Food is not the enemy

Source: letsmakeahealthiertomorrow.tumblr.com via Sam on Pinterest

Today I am working to get on the right track with healthy food. I'm going to put effort in making all that unhealthy food the enemy. Today I begin my green smoothie detox. A green smoothie is essentially a smoothie made with leafy greens, fruits, and water. They pack a huge nutritional punch, especially for people who have difficulty getting in their fruits & veggies. The roomie has decided to do it with me, so in yesterday in preparation we hit the store for our goods.

Took up almost the whole island!

Look at all the yummy food!

Bananas, apples, oranges, spinach, romaine lettuce, parsley, mangoes, pineapple, kiwi, cilantro, cucumbers, tomatoes, swiss chard, scallions, frozen berries. All to set the stage for my detox to better heath. It honestly all looked so good sitting there on the counter, I wanted to make one right then! 

The morning's smoothie is..

1  cup frozen raspberries

1 cup frozen strawberries

2 bananas

2 cups collard greens

chia seeds

I planned on showing a picture of a delicious smoothie here, but disaster struck this morning. My blender started smoking, and smelling like something caught fire. In my morning rush, I drove to my mom's house for her blender, then rushed home to make mine & the roomie's smoothies. I left the house disaster, but armed with my breakfast & lunch smoothies.

Disaster in the kitchen!

How did it go?

Well, lets just say I am used to eating a protein packed breakfast. Eggs, egg whites, cheese. So by 10am, I was so lightheaded and nauseous I could barely focus. Thankfully a coworker had some goldfish crackers. At lunch, I ate a sandwich, then stopped at the store on the way home for a little more "real" food. I am still ridiculously nauseous.

My revised plan?

I will replace my lunch with a green smoothie, followed by a protein bar in the afternoon. I just can't go all in. At least I tried!

Looking forward to trying more smoothies!

Don't forget my immucell giveaway HERE, it ends TONIGHT!

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LARABAR review & giveaway!

I'm always on the lookout for delicious, healthy snacks. Which was why I jumped at the chance to work with...

After reading Jillian Michael's Master Your Metabolism, I learned how important it was to eat clean whole foods that are unprocessed, and worked at applying that to my diet. The great thing about LARABARS, is that they are unprocessed fruits, nuts, and spices that are ground and mixed together. 

What else do I love?

They are not baked or cooked. 

They are Gluten free, and all varieties without chocolate chips are Vegan.

They have no added vitamins, minerals or supplements. Only what the ingredients themselves contain.

There is no added sugar.

They will not freeze or melt.

I like to have half a bar as a pre-workout snack in the morning, or as an afternoon snack. I was fortunate to try a few fabulous flavors. Here they are in order of my favorites...

1. Chocolate Chip Cherry Torte

Simply dates, dairy free chocolate chips, almonds, unsweetened cherries, cashews & sea salt.
This is by far my favorite bar I tried. The tart flavor is amazing, and I love the chocolate chips inside.

2. Cappuccino

contains fair trade coffee, dates, almonds, cashews, & vanilla extract.

These bars provide a little zing of caffeine, and taste fabulous.

3. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

contains dates, peanuts, dairy free chocolate chips, and sea salts.

Good peanut flavor with yummy chocolate. Isn't this a favorite combination for everyone?

4. Carrot Cake

dates, almonds, walnuts, raisins, pineapple, unsweetened coconut, carrots, cinnamon, and extra virgin coconut oil.

All that was missing was a cream cheese frosting. Delicious.

5. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

cashews, dates, dairy free chocolate chips, and sea salt.

Not my favorite, but still a tasty option. I just didn't find it close enough to 'real' cookie dough.

Look at those ingredient lists.

simple. natural. whole foods.

Easier for our body to use as fuel.

Lara is a genius for creating these amazing bars with so few ingredients. I'm honestly amazed at how it all comes together to form the bar so well.

I want you to be able to snack & fuel smarter too, so LARABAR has offered a sampler pack to one lucky reader!

How to Win

please leave a separate comment for each entry

1. Be or become a follower of my blog!

2. Visit LARABAR HERE and tell me what flavor you think you'd want to try.

3. Like Running to Health on facebook HERE.

4. Share the giveaway via blog, facebook, twitter (1 for each).

You have until 1/29 to enter, good luck!

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Bia Love...

This past sunday, I went to a "stretch & learn" class @ Bia Fitness. The class was awesome, it really reignited my commitment to losing weight. We focused on a few things...

