OneMileOneMeal

Our Idea of a Splendid Endurance Workout Snack

If you asked me what I think the ideal snack food is for endurance workouts like marathon training or long distance biking, I'd say it is this: Dates stuffed with Nuts. In the picture above is my favorite combo: Medjool dates with walnuts.

What makes dates and nuts a perfect workout snack to me you ask?

• Dates are fiber rich and a natural carbohydrate. When you are physically pushing your body for over an hour your body need carbs to re-fuel and I like to find natural sources versus things with wheat or food additives and preservatives in them. Dates are also packed with all kinds of nutrients especially potassium, in fact more so than bananas. Intense workouts can make your potassium levels drop, and dates can help keep your potassium up. Here's a list of the nutrient goodness in dates.

• Because of the high fiber content, dates help keep you regular in the potty department, and a happy colon is always a good thing especially if you have issues with constipation. It sucks having to run for two hours or more with that heavy feeling in your bowels.

• Nuts give you protein and fats which are beneficial for the muscles.

• In their natural state, dates and nuts are vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, egg-free.

• I like the Medjool date the best because it's bigger in size compared to other dates and they are very moist. You almost feel like you're eating a candy.

• They pack light. When you stuff the dates with nuts, these snacks are small and compact enough to put in your shorts pocket or sweatshirt without taking up a whole lot of room. Because they are moist and not stiff like a food bar, the dates won't jab you in the side or rub up against you while you're in motion. I always hate that feeling of a stiff food bar in my shorts. [Ok, I hear the jokes ;-]

Next to dates for workout re-fueling, I like eating dried figs with nuts like Figs & Filberts.

What do you consider an ideal endurance workout snack?

Workout Enlightenment: “You Will Continue to Put on Your Shoes”

Living in healthiness is a constant.

In 2002, I trained to run my first marathon which I didn’t end up running due to a knee injury but the training was well worth it because I pushed my body to new fitness levels, and I learned new ways to eat to refuel the body when you tax it like in marathon training. Even Vaseline took on a whole new meaning to me.

The toughest part in that marathon training was not the running itself because I was fine once I got outside and started to run. The key phrase was, “…once I got outside.” The hardest part was actually getting my bootie out the door to go run, and staying disciplined in sticking to my training schedule.

That saying is so true, "90% of life is just showing up."

One of my marathon buddies taught me this saying which often helped me get out from under the warm and comfy of my Calvin Klein comforter when I was training for a race and didn’t feel like going out for my run that day. The saying went like this:

“Just put on your shoes.”

Simple tiny action, and yes effective at motivation. Why? The effortless act of putting on your shoes means that prior to putting on said shoes; you will go put on your running clothes. Once you are actually decked out in your running attire with your shoes on, the motivation to go run should start to surge through you because well, you're now running warrior clad.

The act of putting on the shoes starts the momentum out the door which if you’re like me is actually the hardest part of the run…again leaving the house....showing up for the road.

We do use Jedi mind tricks

A Jedi mind trick that used to help me get the shoes on was to pretend that I was putting on the magic shoes much like Cinderella.

See these running shoes wouldn’t necessarily bring Prince Charming, but who knows because one of my cousins met her future husband on the jog trail, but that the running shoes would bring me a medal from finishing the marathon, and bring me one step closer to wearing the skinny jeans again; things almost as good as Prince Charming...accomplishment and vanity are pretty effective motivators.

The simple act of putting the running shoes is like squirting the lighter fluid on the barbecue coals. The starter gets the fire going, and then you get more excited because the certainty of you eating that juicy grilled grass fed beef hamburger becomes closer to becoming reality. I’m now licking my chops.

Now time to be Zen

My friend Roger reminded me of a Zen saying about life:

Before enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water.

After enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water.

The important lesson I take in this saying is that there is no done with the daily chores once we reach our goal which in the Zen case is enlightenment and metaphorically in my case, having the healthy body I wanted. As well, just because we reach our goal doesn’t mean that we are now above doing the deemed menial tasks because now we’re enlightened or skinny. So....

Before healthiness, I chopped spinach and drank water.

After healthiness, I chopped spinach and drank water.

Like many, I had this wild notion that once I achieved my goal of getting back in the skinny jeans, then I was “done,” done doing the daily work, done trying, done being on the weight loss program.

