Next Up: Potomac River Run Half Marathon

Posted in Race, Run by chicken nugget girl

Not having a challenging race to train for can be nice sometimes. It means I don’t have to stress about a long run over the weekend or force myself to go to the gym when I’m really not feelin’ it. It is rather quite liberating to decide how far I feel like running during a run.

But it can also be kind of boring. Lately I’ve just been doing shorter runs a few times a week whenever I’m in the mood to.

The only problem from this is that my fitness level has suffered without having a specific race to train for. Back when I was training for the Tough Mudder last year, there wasn’t ever a question if I should skip my workout or sit my ass on the couch. I HAD to get the workout in so that my body would be properly prepared to handle the race.

After I finished the Shamrock Half in March, I knew I wanted to run another half marathon. I definitely want to do a bunch of half marathons before I even think about running a full marathon.

I am also huge brat and will not train for a longer race when I have to do long runs when it is super hot outside. Same thing goes for the cold. Therefore, I needed to find a half to do sometime in late October or November.

Originally, I was considering running the Richmond Half Marathon, but after some thought I decided I wanted to do a half closer to home. And though Richmond is supposed to be a really good race, I also liked the idea of seeing how smaller, more intimate races are.

So, I’m doing this in November:

(source)

Don’t get too excited – I’m doing the half, not the full.

Other bonuses about this race: it’s insanely flat and is even on some of the paths that I normally run on.

I’m really excited to do a longer race on my “home turf.”

See ya later, gotta go start making highlighted training charts in my moleskine.

Are you signed up for any goal races?

What is your favorite season to do races in?

21Jun2013

Friday’s Five

Posted in Friday's Five by chicken nugget girl

1. Photos from the beach last week

2. Finally having the time to do some reading!

This book made me want to go get weird on a trail somewhere.

(source)

3. Thug Kitchen

My aunt showed this to me at the beach. Hilariousness.

4. What my fortune cookie told me

Why can I not stop laughing?

5. There are races to train for

I promise to give you all the new deets next week!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

19Jun2013

Looking Back: Juice Cleanse

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Health, How To by chicken nugget girl

Soooo, the juice cleanse taught me a lot of stuff.

A whole lot of shit happened during those three days: some good, some bad, and a little ridiculous thrown in.

Would I do it again?

Meh. I feel the same way about a juice cleanse as I do skydiving – once is enough.

PROS

The physical effects

I had a much easier time waking up in the morning, which we all know is a huge issue for me. I swear on my life that my hair got longer (useful when you’re growing out your bangs) and I definitely felt lighter and less bloated.

Getting to know more about food

That’s what my whole “journey” is about, right? I found it hilarious that beets look soggy and juicy when they’re raw. I thought all along that when they got that droopy look, they were cooked. I also never thought about peeling a lemon like an orange before. I’m so smart.

Tasting ingredients now

I would never have thought I would be able to take a bite of something and taste the parsley or agave nectar in it. Oh yeah, and the ginger. Unfortunately, I realize now that Kung Pao has lots of ginger.

CONS

Staying strong

Juice cleanses are depressing. At least they are for me. I like thinking about what I’m going to eat for my next meal. It’s what part of the fun in life is about. Placing extreme limits on yourself surprisingly is not very much fun.

Low energy

I took my resting heart the first night of the cleanse and it was 66 beats per minute. That is super duper slow for me, which was almost a little alarming!

Fogginess

I kept getting caught saying the wrong words in sentences. For example there was a lot of: “I put the fridge in the juice.”

WHAT WORKED

Avoiding Instagram and all of the blogosphere

Dealing with the glorious pictures of everyone’s delicious-looking food was most definitely going to be too much for me.

Mixing it up

Playing with temperature worked. The variety of hot (nut milk) and cold (frozen lemonade) tricked my mind into thinking it was having exotic meals.

Double duty

I made and packed the juices in twos, threes, and fours. On the first night, I prepped my green juice for Day 2 and Day 3 at the same time. Four juices took me an hour and a half to make. All that washing and peeling and chopping and cleaning takes a while. However, it was nice to have it all done in one go.

