Healthy Habits

Remember back in July, when I experienced all of that fatigue and exhaustion after my triathlon? I started to keep track of what I was eating, how much sleep I was getting, my workouts, what kind of vitamins and supplements I was taking, and how I felt throughout the day. Well, I took a mild haitus from that when I was in NYC and got right back on the wagon when I returned.

I thought I would do a little update and let you know what has worked for me as well as what doesn't work:

• It can be rather simple. That is keeping track of all of this stuff on a daily basis. It's not as hard or time consuming as one might think when they first start. In fact, I am using another blog to keep track and it's working out perfect for me.
• Watch the BLT's. I am not talking about the sandwiches, but the Bites, Licks, and Tastes. Every one of them counts and should be accounted for in the journal. One would be surprised at how many times you may do this. For example, when you are preparing lunch or snacks for the next day, or even when baking!? When I pay attention to these, I am more likely to not do it, since I don't want to write down that I licked the spoon after dishing my yogurt into a container for lunch tomorrow.
• Don't give up every sweet and salty treat. I have found this to be unreasonable for me. As I have cut back significantly on these, I have also noticed that I don't crave them as often. I am also starting to crave good things, like fruit and crunchy vegetables! During our 4 days of meetings/inservice this week, we were treated to 3 donuts, 2 huge chocolate chip chocolate muffins, and 2 cookies. I was able to turn ALL but 1/2 a muffin down. I shared it with another co-worker!
• Water, water, water. I am drinking more water - less pop and coffee. You should be drinking half your weight in ounces each day (more if you are working out).
• Caffeine. I used to be one that thought grabbing a coffee from Caribou or Starbucks in the morning before work when I was really tired would be beneficial. Now I am learning to cut back and have these just as a treat. I am starting to make coffee at home and ending up drinking less (and saving money!). Lately, I have also noticed that when I do drink coffee (espresso) from Caribou, I feel all jittery most of the day and don't like that feeling.
• 6 meals a day. I am a pro at eating smaller meals, but still working on eating more often throughout the day. I need to get better about planning my meals in conjunction with my day's schedule and when I am working out. A couple days this week I struggled with this and actually went 6 hours between lunch and dinner.
• Plan more meals. We have had long lunches this week, so many of us teachers have taken advantage of this and enjoyed the company while eating out for lunch every day. Yuck. I am very sick of it and look forward to packing my lunches next week. This, too, helps save money!
• Eat more raw food, fruits and veggies. Still working on this.
• Sleep is key. I love my sleep and have been pretty consistent with this now that I am back at work. For me, it helps to go to bed around the same time every night and wake up at the same time every day. This week I have been ranging from 8-9 hours each night - the transition back to work has been draining!
• Vitamins and Supplements. I am still taking my daily women's vitamin and fish oil, and just picked up some glucosamine which I think will help with cartilage and my joints.

• I am down 3.6 pounds, and know that this came off fast with the transition from a just a few adjustments. As much as I would like to lose 20 pounds, I am continuing to look at this as a lifestyle change and hope that with some of these changes, it will continue to fall off, slowly and in a healthy way.
• It's all about baby steps. In the past I have tried to change too many things at one time. I would cut out soda, not eat out, no consumption of alcohol, all at one time. This time, I have a plan to add a challenge a week. Some things I will continue doing after the week is over, and some things might just be a weekly challenge. For example, I have refrained from eating after 7pm, which is usually 2 - 2.5 hours before hitting the pillows. I will continue with this challenge, but look forward to completely dumping soda and coffee next week.

Mary, over at FIT THIS, Girl wrote up a great post about Diet vs. Lifestyle Change. You should check it out here!

Alright peeps. I am out of here. Heading to the cities with the family for another long weekend. We hope to hit up the horse races at Canterbury, take in a Twins game Monday, and do a little shopping in between!

Have a great weekend, y'all! See you on the flip side!

A week of recovery

The past week of recovery from the tri has definitely been a learning experience. In the past, I have usually gaged my recovery with soreness; if I was sore, I needed to rest, and vice versa. However, this past week wasn't wasn't the same. I wasn't sore, but I was not up to par.