Here is the hard cold reality no one wants to hear including myself, but once I fully got it, and accepted it as a fact, it played a big part in helping me create a lifestyle that enables me to stay in my skinny jeans long term:

There is no “done.”

I know. Ouch! The truth is you will never be “done” with the work, the habits and commitment it takes to have a healthy body.

The body doesn’t go into skinny jeans auto-pilot just like a marriage doesn’t go into auto-pilot and thrive just because there is a ring. I know it is so much more alluring to hear what we want like the stuff that makes for intoxicating infomercials like, “…and never will you have to work out again” or “and keep the weight off while still being able to eat whatever you want.”

Staying in the skinny jeans is an on-going process that extends past the latest 12-week program you’re on. Yoda said, “There is do or do not. There is no try.” Using back in skinny jeans metaphors, “There is exercise or no exercise. There is no try.  There is making better food choices or not making better food choices. There is no try. There is forgiveness or no forgiveness. There is no try.”

I started to think, I am in a state of optimal health or I am not. I am in my skinny jeans or I am not. Then what must I do to move from one state to the other? See there is no program, there just is.

Therefore, then, what must I do to create a state of being that gives me the body I want? Well, here's a tiny action to remember...

You will continue to put on your shoes.

 

Note: Photo from Flickr by The Freddy Portfolio

 

Tip From an RD: Ask The Guyatitian - Is There Any Whole Grain Goodness In Brown Rice Cakes and Cereal?

This is a guest post from one of my favorite RD's on Twitter @davidgrotto. He's written a fabulous resourceful book that I recommend on healthier eating called, "101 Optimal Life Foods."

A reader asked:

Dear Guyatitian:

Are brown rice cakes and puffed brown rice cereal considered whole grain?  They only have 1 gram of fiber, but their puffed so you eat more.  Just curious.

Annie from Chicago

 

Dear Annie,

Puffed brown rice is a whole grain. However, the puffing process changes the rice in a few ways.

 ”Glycemic index” is a method of determining the effect of a specifc food on blood glucose (sugar). The higher the number, the greater the effect (in theory). 

Cooked brown rice, for example, has a glycemic index(GI) of 55. Once the rice is puffed and turned into cereal or rice cakes, the GI shoots up to 78. So for those who may be more ‘carb sensitive’, puffed rice by itself may not be the best choice.

Though only 60 calories a cup, it’s pretty much void of nutrition. There’s a smidge of potassium, a sprinkle of iron and a few traces of b vitamins such as thiamin and niacin.

Apart from that, I think there isn’t much whole grain goodness to get excited about  after the rice has been puffed. And in my experience, my patients are often STARVING an hour later if that is all that they had to eat.

If you are going to eat them, I would strongly advise pairing up your puffs with milk (cow or soy have the most protein) and perhaps top with berries and nuts and have an egg on the side. That breakfast might stick to your ribs for a while and provide much need nutrition that the rice puffs alone don’t deliver. Enjoy!

Ciao and Chow!

The Guyatitian

Got a question for the guyatitian? Visit David at his blog, "David Grotto's Nutrition Housecall." or on Twitter @davidgrotto or Facebook at David Grotto RD.

Weecap #4 of 112-Day Streak: I Confront My Fears of Swimming Pools and Bathing Suits

(Weecap = weekly recap) Okay, this is me last Saturday. This is the first time in my adult life I have ever been in a pool! No joke.

It's confession time. I have a fear of pools well more swimming I suppose. When I was in 2nd grade I took swimming lessons and loved it, until one day, on the deep end of the community pool where I took lessons, I almost drowned. That feeling of drowning scared the hell out of me so much, that I never set foot inside a pool again.

And bathing suits, well let's just say, I was skinny kid who then became a fat kid and remember being ridiculed in my bathing suit. Stigmatized with humiliation which thus created body image issues, I avoided bathing suits like the plague.

There have been a handful of times through the years where I put a suit on mainly because I was on vacation with other people and I didn't want to call out too much attention to myself. I just pretended and played along. I sat by the pool or beach, but again, never actually got in the water.

Now, one of the upsides to all this pool and bathing suit avoidance is that I didn't spend hours out in the sun tanning like my skinny friends in my teens, 20's and early 30's, so now I have really good skin which has never been sun damaged or exposed too long to the rays, and thus have very little wrinkling so I look much younger than my driver's licence age. FTW!

