Monday, January 17, 2011

Better Nutrition Equals Better Performance

I am learning sooo much about nutrition. Ok.. I was ahead of the game in many ways by being a veghead for the last 15 years. And I had already gone to using extra virgin olive oil for most of my cooking even before that. I’m allergic to dairy. NO… not lactose intolerant but allergic.. you know.. hives! My dairy allergy would also manifest like a bad sinus infection. Problem is/was I LOVE cheesecake and lattes! I have also been allergic to many chemicals throughout my life some we still don’t know. Being around overly perfumed women is really tough for me. They just have to walk by and for many years there was one phone at school that I couldn’t use. Yeah… it’s that bad!



So needless to say, I already knew the health benefits of things like organic food, the variety of herbs for healing, etc. I simply didn’t always put things into practice. Mostly I did this because of what others would think. I am ashamed to admit that. People who follow the natural path for food/clothing/cleaning etc. are typically very liberal. I am not… I wanted to be healthy but did not want to be placed in the liberal category. In a conversation once, a new friend said to me “you’re tree hugger too???” No, I’m more of a conservationist but we were in a bar and that was not a good time to try to explain the semantics of the two.


As you may have read in the early post on my Plan for 2011, I am moving to a raw vegan lifestyle. Not because of animals (although I do love them) but for health reasons. Oh and the conservationist in me! I think by taking care of yourself with organic whole foods you can have an impact on the environment. Research is showing that medium sized organic farms are more sustainable that large factory farms. I try to eat locally whenever possible. The best resource I have for that is Door to Door Organics. They are a great company that delivers organic fruits and veggies to my door step. I get the bitty box delivered bi-weekly. I usually add a couple items. They allow you to sub up to 3 items per shipment and you can set your profile to say never send certain items (for me that’s regular potatoes!) Once when there was a problem with an item that was supposed to be in the weeks shipment they sent out an email saying if you have already received the item (leaf lettuce) they would credit your account or if your shipment was to come still you could sub an additional item or take the credit. How cool is that?!?! But what has been great is that it forces me to eat some things I might not ever pick up in the store. And since I don’t want them to go to waste, I certainly eat them. It has made me plan some meals better and to add more variety to what I eat.


Sooo what’s all this have to do with running? The old cliché “you are what you eat” comes into play here. My first event was put on by the Lawrence Trail Hawks (Coleen’s Frozen Fat Ass) and I did great! I was not sore and felt as if I could have done another loop. I had spent the previous two weeks eating a basically raw vegan diet. I did eat some warm winter soups and we did have one night out for Mexican. And as usual I had my Isagenix. But overall I was raw and if not raw it was vegan. I have found Pure bars and LOVE them. Over time I will be researching ways to include raw natural products into my training. I will keep you posted!

Believe!
bat

PS - check out the app at the bottom on what fruits and veggies are in season!

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