Category Archives: Nutrition

Calories Out, Too Many Hush Puppies In: Training, Food and a Trip To Mississippi

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“Anyway, like I was sayin’, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it.” -Bubba, Forrest Gump 

Wednesday I drove home from a five-day trip down to the MS Coast. Minus getting lost on a back road in Alabama thanks to an unexpected highway closure and detour, it was uneventful. (Sidebar: I sometimes actually like a good detour. Getting lost is a great way to discover new things, in this case, the Everhope Plantation.) My bike did not fly off the bike rack at my sort-of legal cruising speed and I didn’t indulge my urge to stock up on chotchkies at the Stuckey’s gas station. I very much love Stuckey’s gas stations. I love that I can fill up my tank, grab a drink and purchase a two-foot long stick of Oriental musk incense or a key chain-sized dream catcher. When I drive home for Christmas, at least one or two people get one of the famous Stuckey’s pecan log rolls in their stocking, classic and diabetes inducing. If you have no idea what the heck a Stuckey’s is click here.

(Photo Source: Stuckeys.com)

Before heading down to the coast last week, I knew deep in my soul that there was potential for major warfare between my will power, my fork and my mouth. We’re talking about the Gulf Coast here, people. If you can catch it, you can fry it. In fact, I’m not sure that I knew before leaving the coast for college that people prepared seafood any other way. If it wasn’t fried, it was at least covered and smothered in a crabmeat cream sauce of some sort. Grilled fish with lemon? There are at least 7 ingredients missing in that little recipe. Batter, up, please!

My plan to counteract the inevitable barrage of calorie bombs was to not skip even one training session while on vacation. The only days I had off according to the plan were on the days that I drove; because you know it just takes so much out of you to sit on your butt for seven and a half hours and not fall asleep at the wheel. Here is the official Biloxi 2012 fitness and food breakdown:

Day 1: I drove to Mississippi and headed straight to Chef Scott’s in Ocean Springs, MS for southern style sushi filled with cream cheese and covered in crawfish and smoked whitefish. I have to give my 21-month old niece and her deft baby hands props for being more proficient in using chopsticks than I will ever be. I got a nosebleed on the way home from dinner and the only thing I could attribute it to was the ferocity with which I stuffed approximately 30 pieces of sushi in my mouth. Gross, I realize, but it’s how things went down.

Day 2: I got in a 2-mile run and an 800-meter swim in the morning. I was able to get a 5-day pass at my sister’s gym so that I could get in my swims. Thank you eFitness in Biloxi, MS. My brother-in-law and sister, Christopher and Kelly, are also training for a triathlon so it worked out perfectly.

 

I had lunch that day with my mother and ordered a lovely grilled snapper salad. I must admit, though, that before the salads came, I fell face-first into a bowl of hush puppies and negated any positive choices I made with my actual meal.

Later in the evening, at the Ruth’s Chris in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, it was round 2: me against crab stuffed mushrooms, oysters, steak and sweet potato casserole. I did not win, but at least we looked good doing it.

 

Day 3: I had an amazing hour and a half bike ride down to the beach with my dad. Later in the day, we all met at my parent’s house for Sunday dinner, which was another amazing meal complete with pork roast and homemade banana pudding pie. One cannot be expected to pass up a home-cooked Sunday dinner, right?

Day 4: I completed another 800-meter swim. In the afternoon, my two sisters and I got together with their children and survived a wicked thunderstorm with the help of a pan of brownies.

Later, for dinner, my brother-in-law fried up all of the fish he and my nephew caught the day before, plus some okra and French fries. It’s not my fault he’s a wizard with a deep fryer.

 

Day 5: My dad and I got in another bike ride. Not as long as the one on Sunday, but still a good workout. For the final meal of my stay, Christopher made what is officially my favorite meal on the planet, traditional barbecued shrimp. The name is deceiving. The “barbecue sauce” is actually a mixture of butter, spices, celery, lemons and some other ingredients that I can’t recall. I purposefully do not have the recipe for fear that my life would become nothing more than one big trip to the grocery store to buy shrimp and butter. I was too busy inhaling the shrimp to stop and take a picture.