In person food avoidance

I didn’t eat with office people at lunch, and Tuna was a saint and tried not to eat or even talk about food in front of me.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE

More prep

I wish I had eaten a little bit healthier during the week or two leading up to the cleanse, though I didn’t do too bad on that front. But weaning myself off of caffeine? That is a must.

Distraction

Distraction seems to be the key when it comes to surviving a cleanse. It was hard to watch sports because of the commercials for Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Even people eating in Game of Thrones made me jealous. So – I guess I mean distraction that doesn’t involve food.

(source)

Following up

I just missed food so much, which made me over-indulge after the cleanse.

*******

I have a whole new appreciation for kale.

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

18Jun2013

Post Juice Cleanse

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Health by chicken nugget girl

This is comical to me.

(source)

“The idea is to break the..cleanse primarily with fruit (day one).” [NUH UH.]

“Then add salads and steamed veggies (day two).” [NO WAY.]

I wasn’t about to have freakin’ only fruit the very first day I could actually HAVE FOOD again.

I had been dreaming about food for three whole days and could not wait to EAT. At least I had some restraint the first day post cleanse and planned some light meals in advance to hesitantly nibble down.

My post cleanse breakfast:

a simple strawberry banana smoothie with chia seeds.

Even though it was liquid, I was so glad to finally have something with a little substance to it.

That settled in my stomach okay, so I made a cool smorgasbord salad for lunch.

It was definitely different biting into my food again! The shrimp was so flavorful and the crunchy bean sprouts tasted like the freshest things I’ve eaten in my entire life.

My stomach sure grumbled a lot that first day post cleanse, but I was just so happy again to be eating, that’s pretty much all I cared about. I had a greater appreciation for food’s vibrancy. It was depressing not being able to eat.

I thought about my first dinner pretty much the whole time during the cleanse. I kept adding and subtracting ingredients in my mind.

It was perfect. 2 eggs and 1 egg white, yellow corn, salsa, guacamole, and shredded spinach.

I mixed it all up like a Chipotle bowl.

Ah-mazing.

I went a teensy bit overboard on the first day, but I did eat a little slowly and everything turned out just fine.

Until I woke up the next morning.

I was putting in my contacts and notice that my right eye looked extremely red. Being sent home for pink eye (even though it was just allergies) multiple times in the third grade made me realize immediately: I had pink eye.

Coincidence?

I think so. I don’t think there’s any medical way doing a juice cleanse gave me pink eye. Actually, when I first googled [ummm]: “Does a juice cleanse give you pink eye?” the first items that popped up were about how juice cleansing is a good way to treat pink eye. LOL.

I do think, however, the juice cleanse messed with my body a lot. Mentally, it made me stronger for sure. But physically, it kind of sucked.

For a total weight-loss of 5 lbs in three-days, I immediately gained half of it back in one day, and all of it within a week at the beach.

And I’m not feelin’ that a 5 lb weight loss and re-gain is worth caffeine withdrawal headaches, digestive issues, and getting a possible bacteria infection afterwards gave me the drive to do another juice cleanse in the future. It totally takes a toll on your body in different ways, even if it can be slightly coincidental.

It’s starting to seem like my experiments end in Urgent Care attendance.

No matter how I loathed the juice cleanse, I did see and feel some positive health benefits (clearer mind, better sleep, hair and skin effects) that will encourage me to continue to add nutrient rich juice as a meal supplement – whenever I can.

12Jun2013

Cheesy Orzo

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Recipes, WIAW by chicken nugget girl

Yum.

Making this post is reminding me how utterly delicious this dish is.

Tuna and I both looked at each other when we took the first bite with wide eyes – because we didn’t expect it to be as seriously good as it was!

It rich and light at the same time, which is perfect for a summer din din.

This recipe was inspired by Quick Dish.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter
1 large shallot, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 small zucchinis, diced
1 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes
2 cups uncooked orzo
2 tsp tomato paste
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb shrimp
2 tbsp freshly chopped chives
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat 2 tbsp of butter in a large skillet. Add the minced shallots and sauté for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.