See, I can always pull something positive out of anything :-D

One mile

Since this 112-day streak is about challenging myself, I thought I'd take it another step and take on fears of mine which really serve no purpose like this fear of pools and bathing suits. I also figure taking on the smaller fears would help build my confidence to deal with my bigger fears like oh dealing with web fame.

So, on Saturday, I put on a bathing suit which was more like a scuba suit compared to all these skimpy bikinis nowadays, and got into the small pool at my complex. I did it! In fact, I just walked right in the pool down the steps on the side.

I water "ran" in the 4' deep part of the pool so I could stand up and not worry about the possibility of water going over my head. I wasn't ready to submerge all the way in yet...baby steps. I'm concerned about my right knee because it's not used to doing exercise every day, so I want to mix in low impact workouts.

I did about 1,000 steps which is about .4 miles, and had to stop because I got nausceous. I think it was a combo of the chlorine smell, the feeling of weightlessness in the water, and frankly pushing past my fears.

Although I felt like barfing, I was very proud of myself. The pool wasn't that bad and being in a bathing suit was alright. No one was around, but again, baby steps.

I used to have a fear of heights, and back in 2002, a girlfriend and I, who also had a fear of heights, decided to tackle that fear by walking across the San Francisco Golden Gate bridge...both ways. If you're going to face a fear of heights might as well be epic and beautiful, right?!

OMG! Starting off across the bridge I wanted to barf and was trembling, but we held hands for awhile and faced the fears, and literally walked through them. It was a proud day for both of us, and I no longer am afraid of heights...again, FTW!

One meal

One interesting thing this week, I tried a sample of fresh Rhubarb, and let's just say it's much better in pie! In the raw, that stuff was kinda bitter nasty. But cooked, Rhubarb pie is actually one of my favorites. Sugar and crust make everthing wonderful, yes?!

I've been struggling in what to post for this section of the weecap because I'm already a pretty healthy eater so I don't know what would be interesting to say or show. I'm honestly stumped and that rarely happens!

I'm by all means not tryingt to brag or say I'm a perfect eater like I said here in my 80/20 post about healthy eating not being perfect eating. I just don't know what to write.

I am far stronger in the food part of the healthiness picture than the fitness part, so I guess well new challenges I will have to come up with for moi! No biggie, as you know I love experiments.

Since starting this 112-day streak, I have noticed that I get hungrier in the day. It's interesing because my weekly overall milage is less than what I was doing before when I was one day on and one day off. I'm assuming my body is sensing the new daily activity and responding with, "Oh more activeness, let's dial up the food needs."

One thought

I hope all of you are having some fun challenges and experiments with your 1 mile 1 meal. Please share!

It's Weird But Fascinating: Have You Tried Barefoot Running?

In this 9 second video, I am barefoot er sock walking on the treadmill to warm up to try out the experience of barefoot running. So why do this odd thing?

Over at the Daily Mile, they have been doing Barefoot Running Week, and I had heard of the concept of barefoot running a couple years ago. Makes sense because sneakers weren't around when the caveman was running away from the dinosaurs, right? Okay, I watch lots of cartoons.

When I started the Chi style of running back last summer to help see if that would help my right knee pain (which it did btw), I met on Twitter a bunch of people into Chi running who also did barefoot running, and were really into wearing Vibram FiveFingers which look like rubber socks to me but are fascinating looking shoes.

At the time, I thought the barefoot running sounded like something interesting to try but I stuck to my Asics. Today, since I am now doing this 112-day one-mile of exercise per day streak and blogging about it, well, I need variety for both me and my audience....

soooo....I took my shoes off and left my socks on and got on the treadmill and started with a slow walk like at 2.3 MPH, and believe you me that was smart! I didn't want to go outside yet because uh, baby steps. Let's start slowly on a treadmill like the Daily Mile post suggested.

The Daily Mile post suggested that you start off real slow and that my friends is beyond so true! Really, even starting to walk at 2.3 on the treadmill is really, really slow for me normally, but just walking barefoot felt really weird. I mean your whole body is now moving different, and I felt it everywhere especially in my feet and believe it or not in my posture. I felt all gangly and awkward in my body.

I slowly moved up the pace to 2.8 MPH and that's when you really start to feel significant difference without the shoes namely in how your foot strikes the ground. Then I bumped it up to 4.0 to start a slow jog.