Day 6: I drove home from Mississippi back to Nashville. No workout, although, I was completely unpacked within two hours of being home. Endurance unpacking is apparently my forte.

Today is Friday and I’m still feeling a bit groggy from the food hangover I came home with, but I got right back on the training wagon yesterday with a great run. It was overall a wonderful little getaway, but it’s back to regular life and a much cleaner diet. Maybe.

Next: My two new coaches from TriSuccess in Nashville!

Blog-O-Phrenia: The Weekend In Review

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“Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” -Jimmy Carter

Blog-O-Phrenia? Yes, that’s what I mean. I have about 247 different thoughts in my head this morning after a particularly wonderful weekend and want to share them all, but will stick with just a few.

Number 1: It is hot as you know what in Nashville. It has been in the 90′s and will be for the forseeable future. Ugh. I went for my run this morning at 8:30 thinking that I would beat the heat. Wrong. I have decided that I will either have to run at 6:30 or wait until 7 at night to avoid heat exhaustion and dehydration. The bright side is that I only had to outrun one mean neighborhood dog this morning.

Number 2: This weekend I noticed that the bowl full of lemons I had in my kitchen were rapidly going downhill. What to do?!?!?! Lemon pie? No. I’m trying to cut back on the sweets, which on some days happens and on most others doesn’t. Lemonade? No. It doesn’t taste great made with Stevia, so I nixed that idea. I did however have a culinary epiphany and decided that I would slice them up, freeze them and use them as ice cubes in my water. Seriously brilliant and amazing. The frozen lemons, not me. Next on the frozen fruit as ice cubes agenda will be frozen limes and orange slices.

Number 3: I may have found a cure for my inability to control the urge to run to the Mexican restaurant down the street. In Kroger of all places, I found what I think is a great alternative to the fat minefield I run through every time I find myself in the El Stuffed Pepper two miles from my house. Even the salads are less than ideal in the healthful eating department. I found Amy’s Gluten-Free Organic Burritos in the frozen organic section and they are amazing.  Thank you, Amy, whoever you are, for saving me a boat-load of future calories and fat grams.

Number 3: I can’t live without guava nectar and Ranier cherries. Period. I know there is probably a nutritionist out there screaming, “Where’s the protein?” but I love smoothies and cherries and could subsist on them every day, if necessary. I make my smoothies with guava nectar that I ordered online from a company in Hawaii called Hawaiian Sun. I had the opportunity to visit Kauai last year and drank my weight in guava nectar, but couldn’t find it anywhere in Nashville; not Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or the Turnip Truck, which were the best bets for having something like guava nectar in stock. Thank you God for creating the Hawaiian person who decided to can it up and sell it worldwide on the internet. The recipe, which makes two smoothies, is simple:

1 can of Hawaiian Sun guava nectar

1 banana

1 cup of frozen mango and pineapple

Done!

You can put whatever frozen fruit you like in the smoothie, but I found that any frozen tropical blend is pretty wonderful. Another kitch-piphany I had recently is to freeze the leftover smoothies and eat it like ice cream. In an effort to be more nutritionally balanced, I occasionally add a bit of protein powder or almond butter, but they are better with just the fruit.

As for Ranier cherries, I’ve eaten an entire bowl of them today already. Just saying. Here is the lone survivor of my cherry eating bender:

Number 4: I decided that if I’m going to eat ice cream, there is no better excuse than a 102 degree day to do so. Damn you, Maggie Moo’s! Of course I want M&M’s in my ice cream. What kind of person do you think I am?

Number 5: Here’s where the “phrenia” in “blog-o-phrenia” comes in. Thus far, this post has been fairly food-centric, but I will now share something with you that I discovered this weekend after a butt-kicking bike ride. First off, I never come home without bike chain grease on me leg. I don’t know how it happens, but I usually never see it until I’ve been out and about on errands, look down at my leg and realize that I look like I haven’t made the effort to bathe in a week. I usually try soap, water and an agave fiber washcloth to remove the grease, but it takes at least three washes to get the stuff off my leg. On Saturday I had an epiphany of the non-culinary sort and thought, “Why don’t I give my eye makeup remover a shot?” I put some on a cotton pad and the grease came off immediately. “Wow!” I thought to myself, “I am a genius! This is great!” Then I thought, “Wait! I put this stuff on my eyes! If it takes grease off this easily, what the hell is it doing to my skin?” I’m going to do some research on that and see if there isn’t a more natural alternative to my current eye make-up removal regimen. Until then I will be using it solely to remove the chain grease from my legs. And on a final note, if you haven’t ever used an agave fiber washcloth, go get yourself one. They are the best, natural source of exfoliation that I have come across.

