After the crap I put into my body last night, (the sweets and the alcohol), as the result of a holiday celebration, I decided to drain some tofu, sauté some green beans, bread the tofu with a few bread crumbs, and just keep it simple for dinner. What’d you make?
My dear handsome Austin does this thing where he records the first incidence of Christmas anything in his phone, to see if Christmas is creeping up earlier year after year, like they say it is. Generally, the phrase “Christmas creep” refers to the phenomenon that is Christmas literally creeping up earlier and earlier each year. Sort of a marketing/consumerism thing. As a total side note, the Christmas creep doesn’t bother me at all, I quite enjoy Christmas any time of the year.
But when I say creep, I’m talking about the pounds. Conventional “wisdom” used to tell us that the average adult person in the United Stated would gain anywhere from 7-10 pounds during the holiday season. But according to the Times, that number is closer to 1 pound, which doesn’t sound so bad, except that typically, we hold on to this pound for the rest of our lves. So for all of the holidays that we do over our adult lives, we’re supposed to just hang onto that pound? Over 20 holiday seasons that’s 20 pounds, for those of you who aren’t too math oriented, which is well above the +/- 15 you get when you’re at your ideal weight. Total yikes.
What can we do to avoid the creep and avoid feeling like a slob kabob after December 31st?
Tons.
For me, to combat the poundage, and to avoid falling off the fit wagon, I plan to do a running streak between Thanksgiving and New Years Day, similar to the one I did between Memorial Day and the 4th of July this past summer. It’s at least a mile a day, every day, for however many consecutive days that is. I suck at math so that’s like….34 days right? Someone get back to me if this is wrong…
If you’ve been following along carefully, as I’m sure you have, you’ll recall that mid-26.2, I was halted by a sudden urgency to vomit. And 18 miles into my second marathon, I left my DNA all over someone’s lawn somewhere between Elon and Greensboro North Carolina.
I’d been experiencing some GI discomfort since I got food poisoning in September, and my GP’s explanation just wasn’t cutting it for me. Plus, anytime I ate anything, or even looked at food the wrong way, I’d wake up in horrid pain.
So, since I had the appointment, I didn’t have work, so I dressed extra cute for the occasion. I so rarely look good in public due to the fact that I work out, so when I do dress like a regular human being, I really take it up a notch. Even put on the Spanx under. I felt so cute, in fact, that I took the requisite bathroom selfie for my viewing pleasure later on.
“Work, honey!” I said to myself.
And off to the stomach Dr. I went.
Dr. H: Tell me what’s going on!
Me: [I describe my symptoms to him] Sir, I also threw up in the middle of a marathon.
Dr. H: A marathon?! What is that, like twenty…whatever. That’s extreme.
Me: Well, bye, I never usually throw up when I run so…
Dr. H: [points at the remnants of my green breakfast smoothie] What is that? Does that bother your stomach? I bet! [I start to kind of wiggle from buttcheek to cheek here]. Do you drink alcohol? [I wince right over here]. How about gum…do you chew gum? [I start to fidget in my seat, and bounce my ballet-flatted foot around]. How about coffee. You drink coffee?
Then, being the brilliant, educated young woman I am, I have to explain to Dr. H that I wore Spanx to a gastroenterology appointment, and that he’ll have to excuse me while I wrangle my body out of the giant compression sock I sewed myself into that morning in order for him to you know, examine me. I thought we were just gonna chat! He looked really confused. I’m sorry, dude. I wasn’t thinking.
His verdict?
It’s acid-related (duh), either an ulcer, or some lovely hydrocholoric acid splashing to and fro in my stomach. So the grand list of things I’m no longer allowed to do.
And the kicker? I have to get scoped the day before Thanksgiving, to see how bad my stomach lining is. But on the plus side, it’s a pretty simple procedure, and they’ll IV me up with the same stuff that Michael Jackson used to use to get to sleep. Lucky for me, Dr. Conrad Murray doesn’t have his medical license, so I think I should be decent on, you know, living and stuff.
Alright guys, I’ve already done really awesome, I’m chewing a piece of Eclipse as I write this, and I just slammed a glass of ice water with lemon as a garnish. Jesus take the wheel.
I celebrated Elon University’s Homecoming this past weekend. Elon is many things. It’s beautiful, stunningly beautiful. The student body is smart, attractive, and critical thinkers. And…we know how to throw a party. I’m not really going to get into what all I ate/drank yesterday, but suffice it to say, it was off my normal nutritional path.
