Run Often, Eat Well, Live NOW

10 years ago • 0 Comment • Live Well

When I started running, I was asking more of my body than I had before, and as a result I was more profoundly impacted by the nutrition of what I was eating. It wasn’t long before I was eating healthier, getting interested in incorporating superfoods into my diet, and switching our family to a whole foods, plant-based diet.

When you start making healthier changes in your life, by eating, and exercising, it changes the way you FEEL. I started sleeping better. I never felt greasy, heavy, or queasy after I ate anymore. I had more energy for day to day tasks. I lost weight that I thought was permanently affixed to my sides as part of my transition into motherhood.

I felt amazing, I FEEL amazing.

Yesterday, I woke up and ate a healthy breakfast (Ezekiel bread with hummus, CSA tomatoes, and fresh dill) and then went for a 9.5 mile run. For lunch we had tofu salad sandwiches, braised swiss chard, and fresh salad turnips, and then when the kids woke up from their naps we took them for a 3 mile kayak ride.

I never would have had the energy to do all of that a few years ago! Now I can keep up with my kids, and then some. It’s the best feeling in the world.

Feeling the very real impact of these positive, health-driven changes in my life has made me very open and receptive to the importance of making little changes in order to live a healthier, happier life. I’m not just reducing my risk of cancer and type two diabetes later in life, I’m having a great weekend NOW, because I’m active and healthy and have the energy to do these things with my family and truly enjoy them.

Cutting out all animal products was an amazing start towards feeling healthy, but it’s not the only healthy eating strategy I employ when making food choices.

The fewer processed foods I eat, the better I feel.

The less refined carbohydrates and sugar I eat, the better I feel.

The less oil and salt I eat, the better I feel.

The more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains I eat, the better I feel.

There are a few things that I enjoy so much (in moderation) that I’ll probably never eliminate them from my diet – caffeine and alcohol are pretty high on my list of things I enjoy so much that they’re worth indulging in. I have a cup or two of black coffee every morning, and enjoy wine or spirits a few times a week. I look forward to both, and believe that especially with wine, they’ve successfully been part of a well-rounded life for so many centuries that they can find a place in my health/life enjoyment balance.

You can take my chocolate (sorry mom) but leave me my warm cup of coffee to wake up to, and my complex red to relax with.

What changes have you made that have had a real, noticeable impact on the way you feel?

Can Running Without Music Increase Productivity?

10 years ago • 3 Comments • Live Well, Running Thoughts

This winter and spring, I didn’t do much regular blog posting. I lost a lot of readers, I was running less, and I began to feel like I’d said everything I really wanted to say about running. I missed the creative outlet, and writing, but I felt like I’d lost my muse and perhaps it was time to move on.

Then I went for a long run, by myself, with no music.

My mind wandered. I thought about running. I thought about our upcoming vacation, and meal planning, and packing. I thought about the scenery. I thought about EVERYTHING. Then I thought about nothing but the view for a while. Then I continued to process things I’d been thinking about half an hour earlier.

And I realized that this was the first time in months that I’d had an hour and half of uninterrupted time to think. I wasn’t bored, because I was running, I wasn’t distracted by the need to accomplish something, like I would have been at home, because my only job was to put one foot in front of the other.

Blog posts were practically writing themselves. Things to pack were flitting in and out of my mind and organizing themselves for later.

I was thinking clearly and freely and without obligation to think, or pressure to think, and it was beautiful.

When I run with music, I zone out, I listen to the lyrics, I fantasize about jet-setting and dancing on tables in clubs in Monaco while Kanye West blares in the background… my thoughts and daydreams aren’t completely void, but they’re heavily influenced, and they’re few and far between.

Sometimes the music is nice. Sometimes you want to escape your thoughts. Sometimes the cheerful sound of the Beatles helps me relax and make it through those extra miles, and keeps the road interesting.

But shutting it off and having uninterrupted time to think can be a precious gift. I don’t fiddle with the volume, or stop to change playlists or skip songs. I don’t feel annoyed because the beat of the song is poorly matched to the beat of my stride, or there’s a disconnect between my mood and the lyrics, or the noise is destroying the peacefulness of the morning, or my ability to concentrate on making it up that next hill without a break.

A long run in the early morning was the perfect time for me to run in silence. It was amazing what that extended amount of time to think could accomplish. If I’d been on a shorter run, my thoughts wouldn’t have had time to circle back to earlier themes and make additional progress. At one point, I actually stopped and typed some key words into the notepad on my phone. Just a few words was enough to trigger my memory later of all the things I’d worked out in my head on that run… and the results have been flowing into my blog (and our family life) over the past week. Amazing.

