Run to Win

It has been a while since I’ve put up a recipe, and since I plan on making this again I’ll at least have a starting place by sharing what I did with tonight’s meal. It obviously tasted quite good. We served the swordfish along with some acorn squash, which worked out well.

• Time Required: ~20-25 minutes
• Cooking Time: ~15 minutes
• Ingredients:
  1. Swordfish Steak(s)
  2. Olive Oil
  3. Salt & Pepper
  4. Fresh Parsley
  5. Lemon (or Lemon Juice)

Preparation is simple. Just (Click here to continue reading…)

Jeff Galloway recently came into the Maine Running Company to share his experiences with us. All of my notes from the clinic will be linked at the bottom of this article as they are available.

This morning’s notes are about what Jeff had to say about nutrition and how to eat to fuel your training.

Food & Training

“People tend to over-record their exercise and under-record their calorie intake…Imagine that!”

Fat is a very efficient source of fuel, but it can be a little too abundant of a fuel source that involves carrying around extra weight, which means that you will require more fuel to begin with.
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The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the second part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment. This part covers the presentation on nutrition and fueling.

Nutrition Basics & Fueling for Performance

The second presentation of the night was presented by Karen Hodge Knapton from Whole Health Consulting, who covered what a basic and healthy diet should consist of for an athlete.

“You cannot expect to start the season without a healthy diet.”

It takes months to prepare the body through healthy eating, and you can not concentrate solely on race day. To that effect, you need to be aware of the 6 basic nutrients that make up your diet.

1. Water
2. Vitamins
3. Minerals
4. Carbohydrates
5. Protein
6. Fats

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Sue asked last week, “How difficult is eating healthy for an individual? Exercise is not as difficult, it’s just being motivated enough to do it. In my honest opinion, I think eating healthy is really difficult because a lot of us are busy people, and eating the right foods are not as convenient as eating the foods that are readily available. Also, if there are healthy foods readily available, it’s hard to come by and costs a lot more.”

I do not believe that eating healthy is all that difficult, nor does it have to be very inconvenient or expensive. With a little planning ahead, you can easily provide yourself with plenty of healthy snacks, meals and leftovers with which to fuel yourself.

I actually think that eating healthy can be easier when you are busy because a small amount of time up front can prevent you from wasting a lot of time throughout the week.

You will not have to worry about going out to a restaurant or fast food establishment for your lunches, you will not have to go to the grocery store every day or two to get the staples that you need to prepare dinner, and you won’t have to waste time by going out to eat when you don’t have anything to cook.

In my household, we are the definition of being busy. I work full time, run part time, and am trying to start a home business. My wife goes to law school full time, works part time and spends almost all of her free time studying. My cat, well she mostly just alternates between sleeping and running around like a mad-woman, although she does her best to help my wife study (as long as the books are not in my wife’s lap that is.)

My wife constantly tells me that we need to eat healthier, and every time I have to remind her that I am perfectly content with the healthy content of my diet. The difference between our two diets are that I have more of an opportunity to snack throughout the day. Our dinners are the same, our lunches are usually similar, and if anything she eats a healthier breakfast than I do.
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At the grocery store this evening, I was chatting with the guy behind the counter and asked how to prepare a new type of fish that they are selling that I had never heard of called barramundi. He wasn’t really sure, but since it is a new offering and he couldn’t help with the preparation, he was able to give me a couple of filets for free. Works for me, I’ll give it a try!

My trusty How to Cook Everything book didn’t actually contain anything for barramundi, so I had to improvise. I did all right, because the following recipe is not only fast, but it is very tasty!
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In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we wrote about food and recipes for the month of January. I’d like to finish the month up by offering a few of my favorite chicken recipes.

Chicken is a great source of protein because it contains all of the essential amino acids in the correct proportions required by the human body for optimum growth of lean tissue. If you have a local butcher or farm, it might be worth investigating the possibility of purchasing your chicken through them rather than getting prepackaged chicken at the grocery store.

In my experience, buying chicken from the farm or the butcher yields a bird that has not been injected with water to make it appear plumper (or to add to the weight before purchase!) I prefer the taste of fresher chicken, although it cooks faster and can become dried out easier if you aren’t careful while you are cooking.

Here are 2 of my favorite chicken recipes, which are both quick and easy to prepare. I recommend warming up a good loaf of bread to serve alongside of either meal.
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In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about food and recipes for the month of January. This week, Scott shares 50 protein shake recipes that you can make at home.

Along with the 50 recipes, he offers some advice for making substitutions and has a list of tips for how to make the shakes. For example, you can add frozen fruit to add flavor and to thicken the shake. Is the shake too thick? Add some water (slowly) to thin it out a little.

If you are tired of just mixing up some protein powder with milk or water and calling it good, then take a look through Scott’s list of 50 recipes and see if there are any there that you already have the ingredients for.

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about food and recipes for the month of January. This week, I would like to recommend that you add quinoa to your diet. It has become a staple in our household over the past few months.

Quinoa is very similar to rice and cous cous, it has similar properties to them, and you can cook and prepare it in the same fashion. It has a slightly nuttier flavor, but tastes quite similar as well. Quinoa is not actually a grain, however, because it does not come from grass. It is also more nutritious and easier to digest than most grains, is high in magnesium and iron and is made up of between 12-18% protein with a balanced set of essential amino acids. It is gluten free and is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus. On top of the nutritional value, it cooks very fast and is easy to prepare.
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