I’ll be honest. Food trends annoy me. I get tired of the ever-changing news hypes of which foods are no longer good for us, and which ones are getting their positive rep back.
When did pasta, the staple of my youth, become junk food? Juice used to be a great way to balance out your breakfast with some fruit… now it’s one step closer to a sugar-driven demise. Fish is great, but watch out for mercury, and remember that the nutrients in farm-raised fish don’t equal that to wild caught (but if it’s not hook and line caught, you’re killing the environment, you know that… right…)
ACK! It’s stressful, just going to the grocery store! I want to throw five avocados in my basket and leave because everything else is suspect. Canned vegetable soup, high in sodium and watch out for the BPA lining the cans. Produce? Make sure it’s organic. Oh, and if it’s not from a small farm, the chances of a bacterial contamination are higher so be sure to wash them. BUT NOT IN A BLEACH SOLUTION that’s a chemical and it will kill you!
Stress. Stress. Stress. (That will kill you too, by the way. You’d better take a deep breath and go for a run.)
No wonder some people embrace these wonky diets made up of about ten things they can actually eat. It cuts the stress and decision making right out of their grocery shopping!
I’m constantly trying to navigate the store making the appropriate balances between health and convenience, what my toddlers will eat without a struggle, and what I should be putting on their plate regularly so they can finally reject it for the 18th time and THEN start eating it.
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| No, I don’t want to talk about the mercury in my fish. Fish is supposed to be good for you, darn it. |
What does this have to do with running?
Over the course of the past four months, my weekly mileage has gone from about 10 miles a week to 20+. This meant I was expending more calories and energy a week, and more importantly, it meant that I started to actually notice a difference in how I felt based on what I was eating. If I had a rough day and relied too much on pre-packaged convenience foods, I was sluggish on my run the next day.
For the first time in my life, I could actually feel a difference in my energy and my recovery from long runs based on my nutrition.
I realized that I had been approaching nutrition from an “opt-out” standpoint. I was cutting things out of our diet that I knew weren’t healthy choices, but I wasn’t incorporating enough better choices to compensate. It’s great that we don’t have soda, chips, or dessert in the house. (Well, dessert for special occasions, DEFINITELY.) But that’s not enough. I can’t just avoid giving my toddlers juice and cookies, I need to make sure that they’re not eating packaged wheat crackers every day without getting a balance of all the really healthy foods I could be offering them.
My kids are not about to eat salads as a first course, but that doesn’t excuse how often they eat frozen peas for their veggie.
One of the easiest ways I’ve found to incorporate healthier foods on a regular basis is with smoothies. One of my friends recommended a great book, Superfood Smoothies by Julie Morris, and we’ve started drinking a superfood smoothie with breakfast every day. Our favorite is a banana oatmeal smoothie that we toss chia seeds in for some omega 3 fatty acids and a ton of protein.
My kids will drink them, I will drink them, my husband will drink them, and they’re a really easy way to sneak in some greens, dietary fiber, or just up your fruit and vegetable intake. They’re better than juice because you retain all the fiber of the whole foods you’re putting in. We try to let the fruit do the sweetening, but occasionally add a touch of honey if that’s what it takes for the boys to down their glass.
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| Will & Andrew unknowingly suck down chia seeds, oats, and ground flaxseed in this banana breakfast smoothie |
I’ll be honest, I think it’s making a difference. I feel more energized in that hour before lunch than I used to, and I’m careful not to reduce the amount of vegetables or fruits my kids get for the rest of the day to negate the improvement.
It’s made me think… what other ways can I start changing our eating habits to be easier and better, so we can FEEL better just in our every day lives? I’m not doing this to run faster, I’m doing it to feel better while I run the pace I run… and the rest of my day, too.
I bought a vitamix one month ago and am doing the same thing as you for breakfast. Its fast, easy, and tastes great! Adding kale makes it look like something from a nickelodeon show, but it really is yum.
More power to you for adding kale! I’ve tried a couple kale recipes that work all right for me… but in general I still find it a strong taste!
Food trends annoy me too. It seems like EVERYTHING is “bad” for you these days! I also love smoothies but don’t drink them as much as I should!
Seriously… EVERYTHING. If it’s not bad for you, it’s bad for the environment or your wallet or both. I am the type who likes to shop informed, but it gets harder and harder to read about food without feeling guilty at the grocery store!
Great post! I feel the same about food trends, but I am starting to explore how food impacts my running and recovery times. A couple of years ago I went vegetarian for a year, but really viewed the whole experience as exclusionary. After reading “Eat and Run” by ultrarunner Scott Jurek, I’m thinking about going back to a plant-based diet, but I’m trying to see it this time as opening up a lot of new options rather than excluding meat. I really love my chicken though so I’m going to ease into it this time — I’m cutting down to two meat meals a week and we’ll see how it goes from there 🙂 Definitely going to purchase that Superfood Smooties book you mentioned, I loved the idea of smoothies for breakfast! I sometimes have one post-workout but it sounds perfect for breakfast!
I like the idea of cutting down to a few meat meals a week… I think that people feel a lot of pressure to take an “all or nothing” approach to things with food sometimes, when really we would all benefit from eating less meat and the environment would be better if we ate less meat, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to be a vegetarian. If you’re not smart about being a vegan or vegetarian, you lose out on an important source of protein! It works for a lot of people, and that’s amazing. But for those of us who aren’t ready to commit, having more meatless meals is great. I was a vegetarian for three years, and still try to eat responsibly.
Hope you enjoy that superfood smoothie book if you get it… we really like the recipes it has!