garlic powder. I baked the dish at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Boy, did the house smell delicious! And it was delicious! 

Hope you can enjoy either of these and know they aren't going to break your diet yet they both fill you up!

*~* Do you have any healthy recipes to share? Please share them by emailing me at melissa.leander@gmail.com*~*

Cut It Out...

While thinking about more of my 2013 fitness/wellness goals and reading more into eating right, I have made it a goal to cut out pop, for good. Call it what you want, soda, pop, Coke, whatever, but I feel it's going to eventually kill my teeth and other things in my body.



Pop has been on my "need" list each day since I have been in high school. There are periods where I drink very little during the day (half a can) to a full out Route 44 from Sonic. I know it's wrecking havoc on my body, not to mention the long-term effects of drinking this stuff for more than 10 years now. I don't drink regular pop, and I never have. Yet, the scary stuff that is in diet pop has finally made me scared enough to think of what I am doing to my body. I guess I care enough now to really want to cut it out.

Hold me accountable and ask how I'm doing.

Here's to better health in 2013!

Clean Eating 101...

I love finding success stories of people who have battled weight and then lost it, BIG TIME. Megan is one of those chicks who is a bonafide rock star for her weight loss journey. She continues to get stronger, and I love reading her blog. I am inspired to keep going on this health and wellness journey like her.

Megan from Miss Madison's Charmed Life blog

In her latest blog post, she wrote down her clean-eating list. I am consciously setting this as a goal in 2013 to get rid of the crap and get down to business of losing body fat. Two years ago when I started running, I quit buying all processed, frozen meals for dinners, which was a big step in the right direction. I am now working on lunches (ahem, the infamous Lean Cuisine and canned soups).

I menu-plan for a whole month at a time for dinner, which has made life so much easier and provides a real savings in our budget. I wouldn't be able to put some variety in there without Pinterest, though.

I would love to start incorporating some of Megan's tips from her list in my menu planning and lunches. With that said, I am not a fan of organic/natural foods, for the most part. There is a lot of hype surrounding it, and I know how hard our farmers work to produce our food that do not fall in either category. I am just fine with eating things on this list that are "normal". I am happy to say we LOVE using lean cuts of beef and deer burger for most of our recipes. Those are lean sources of protein so I'm good with those, too. I also would have a very hard time letting go of my milk. I use it in my protein shakes, and it is an excellent balance of good carbs/vitamins/protein after a workout and for breakfast. Other than that, I am working on buying more from the list.

Here is a sample of her list:


Oils

• sunflower oil

• coconut oil

• walnut oil

•  avocado oil

•  olive oil

•  grape seed oil 

•  pumpkin seed oil

Fatty Proteins

• avocado

• coconut

• nuts

• nut meal/flour 

• seeds 

• all natural peanut butter 

• salmon 

• bluefish

• trout

• mussels

Lean proteins

• most types of fish

• egg whites

• chicken breast

• extra lean ground turkey

• top round

• turkey

• pork chops

• game meat

• bison

• tofu

• shellfish

• scallops 

Sweeteners

• sugar free maple syrup use sparingly

• coconut sugar

• applesauce (no sugar added) 

• birch sugar Ideal(xylitol)

• Stevia in the Raw or Truvia

Dairy

• Unsweetened almond Milk

• Unsweetened rice milk

• Greek Yogurt

• Cottage Cheese 

Condiments

• Sauerkraut

• Kim Chee

• Tempeh

• Apple Cider Vinegar

• Balsamic or Raspberry Vinaigrette

• Red Wine Vinegar

• White Vinegar

• Rice Vinegar

• Ketchup Heinz Reduced Sugar or Wholefoods Organic

• Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce

• Reduced sodium Teriyaki sauce

• Salsa 

• Hot sauce 

• Steak sauce (low sugar)

• Chili Paste

• Herb Pastes  ginger, garlic, cilantro, etc

• Tomato paste

• Tomato sauce 

• Mustard Yellow or dijon

• Broth Low sodium fat free beef, vegetable, and chicken

• Worcestershire Sauce  no high fructose corn syrup

• Fat free cooking spray 

Carbs/Starches

• barley

• corn tortilla (Food for Life brand is best)

• Cream of Wheat/Rice or Rye

• Ezekial bread (made by Food for Life)

• lentils

• oats

• whole wheat pasta

• potato (white, only occasionally)

• brown rice

• rice cakes

• Sweet Potato

• Pinto

• Chickpea

• Kidney

• White Beans

• Black Beans

• Quinoa

• Couscous

Misc
*coffee, teas, all flours except white, spices, fruits and veggies.

Pretty big list, huh?!

*~*Anyone out there have other ideas for clean eating ingredients?*~*

Another one bites the dust...

I finished another half marathon this past Sunday with the help of my sorority sister, Danielle. You may recall this post where I announced I was running another half. I'm glad Danielle pushed me to do another. Now that I have two under my belt, I hope to run two a year as a challenge to stay in good shape.

Now onto to the race...

I was nervous it was going to rain the entire time since Saturday was a soppy, wet mess here in Missouri and pretty much the entire drive to Wichita. I honestly probably would not have ran on Sunday if it were raining. I know, I know...I put all that work into training for months, yet the thought of ruining my feet and getting sick were not exactly pushing me to really want to run 13 miles in the rain.