I experienced physical fatigue like never before. Five nights in a row, I slept like crap with less than 6 hours of sleep. On top of that, I was feeling like crap and knew something needed to change with my nutrition. Friday night I finally got my first night of solid sleep, sleeping from 11pm to 5am (when my body woke itself up), and then slept again until 9am!

I have been keeping track of my nutrition for this past week and have already learned a lot. I was skeptical going into this, because I didn't want to become obsessive over what I ate and didn't eat, but I have found this to be a real eye opener.

I kept track of how much sleep I was getting and the hours, what I ate and when I ate -how I felt afterwards, my workouts and how I felt after those, the supplements and vitamins I was taking, how much water I drank each day, and then my overall feelings and thoughts at the end of the day.

Here is a list of things I noticed when I started to keep track of everything:

• Some days I didn't drink nearly as much water as I needed - and this coincided with some fatigue.
• I have always been a "small-portions-eater" and came to realize that I function best on eating 5-6 times a day, every 2-3 hours.
• Soda does not agree with my body, leaving me feeling slugish with extra water weight. I gave up soda for a year once, and I should have never started drinking it again.
• My favorite coffee drinks need to be consumed minimally - once or twice a week at most.
• Like most people, if I wait too long to eat or am ill-prepared, I eat crappy stuff. So, I have gotten better about packing snacks and lunches, especially when I have morning swim practice - I leave the house around 530am and don't return until after 2pm.
• I have been taking my daily women's vitamin and fish oil vitamin every day for the past week. (It's been months since I have taken these.)
• Some of the days I was really good about fruit and veggies, but there were a couple days that I didn't do so well and my stomach told me so.
• There were many times I wanted to stick crap in my mouth (ie. chips, chocolate, beer, kids snacks at school), and I refrained for the most part. I am not perfect, but I know I only ate a third of what I would have eaten if I wasn't writing down everything I put in my mouth. I think that a splurge here and there is okay, in moderation.

I am going to continue keeping track of all of these things. I don't want to do this forever, but it is helping right now, and isn't too much work to do so.

My workouts last week were pretty minimal, but the ones I did have were solid. I got in 3 hours of sand volleyball, a good 2 hours of softball, two 3+ mile runs (one with sprints), a nice swim, and a group bike ride this morning. I can't say exactly what this coming week (or the week to follow) will look like exactly. I am leaving Fargo for the Twin Cities Thursday afternoon, and fly out to New York City Friday morning. I won't be back home until the following Wednesday evening. I will get in a couple swims this week and hopefully another solid bike ride before leaving town. If I am lucky, I will get in a couple runs through Central Park while we're there!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Cheers to a great week ahead of us all!

4 days later....

Today was the first day that I actually got out there and "worked-out" since the triathlon this past Saturday. I know that I should be, and am, in recovery mode, but it's a hard adjustment from the training the weeks that lead up to the race.

Taking a few days off wasn't the only thing I was struggling with. Oddly enough, I wasn't the slight bit sore from the race, but I was feeling extremely fatigued and weak for the past couple days.

On Monday, I felt out of sorts at work and ended up coming home to take a 2 hour nap in the middle of the afternoon. It didn't help that Monday and Tuesday night I had volleyball, with softball to follow volleyball on Tuesday. Both nights I was up later than usual. When I did get to bed, I had a hard time falling asleep. I probably clocked 5-6 hours of sleep each night for the past 3 nights, which is no where near the 8 hours I usually get.

Hands down, I know for a fact that my nutrition has played a huge roll in all of this. I am not a horrible eater, but I find myself constantly questioning what is the right thing to be eating at the right time (ie. before and after workouts, breakfast, snacks, etc.) One day I assume I am eating enough, where the next day I might eat too much or too little.

So, the past few days, I have been trying really hard to eat well. But it just continues to be a constant battle, this nutrition crap. I just can't seem to find what works for me. I know it's a learning experience, but it sure as heck would be a lot easier if someone just told me what to eat, when to eat, and so forth!