Photo Credit: www.luckyvitamin.com

There you have it! Any thoughts? Smoothie recipes? Suggestions for removing bicycle chain grease? Have a wonderful week!

Next: Barry’s Bootcamp Nashville and an interview with a friend and trainer about her experience training for a triathlon in NYC!

Nutritional House Cleaning

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If you’ve read any of my past posts, you know that I struggle daily with maintaining a clean diet. It’s not unusual to read about me getting in a great ride on the bike or a having a great run then coming home only to fall face first into a pile of chocolate. After being down on the Gulf Coast last month and demonstrating zero diet accountability, I decided to hit up a nutrition and lifestyle counselor who I met at a brunch here in Nashville. One enormous  ham and cheese omelette and four coffees with cream into that brunch, I decided that maybe I should take advantage of the chance encounter and get her contact information.

I met with Shauna Bryan two weeks ago and let loose all the gory details of my struggle with maintaining a diet appropriate for my goal of finishing a triathlon. For example,  I’ve been out-swum by 80 year olds in the YMCA pool because of wicked food hangovers. Another example: I recently had a going away party for a friend of mine who is moving to NYC and I found myself unable to leave the side of the butter cream cake. The inscription on the cake read, “Good luck, Melany. Don’t fall on your face!” It should have read, “I’m just a cake, Robin. P.S. You have icing on your face.” One of the guests at the party is a vocal coach here in Nashville as well as an accomplished mixed martial artist. I’ve known him for quite some time and wasn’t aware that he and I both share the same sugar struggles. Hovering over a cake like it’s the last one you’ll ever have the pleasure of eating is a little less tragic when you have company.

I was very honest with Shauna about all of this and we talked at length about changes that I could make to tidy up my diet. If you live in or near Nashville, I would suggest booking a session with her. In addition to being a great counselor, she’s an interesting, accomplished and motivating woman.

 

I was inspired after our meeting to make the necessary changes even though I had enough self-awareness to know that it probably wouldn’t be an easy task. She suggested a 7-day detox diet that I jumped into with the best of intentions. Armed with my food list, I spent an afternoon in Whole Foods and left an hour later with two bags of very expensive organic vegetables. I started the diet then promptly fell off the wagon, so-to-speak, after 3 days, but in the process concocted some clean recipes using the vegetables that I purchased. Even three days of clean eating made a tremendous difference in the way I felt in general and during my workouts.  I have made some good changes in the last two weeks and will give the old 7-day diet another whirl here soon. In the meantime, I’ve been trying to replace a lot of what I was eating with foods from the food list.  Here are some clean recipes I threw together using the vegetables and fruit on Shauna’s food list (Use all organic if you can):

Detox Soup

-Vegetable Broth

-Zucchini

-Sliced Carrots

-Cabbage Cut Into Strips

-Canned No-Salt Added Diced Tomatoes

-Sea Salt, Herbs de Provence and Pepper

This is about as easy as you can get. I’m putting no specific amounts by the ingredients b/c I literally just threw a bunch of stuff in a pot and let it cook. Add whatever vegetables you have in your fridge.

Zucchini and Tomatoes

-Zucchini

-Onions

-Garlic

-Tomatoes (Fresh or Canned, No Salt-Added)

-Tomato Sauce

-Vegetable Broth

Sautee the zucchini and onion in the vegetable broth, add the rest and simmer. Use a little salt and pepper if you like.

Cabbage Stir-Fry

-Broccoli

-Green and Red Peppers

-Cabbage Cut Into Strips

-Chicken (opitonal)

-Whatever Additional Vegetables That Float Your Boat

-Vegetable Broth

-Low Sodium Soy Sauce

Cook chicken in vegetable broth. Set aside. Saute vegetables in the same pan using vegetable broth and low-sodium soy sauce. Add chicken back to the pan. The cabbage will be the last thing to put into the mix.

