Sunday 5K

After spending Saturday watching an Indiana Jones movie marathon at my local AMC (all four movies: 10:30am-7:30pm) I thought it would be a good idea to do a 5K race on Sunday morning. It probably would have been better if my meals on Saturday had consisted of more than:
PreBonza bodies workout snack: pear and almond butter
PostBonza bodies workout snack: larabar (banana nut)
Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 egg white omelet with green chili
Lunch: almonds and small movie popcorn
Snack: waffle fries at the movies
Dinner: Skinny cow vanilla ice cream sandwich

I arrived at the Panerathon at 7:15am to get my packet, attach my bib and timing chip and stretch out. At 8am we were off! I started the first mile with a nice 12 minute pace and was feeling pretty good. However, after that the energy drained quickly and I finally made it across the finish line with a net time of 42:05 (pace of 13:35). Not great. But I looked up my time for the same race in 2010 and it was a nettime of 46:56 (pace of 15:09). So an improvement! I'll take it. And next time I'll fuel up for it correctly.

Best thing about the Panerathon has got to be the post race grub:

Sunday (Sundae)

Another goal this month is to be very strict with the "no sugar, no wheat, no dairy" rules. I was rather wishy washy about it last month but even so I think it was helpful.

Food:
Smoothie (1 c Silk unsweetened almond milk, 1 TBSP ground peanuts, 1 TBSP chia seeds, 1TBSP rice protein powder)
1 egg + 1 egg white omelet with chopped chicken breast and salsa
Larabar = cherry pie
Salad (1/2 c black beans, romaine lettuce, chopped chicken breast, salsa, tomato)
Watermelon
1 packet of guacamole
1 bag of rice chips (eaten over the course of the afternoon - I just can't open these dang things up because I'll keep snacking until it's empty) 
2 turkey burgers
Exercise:
Since Sunday is usually a pretty mellow day I just did a 20 minute soak in the hot tub with 10 minutes walking in the pool, then I got my 90 minute massage. Ahhhhhhhh

We finally had the birthday celebration for my sister (her birthday was last month) and instead of going out to a restaurant (as originally planned) they decided to come to my house and bring BBQ and a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake.  I was pretty proud of myself for not eating ANY of it. While I like the DQ ice cream cake I didn't feel strongly compelled to eat it and was happy to see it go. Now if it would have been a DQ peanut buster parfait I might have caved.

September, already?

Where does the time go?
My goal this month is to do a daily blog post (which sometimes will only consist of what I ate and how much I exercised that day).
Today (Saturday) I got up at 4:45am, went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. Then back home for a quick bite (pear and almonds), sliced up an apple to eat on the way and headed up to Red Rocks for my Bonza workout.

Got back home around 8:45am, ate a 3 egg white/1 whole egg omelet with salsa and 1/2 avocado, checked email and other such internet stuff, iced my knees then changed clothes to get ready to ride our bikes downtown (I had to do a "half way done" weigh in and nutrition discussion at Bonza Bodies).
Headed to 9 Mile station in the car with bikes on the back and hit the trail around 10:20am. What an awesome ride downtown. Took about 1hr and 10 minutes to make it.
After the 2 hour meeting where we learned more about proper nutrition, stress relief and some good stretching techniques Josh and I had lunch at a Kabob food truck (I had the lamb and beef plate (including 3 tasty dolmas). I gave my pita to a homeless guy (I felt kind of like I was saying "hey homeless person, here's some nutritionally devoid food that I won't put in my body but I'll give you to put in yours" but he appeared appreciative).
Decided that since the way home was mostly uphill and there were some dark clouds forming we would just take the light rail back (and use my free 1 way 3 zone passes I got from the coupon book from the Step Up for Cancer event last month). On the way back I ate my larabar (banana nut bread, yum). Got home, took a shower, iced my knees again (they are not very happy with all the activity) then headed out to Sports Authority so I could use my $9.90 rebate coupon before it expired on Monday. I wanted to get a pair of bike gloves but they didn't have any that I liked so I got a 3 pack of crazy neon socks and some sharkies for my dad. We checked out Target for the bike gloves but no luck there either. Perhaps biking is considered seasonal and it's going out of season? I did see some super cute Alice in Wonderland little girls clothes. I had to restrain myself from buying a bunch for the nieces (the prices were not that great considering the quality).
Next stop, King Soopers for some roasted chicken and salad fixings for dinner. I also had a couple pieces of the dolma samples (must be a dolma kind of day). I talked Josh into getting a pineapple and cutting that up for dessert (love my pineapple). Dinner was a bed of romaine lettuce, 1/2 chicken breast (shredded), the other 1/2 of the avocado, tomato, and a mix of balsamic vinegar with olive oil and cracked pepper. Settled in to watch the season premier of Dr. Who - love that we get BBC America now!

