Fueling

This post is meant to be.

After I told you yesterday that I was going to talk about what a runner eats, I opened not one but two emails about that very thing. And I’ll give you three guesses as to just how happy that makes me, on a scale of one to ten. If you said a billion and fifty, you’d be right. What more reassurance does someone need than knowing what they want to talk about is also what someone may want to read about? Little, I tell you, and although not everyone will be interested in it, that is so not what we do around here anyway.

As if that weren’t enough, did anyone watch Nova’s Marathon Challenge last night? I tell you what, even if you’re not a runner nor desire to train for distance running, it is worth the hour. (And okay, I will just say right here how I teared up at the end because there is nothing like that finish line feeling.) I especially like that one of the doctors said we’re born with “large, muscular butts.” Something about that statement just made me feel good about running and my butt.

I also liked that the documentary touched on how valuable physical activity can be for a person, even at first. To paraphrase one of the doctors, it was stated that even after one day of exercise, you are healthier than you were the day before. One day. I was glad I’d heard this statement because that’s the point I wanted to make about food, and eating. And a runner eating. Especially THIS runner. Because though some people (me!) might say that I’m not perfect, that I have a long way to go, I can verify this. After just one day of eating what I should. good fuel, I’m healthier than the days I didn’t. I can feel it.

In many ways, it is that simple. And I’m not just talking about looking in the mirror and liking what we see, or fitting into those jeans we wore in high school. I’m talking about our bodies. The way they work. The way we treat them. We all know this, we know what’s good and bad. There are no secrets. But for most of us, it is a check-and-balance system. We must be aware of what we’re putting in if we’re counting on what we’re going to get back.

This has become more than obvious to me over the last year. As much time as I’ve spent running, I’ve spent that much more not running; and, have often been guilty of not paying a lot of attention to what I put into my body in either instance. I was good but not that good. I was careful but not that careful. So when I was finally able to get back to regular running, it was either pay attention or pay for it. I know, how profound.

The truth is, as if we all didn’t know already, I am not an expert. What I am, though, is a trial and error professional on my own body. Which brings me to my two recent emails. Email number one asked “how do you run and lose weight at the same time?” and email number two asked “how do you find the time to eat well with a busy schedule?” Well here is my non-professional, professional answer: it is hard, y’all. Sometimes you just want some fries.

But if there were two “tips” I could give anyone it would be to a) pay attention and b) to plan. Neither of these, if you show even a half-assed dedication to, will fail you. The first, tracking, is perhaps the most important. I use FitDay.com but there are a number of sites and services out there that will function in basically the same way. Because not only do you need to know how much (i.e. was that cinnamon roll worth it?), but you also need to know what your day is made of. Carbs… protein… fat, they are all in there. They are all necessary in there. But you have to know how much, and you have to know how much is right for you. I, for instance, can go pretty high on carbs and still maintain or lose weight. I attribute that to running. If, however, I start to push the fat grams day after day, bad things start happening. I still eat about 15-20% more fat than recommended for “an average person of my size.” You have to find what’s right for you.

Number two, planning. This, as my seven-year-old cousin would say, is for serious. I can go about a day and a half without planning meals and still be okay. I mean, McDonald’s has that fruit and apple thing, and the vending machine at the office has those no-fat pretzels, and ohhh, look! Chipotle has a salad! But that cannot last. And I’m not saying you’re me but if you were, that fruit and apple thing and those pretzels are just the top of a slippery slope. One that leads to a sausage biscuit and a packet of cupcakes because what? It is almost the same thing.

Well I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to go for biscuits and cupcakes, it should be ones my mother made at home in the kitchen, not something that’s been sitting in deep freeze for five months. (Not that I know that for sure.) So it becomes about planning. We’re not a single responsibility society. We don’t get up at 7:00, go to work at 9:00, come home at 5:00 to dinner on the table and get to bed by 9:00 just to do it all over again. That’s not what we’re made of. We get up and go to the gym, and walk the dog, and water the lawn and shovel the snow, and shuttle kids, and grocery shop. We multi-task our days away with phone calls and after-work plans, and running at lunch, and running errands, and eating at desks, or in the car. We don’t come home but we go to football practice, or peleton training (yes, I know people who do this every day) and have dinner plans and, well, you see what I mean. You know what I mean. You do what I mean. And while it’s all good, a busy schedule does not a healthy meal make.

So after all that, I’ll get right to it. I have two staple meals that seem to get me by when I have no time to cook. Rule Number One: Slow cookers are not only for your grandmother anymore. Chopped raw vegetables, chicken broth and well-marinated meat are my best recommendations for having that meal waiting for you at 5:00.

And if you’re not a meat-eating person/runner/other kind of athlete, you can substitute vegetable broth and eliminate the chicken and add beans instead. I would marinate the beans, though, because you’re going to want the flavor. You need the protein, you might as well like it. (Sorry, there are no photos of the chicken, you’re just going to have to trust me that it made it’s way in there. I have some unexplainable aversion to photographing meat, raw or cooked. I have no idea why.)

My second go-to, which a lot of good cooks will veto right off the bat, is canned food. And bagged food, and yes, while we’re at it, frozen food. But let me explain why. Active, busy people (like you) need balanced food, with vitamins and stuff. And when you eat food, particularly vegetables, that have been canned or frozen at their peak, they’re going to still have all that good stuff without all that annoying chopping and preparation. Also, you can combine all of this into one nice bowl of yay-here’s-dinner-now-let’s-go-do-some-homework kind of meal. It’s easy.

Rule Number Two: Pasta is not the enemy. Whole wheat and/or enriched pasta is all over now. It’s all natural and it’s actually got things added to it that make it better than ever. Very good reasons to keep it around.

To your pasta, you can add canned chicken or fish and steamed frozen vegetables. I know, canned meat. I KNOW. While it is nothing fancy, there is also nothing wrong with it. It’s going to do just what you need it to do and, like before, you add the flavor. Ta-da! Food waiting for you to make it into something good. And something that will give your body fuel to do what you want it to do. (Warning: Breaking the No Meat Photograhpy rule.)

I’m quite certain this was scads (scads?) too long and not appealing to everyone. These are by no means gourmet meals. They are nowhere near the best you can get from a slow cooker or from a bag of pasta. They are not going to win awards. What they do is provide a good base for those days when you don’t think you have time for anything but a hot pocket and a prayer. And we can give our bodies better than that.