Baked Pears and Dates

-Chopped Pears

-Chopped Dates

-Organic Pineapple Juice (No Sugar Added)

Put pears and dates in a baking dish. I sprayed the dish with cooking spray before putting the fruit in. Pour a bit of the pineapple over the fruit and bake at 350 degrees until the pears are soft.

Please share your own clean recipes. I would love to have them!

Next: The bike doctor, a new running drill and my first brick workout.

*Photos by Me.

Overall Nutritional and Workout FAIL

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This morning’s workout was a 600-meter swim alternating between freestyle, right/left arm extensions, buoy pulls and catch-up drills. It wasn’t my best effort and I mostly blame last night’s massive sugar-gorging-free-for-all-self-control meltdown. It was my turn to host the monthly women’s church get together, at which the hostess supplies the coffee and the other ladies supply the baked goods. One of them always makes sure to bring something gluten-free, which works out terrifically for me and my feisty little gluten allergy. I couldn’t eat the majority of the sweets, but that didn’t stop me from powering through the M&M’s and the gluten-free “cracker crack” that somehow found their way into my mouth. Because I found myself in a corner stuffing my face and shaking from the sugar rush, I will now always refer to the baker of these insidious little treats as my dealer. “Cracker crack,” its existence unknown to me before last night, consists of a cracker covered in butter, caramel and dark chocolate. I consumed those crackers as if all sugary substances in the world were going to magically evaporate at the stroke of midnight, never to be seen again. If they had tried to forcibly remove them from my grip, I’m positive I would have resorted to physical violence, which at a ladies’ church meeting would have guaranteed me not being asked back.

With all of that being said, I’m realizing that I’m going to have to do some extensive nutritional house cleaning. I’ve been so consumed with the training that I’ve forgotten about this crucial element. Did I expect to have a good workout this morning after ensuring myself a mammoth sugar hangover? My energy in the pool was about 30% less than usual leaving the door wide open for the Silver Sneakers to kick my ass. While I was inhaling water, stopping in the middle of the lane to catch my breath and getting water up my nose, they were in the other half of the pool working the water aerobics like precious, aging extras from an Esther Williams film. In fact, I felt like someone picked me up and dropped me into the middle of that 1980’s movie Cocoon, in which Wilford Brimley is magically restored by a group of peace-loving aliens to the peak physical condition of his youth. I added an additional 400 meters of kicking drills and freestyle to make myself feel less pathetic. Really.

Before sitting down to write this, I did a bit of research and found a great article at RacingWeight.com that outlines the following ten nutrition tips for triathletes:

  1. Eat your fruits and vegetables. (I’m pretty solid in the fruit department.)
  2. Eat a balance and a variety of foods. (I give myself a B+)
  3. Limit your consumption of “unnatural” foods. (Are M&M’s considered unnatural?)
  4. Optimize your body composition. (Huh? I’ll have to ask my coach about this one.)
  5. Customize your nutrition to your unique body. (Unique or just plain coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs?)
  6. Eat early and often. (I’ve got the often part down.)
  7. Obey your thirst. (Drink Sprite.)
  8. Eat and drink for recovery. (From sugar addiction)
  9. Don’t be a race-day glutton. (No carbo-loading? The vision that keeps me going?)
  10. Supplement selectively. (I will only supplement my dinner with dessert once a week.)

The article is worth a read:

The Top 10 Nutrition Tips for Triathletes

All joking aside I am dedicated to the training process, so I will be sitting down to research nutrition for training athletes and to make an eating plan that will give me the necessary fuel to keep up with Ironman’s, aka my coach’s Pain Train.  I do admit that I cook a lot and tend to, aside from the sweets, not have much processed food around the house and I am somewhat skilled in making and preparing weekly meal plans. There IS hope and nutritional redemption around the corner!

P.S. As I was finishing up that last sentence, I got a text inviting me to go out for a last-minute birthday dinner at Mafiosa’s, a premiere Nashville pig-out destination. The food hurdles never end, but I’ll try my best to scrape together a little drop of self-control.