Safety note: On the treadmill, going no faster than 4.0 a slow jog, the socks are okay, but faster will most likely cause slippage so not safe. Plus, I'm thinking most public gyms won't let you workout on the treadmill in socks or bare feet as a safety/liablity thing. The ideal is the Vibram FiveFingers because they are rubber and technically a shoe.

Now back to my first time running barefoot...

Wowza that was hellah weird! I lasted a full minute and went back to walking because my left foot just started to ache. I felt it most in the bones in my big toe down inside to the heel. But mostly I stopped because it just felt soooo weird. Seriously dood, it was weird...and yet utterly fascinating!

I walked a few minutes, then decided to try it again. I ran for 2 minutes straight, again at 4.0 MPH, and there was less foot pain, and I got a better hang of things, but still it's weird. Three minutes was enough for me, and I think it's a great beginning to trying something new. I did a total run/walk time of 12minutes.

I'm a normal pronater but I have a tendency to roll my ankles inwards. In fact, see my socks after my treadmill sock run/walk, you can see I have normal arches according to Runner's World foot typing.

At first when started to jog barefoot, I didn't know how to strike my feet, weird again. I had to think about it. Normally, you just run, well now, with no shoes, uh, you gotta think about what to do with your feet.

In Chi running, you strike forefoot first then heel, and actually, I'm glad I started learning the Chi style running first in the shoes because it has trained me to be conscious of running on the forefoot already.

When I started the barefoot jog, my feet were kinda all over the place, but then you naturally start running on the forefoot because well there is more padding up there and it feels better. Striking heel first kinda hurts...oh and it's loud on the treadmill. It sounds like your Sasquatch running. When you run forefoot first, it's much quieter. Not if that makes a difference at all, but it was quite noticeable to me.

Besides the weirdness, and the slight pain in the bones of my left foot, the other big noticeable thing to me was my right knee felt great, no pains! I almost felt the knee smiling a bit as if to say, "ahhh we like that...feels good to us."

So, am I going to try barefoot running again? Heck yes! I think for experiment #2 I will try the sock running in the parking lot of my complex. It's a huge lot, and I can jog around and not feel so weird outdoors. Experimenting is fun!!

How Doing Just 5 Minutes of Cardio Can Make a Noteworthy Difference

You think 5 minutes of cardio won't make a difference, well hold up, just maybe those 300 seconds will!

Depending on your weight and what kind of cardio you're doing, that 5 minutes can burn anywhere from 15-70 calories. Over at Livestrong, here's a list of 11 exercises from shopping to running and how much a 150lb person can burn in 10 minutes.

For fun, let's take the medium number of burned calories in 5 minutes as 30.

• 5 times a week x 30 calories = 150 burned calories per week

• 4 weeks a month x 150 calories = 600 burned calories per month

• 12 months a year x 600 calories = 7200 burned calories per year.

You need to burn 3500 calories to drop a pound. So, by just doing 5 minutes of cardio 5 times a week, you can drop 2.05lbs per year...by just doing this one tiny thing.

Yeah, dropping 2lbs in a year is not gonna get you back in your skinny jeans, however, it's better than dropping zero lbs! And starting off doing those 5 minutes of cardio will most likely give you the jumpstart to do more minutes. See it's win/win.

Betcha those 5 minutes are starting to look noteworthy now.

Note: Photo from Flickr by klynslis

TEDx Talks: From the Erin Brokovich of Food - What Are They Putting In Our Foods?

I loved this talk because Robyn gets exactly into many of my own personal wonderings about our food production and the raising cases of food allergies in the U.S. I suffer from dairy and egg allergies plus a few others, and I didn't have these allergies as a kid. I was diagnosed in my early 30's.

From TEDx Talks Austin Robyn O'Brien a former Food Industry Analyst and Founder of Allergy Kids Foundation shares with us how her life changed when one of her kids had a food allergy reaction and it sent her down a path to learn more about things like food allergies, food engineering and most eye opening (to me) the fees farmers have to pay because seeds are now patented! I learned something new.

Robyn also gets into what we're spending on health care and really it's outrageous mainly because that number can be easily reduced if we as a nation ate better food and had stricter regulations on food production like other countries do.

I appreciated her viewpoint on the food industry from a business analyst perspective, and she makes an excellent point to ponder, much of what these food conglomerations are doing make sense from a profitability and growing shareholder equity standpoint, but is it at the cost of people's health?