So, with the holidays approaching, it may happen. To me, to you, we may overindulge in drinks, food, and feel terrible about ourselves for the rest of the day. So what do we do when we overindulge? With the help of our friend, hot mom, Maria Kang, I’ve compiled a few tips to help you beat after-overdoing it despair. Not that I’d know…
So you’ve actually overdone it, and you feel like you need to be rolled to you car…
Do you guys have any tips you like to follow to get back on track after a particularly gnarly meal?
So you guys know, I’m like super serious about my coffee right? Ever since I’ve started to experience some GI issues, I’ve had to switch to decaf, which was sort of hard, but the fact is, if I’m consuming something that could potentially burn holes into the lining of my stomach, it’s time to make some changes.
I love my Starbucks. To date, one of the best gifts that I’ve ever gotten came from Debbie last year. It was a Kindle gift certificate + a Starbucks gift card. Incredible, and awesome on the budget, cause my budgeting software didn’t have to know that I was still visiting Starbucks at least once a week.
So, the food at Starbucks has always sucked. That’s just a given, you don’t go the Starbucks to enjoy their scones and rice krispies treats right?
So I was delighted when I heard that Starbucks had worked out a huge deal with La Boulange, a popular bakery in San Francisco, and that they’d be bringing those treats to their stores. I’d heard great things about La Boulange, so why wouldn’t it be great? Well leave it to a huge corporation to screw it up.
Finally, La Boulange made it to a store near me, here in Raleigh. I figured, if for nothing else, let me try this food to try to report to my sweet blog followers what I’d found. Okay. I ordered one of those croissant things with the like treat cooked into the middle. I went with a tomato-y and cheese one. It was prior to nutrition facts being posted, and I couldn’t find them online, so I took my best educated guess as to what my best option was.
It was so gross. Not a little gross, it was super nasty. It was soggy in the middle, and smelled like cafeteria food. So of course, I ate it.
It was soggy. And that’s all I need to say. The minute I get something soggy, I’m out folks.
I’ve researched the choices Starbucks had made, as well, by checking up on the nutrition facts that they’ve posted (thank you, thank you Jesus for folks now being required to post those), and it’s awful. Barely anything under 300 calories, and the one “healthy” item? The reduced fat pumpkin cream cheese loaf which weighs in with 10g of fat and 34g of sugar? Uhhh, no thanks, I’m totally good.
Long story short, I’m sure La Boulange is awesome. I love boulangeries, and I actually worked in a bakery for some time after grad school. I have nothing against delicious treats. But when someone comes in and perverts them? Oh yes, we’ve got big problems.
Maria was our hot mama who posted the photo on the web that created a viral firestorm. If you missed my post on the action, click here. I wasn’t sure that I loved her tagline, but I still am pretty impressed that she looks so great after 3 kids. After working so hard at fitness before kids, I imagine it must be difficult to get back there after you have not one, or two, but three critters to chase around after. It definitely makes me think twice before making an excuse to skip the sweat session.
Well #tbt came around, and Maria posted this old photo of herself. And I have to say it now, I’m now 100% jealous, and motivated to work a little harder. Her “before” photo is really nothing to be ashamed of, she looks fabulous.
From her original photo, I’m still not sure I loved her tag, but kudos, our hot mom quite obviously made some steps to get where she is. So Maria, kudos. You were obviously a very pretty girl before, and obviously very hardworking after. (She seems intelligent and well-spoken too, so she rocks.)
Shape magazine posted this article from POPSUGAR Fitness. How I Gained Weight as a Vegan: Don’t Let It Happen to You! Check it out. And it’s so true. Everything she says is hella true. I was that girl.
And by the end of school, beginning of graduate school I’d gotten to here.
…and had to fix it to go to here
A good, 40ish or so pound difference.
Now look. I know, I’m not delusional. I recognize that I’m no ‘Biggest Loser’ Contestant, but I had to take off some lbs. It wasn’t going a good way.
And it wasn’t completely about the way I looked, either. I felt tired and sluggish all the time. But I won’t front. I totally wasn’t confident in the way I looked, in particular, I hated my stomach, but I think that more had to do with the fact that I never worked out, and I generally felt crappy. That crappy feeling, from eating crappy food, will spill over and cloud your view of yourself, so it was just a nasty cycle.