If I’d tried to sit in the hammock and think, I would have spent the entire time thinking about what I SHOULD be doing inside, instead. Since I believe that running is one of the things I should absolutely be doing, I felt peaceful taking that time, by myself, alone with my thoughts on that run. I can’t think of another time and place where I would be able to think more freely, guilt free, and clearly.

Take some time to unplug.

It’s worth it.

A Super Day – Prioritizing How I Spend My Kid-Free Time

10 years ago • 4 Comments • Live Well

I have the boys in a Super-Hero training camp this week from 9-11 a.m., which gives me about an hour and a half of free alone time EVERY MORNING THIS WEEK! This comes at a crucial time, because I’m packing up to spend a month in Maine this week (leaving Saturday) and last week Greg was in Barcelona on business and I was home with the boys by myself.

Needless to say, my batteries need recharging! And the laundry needs doing, and the clothes need to be packed, and I need to meal plan and go to the grocery store and clean out the fridge and exercise and take care of volunteer stuff for the mother’s forum and I’d really enjoy writing a blog post and working on my Rosetta Stone French, and I ought to figure out something fun we can do this afternoon so I don’t spend this whole week home packing when it’s beautiful outside.

Except it’s only AN HOUR AND A HALF of free time, not a WEEK. If I’m not careful, I can spend that entire hour and a half cleaning up from breakfast, de-cluttering the family room, and checking twitter. Sometimes I have so many things on my to-do list that I’d like to accomplish in the small amount of time I have with a babysitter that I’ll stand paralyzed, trying to figure out what on earth I should do, unable to act because I’m overwhelmed by the quantity of things I want to get done.

This morning I realized that I don’t want to always spend my kid-free time cleaning up from breakfast and de-cluttering – I want to spend it doing something that I really CAN’T do if they’re home.

So I made a cup of coffee, sat on my front porch with Rosetta Stone French on the tablet, and did 45 minutes of French lessons. Then I went upstairs, did the ab workout from T-25 Alpha, which accomplishes a workout in 25 minutes, took a 10 minute shower, folded a load of laundry, and made it early to pick up the boys at Super Hero camp.

When we got home, I finished cleaning up and made them lunch while they watched, then we ate outside on the porch together and they biked around the driveway.

It was super.

What I’m realizing is that I need to prioritize my time and do the things that I CAN’T do when the boys are home when they’re not home. I often do my Rosetta Stone French while the boys take their afternoon nap, but that leaves me frustrated and disappointed on the days (which are becoming more frequent) when Will resists his nap and ends up downstairs just as I’m about to sit down and learn my French. I’ll have him look at books and sit next to me while I work on it, getting more and more irritated every time my french phrases register wrong because he’s singing under his breath two inches from the microphone and crawling all over me for attention. It’s just not a good task to do with a 3 year old next to you. I need to do it while he’s occupied by a babysitter, those few hours he’s at camp this summer, or after he goes to bed at night.

This doesn’t sound like rocket science, but my first inclination when I get free time away from my kids is to set the house in order before I take time for myself. Unfortunately, there’s ALWAYS something to do, and even if I do just the immediate tasks like clean up from breakfast, I lose most of that precious time when I could be doing something I want and love to do that I won’t be able to do later. Will can help me empty the dishwasher, but he can’t read independently next to me while I read on my kindle. That’s an irritability cocktail with a side of disappointment just waiting to happen. For both of us.

I’ll be thinking about how to apply this to other areas of life. When can I best accomplish certain tasks? Could I make it to the grocery store after breakfast and before camp some morning, rather than going at lunch time when it’s busier? Would it be helpful if I went by myself some evening when Greg has work to do and the boys are sleeping? Is it time to rediscover the slow cooker and better utilize the freezer so I can make meals before the dinner time rush? I got into the habit of showering at night when Greg was in Barcelona, because I never knew what time I would have to wake up to beat the kids out of bed… maybe I should always shower at night so I wake up with one less thing on my morning to-do list. Maybe I should run at night, too.

What do you do on your lunch break? What do you do in the evenings? When is your free time, and what do you do with it? If you could shift your free time to another time of day, would you do something different? (IE, what if I folded laundry at night instead of watching television, and then went for a run in the morning instead of folding laundry…) When do you get your best work done?

