Eating clean, running, the zoo, and staying focused

On eating clean

I think in my last post I said that I would write up my meal plans and recipes for the week and put them on here, but I never really got around to it. I have adhered to all of the rules of the clean eating challenge (basically just no processed foods, gluten-containing foods, or added sugar- only whole foods). On Tuesday of this week, I was craving cupcakes from Green Goodies, dark chocolate covered almonds, maple syrup, and all of the other sugary junk I crave after a hard workout. Starting a new eating plan right after running a marathon is tough! Luckily, I had taken care of my post-race junk food binge before Diet Day. As of today, I feel great- I no longer crave the sugary stuff and feel a little lighter already. I'm hoping to make this more of a long-term change. 




So, what did I eat? For breakfast each day, I’m back to making fruit smoothies. I basically throw about 2 cups of fruit, a few scoops of raw hemp protein powder, and about 16 oz. of water into a blender and call it a meal. I end up with about 48 oz. of smoothie, which usually lasts me until around 10am and keeps me from feeling hungry until around 2 PM. I haven’t had coffee in about a week and a half now, although coffee is allowed on this particular diet plan. I’ve just been too lazy to make it. 

Other meals have included baked eggplant, spaghetti squash topped with Brussels sprouts and a red wine sauce, a vegetable “lasagna” consisting of layers of squash, Arborio rice, tomatoes, mushrooms, and marinara sauce; and baked potatoes. 


For snacks, I’ve been munching out on peanut butter, apple slices, dates, and carrot sticks. I absolutely love baby carrots and am probably driving everyone around me nuts with the crunching. Dates are so awesome that my hottest food fantasy would involve me being alone with a full pan of Date Bars from Red Cup, so they are more than satisfying my sweet tooth. I force myself to have at least a small snack right before I run, at 10am, 2pm, and 5pm, whether I’m hungry or not.


On running

My running schedule for the last week has absolutely driven me nuts. First of all, I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote this schedule, other than maybe that I needed rest two weeks before a 50K. Well, my 50K got pushed forward another week, so now there’s a three week gap in between. Regardless, there’s no reason for me to take FIVE DAYS off after running a marathon as a training run! To top it off, I only had 5 miles written in for Saturday. I almost always run at least 3-5 miles at a very easy pace a day or two after a marathon to loosen up and ease back into a slow but normal mileage routine by that Thursday. However, this schedule had a big fat goose egg next to every day until Saturday! I was having some really intense foot pain early in the week, so I went along with it for a few days. By Wednesday I was getting stir-crazy, so I went to the gym before returning to running on Thursday. Between the stress of work, home, and being in somewhat of a slump over the past few weeks, there was no way I was going to wait until Saturday. I had a nice 12 mile run today in which I took advantage of Sutton Wilderness and the hills of East Norman, and just enjoyed being alive in general. I needed that. Total mileage for this week: 22. Oh, and I also finally bought some Hokas this week. We'll see how they pan out. So far, they're like walking on marshmallows!

The zoo

As for Charlotte and my other critters, they’ve been a handful. Earlier today my smallest dog wouldn’t quit barking at Charlotte, Charlotte wouldn’t quit snorting, my two bigger dogs wouldn’t quit barking at each other, and T wouldn’t quit throwing fits. Eeek! Sometimes I feel like I live in a zoo. I guess I kinda do. But hey, it’s my zoo and I like it...for now. 


Staying focused

For this upcoming week, my goal is to regroup myself and focus on the good instead of the bad. Over the past few weeks, I've been letting the little things get to me to the point where I'm stressed out, bitchy, and distracted from the things that do matter. In the grand scheme of things, I have very few problems and they are all minor. For the problems I do have, running will take care of them. :) 

Have an awesome week, everyone. 

Image of an open road with bright blue sky. Photo by Leslie Driskill Oklahoma City



About Leslie Driskill

Leslie Driskill is a scientist from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. You can learn more about her running adventures by checking out her other pages. 

Follow me on twitter. 


My other sites:
https://pharmahub.org/members/6085/profile
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leslie-Driskill
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yqkPrs8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3484-2794
https://www.quora.com/profile/Leslie-Driskill-1
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yqkPrs8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliedriskill/
https://www.alltrails.com/members/leslie-driskill
https://soundcloud.com/user-907900105-88781924
Location: Oklahoma City, OK, USA

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