1. Fitness is our sport. Not just my running, or triathlon, but overall fitness. Making plans to reach my goals to reach my highest potential to be healthier.
2. Finding a way to integrate fitness into the community is a great way to spread the love of fitness. Krystal enthusiastically talked about having us come to her with our ideas. My idea, I've been thinking about for awhile is Girls on the Run. Its a nonprofit organization working at helping girls in grades 3-5 learn to run and build self-esteem. There is currently no chapter close to us, so Krystal & I talked and we're going to try and start one in western mass!
3. EPOC is powerful calorie torcher. Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. Pretty much the afterburn of calories after your workout is over. It can last anywhere from 15 min to 48 hours. You can maximize this by increasing the intensity or duration (greater afterburn with increased intensity), and with optimum fueling. This reinforces my work at Bootcamp with the high intensity intervals and with my speedwork runs.

It was such a great session, which ended with her having us sign a Bia Fitness Challenge agreement for the holidays. It included rules about Halloween candy, cocktails, party food, and exercise. She left us with a great quote that I hung up on my fridge...

"A serious athlete is one with a drive that can not be deterred, a will to accomplish that does not accept failure, and the mental toughness to make positive advances each day to reach one's goals. As athletes we have made a commitment to ourselves to perform at the highest level of our potential and we are driven to take steps to ensure our success. Success can only be achieved with a well laid out plan fixed to specific goals."

This morning I counted my speedwork run as my Cupcake Classic 3.7 miler for Run with Jess' virtual race!

I finished in 38:50!

5 min warmup

1600m x 3 @ 6.4mph, 1 min rest intervals @ 3.8

cooldown

I celebrated with a bite (only a bite!) of the pumpkin cupcake with creamcheese frosting the speech therapists brought us in at work. YUM!

guess what?
I've counted all points the past 2 days!!

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Happy Weekend!

Last night I had the most delicious dinner, and I should have snapped pictures. We went to one of our favorite places, Eastside Grill in Northampton. Gorgonzola garlic bread & pan seared scallops to start, then dinner was butternut squash ravioli. We followed it up with a trip to La Fiorentina for coffee and dessert.

YUM.

However, not part of my healthy eating plan. ::sigh:: oh well, it was heavenly. I did manage an awesome run yesterday morning. When I was finalizing my early summer training schedule (I know it took me forever), I realized RnR Providence is 4 months away! Which is the training time for the FIRST training plan, that I used so successfully for New Orleans. So I decided to make Providence my A race, with all my sprint Tris as B races throughout the training cycle. Unfortunately it will affect my long runs since most of the races are on Sunday, so I'll have to figure that out. 

Yesterday was Friday, which means I need to pick this weeks winner for the Run to Home Base Raffle!! In case you don't know what I'm talking about, the short story is I am raising money for injured war vets & need your help! With your donation, you are entered into a raffle with a prize to be drawn each week for some fabulous prizes!!

This weeks winner is....

Jess @ Running Between the Lines!

email me your choice of prize!

There are still TONS of great prizes to win! Check them out HERE!

today I am a working girl, then hoping for a ride outside because it is a gorgeous day in Massachusetts! enjoy the day!

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Unscheduled disaster

When I don't plan things out or adhere to a schedule, all hell usually breaks loose. 5 day weekends are wicked fabulous, but this one was mostly unstructured. Sure, I knew I would go to the gym, hit the mall, wrap some presents, decorate, and get my hair done. But the schedule and structure to my eating was non existent.

Almost done with decorations!

I slept in, I didn't eat at normal times, I ate out, I ate to eat. My focus of getting on the new weight watchers plan was somewhat derailed. I did well getting all my fruits & veggies in, but I did not track a thing, starting with saturday. Major fail, especially since with this new plan, I'm not sure how many points this or that is. The party on saturday overwhelmed me with tracking fear & I nervously skirted away from what I'm sure was a disaster being recorded. Wine is ridiculously high in points, had a few of those, oh & that Harry & david cream cheese dip? Full fat cheese? I didn't even want to consider the POINTS! Then Sunday, Kevin & I went out for dinner.... cheesy garlic bread, lobster ravioli, scallops with a delicious rissotto, finished off with some sort of fried banana goodness with ice cream. FAIL. I didn't dwell on it though, or make myself feel bad & eat more (I've done it in the past), I just pretended like it didn't happen. I'm sure that's not a great option either.

Today was my last day off before heading back to work. A little better food wise, I'm getting ready to make chicken burgers with guacamole & sweet potato fries. I haven't tracked today, but I promise I will tomorrow, straight from the start. And my running has never felt better. After the 2 PR weekend, I decided to pump up my speedwork a little today. Not a ton, but I sprinted a little faster because I knew I could do it. Only 68 days until Rock N Roll New Orleans, I'm so excited for it!

I also gave the blog a little makeover on my extended weekend. Any thoughts? Not sure about the background. Its weird that it starts part way down like that, maybe I need something a little more plain? I'll test it out for now.

Have you entered my giveaway for Inperspire towels yet HERE? I just got in the ones I ordered for christmas presents! I can't wait to see what my family & friends have to say about them. I know they will think they are fabulous. DEADLINE FOR ENTRY IS TOMORROW 12/8!

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