Maybe a little shift here or there could make a difference in your day, too.

Energy Bits Review

11 years ago • 6 Comments • Live Well, Thoughts

Update, January 2, 2015: I’ve made the decision to stop buying Energy Bits because I’m concerned about safety. Spirulina itself is safe and an extremely beneficial superfood, but upon further reading I’m no longer comfortable with the risk of toxin contamination. I believe EnergyBits as a company is one of the best, most cautious producers, and people making the decision to continue eating spirulina should heavily consider using EnergyBits as their source. However, reading more about how dangerous contaminated spirulina can be, I’ve decided to avoid it and opt for chlorella (which doesn’t carry the same contamination risks) instead. In addition, I’ve learned that the B-12 in spirulina isn’t effective at fixing a B-12 deficiency in humans, eliminating one of the fringe benefits I found appealing.

Dr. Michael Greger, M.D. addresses spirulina use in this article, with several additional videos about it linked at the bottom of the article.

I might occasionally purchase Recovery Bits from the same parent company, 100% chlorella tabs that are also certified non-GMO organic. They have different benefits, but are also nutrient dense and have some detox benefits that any champagne lover can appreciate. Dr. Greger addresses chlorella here: http://nutritionfacts.org/video/latest-on-blue-green-algae/

I’ve left my original review of Energy Bits below, and wish you the best as you make a decision about what’s right for your health and family!

I recently accepted a free sample of energy bits in exchange for posting a review. I’d never done this before, but a lot of the runners I follow on twitter had started using energybits, and #poweredbybits kept popping up in my feed.

What ARE these “bits”, and why are so many runners I follow into them? Curiosity won.

What they are: ENERGYbits are 100% spirulina algae tabs. They’re designed to be swallowed, so you don’t have to taste the GREEN. Spirulina is a nutritional powerhouse, it’s a plant protein that has a high percentage of protein, vitamins and minerals. They’re low in calories, just one calorie per tab, but pack a huge protein punch with 5 grams of protein in a 30 calorie serving. Since it’s bio-available (easily used by your body) protein, that’s even more substantial than 5 grams of protein from a less usable source. It’s also high in vitamin B, which is essential in rebuilding and repairing muscles for athletes. Since spirulina is grown in water, it can be easily contaminated by microcystins and it can absorb heavy (toxic) metals. I asked ENERGYbits’ community manager, Jonathan, about their growing practices and was really impressed by the level of thought and effort they’ve put in to keeping their algae safe. It’s grown organically, it’s non-GMO certified, and it’s grown in Taiwan rather than Japan to avoid any issues with nuclear contamination (yikes). The pages of information he sent me were too long to include here, but I’m convinced that if you’re going to buy algae, you should buy it from the safest possible source, and that’s NOT going to be the cheapest source. I’d recommend ENERGYbits.

Other products: ENERGYbits is part of a line of algae products which also includes RECOVERYbits (100% chlorella), VITALITYbits (50% chlorella, 50% spirulina) and SKINNYbits (100% spirulina – actually the same product as ENERGYbits just marketed differently). All products are available only online through the energybits.com website… and no, shipping isn’t free. (Darn you, Amazon Prime for making me feel ripped off when I pay for shipping.)

The claim: ENERGYbits promotes itself as a product that will “eliminate fatigue and hunger instantly” and suggests that you “throw away your energy drinks, gels, bars and supplements”. (www.energybits.com, front page)

My verdict: I’m not so certain.

Enough calories for a long run? ENERGYbits are a great source of nutrition, but at 30 calories a serving, they’re not a great source of calories. The protein and nutrients are great for an athlete, but we also need calories if we’re going to be doing a long run. The Community Manager at ENERGYbits, Jonatahn Levitt of www.realfitsocial.com, recommended suplementing ENERGYbits with Pocketfuel or another source of calories for longer runs.

Helpful for weight loss? There’s no doubt that our bodies feel the best when we’re not nutrient deficient, but that doesn’t mean a dose of nutrient dense food will give us the energy boost or stave off hunger in the way that ENERGYbits advertises. Their website claims that because ENERGYbits are such a good source of bio-available protein that it makes you feel full and reduces cravings. I’ve had them several times while hungry to see if they’d be a good snack replacement. An hour later? Still hungry. The thought of substituting them for a meal makes me shudder.