How do all you triathletes find a healty balance between training and nutrition? Any words of wisdom out there?

Thanks for the advice!

A couple days ago I was struggling with extreme exhaustion. I was very tired and dealing with nutrition issues. After making a post of it, complaining a bit, and reading all your wonderful comments and nutrition/training tips, I am starting to feel a heck of a lot better!

Here are a list of things that I need to keep in mind. Some things I already knew but forgot to remember when I started upping my training, some things I learned from you all, and some things I did a bit of research on:

• Get enough sleep. I don't care what research says, I think everyone knows how much sleep there body needs and I know that I perform best on 8-8.5 hours of sleep each night, especially when I am building my training. I can function on less, but it isn't pretty.
• Use the 4-week training cycle. Build 10% each week for 3 weeks, and then drop 25% the 4th week. Starting the 5th week back at where you were at on the 3rd week.
• More protein. I eat some protein, but I know it's not enough.
• More whole grains. I need to get back to my oatmeal kick. I lurve it and it's uber-filling!
• Water water water. They say you should drink half your weight in ounces. So, if you weight 150lbs, you should drink 75oz. of water a day, and more if you are working out, drink soda, or alcoholic beverages! I usually am really good about this, averaging about 90-100oz of water a day!
• Eat more ... and more often. Actually, I am pretty good about eating often throughout the day, but I don't think I have been eating enough for how much I have been working out... or enough of the right stuff. I usually eat a mid-morning snack and an afternoon snack (usually a Clif ZBar in the afternoon), but I think my lunches have been lacking, as I feel ravenous when I get home around 4.
• Recovery food/drink. Duh. Looking back at all my hard workouts (more than 60 minutes) this month, I can honestly tell you that I haven't bee refueling properly afterwards. This needs to change! I guess I forgot what training was like. I used to down a glass of chocolate milk or a small fruit smoothy, after a long workout.
• Daily vitamins. Once again, I used to be consistent about taking my daily Women's Vitamin and Fish Oil. Time to get back on the saddle with that one!
• Green Monster. I am bound and determined to get on this band-wagon! They look and sounds so yummy!
• Listen to the body. I need to remember to thrown in a good solid REST day after a few days of hard workouts. My body will thank me!

I appreciate everyone's comments and have taken them all to heart! I am already starting to feel better and look forward to how these adjustments can help with my training and overall well-being! Thank you!

Tomorrow I am taking a half day of personal leave and heading home to the Bis with my sister in the afternoon. From there we plan on heading up north to see my Dad's side of the family. We haven't been up there since the wedding in August and I look forward to seeing them! Have a great Memorial Day weekend, y'all!

Nutrition/Training Advice Wanted

I got home from work today at 4, played with the dog outside for about a half hour, and then crashed on the couch for an hour. I haven't done that in a long time, and I can honestly say that I.am.wiped.out.

With training, the workouts are getting longer. I am doing more than a couple miles of running here and there, adding in brick workouts, and including the Tri Power daily sessions.

I am trying to stay consistent with my sleep. I love sleep and am usually pretty good with that. It's the nutrition part that I think is kicking me in the arse. I am still learning! I almost feel like I am not getting enough protein a day, but wondering how and when is it the best way to incorporate that more?!

I can be so anal about what I eat. I don't want to eat too much, but I sometimes wonder if I am not eating enough... enough of the right stuff. I know that Leana wrote up a very helpful post on Race Nutrition yesterday and I was super pumped to read it... but any further advice would be wonderful!


Anyway, the weather is beautiful here... 65 degrees with minimal winds. As much as I would like to take advantage of it and ride my bike, I have my first night of Softball tonight, since it was cancelled last week due to rain! We play at 9 and 10 pm and need my energy! This is late for me, but if it's only a couple weeks during the school year, I can handle it! It should be fun!

Only 7 more days left of school!


P.S. Thanks to the continued support in the fight against Diabetes! I truly appreciate each and every one of your donations! If you haven't donated and would like to do so, check out my Tour de Cure page! Thanks again!