That Annoying Sunday Post

I really hate writing posts on Sundays.

Sunday posts are kinda…irritating. If I haven’t blogged on Saturday, then there’s always a ton of photos on my camera, a ton of odds and ends to mention, and … well, that’s it; the extent of why I don’t like Sunday posts. Reading back, that’s actually not much at all..heh. I think I need to re-think my theories!

Well, whatever. As it IS an Annoying Sunday Post in theory, I’m just going to blog about whatever the heck I feel like – which today, is about EATING whatever the heck I feel like!

I used to be very set in my ways: breakfast was oats or cereal. Lunch was cold. Dinner was hot, and had a protein, carb, and veg, in separate compartments as it were. That way of eating is nothing to do with past EDs or anything, it’s just how I was brought up (me and 90% of England). I’ve begun to realise the past 6months or so though, that I don’t want to live by all those rules. Sometimes (like that lady who does really awesome photos and has a pretty darn awesome blog, awesomeawesomeawesome), I like breakfast for lunch or dinner, or something cold for dinner, or something hot at lunch. Sometimes, I don’t want a MEAL, I just want a plate of snacks. Sometimes I don’t want dinner at 7.15, I want it at 8.15. Sometimes I want a snack at 11.30pm, right before I got to bed (terrible, I know….I haven’t died yet though!), and sometimes I don’t care if I have loads of processed soy in one day, or if my sugar intake is probably 3 x over the GDA (ahem, maple syrup and overripe bananas….). It’s freeing to not obey The Rules all the time!

Like, eating and running. I think there are SO many ‘rules’ around eating and running; you must eat 30g carb per hour, you must have a carby snack before you run (but make sure it’s 3hours before or you’ll projectile vomit everywhere), don’t eat fats before you run or you may have a poop-situation, don’t do this, eat this snack whilst you run, blah blah blah…..

Well, SCREW those rules! I abided by The Running Food Rules on my marathon, and I truly believe it screwed me over – I should’ve stuck to what I know!

Take today, for example. I did:

9miles, 8.10 pace

That.

It was a super hot run, cos I had a lie in (til 8am! :-O) so didn’t start running til 8.50, and it was HOT out (think: sweat running down my chest….image of beauty, right there. Thankfully, I pur-chased a sweat band yesterday!). I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go, so I had my usual snack before I ran, which is probably not on the recommended list of pre-run snacks:

A big apple, 2 dates, 2 tsps wheatgerm, 2 chocolate covered espresso beans, a few brazil nuts, a handful of cereal. Oh, and I ate it 10mins before I left!

That snack though, just works so well for me on sub-10mile runs. If I run further, I’d probably have a Clif bar or something (the big 68g ones, not the mini English ones!). For runs of 6miles or less, that snack is fine and dandy for me – Anything over, and I bring some dates, a Gu or a sports drink with me. Today, I dug out some Lucozade jelly beans that expired in October LAST year… I didn’t really fancy them, but knew they needed eating. I could feel my energy start to waver slightly at around 7miles, but I so did NOT fancy those jelly beans! They did NOT appeal in any way, AT ALL – so I just skipped the snack and kept going. Bad runner! I was out for over an hour and didn’t snack!? Bah. It just about worked today, but I was certainly ready to finish at 9miles

As soon as I finished, I came into the house, downed a glass of soya milk, and walked for 20mins. Re-fueling after a workout IS a rule that I try and obey – I really needed to walk out to cool off (sweat dripping, sweat dripping!) but I needed something – milk it was!

When I got back in, I kinda disobeyed all those pesky Eating Time rules – I didn’t sit down to my breakfast til about 11.20! After the walk and a shower and some blending action, it was getting late!

Aahh, talking of breakfast, it was a goodun’! I did try and stick to the re-fuel rules, with protein and carbs, but more than anything I just wanted something COLD!

Frozen banana, frozen melon, half a pear, 1/2 c. soya milk, xanthan gum, salt, vanilla

Hit. The. Spot.

