captainchas

Running Tri'ing Flying

"This is about limits. Reaching them, exploring them, exceeding what you thought yours were. Then coming to the conclusion that there aren't any limits."

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Tag Archives: nutrition

Marathon Motivation in Italy

At this moment, my fiance’ and I are headed to Europe and eventually Rome, Italy to run the Rome Marathon.

Before this trip, my fiance’ never had even the slightest desire to do something “so crazy.” She would never have dreamed of doing something like this, and in fact, would have thought: “That’s impossible!” just 15 weeks ago.

But then I bribed her. I told her about the beauty and history of Rome, how many calories you burn while running, how many fountains we’d see, how many calories we’d burn running, the cobblestone streets we’d be running on, the calories we’d burn, the time we’d spend together exploring trails around the San Francisco area while training for the marathon, and the fact we’d be going to Rome Italy and getting the best walking tour ever, and she finally succumbed to the bribery, despite the fact she *hated* anything athletic.

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Long Endurance Nutrition

Today’s Lunch

Recently in a discussion about nutrition for extended exercise, I realized I’d never discussed my own method of nutrition. This is what works for me, and I’m still tweaking it. The number one piece of advice I got before running the Comrades marathon was “Please eat!” That’s always been my strategy. The key is to find what works for you. Ironically, through fitfluential I saw another blog by mom.wife.fitness.LIFE where she asked the same question. It later occurred to me that my response also applied to our earlier conversation. Here’s what I wrote:

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Top Eleven Weight Loss Do’s and Don’ts!

Has your company recently started a weight loss competition? Do you just want to shed a few pounds? Then here are some of CapnChas’s top ten Do’s and Don’ts!

The Good, The Bad, and the Banned

The Good

1. Eat lots of Fruits/Veggies (nutritionally “dense” foods!). Instead of having a bag of chips, have a bag of fresh mixed vegetables with a tub of hummus sitting at your desk. Hummus can be expensive to buy, but takes about 5 minutes to make and is cheap to produce yourself (see an earlier post for a great Hummus recipe without Tahini, although those recipes with Tahini are good, too). Having fresh vegetables available gives you that satisfying “crunch” of a chip without the bad calories. Yes, it will suck at first – but these days, I actually crave crunching on carrots and broccoli dipped in hummus!

2. Give Yourself a “Free” Day. Yup, that’s right – one day a week, eat whatever you want. The first “free” day you’ll go way overboard, feel sick, bloated, and have low energy. Considering how you ate the rest of the week, you’ll end up hating what you did. The next “free” day, you’ll be a little bit more disciplined. But, let’s face it – If I banned myself from chocolate chip cookies, I would doom myself to failure! But if I know once a week I could eat all I wanted – I’d be much more likely to wait.

3. Have a Plan. Plan your meals ahead of time. Don’t eat out – cook your own food, and bring your food to work. It’s much easier to control just how many calories you’re eating if you make it yourself. And, generally speaking, it’s going to be healthier.

4. Make Exercise a Priority. I hate working out first thing in the morning, but if that ensures that I get my workout done, then that is when I need to do it. Set a specific time for your workouts, and explain to your family and friends just how important this is to you. Get them involved and on your side. When they understand that 5pm – 6pm is Mommy/Daddy’s workout time, and it’s because they want to be healthier and live longer, then the family will understand. Get them to exercise with you! And don’t make any excuses or let anything distract you from your planned workout time. It’s easy to do – hence why many workout first thing in the mornings (I do, also, but I hate that).
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Tracking Nutrition

With the beginning of the New Year, and, more importantly, with the launch of the trainingpeaks iphone app, I’m going to start tracking my nutrition as part of my training “going to the new level.” In order to lose weight, I need to track calories in and calories out, but, more importantly, I need to try and follow the plan most triathletes follow: The 40/30/30 plan, sometimes known as “the zone.” That’s 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat. I wonder how I’m doing? We’ll find out this week… If I’m going to push my training to the next level, I need to provide my body the right fuel. But don’t worry: I’ll still eat chocolate chip cookies. Some things in life are just impossible to give up. Unfortunately, I don’t know if there is an easy way to share my meals yet with the blog except using screen capture, but when I can, I’ll share the “pie… ”

Wish me luck!