Pescatarianism/Vegetarianism
I transitioned to a veg/pescatarian lifestyle my sophomore year when I was living with this girl. The food at Elon at the time wasn’t my fave, and truthfully, I’d never really been a beef person. Chicken was my friend (let’s perpetuate the stereotype, Cheri), and that was the one thing I’d have trouble giving up. I’d switch back and forth between Pescatarianism (eating no animal products but fish) and Vegetarianism, and despite the fact that I wasn’t chowing down on Big Macs, I packed on a little bit of pudge without even really noticing until swimsuit season snuck up on me. And that was always traumatic.
But the main reasons why my veg-ish lifestyle packed on a little pudge?
So if you’re contemplating vegetarianism or veganism, bravo! However, if you’re doing it for weight loss, you’re barking up the wrong tree. You can just as well fall into a nasty trap and gain a ton. Balance is absolutely key and without all the pieces of a healthy lifestyle, it’s just not gonna work.
Seriously. The most chilling word combination I could have ever imagined in my life.
Saturday, I ate an Asian Tuna Salad from a local spot here in Raleigh. So there was some raw fish involved. And when you play with fire (raw fish) for long enough, eventually, your good luck runs out. And mine did on Saturday night.
Saturday around midnight, before I found drunky moneky in the street (see the post), my tummy started aching. Which isn’t totally rare for me, I was a colicky baby, and it never left me. I popped a Gas-X (sorry, TMI, I know), and lay down on the couch. And woke up in agony a few hours later. It wasn’t just gas. And it just got worse and worse and worse, especially after I got back home around 4 am. I played games on my iPhone. I used the facilities. I tried to read (but the room was spinning). And I couldn’t sleep a wink.
The problem with food poisoning, besides the fact that it freaking blows and it’s miserable, is that it dehydrates you, and in my case, rendered me completely unable to safely run my long run on Sunday. Not wanting to completely derail my training, I hydrated all day Sunday, nursed the nausea, and woke up around 5 am on Monday to run long. And despite the itty bitty bit of nausea I still had, it went really well, and took my mind off the profound misery I’d suffered for a few hours.
If you find your self suffering from food poisoning and you’re mid-marathon training,
No more raw fish for me for a while. Woof. Woof. Woof.
So, I’ve been technically pescatarian since my sophomore year of college. How many years is that? I’m kinda bad at counting. Maybe like 6 years is a safe estimate?
Anyhoo, I’m not sure what brought me to that decision, except the food at the Harden Dining Hall tasted like garbage, and the meat was the worst of it all. And I wasn’t a super meaty girl to begin with. I never was much of a steak or a burger eater, so it was sort of easy. I just magically sort of stopped eating it.
At first I think I fell into the trap of eating a lot of french fries and Diet Cokes. It’s easy to do. But as I moved further into veggie-land, started living in a more veg-friendly town, started working next to the Whole Foods, and got a few more veg/vegan friends, it became clear that vegetarian meals were very multi-layered. So many flavors, proteins, and spices. I started paying The Remedy Cafe, a local veg joint, a few more visits, and I began getting super creative at home with beans, salads, veggie broths, and the crock pot. It’s been delicious. I’ll share with you guys a few more recipes if you want!
So why am I ranting and raving about why Veg Cooking doesn’t blow? Well I had an interesting interaction this week, and I’m hoping to convince a few of yous to at least try some veg things before you knock it (How do you get protein?! It just ain’t natural! I cannot live without meat, it’s just too hard).
Well my mom’s been sick, and I headed home the beginning of last weekend to tend to the house and Mom while everyone was gone for a family event. I cooked a few meatless wonders for her, and she loved them. Actually said some of the stuff (super easy spinach quiche, pan seared fish, nuts), was the best she’d tasted. So I challenge you guys, even if you love love your meaty meaty steaky meat, to try something called Meatless Mondays. I’m not trying to convert you so calm down. (But I will say pescatarianism has helped me to look incredibly fly, so if you want to look whack…okay just joshin’…) Or if you like love steak on Monday, do it Thursday or whenever. The original purpose was to reduce folks’ consumption of saturated fats. But I’m just telling you to do this like to broaden your horizons like Mom did. Do it. Commit. Like get all flavorful with it. Then tell me what you think. I know you’re gonna love it, but just humor me.
Overactive Blogger 