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| Tarte de Tomates, dijon mustard, tomatoes (obviously), zucchini, cantal cheese |
Before a run, I guess this is how I feel; an uncooked tomato tart. I feel a bit cool, a bit heavy and a bit stiff. Then after my run, I feel much better. My cheese has melted, my zucchinis have softened up and my tomatoes are juicy.
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| Finished product |
You are probably asking, "What in the hell kind of analogy was that!?" Well, honestly, it was just a silly one. But you get it, right? After my runs I feel relaxed and groovy. Just as anyone should feel after a nice effort. Running also allows me to summon glasses of wine!
Howdy everyone, and how's it going!? I wanted to share a wee bit of what I eat normally and how I spend my days off from running. I have absolutely no training in nutrition so I will only share the knowledge that I have with my own experiences and what I have learned. Right now I am on kind of a forced vacation (sad right?), so my days off are plenty and tranquil! I head back to work the 1st of September as I am an English teacher at what I call a "tiny-tots" school. I take care of little ones with ages ranging from 2.5yrs-5yrs all day while doing activities and sing-song kind of things all in English until the afternoon, where I have some older kids doing more "mature" English excercises. My days are soon to be full and busy and no longer "tranquil", but with that 50km race in the distance and everyones motivation I intend to stay on track with training and having a good time. So, as of now here is what my morning to evening diet looks like and what has worked so far.
I try to have at least one salad a day just to make sure to get my greens but I am not a salad lover. I enjoy eating them once they are put together but preparing them doesn't really excite me. I would much rather scarf a good quality burger or have something a little heavier. My wife and I are not vegetarians per se, however we try to really limit the amount of meat we intake. If we are eating meat it is usually fish. Some favorites for lunch:
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| Older photo, but this is how you should feel after a run |
Howdy everyone, and how's it going!? I wanted to share a wee bit of what I eat normally and how I spend my days off from running. I have absolutely no training in nutrition so I will only share the knowledge that I have with my own experiences and what I have learned. Right now I am on kind of a forced vacation (sad right?), so my days off are plenty and tranquil! I head back to work the 1st of September as I am an English teacher at what I call a "tiny-tots" school. I take care of little ones with ages ranging from 2.5yrs-5yrs all day while doing activities and sing-song kind of things all in English until the afternoon, where I have some older kids doing more "mature" English excercises. My days are soon to be full and busy and no longer "tranquil", but with that 50km race in the distance and everyones motivation I intend to stay on track with training and having a good time. So, as of now here is what my morning to evening diet looks like and what has worked so far.
Breakie
- My favorite meal time. Lets face it. I love to eat so, when I wake up, the first thing I think about is food and coffee x2.
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| My coffee set up: old manuel Peugeot coffee grinder, inspirational mug, air tight coffee container and coffee press. Coffee is normally something from Costa Rica or El Salvador. My wife and I really enjoy bright medium coffee roasts that really bring the sunshine inside. |
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| Not my photo but, this is what a normal breakfast looks like for me. A couple pieces of "tartine" French for what we would call toast but with a baguette with butter and jam. |
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| Or it looks like this. Quaker's Cruesli is the bomb! Plenty of fiber and carbs and iron and CHOCOLATE! Two little bowls of this and I am set! |
Lunchtime
- My least favorite meal to prepare but like all the others, I still love to eat it. For lunch I try to keep it light but with some good calories.
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| Salad "guts": Green salad, yellow onion, cucumber, lentils and beaufort cheese |
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| Finished Product: Yummy with a little shout-out to Opinel knives in France. My wife and I have reduced our entire kitchen cutlery to two Opinel knives to see how much, really, do we need? |
- tartine de tomate (toasted baguette with tomatoes, cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinigrette)
- pasta (any kind) some veggies, cheese and sauce of some sort (served cold)
- omelettes (Normally I just have to use my imagination with what is lying around)
Afternoon
- Gouté: Afternoon snack or teatime. I never really drink tea unless it is bedtime. Coffee is my go-to. This is my second favorite time of day to eat. Usually a salty-sweet snack with a coffee or a beer or glass of whatever is around and good.
Dinnertime
Well, my first pictures of my bizarre analogy, are a good example of what we normally make for dinner when we have an abundance of veggies. My wifes parents have an enormous garden. When we visit them we are pretty much garanteed a giant sack of vegatables to take home with us. Tarts are great for making use of random accumulated veggie goodies. Other dinners loved:
- Pizza (Of course)
- Spaghetti
- Orientale rice dishes
- Quinoa with sweet potatoes, red bell pepper, citrus juice and chili powder
There are so many good things out there to eat! Whether you are vegan, vegetarian or a carnivorous caveman, I believe you can have a happy and healthy diet.
When training and running like a mental person eating loosely is normally OK as long as the quality of food is good. Use your best judgement. Do you think that your Big Mac and fries are actually healthy? No, probably not. But get the ingredients yourself to fix up a kick-ass burger chez vous and make a memory!
I have a weakness/sickness/love-obsession with ice cream and honestly this is the reason we have an itsy bitsy little freezer.