Add the zucchini to the skillet, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and sauté for 6 minutes.

Add half of the tomatoes and sauté another minute.

In a separate pot, cook the orzo.

Once the orzo is cooked, add it to the skillet with the sautéed veggies.

Lastly, add the cheese, the other half of the tomatoes and remaining 2 tbsp of butter. Toss everything to combine.

Add chopped chives as garnish and serve!

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

7Jun2013

Friday’s Five

Posted in Friday's Five by chicken nugget girl

1. Pinkeye.

The juice cleanse really youth-ified me, right back to about third grade. Since third graders are usually the people that get pinkeye.

2. Scouring the New York Times Best Sellers list.

It kind of reminds me of summer book lists at school, which I always loved. Pumped that I have lots of Nook Book $$$ to burn.

3. Skipping the gym.

In the beginning of the week I didn’t exercise because of the juice cleanse, but for the past few days I’ve still been sittin’ on my butt. Kind of nice but hopefully I’ll get some yoga in later today and feel a little more productive.

4. So much fun.

Doing this again.

(source)

5. Taking a vacation.

Tuna and I heading down to the beach for a week with some of my fam. So. excited.

6Jun2013

Juice Cleanse, Day 3

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Health, Recipes by chicken nugget girl

After Day 2, I knew I was in the clear. I knew I was going to be able to finish the juice cleanse.

The other problem with Ginger-Gate was that I made the C.A.B. juice for night 2 and 3 at the same time, which means I needed to remake it. That wouldn’t have been an issue except I used my last apple! Ah!

Luckily I was able to improvise with some applesauce I already had in the fridge. I checked the ingredients and saw that the only ingredient was organic apples, and cheered! I think my juicer was happy that it had less work to do.

Day 3 was probably the biggest mental challenge for me. I kept comparing the mental challenge of the juice cleanse to that of running the half marathon. In both cases, I went from doubting myself to gritting my teeth and just getting through it. The only difference is that the half marathon took me around 2 1/2 hours and the juice cleanse was for 72.

As I went on, I starting learning the tricks of the trade and testing out ideas. A new approach was needed for Juice 4, the Spicy Lemonade.

The Spicy Lemonade is:

1-2 lemons
a few squirts of raw agave nectar
a dash of cayenne pepper

Day 1 I drank the Spicy Lemonade as is and it was pretty darn sour and hard to get down. I knew I would dread juice 4 of the day if I didn’t come up with some kind of solution.

My big idea: to freeze it!

And it worked!

I microwaved it for about 45 seconds to make it a little softer, and it was just like a lemon Italian Ice. It still tasted like sour-ass cayenne, but I was so happy to be using a spoon and chewing that it made the experience that much more pleasurable.

Afternoon of Day 3: the stomach problems set in.

I can’t bring myself to discuss bodily functions in depth on here for fear of scarring you for life, so just warning you: you might want to do some research on what a cleanse does to your digestive system before you do it. Unlike me.

Let’s just say it like Tuna said it, I was, “supa’ blown.”

Somehow, I was able to muster the strength to:

1. Prep my food for Day 1 post cleanse.

2. Enter Whole Foods, purchase a few food items, and leave without breaking in to the hot bar and shoving cartons of crab dip into my purse.

I passed the test.

It was finally time for my last “juice,” the Nut Milk.

The real BluePrint juice for this is some fancy cashew milk, but I was pretty content with the vanilla almond milk I bought for $1.99 and dumped some cinnamon into. I drank 1/3 of the carton each night. Day 1 I sipped it and thought it was kind of blah, but by Day 3 I was a whole new person with juice cleanse wisdom and remembering that I could use a microwave.

Microwave it for 2 minutes and you’ve got deliciousness.

Going to bed the night of Day 3 was pretty much like going to bed on Christmas Eve.

But hey – I did it!