I’m disappointed that ENERGYbits are also marketed as SKINNYbits – it’s the same product, just a different website with one targeting athletes and the other targeting people seeking weight loss. I feel a little bit manipulated, like if you walked into the grocery store and saw three bins of broccoli: “skinny” broccoli, “beauty enhancing” broccoli, and “cancer reducing” broccoli, only to discover they’re all the same product.

I think it’s skeevy to market specific foods to people seeking weight loss. Any healthy, whole food is going to be a good weight loss option if you’re substituting it for a processed snack. You don’t need algae tabs, you don’t need acai berries. Carrots are a super weight loss food if you eat a couple of them instead of processed crackers. Be real.

These are definitely a healthy snack option, and it’s possible that the protein in them helps reduce cravings. I didn’t experience reduced hunger, but I can’t rule out the possibility. But I think relying on them as a weight loss strategy is no substitute for eating healthier all the time, and exercising.

Here’s how I’d recommend approaching weight loss: A nutrient dense approach to weight loss.

NOT a substitute for a whole foods diet: This brings me to my next qualm. ENERGYbits coined their name because they want consumers to think of them as “bits” of food. This is fine, algae is food, and they’re selling raw, organic, high quality algae. Yet they’re marketing them in a similar way that people would market supplements – encouraging people to take spirulina every morning and chlorella every night to experience the best health benefits.

I don’t disagree that these are nutrient dense.

However, I ALSO think that kale, carrots, broccoli, onions, garlic, mushrooms, zucchinni, red peppers, bok choy, strawberries, and dozens of other whole food plants are also nutritionally dense, very healthy, and definitely less expensive and more locally available.

If ENERGYbits are food, I would suggest we treat them like food – eat them as part of a whole foods diet to ensure that we get the balance of nutrients we need to be healthy. There are very few foods I eat every day. No one quite understands how the symphony of nutrition works yet, and one thing I strongly believe in is variety. Kale might have a higher ANDI score than spinach, but it doesn’t have the exact same profile, so if you eliminate spinach from your diet you’re missing out on some things.

Let’s be careful not to overly rely on superfoods for our nutrition and forget that it’s filling our plates with a variety of whole foods that will make us the healthiest.

That doesn’t mean I’m against swallowing a handful of ENERGYbits before you go on a run, or having some RECOVERYbits after a night where you maybe shouldn’t have had that second (third?) glass of wine in hopes that the chlorella will help you detox. It does mean that at $3.50 a serving, I’m not going to recommend to anyone that they start taking algae tabs daily. Even if they were free, I believe it’s better to get your nutrition from a variety of sources. (But they’re SO not free. Ask my husband who opened the refrigerator door and saw almost $200.00 worth of algae in there. Chia seeds are such a gateway superfood.)

My experience: I used ENERGYbits for several runs, and those runs went fine. I’ve also used them a couple times during the day when I was feeling exhausted (chasing two kids around!) and felt a boost.

This makes sense. They’re a fantastic source of nutrients, and a really easy and quick way to get some greens into my diet when I don’t feel like sitting down and eating a salad.

I got my free sample in exchange for offering to write this review (a tin and two small handfuls of energybits) and after an extensive amount of research into spirulina, chlorella, and the safety and quality of ENERGYbits, I decided to buy my own bags. They list at $115.00 a bag, which is $3.50 a serving. I used a discount code from www.forkstofeet.com in order to get 30% off that price – read his review and see if he still has a discount code if you’re interested in buying your own!

How I plan to use my bits: I plan to use my bits like I use other superfoods – as part of a healthy lifestyle, balanced by other whole foods. I think they’ll be great to take on the go when I don’t have time to make a green smoothie in the morning or haven’t had a salad in a few days. I definitely like the idea of taking them before my long runs to provide my muscles with the protein and vitamin B they need to recover.

What I love about ENERGYbits: These are a great idea. They’re fast to take, they’re nutrient dense, and they’re super convenient. Super, super, super, but just like any “superfood”, I think it’s dangerous to rely on them. I love chia, goji berries, maca powder, camu powder, and all kinds of other “superfoods”, but because they’re so super, they actually provide more nutrition than we need if we eat all of them every day.

My advice? Watch Forks Over Knives to understand the importance of a whole foods, plant based diet, focus on eating whole foods every day, incorporate “superfoods” when you can, and don’t look for the one, best, healthiest food out there. It doesn’t exist.

References:

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/spirulina

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/923.html

http://www.med.nyu.edu/content?ChunkIID=21606

http://www.energybits.com

http://www.recoverybits.com

http://www.skinnybits.com

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