It is hard to fit much ice cream in there without losing all the space. Before we didn't have one at all and I ate no ice cream for almost a whole year! Unless my in-laws spoiled me when we came for a visit (YES!). To the left you may notice my newest friend. Magnum's Mint ice cream bars. My dear, they are absolutely lovely. It is so, damn, good! Like ice cream, beer is another thing that I love. However, I do not consider myself an alcoholic, nor an ice creamaholic, when the two are on-hand, I go through them rather quickly. The best defense for these sicknesses is to just not buy them. But to all of you running dudes and dudettes out there, just indulge yourself and enjoy the gift your taste buds have blessed you with. If you find that consuming these products is limiting your ability to lose those pesky pounds, just add one or two more up-hills in the workout and I promise you'll...well, at least even out. I was 95kg in California during 2014 and since moving to France I have dropped down to 81kg. That is roughly 210lbs to 178lbs. I'm happy at 81kg and as long as the running continues so does the beer and ice cream.
I read somewhere, someday, (did you apprecitate my sweet citing details?) that stretching too much after an effort could actually damage muscle tissue. There are little micro-tears in the tissue of the involved muscles and if you stretch before they heal you could further damage them or cause them to take longer to heal. Anyway, it made sense to me and normally now, I wait until the next day or about 6 hours after the workout to do my stretching or yoga.
Like meditation and running, yoga is a mental activity as much as it is physical. Well actually, meditation isn't very physical (hehe). The breathing process in yoga is, to me, the most important part in staying connected to the exercise as much as it is to running. Rhythm in your breath is key to staying on pace in cadence, staying focused and staying mentally strong. It is THE key in yoga. Master your breath and feel the benefits of your practice imediately. This is what I have discovered anyway.
It is hard to fit much ice cream in there without losing all the space. Before we didn't have one at all and I ate no ice cream for almost a whole year! Unless my in-laws spoiled me when we came for a visit (YES!). To the left you may notice my newest friend. Magnum's Mint ice cream bars. My dear, they are absolutely lovely. It is so, damn, good! Like ice cream, beer is another thing that I love. However, I do not consider myself an alcoholic, nor an ice creamaholic, when the two are on-hand, I go through them rather quickly. The best defense for these sicknesses is to just not buy them. But to all of you running dudes and dudettes out there, just indulge yourself and enjoy the gift your taste buds have blessed you with. If you find that consuming these products is limiting your ability to lose those pesky pounds, just add one or two more up-hills in the workout and I promise you'll...well, at least even out. I was 95kg in California during 2014 and since moving to France I have dropped down to 81kg. That is roughly 210lbs to 178lbs. I'm happy at 81kg and as long as the running continues so does the beer and ice cream.
I hope that you found this information helpful and if not, at the very least, somewhat ammusing. In between running days I take time to stretch and do my Yoga workout that is like a muscle workout and stretch-fest all-in-one.
Yoga
While still living in California, I was practicing vinyasa yoga about 4-5 times a week. It was "hot'' yoga that for me, was really, too hot. I was pretty much a water truck filling a lake on top of Mt. Cameron's Yoga Mat. I could practically go swimming in my own sweat afterwards. A bit too extreme for me but the workouts were totally killer! I have started practicing again recently and found that the benefits of yoga are so super cool. It is a great muscle toner and strength builder for basically the whole body. The stretching is what I've come to love. I wasn't running much when I practiced yoga before so I just felt stretched all the time. Now, it is definitely noticeable that after a run, I tighten up. I don't like to stretch immediately after a run or even really the same day.
I read somewhere, someday, (did you apprecitate my sweet citing details?) that stretching too much after an effort could actually damage muscle tissue. There are little micro-tears in the tissue of the involved muscles and if you stretch before they heal you could further damage them or cause them to take longer to heal. Anyway, it made sense to me and normally now, I wait until the next day or about 6 hours after the workout to do my stretching or yoga. 
The leg and balancing exercises in a "flow" are super awesome for stretching out the hamstrings and hips all while strengthening the abdomen. I definitely can't see any negative affects from yoga, particulary the Vinyasa style. I again, would like to reiterate that this is just based off of my own experience and not from any prior training I have. I'm not a health specialist or workout specialist but I do enjoy finding information and digesting different ideas and methods to suite my own. This is simply what has worked for me so far and what I continue to enjoy.
Make sure that if you ever did want to jump into yoga that you should approach it slowly and at your own pace. This is not a type of excercise to rush. Your body will adapt at it's own pace. I am, by no means a flexible man but I have improved my range of motion imensely since practicing yoga. This is something that I can only see as beneficial to running especially when getting out there on those longer runs. Not only am I strengthening my body but also my mind.
Like meditation and running, yoga is a mental activity as much as it is physical. Well actually, meditation isn't very physical (hehe). The breathing process in yoga is, to me, the most important part in staying connected to the exercise as much as it is to running. Rhythm in your breath is key to staying on pace in cadence, staying focused and staying mentally strong. It is THE key in yoga. Master your breath and feel the benefits of your practice imediately. This is what I have discovered anyway. 
Thanks for reading and staying tuned! Please to forget to follow the blog by email and check out my Youtube page as well. Thanks Guys and Gals!
Ciao for Now,
Cameron
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