FITNESS

Recently a friend warned me to be careful with regards to over-training after we’d had a few conversations where my fitness schedule came up. My first reaction was a bit defensive. Although I’ve had a positive response, for the most part, to my participation in competitive fitness, not everyone has been supportive, so it seems my automatic response to defend my interest and lifestyle choices.

But the comment led me to contemplate what is over-training? At what point does a love for fitness and working out cross the line to addiction or obsession? This point is certainly different for everyone and relative in nature. I think without knowing it I subconsciously compare everything to my gymnastic background. I worked out 4-4.5 hours a day 5 days a week for over 8 years. After that, nothing really seems like over training. Now I of course I know logically that that’s ridiculous and what I do now is a completely different beast all together. But either way, I think that’s a big part of why it often doesn’t occur to me that multiple workouts a day or pushing till I want to collapse is an odd thing.

With that said, I think it really comes down to listening to your body; knowing the good pain from the bad pain, and tiredness from over-fatigue. I say this so simply, but heck, I haven’t figured it out! Over the years I’ve become much more aware, but I also know I have a long way to go.

But in the moment..

It was another lovely day of workouts. I did end up lifting for Shoulders & Glutes but didn’t hit shoulders as hard as I would have liked because I’m pretty sore, but it was still a good workout. After that was my never-miss Spin class followed by the same Flow Yoga class I did Monday.

Listening to my body… and because it’s scheduled as such  (j/k, sort of.. Thursday is often a lighter day), tomorrow will be a rest day from lifting, though I think I’ll still try out a new Yoga class

NUTRITION

Advertising a Lifestyle

A couple times in the last few days my lifestyle, but particularly food choices, has come up within the context of class discussions. In one class we were discussing the McDonald’s lawsuit where a group of children sued McDonald’s blaming the fast food company for their health problems. After making a comment on this topic, the professor asked me if I’d ever “devoured a cheeseburger.” I think she was expecting the standard answered of ‘well yes’ for her to prove her point. But she picked the wrong person. I have eaten McDonald’s food maybe 5 times in my life, and have never liked hamburgers anywhere. So my knee-jerk reaction, without any thought, was making an ugly face and saying “yuuckk!” I regretted my reaction immediately. I knew it would come off the wrong way. If anyone else in the class had responded as such I don’t think it would have been noticed. But everyone knows how into/obsessed I’ve become with fitness and healthy eating over the last 9 months, and I’m pretty sure my ‘expression’ was perceived as a judgmental response.

Then today, a group did a class presentation on my beloved Whole Foods. I of course was one of the people who raised their hand when the group asked who shopped at Whole Foods frequently. A couple people may have pipped up that “Alyson does.” Now, that I don’t mind at all, I do in fact go to Whole Foods at least once a week in addition to Trader Joe’s and local Farmer’s Markets. I gave my thoughts on the store brand, strategy, etc and the class moved on.

My point in talking about this is that sometimes I think my beliefs in fitness and nutrition might be misconstrued by others. I clearly am very passionate about both issues, but I have no interest in preaching to those who don’t care. If you’re happy with your health choices, by all means, I have no judgments. (That is unless of course someone complains about being over-weight then continue to eat poorly day in and day out, but that’s another topic for another time). Unfortunately I think that sometimes the strength of my conviction for my health & wellness choices are expressed to the extent that I seem self-righteous and snobby about it. I feel really bad about this because it’s not at all how I feel or the message I want to send. More than anything I think its me being defensive because I often feel like I have to explain why I’m doing all this. Moving forward I’ll do my best to be more aware of my words and how they might be perceived, and ideally attempt to think before I express displeasing sounds to a whole class :p

HEALTHY COOKIES .. x 2

On a much more upbeat note.. I felt like baking tonight! This was perhaps slightly or mostly inspired by this recipe for Vegan Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chunk Cookies that had photos that left me drooling. I’m not a fan of banana so I figured I’d try to make them pumpkin instead! So version 1 looked something like this..

Healthy Oatmeal Walnut Cookies

1 c Oat Flour
3/4 c Oats
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 c 0-calorie Sugar Substitute (I used Swerve)
1/3 c Unsweetened, Natural Apple Sauce
1/3 c Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 c chopped Walnuts

Unfortunately if I added Pumpkin in place of the Bananas the batter would have been to runny, so I left it out all together. But as soon as I popped them in the oven I realized they could easily be fitness-ized with a few substitutions. So I present, version 2..

Fitness-ized Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

1 c Oat Flour Protein Powder (I used ATW Cake Batter)
3/4 c Oats
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pumpkin Spice
1/2 c 0-calorie Sugar Substitute (I used Swerve)
1/4 c Unsweetened, Natural Apple Sauce Pumpkin
1/3 c Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 c chopped Walnuts

For both recipes: Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a seperate bowl. Combine. Fold in walnuts (& any other desired goodies). Bake at 350 F for 9 minutes. Both recipes made 12 good sized cookies

The Fitness-ized Pumpkin version is on the left and the regular healthy cookie is on the right.

Nutrition Facts – Based on recipes making 12 cookies .. and no they do not include the tablespoon of Holiday M&M I threw into a few above :p

As for the Rest of It..

Breakfast was a new one, and simply fantastic!

I made a Protein Pancake and topped it with warm Maple Apples (mixed chopped apples with a couple tablespoons Walden Farms Maple Syrup and heated stove top to desire softness) & 1 tbsp Naturally More PB. This was perfection, taste-wise and macros-wise (335 cal, 47 g P, 24 g C, 6 g F)!

I also tried something new for “lunch,” which also turned out great. This is super simple and I topped it with the rest of the apple from this morning.

Peanut Butter Fudge Pudding

4 oz Greek Yogurt (I used Oikos Vanilla)

1 scoop Chocolate Protein Powder (I used Chocolate Nectar)

1 tbsp Better n’ Peanut Butter

Mix up, top with something tasty & fun!

Nutrition Facts: 223 calories, 36.3 g P, 15.6 g C, 1.3 g F

Continuing with my experimentation theme of the day. For an afternoon snack I cooked 1/2 c Egg Whites, then mixed in 2 tbsp Pumpkin Hummus and topped with 2 tbsp Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Granola. Nothing special, won’t make it again.

Pre-workout and in between Spin & Yoga snack came in the form of the Peanut Butter & Chocolate version of the protein bar I tried yesterday. I still like this flavor better than the Chocolate Mint, but ideally next time I won’t leave it in the car so it’s half melted :p .. and yes it’s warm enough here still for things to melt and not freeze

When I got home from yoga I was super hungry but nothing was sounding good except .. it’s been 3.5 whole days since I had it .. kabocha! So I got that bad boy in the oven asap, and ended up staving off hunger with 1/2 c Cottage Cheese topped with 4 oz Chicken Breast, 2 tbsp Artichoke Hummus and ~1/3 Portabella Mushroom. It was a random thrown together combo but actually worked quite nicely!

Wow, the last couple days I’ve managed to keep myself super busy, and I’m beat! But absolutely no complaints, just one more class tomorrow! Have a wonderful Thursday!

So today I guess I was feeling adventurous in the kitchen. What favorite new combinations/recipes have you made lately?