Meatless Monday Idea: Veggie Sushi Rolls

I love veggie sushi rolls because they are light, can be made vegan, are low fat, have seaweed, and are easy food...just pop them into your mouth kind of thing.

One of my favorite veggie handrolls are avocado with asparagus with of course lots of ginger. I love the ginger! Here are some health benefits of ginger.

 

In many grocery stores in the deli section if they sell sushi rolls, you can almost always find a veggie roll with 6-8 pieces of avocado, carrot, and cucumber. These sushi rolls also make for a good afternoon snack because you can pop in a few pieces. Yum!

If you wanna make raw sushi rolls, here's a cool video of Chef Russell James, a well known raw shef making raw rolls.

 

It's International Waffle Day and We're Officially Out

This blog has been on the down low since March 2, and only a handful of people have known of its existance so I thought March 25th, International Waffle Day would be an awesome day to officially tell the world over some organic Flax Plus Figs waffles topped with more figs because that's how we roll here!

November 1 of this year will mark my 6th year blogging, and I have probably birthed at least half a dozen blogs, and many that never even made it past a week or month. This blog I believe is bringing everything together I've done over the years, and it already has a very strong emotional tie with me because of how it all came to be. Thank you universe!

Something new as well, I'm doing a 112-day streak doing one-mile of exercise everyday not only as a personal challenge...I've never streaked before...but to help raise funds and awareness for Action For Healthy Kids a non-profit who's mission is to help kids be healthier and fit through fitness and food programs.

I've set up an online fundraiser at Crowdrise.com for team One Mile One Meal For Healthy Kids. My goal is to raise $5K by the end of the streak. I picked 5K cuz it sounds like a running race :-D So please, I shall throw many kisses your way if you donate or help spread the word!

I started my streak on March 2 here in Phoenix and it will end June 21 in Boulder, CO on one of my BFFs birthday's @jenmyronuk and two days before I speak at the Fitness Bloggers Conference in Boulder one a panel with @bookieboo and @mizfitonline.

Why One Mile One Meal is unique

What you'll find different about this blog from your typical healthy living blog is that besides my own creativity and storytelling, I will use my mad healthiness curator skillz to bring in voices from around the healthosphere, noshosphere, and fitnessphere like Tip from an RD, Tip from a Trainer, Tip from a Chef, Tip from someone doing awesome things because it takes a village, no?!

The problems with our health and wellness in our country...and around the world...are so ginormous and growing, where do we even begin to chip away at the iceberg?

One way is to start with tiny actions done with great love!

And this isn't just about me, this is about working together as a community, a social media community of bloggers, tweeters, and facebookers who share the common goal of wanting to make the world a healthier place, to help chisel away at the massive health issues we face in our western world today...

...and yeah to look hot in our skinny jeans. I'm not gonna lie, ahem vanity. But I believe we can do both, up our healthiness in ways that are sustainable long term and FUN...yes joyful not "when am I gonna be thinner" misery.

This is a work in progress and as always, I welcome your comments, suggestions, and hugs!

And yes, there is a Facebook and Twitter page coming but it's still in the oven baking.

 

How Many Steps is One Mile? And Do I Have To Change Clothes?

To do your one mile, it doesn't have to be a "workout" which for many people equates to changing into spandex and t-shirt and going to the gym or a studio.

Yeah, here, no, we're very simple. We want you to just move! You don't even have to change clothes or even shoes if you're wearing something cozy versus 5" stilettos.

One mile on a pedometer is about 2,000 - 2,500 steps depending on your stride length. For the sake of simplicity, we're going to say that one mile is 2,500 steps - a little over is better for you anyway, yes?!

So you know what that means? Window shopping at the mall counts if you walk 2,500 steps. Take a few laps around Costco or Sam's Club. Walk a few loops around your office building at break time. Bounce on a trampoline like you're walking. You travelers staying in hotels, climb up and down the stairs till you reach 2,500 steps. Take a romantic stroll on a beach holding hands with your sweetie. awww!

It's all about tiny actions and ahem, getting off your bootie so you can get and keep that hot healthy bod you want.

One mile is actually much smaller than you realize especially over time the more you do it.

Note: Photo from Fickr "Foot prints in the sand" by Patty's Photos