Food:
pear
apple
almonds
3 egg whites
1 whole egg
salsa
1/2 avocado
coffee w/silk almond milk
Lamb/beef at kabob stand
lettuce w/tomato
dolmas (3)
Larabar - Banana nut bread
dolma pieces (2)
chicken breast
tomato
romaine lettuce
balsamic vinegar and olive oil
almonds
1/2 avocado
pineapple

Exercise:
Elliptical at gym = 30 minutes
Bonza Bodies workout at Red Rocks = 60 minutes
Biking downtown (11 miles) = 1 hour 10 minutes

I'm so ready for my massage tomorrow morning.

p.s. I gained 3 lbs but was down in body fat (I didn't catch how much) - I blame it on Vegas.

What condition my condition was in

Great movie, great song. But what condition is your condition in? It appears most of America's condition is not so good

In fact some people are recommending that physical inactivity becomes a medical diagnosis. They say if we can regulate smoking and seat belt wearing we can regulate activity. What do you think?

Red Rocks Pre and Post

Way back in March I signed up for the Red Rocks Fitness Challenge.

The 13 workouts at Red Rocks on Saturday mornings at 7am were awesome (tough but awesome). Saturday July 28th was the last one and on Sunday the 29th I went in for my post assessment. Here's how I did in three months:

Number of pushups in 1 minute: BEFORE = 16 AFTER = 29 (that's 13 more!)

Number of sit ups in 1 minute: BEFORE = 13 AFTER = 21 (that's 8 more!)

Number of step ups in 3 minutes: BEFORE = 103 AFTER = 109 (that's only 6 more but an increase is an increase)

Resting heart rate: BEFORE = 70 AFTER = 58

I lost 9 pounds, 1.6% of body fat and a total of 12.5" from my chest, waist, hips and right arm.

I'd say I kicked butt!

Greatness

Have you seen the new ad campaign from Nike? There's a whole slew of spots - just google Nike Greatness and enjoy.

You are what you eat

It seems the "eat less, move more" mantra is not quite as simple as that. This study found evidence for diet having more of an impact on weight loss than exercise. Specifically, making smarter choices, which involves consuming fewer processed foods, is what contributes the MOST to weight loss. That's not to say exercise isn't important (oh, you thought you would get out of going to the gym? Nope!) I have to say I think I agree with the study. Since I have been consuming mostly whole foods I have noticed differences in weight loss as well as hunger levels. Eating things that take my body more time to digest helps me stay fuller, longer. I thought I would share with you some of my favorite meals starting with my go to breakfast smoothie:
Mya's Breakfast Smoothie:
I really love McDonald's Mango/Pineapple fruit smoothie.

But at 220 calories for a 12oz cup (not to mention 49 grams of sugar) I think I'll have to save that for special occasions (Thanks McDonald's for having such complete nutrition info on your website). My substitution? I use my awesome Magic bullet to create a healthy, yet still tasty, alternative:

1) Fage 0% yogurt - 1/2 cup 2) NUTRIBIOTIC VEGAN RICE PROTEIN Vanilla - 1 heaping TBSP 3) Random assorted berries (whatever I've thrown in the freezer for the week: blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, snozberries...) 4) Crystal Light - 1/2 cup of whatever I've got mixed up in the pitcher Blend it all up for a breakfast that's good and yummers! For 3 WW PointsPlus it's a total winner (okay, maybe doesn't taste EXACTLY like McDonald's but it's cheaper and is much better for you - 35 grams of protein compared to McDonald's measly 3 is a total WIN). You could probably add Splenda or some other artificial sweetener to it but there's already some in the Crystal Light and I try to stay away from that as much as possible.

In my next post I'll talk about my other go to breakfast...Cheerios!