5Jun2013

Juice Cleanse, Day 2

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Health, How To, Recipes, WIAW by chicken nugget girl

The night between Day 1 and Day 2 I had lots of really vivid dreams and I remembered them once I woke up! That’s definitely a surprising side effect from the cleanse.

Thank gawwwd I didn’t have a headache anymore, and I was not hungry. Both good things.

I hopped on the scale and was excited to see that I was down 3 lbs. This shit was actually working!

Weirdly enough, I had an easier time getting up in the morning than I usually do. I also felt like my mind was a bit sharper in the morning – even without coffee.

The day passed in two(ish) hour increments, spent waiting for the next time I could have my juice. Not because I was hungry, I just wanted to consume something. Every hour and a half I would start to feel a little more drained, a little weaker. I could seriously tell that my body was soaking up the nutrients in the juice when I re-fueled, which is kind of a strange feeling and hard to describe!

Here’s the juice schedule I followed:

Juice 1: 9:30 am
Juice 2: 12:00 pm
Juice 3: 2:30 pm
Juice 4: 4:30 pm
Juice 5: 7:00 pm
Juice 6: 9:00 pm

I could not wait for Juice 2, my absolute favorite juice by far.

P.A.M. is a pretty simple juice: a ton of pineapple, and some apple and mint. It was extra cool because I got to use my mint from my mint plant that I harvested and have yet to kill (nbd, hell is freezing over).

I haven’t really tried pineapple before, and I think the only time I’ve ever had pineapple juice was with a bunch of vodka in Hawaii. At least now I have one juice from the cleanse that I genuinely love and will keep making!

Everything continued smoothly the rest of the day until Ginger-Gate.

*Side note: I’m talking about ginger root – which I had to ask the grocery store worker for because I was wandering around looking for pink ginger like the kind that comes with sushi. Turns out that the pink ginger is made from artificial dye. Who knew.*

The first night I had C.A.B. I didn’t put any ginger in the jar because I ran out of room. Beets make a lot of juice.

It wasn’t the best thing in the world, but it was filling, and I liked the carrot juice in it.

The measurements I used were:

1 apple
1/2 lemon
2 giant carrots
3 beets (I did not juice the greens)

On Day 2, I prepped my C.A.B. juice to take to Tuna’s. Since I’ve never used ginger before, I didn’t know how much to put in the juice (and was apparently too lazy to google it for some reason).

So, I proceeded to juice about half of the amount shown in the picture above. *See evil.

The kitchen sure smelled like sushi, but I didn’t think much of it. I packed up my juice and headed on over to Tuna’s.

When I got to his place, I stuck a straw into my mason jar and took a huge gulp.

Omg.

Too. Much. Ginger.

That was the first time I considered stopping the juice cleanse. I needed to have something for dinner, and I was not about to drink that crap. I panicked.

Tuna suggested I water it down. Still foul. I tried to put some ice in it and stir it around. Nope.

All I could do was hold my nose, chug half of it, and try to keep it down. The latter was hard to do, but I did.

I brushed my teeth but was still hurtin’. It was time to resort to Tuna’s mint gum.

You’re not supposed to chew gum on a juice cleanse because it supposedly tricks your stomach into thinking it needs to digest something, but that’s okay. Funny how ginger is supposed to be soothing for your stomach, but it upset mine for the rest of the night.

Day 2 lesson learned: try the juice before you take it to go.

I have now sworn off ginger. For life.

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I ~~Drank~~ Ate Wednesday!

4Jun2013

Juice Cleanse, Day 1

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Health, Recipes by chicken nugget girl

I woke up the morning of Day 1 with a slight headache from the few glasses of red wine I had the night before (dumb idea, I know).

At least I took some initiative of what I ate and drank pre-cleanse. I did some research that recommended cutting back on coffee, chocolate, and avoiding grains in order to prep your body for the juice cleanse. I drank a smaller cup of coffee than usual on Friday, and didn’t have an coffee on Saturday. Saturday I ate healthily – a smoothie, eggs for dinner, etc.