We picked up our packets, did the prerace meal (DELICIOUS! thanks to Danielle's mad cooking skills), and visited some amazing boutique shops! We even saw another Theta sister, Mandy, at Frou Frou. I was so surprised to see her since I haven't for such a long time and she just got home from studying in London and Madagascar!

Danielle and I captured all smiles during the race!

It was gorgeous though for race day. Cooler weather, thankfully. We had our ritual pancakes and eggs for breakfast and my green tea for energy. I wore my Team Beef jersey for a little shout out. They gave us awesome cowbells. We lined up for the race, and we were off. Danielle's mom and mother-in-law were at almost every two miles cheering us on. So sweet of them!

We passed some great landmarks in Wichita, including the food bank, cool restaurants, hospital, old homes, and lots and lots of fans/dogs cheering us on.

It was a great race, and one I would definitely recommend to anyone who is new to distance running. It was flat and fast. We finished in 2:24, which is 2:30 minutes faster than my first half time. I am proud of that. Decreasing your time by that much on any lengthy race is hard to do. I hope I can keep improving my time and move on to more challenging courses in the future.

Cheers to us for another one down!

Our finish line pic with our awesome medals!

It was worth it...

My final race for 2011 at the Liberty Turkey Trot 5K

Last night, I decided a week and a half off from exercising was starting to take its toll on how I was feeling and obviously eating! I went for a 2 mile run around 5:30 pm last night. It was cold, like 25 degrees cold. I bundled up and headed out just as the last glimmers of the sunset were disappearing from the horizon. It was gorgeous! I wish I had more stamina from the cold to run a full 3 miles, but I hope that comes with time in running in below freezing temperature weather. I reminded myself while I was running that I have not posted my HUGE accomplishment (at least for me anyway) for 2011. I have been waiting for this day, or blog post rather, for quite some time.

I set a goal back in March to train for the Apple Blossom 5K. It was a mere selfish reason really; I wanted to prove I could do it and pay one less entry fee for the Junior League that I would have if I had not run. I asked my friend, Hannah, to join me. It was my second 5K that I did after the laughable effort I made in the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving 2010. This race really was no different. I was quite upset with myself since I downloaded the Couch to 5K app on my iPhone and began "training" in the middle of March. I gave myself a good eight weeks as they said it takes to finish the program. Maybe I'm just not an athlete or maybe I give up a little too easily, but I had to walk in that first 5K in May. I was so mad, but it was so hard. I really have respect for people who run long distances all the time. I hope one day I am one of those people who can say I finished a half marathon. My body hurt so bad during this "training". But I finished in a little over 33 minutes for the Apple Blossom 5K. Then Hannah and I did something I never thought I'd find myself doing...we set a goal to do a 5K each month until my wedding in October or a total of five races.

At that moment I thought I better get serious about this "no walking" business if I am not going to embarrass myself at every race. In June we did a 5K at the Legends in KC in honor of meningitis. My brother ran that one with me, which you can read more about here and why it was such a special race. I have found that it is easier to finish a 5K with no walking when you have a running buddy who will stick by you no matter how slow you go. It makes it a little more fun and a lot more enjoyable to get through.

I then did two 5Ks in July. Running in July, especially this summer, was miserable. Knowing myself I would have to put on my sneakers and the least amount of clothing to not scare people and run at 5 pm when I got home from work as I knew I would not otherwise do it or find something else to do and make an excuse for why I didn't run that day. I will say that is the worst time of the day to be outside as it is usually the hottest. It felt good to sweat it all out some days, other days I just felt disgusting and could not breathe as it was so muggy and humid. Of course, it does not help that you have no air conditioning in your home so your own solace is the air conditioning in your car. Yep, I did that a time or two to cool off. How sad, right? The other thing about running was I felt so obligated to keep doing it as I was scared I would lose all the hard work I had been working on for stamina. There was not a week I did not run at least three times. It took away a lot of my time I would have spent on my horse, Tigger, but I had a goal. I'm hoping once life slows down after grad school and I don't feel as guilty to get a minimum of three runs in, I can actually get back on him.

August was no different with the heat, but it was unseasonably cool for the Race for the Cure in Kansas City. Again, I ran with a buddy, my gal pal Mallory. She has completed marathons and I have always thought of her as an exceptional athlete, so it meant a lot to me she would sign up to do the race. You can read more about that race here.

In September I ran two more 5Ks. I have to make mention of how much I love small town races. They are usually pretty well organized, but it feels good sometimes to not have so many people so you have a higher chance of winning a medal, if they give medals. During the course of my runs this year, I received two medals for my age group! How awesome is that?! I am such a slow person, so it felt so good to actually hold that medal in my hand and say job well done.

In October, Hannah and I had plans to run a race on the 9th, but due to illness we had to cancel. So that leaves me with 7 races completed before my wedding day. Our goal was 5. I felt that was an accomplishment. With the added Turkey Trot in Liberty on Thanksgiving, I finished a total of 9 races in exactly a year. Here is a breakdown for all you stats people:

Average pace per mile: 11:03 minutes/mile
Average overall race time: 32:50
Total miles ran in races: 27 miles in 9 races
Total miles ran in training: 207 miles over 8 months
Total calories burned: 24,885 calories or 7.11 lbs

I feel proud and even more excited to see what 2012 brings for my fitness goals. My goal is two 10Ks and a race per month from March through November. Wish me luck as I take on even more training, which I'm sure will about kill me, but it's so worth being healthy for.