Before and After with a Salad

Do you remember last Saturday when I told you I bought these Nike shorts for my marathon.  Well I tested them out to see if they ride up too much.  I bought the 5" length ones and I LOVE them!  I had never ran in tight shorts like these so I was hesitant.  But as I got going they felt great.  Almost as if I had nothing on, but in a comfortable way.

I will say that they did ride up a little but not enough to make me think that my bum cheeks were showing.  Thank goodness! I also really wanted to test them, so I never pulled them down once and as you can see from my pictures they hardly moved up.  So yep, these are the winners.  My sisters and I are all running in the same outfit!  We will show you the rest of it later.  Can't wait! Only 9 more days till RACE DAY!!

A little over a month ago I wanted to pump up my veggie intake so I made up my own food rule/guideline/diet.  It is called the salad once a day diet.  I try my very hardest to eat a salad once a day.  Simple as that.  I would say that it is going pretty well and I have about a 95% success rate.  The trick is that you have to mix up the ingredients.  I usually buy the Taylor's organic salad mixes.  At first I was really into the herb salad mix but now I have moved onto the the baby spring mix.  I will seriously throw whatever I have in my fridge into my salad.  Some days are better than others but I will say eating my greens everyday helps me feel so much better!! (and I change up the dressing, but always remember to take it easy on the dressing or it just defeats the purpose)

If I am really not feeling a salad I will make a salad mix(this case, with tuna) and just put it on some bread to make an open faced sandwich.

I am in charge of doing activities for the kids in our church and so last night we headed to the park for some games and I brought fruit salad to munch on.  The kids loved it!  No I don't really count this as my greens for the day but I definitely love eating fruit in the summer.  Plus I think it tastes like you are eating dessert when you are eating fruit salad.

The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast.  We played Red Rover.  Do you remember that game?

Am I gonna give it up?!

There is one thing I love almost as much as running. Any guesses? DIET POP. Thats what. I just LOVE it. I typically drink diet Pepsi but I don't discriminate. I love Diet Dew, Diet Root Beer, Diet Sprite, etc. the list goes on and on. I go back and forth about what I like so much.  Whether it is the bubbles, the caffeine, the fact that it is sweet and has no sugar or calories? Really it is all those reasons.

But here is my beef.  The artificial sweetener isn't good for you.  It just isn't. It makes my stomach hurt and it gives me headaches.  So why do I always drink it? Because I need something to drink, something to do with myself when there is a lull in the day and lets just be grateful it isn't alcohol or tobacco!  But alas, after one too many stomach aches and headaches I have decided I am going to attempt to just give it up.  No more pop, soda, diet, or whatever you prefer to call it. I can not believe I am doing it. Whose with me?

Now the trick is to find something else to substitute that will give me the same pleasure but be better for you and still has some caffeine in it. You are probably all wondering, why is she not giving up caffeine as well, it isn't good for you either? Right? Well here is why. Running long distances requires you to refuel with i.e. gel packs, GU, power shots... you get the picture.  And a lot of these little boosts of energy include caffeine.  So it is important to me that my body stay somewhat acclimated to the caffeine so that when taking these GU's I don't run into any other major issues.

So first thing I am going to try is sparkling water mixed with some Spark...=)  I have tried just plain sparkling water before to no good end.... but I will never give up and always try again =) so here is to a sparkling Sparked Perrier! Happy diet free day all.





p.s. I had given pop up for almost 3 days prior to this post and yesterday, in a moment of weakness at the mall food court I had a DIET PEPSI and I even refilled it. Now how weak was that..... Someone show me some love and do this with me so I know I am not the only other suffering soul out there depriving herself of the one true no calorie sweet beverage made......


Jen

Books

I am so excited for my sister Heather to be running her first marathon!  I promised her that if she ran, I would do it with her and stay by her side the entire time.  I think this is good for two reasons, one is that is it always good to have a support system with you when you are running and two, is that I have been so hard on my body with my last two marathons that it will be good to take it easy.  As I say this I am thinking that Heather is really not as slow as she thinks she is so ultimatly I think we will make a good match.  Jen will be up head working on her speed so Heather and I will keep up the tail end :)

Back to the point!  I wanted to reccomend two books out there for all of you runners.  Even if you don't plan on running a marathon, these are good to have. 
The first is Beginner's Guide to Long Distance Running.  This book is good for helping you with the basics like, shoes, stretching, avoiding injury, diet and food.  It also has training plans for those who would like to run a full or half.  Jen really likes this book.
Second is Nancy Clark's Food Guide for Marathoners.  Ever wondering what you should and shouldn't be eating??  Well this book will tell you everything. How many grams of fiber, how much protein when and what to eat for optimal performance.  I really like this book and go back to it consistently for reference.

Well there you have it!  These two books will help start you on your way towards an awesome marathon!