Ready. Set. All the cookies in my mouth.

I truly ended on a high note after my last post. Running was going great, body was feeling good, and I completed my first race in a decent time. For no good reason, I took a nose dive in my training and diet. I didn’t set out on this journey to lose weight or eat completely healthy, but the last two weeks were a little out of control. Like a row of Chips Ahoy in one sitting out of control.

After the race, I fell short of hitting my training runs. I was hitting maybe two runs a week when I wanted to be closer to 3-4 runs a week. I basically had to push myself out the door on one beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon for a quick run. I really had no excuse and I even took a mid run 2 block pity walk to feel sorry for myself.

Then, I hit a diet slump. It’s that tired eating you do when you don’t have enough energy to give a shit about what you are putting into your body. So, you eat whatever garbage sounds good at the time. Like leftover sloppy joe mix on top of a sour cream and cheddar Ruffles chip. I felt bloated and gross and running is the opposite of what I want to be doing after eating this mess.

For real, this was my lunch. I believe the French call this an “amuse bouche.” 

The diet stuff is hard. I love food. Not just Ruffles and sloppy joe mix, but healthy stuff too. It’s hard to prepare a healthy meal with two tiny humans in the post daycare thunderdome time window. One of our favorite go to “healthyish” meals was named by Harrison as “salad with crackers.” We got him to eat salad because it has crackers in it, hence “salad with crackers.” The allure worked for about four servings and then he caught onto us. We make this on Monday night as it’s a quick easy way to get healthyish food on the table quickly.

Here is my top secret recipe for Salad with Crackers.

Ingredients:

Dole Asian salad mix in a bag

Grilled chicken

1. Cook chicken the day before you plan on eating it.
2. Chop chicken.
3. Mix chicken and salad contents together.

Delicious enough to fool your hangry toddler into eating salad, easy clean up for when they throw it on the floor. Check out your local grocery story for a salad wall.

Poor guy doesn’t know he’s gonna be forced to eat salad later.

Inspired by my Red Flannel Run success, I decided to hit up the YMCA for a late night yoga session. I felt like this could be a good cross training opportunity for me. I appreciate yoga and the mindfulness time it offers. This class also reminded me that yoga is also an art of trying not to eek out a toot in a quiet room full of strangers. Reverse warrior gets me every time. GI issues aside, I think this would be a good fit for my training schedule and my muscles are going to need it. I also get tired of just running. I think I need to sprinkle in more cross training opportunities to change up the routine.

Cankle cam.

Overall, I’m feeling better this week. Cleaned up my diet, reduced my cookie a day intake, and slowed down on dipping my Ruffles straight into meat sauce. Next week I’m starting my Hal Higdon training plan for Dam to Dam, so this is my last week to slack off. I’ve had some longer weekend runs that have gone really well. I can’t believe I’m getting this close to the race. Next week is registration, people. There are only 8,000 spots for Dam to Dam and registration is at 6am on March 14. I think I have a leg up on the registration competition as I’m up all night anyway.