The protein / carb came from some Non-Overnight-Overnight-Oats! It wasn’t til I walked in the door post run that I decided I wanted some, so I quickly mixed up 1/2 c. oats, 1 tbsp chia seeds (after reading Born To Run, I want to up my chia intake!), 1/2 c. soya milk / 1/2c. water, cinnamon, ginger, LOADS of nooch, vanilla extract, cacao nibs & agave nectar. By the time I’d mixed it, blended the other stuff, had a shower, and eaten the blended mess, my oats were ready:

Perfect!

It was kinda two full breakfasts though – but you know what, screw official serving sizes! I’m a hungry runner, and I need my food! Bah.

—-

Post breakfast, I took my little Chika out for a hack – the weather was PERFECT. Hot, still, sunny. She got very sweaty, but her ears were jammed forwards and she had the best time, cantering through all the long grass. i am going to miss her SO much :’(

Lunch was eventually eaten at 3.30 (oh yes, another rule broken! Mwahahaha) – I wasn’t hungry, but I had a slight stomach ache and figured it was a ‘now or never’ kinda thing. But before lunch though, disaster struck…..

I bought that bowl YESTERDAY!

I had been doing the whole hoover thing (you know, trying to be a good daughter and all) and somehow, the bag holding my bowl fell onto the floor. It was like slow motion, as it happened…and then I heard the crack as my beloved new £6 bowl broke in half. GUTTED!

I phoned my mum asap, to ask if she could get some superglue on her way home. Fingers crossed…

Anyway! Back to lunch!

Peanut butter coated roast parsnip chunks – Crunchy PB, melted with soy sauce, water to thin, ginger and lime juice. Roasted red pepper on the side (which caramelised and was TO die for)

OH> EM> GEE.

Do I really need to say how delicious they were!?

For some real calories, I had some pumpkin pancakes drizzled with date sizzup (yep: I wanted pumpkin – think: autumn – pancakes – think: breakfast food – at 3.30pm – think: not a mealtime at all!?):

Uh, disappointing. Very disappointing. I used a mix of millet flakes and wholegrain spelt flour, and added in molasses and ginger and cinnamon and 1/2 c. pumpkin, but they were so BLAND! I’m not sure where I went wrong…le sigh. Chocolate made me feel better :-p

The pancake thing was a shame though – I was SO reluctant to open up a precious can of pumpkin (I only have one left now!), so I’m going to have to think very, very wisely about how to proceed with rest-of-the-pumpkin-can-usage….

Actually, I DID think wisely by the time it came to dinner! Looksee:

That dark blob? A few tbsp pumpkin, mixed with cinnamon, ginger, molasses, salt, water to thin, & a tsp of carob powder.

(once again) OH. EM. GEE. What a friggin delicious sauce! Like, it was really quite ‘woah’ worthy, and that doesn’t happen often in my world! I think I want to make it again and have it with kamut spaghetti or something….yum!

On the side, I had a big, massive, oat blend (frozen banana, cooked oats, vanilla protein powder, frozen melon):

You know what my cooked-and-cooled oats look like before they get blended?

Like a pancake!

My dinner was a prime example of not sticking by rules: I’d had very similar meals in the day, it wasn’t proper hot cooked food, but it was exactly what I fancied. If you obey your cravings, you can’t go wrong

Now I’m in a pickle though…I am stuffed to the gills in fullness, BUT I have some Booja Booja ice cream sitting in the freezer calling my name………..

Question: What’s your favourite day of the week? I like Friday’s and Sunday’s – Friday cos it means the end of the week and the prospect of a lie in the next day, and Sunday cos it’s Long Run Day!

——

PS: Random photos (below) which were on my camera – they just didn’t really fit with the post BUT I still think they’re cute

Delicious oats, *new* cawfee (it was GOOD!) & new socks (reduced to clear) – you know they are my first EVER pair of ‘proper’ running socks!? TBH, I didn’t really notice the difference between them and normal socks. A big old waste of $$$ really :-s

This entry was posted on June 26, 2011 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.