The BluePrint cleanse I’m following consists of 6 juices a day that you drink about every two hours.

Green Juice
P.A.M.
Green Juice
Spicy Lemonade
C.A.B.
Nut Milk

I’ll outline the recipes for all of juices as the days progress!

I’m so glad I got to do the first day on a weekend day (Sunday) because I totally would not have survived through work

Even though I was excited to start the juice cleanse, I really wanted some FOOD. But once I drank my first Green Juice, my stomach did feel full.

Here’s what’s in the Green Juice:

Since I was jacking the ingredients from BluePrint, I didn’t have the exact recipe, but the juice I ended up with was pretty good! Those measurements are:

1/2 cucumber
2-4 celery stalks
1/2 lemon
1 handful parsley
1-2 small heads of romaine
1-2 small heads of spinach
6 large kale leaves
top off with filtered water

That makes approximately 16 oz. of juice, which is suggested amount for each of the juices in the cleanse. It’s perfect – regular sized mason jars are exactly 16 ounces!

I found it helpful to drink the juices slowwwwly [think 30-40 minutes], which made me feel less deprived and kept my stomach feeling okay. I also drank A LOT of herbal tea – about 1 in between each of the juices. After drinking so many cold juices, all I wanted was something warm!

By far, the worst thing about Day 1 was the bad headache I had all day. I’m pretty sure this was due to caffeine withdrawal, but I’m not positive. There was a lot of massaging my temples going on. I even refrained from watching Real Housewives because I absolutely could not deal with any raised voices or yelling. #juicecleanseproblems

(source)

In addition to the headache, I felt tired, had low energy, and kept sweating. It almost felt like I was sick! I was pretty miserable, but wasn’t hungry – even though I missed eating…and chewing.

Despite all of this, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t feel dizzy and did not feel the need to eat any solid food add-ins. I’ve been carrying around an avocado, banana, and some pecans just in case of emergency.

I literally googled: “What to do if lightheaded during juice cleanse?” before I started, because I was anemic in high school and fear fainting. THIS article warned me, “Light headedness to the point of fainting puts you at serious risk for injury.” Point taken. I’m taking a slow-releasing iron pill and am doing just fine so far.

Plus, during the juice cleanse, I’ve been listening to my body like whoa. I’m hyper-aware of everything I’m feeling because I want to make sure I stay safe!

As the afternoon continued, I started to feel a lot of doubt, wondering if this was the right thing to put my body through. I was poking around my bookshelf, and saw I had a book on juicing that I’ve never even looked at! It came at just the right time, because it helped me validate why I’m doing this.

I fell asleep thinking of pizza and Mexican food (legit images of the cheesy goodness in my head) and crossing my fingers that Day 2 would be easier.

3Jun2013

Juice Cleanse Grocery List

Posted in Clean Eating, Food, Health, How To by chicken nugget girl

After our last trip to Eastern Market, I knew I wanted to come back and get lots of produce before my big juice cleanse. So Saturday morning, some friends and I headed on over to check it out!

We found almost everything I needed for a [slightly] cheaper price than Whole Foods and probably a lot fresher too! A lot of the veggies I bought still had the roots on them – and you can’t beat the size of some of this stuff.

Look at the giant carrots!

bigcarrots And I got a huge bushel of beets for $3.50.

My bags started to get pretty dang heavy, so I kept ploppin’ them down while I bought more goodies. Thanks for being my personal photographer for the day, Mal!

I don’t think my fridge has ever been as full as it was after this trip.

Yeah, it’s nice to have really fresh veggies for juicing, but that also meant they were on the dirty side. Solution = wax paper.

I am basing my juice cleanse on BluePrint’s Renovation Cleanse, their three day beginner cleanse.

Making the juices myself is definitely a daunting task, but I’m glad I’m doing it this way. I went to the store to get the last few items and spotted the actual pre-made juices from BluePrint. Look at the prices. Seriously? I was able to get all of the ingredients on the above grocery list for a third of the price that the cleanse would cost if you bought the juices already made.