Three Things Thursday: Linked up + Winner

Mark has this weird pull-up bar thing. OK, it's not really weird since you can buy one at Bed, Bath & Beyond. But, anyway, it fits over a door frame and you can do pull-ups or you can put it on the floor and do all kinds of push-up variations.

In other words, it is a torture device.

A masochist I am because at least a few times a week, I find myself hanging from the bar. Just dangling. And then I'll try in vain to pull my chin over the bar. I'll do it a couple more times before jumping down and letting Miles do it. Because, at 20 months, he can. Brat.

1. Well, it seems I don't have to try to do pull-ups anymore because they are worthless. Or so says this article from The Active Times. The writer lays out five overrated exercises and offers alternatives. Exercisers should skip crunches and do planks. Skip bench presses for push-ups, and swap pull-ups for inverted rows.

“A lot of people simply don’t have the shoulder flexibility or strength to safely hang vertically from their arms,” he says, “which can put unnecessary—and dangerous—pressure on your shoulder bones and muscles.” Plus, as the New York Times recently (controversially) pointed out, women and individuals with certain body types may have trouble completing just one pull-up—even with the muscles for it.

Pull-up bar, you have been served.

2. I've been pretty much obsessed with Kara Goucher since she was on the Runner's World cover in 2010. She was the first pro runner I could recognize, and I found her to be relatable as I exercised through my pregnancy. Women's Running recently did a piece about what elite runners keep in their fridge, and my gal Kara was among them.

Kara had some pretty standard, healthy things - berries, Greek yogurt, eggs, avocados - but one thing caught my eye. My girl is a fan of Laughing Cow cheese.

We are so destined to be BFFs.

3. Call it Hoosier life affecting me but I'm always about three years behind the trends. I just tried chia seeds in the past few weeks, and I'm just now digging Instagram (username healthystrides).

It seems, though, that my willingness to miss out or - better yet - my skepticism about what's hot has come in handy. ACE recently posted a piece on its blog, "4 'Health' Foods to Kick to the Curb."  The four are acai, veggie burgers (specifically soy), vegetable oils and agave.

I found the note about agave most interesting as I've seen no need to try it when it still has comparable calories to honey and honey can be purchased locally and at a price I can live with. I'm also having a crisis of sort about sweeteners - natural and otherwise - but that's another topic for another day.

And, drum roll please ...

The winner of the Sunglasses Shop giveaway is Heather! Please email me your shipping information + phone at hlthystrides (at) gmail (dot) com.

What I Ate Wednesday: Front lines

Let's be honest here for a minute. Wait, I'm always honest. Like too honest sometimes.

So ... yeah. I'm going to be upfront: When I participate in What I Ate Wednesday, I always try to plan a good day and show you how well I eat and that I'm just super awesome.

I planned such a day like that yesterday, and I was going to illustrate how I plan things when I teach in the evenings and miss dinner with the guys. My intake was in line with the plan oh, until, I made Miles a mini bagel that looked so good that I had to have one ... and then my friend and I went to the hospital for some supplemental lunch ... and then I got bit by the hangry monster ... and then I got cranky. My perfect day became not so perfect and incredibly carb heavy.

Alas, I'm going to share it with you because, well, why not.




Pre-run

[use your imagination. fairly certain you know what these look like. i don't take pictures at 5 a.m. nor do i capitalize letters]

Fig cookie - Best. Idea. Ever. One cookie is 45 calories, easy to grab and delicious. So delicious that I'm taking them to tutoring for snack because I can't exhibit self-control around them.

Breakfast

Oatmeal "custard" made with oats, almond milk, water, chia seeds, banana, chopped mango, unsweetened coconut and egg whites.

Mid-morning snacks

Mini bagel with apple butter, apple and hot chocolate

Lunch

Whole wheat wrap with Sabra roasted red pepper hummus, mixed greens, sprouts, carrots and turkey; and lemon spaghetti. By the way, did you know that many grocery stores don't carry sprouts because of the salmonella risk? I bought these clover sprouts at the co-op but I'm thinking I might start growing my own.

Followed by banana pudding and chicken noodle soup from the hospital. I friggin' love pudding so much that it's ridiculous. A grown woman should be able to pass up such a thing but I, alas, cannot.

Afternoon eats

Carrots with my friend's homemade tzatziki sauce, orange and The Laughing Cow's new Mini Babybel Mozzarella (SO GOOD).

Evening

The plan was to eat a Clif bar for "dinner," before my BODYPUMP class, and eat a substantial post-class snack. So I ate the Clif bar.

And then I came home ravenous and ate a bowl and half of barbecue chicken pasta.

And a bowl of cereal (mix of Kashi Go Lean, Cinnamon Chex and Fit & Active Vitality Vanilla Almond) with almond milk ... and a cookie. Yes, cookie in the cereal, which I ate out of a measuring cup.

At least I measured the cereal, right? Right!

All in all, I came in about 2,100 calories - about 300 more than I'd like on a given day - and I know a good 200 was stress eating (see above photo of cereal). I also had more sugar than I prefer (hot chocolate + pudding + cookie) but what's done is done, and I tracked it all.

Disclosure:  While The Laughing Cow® provided me with product for review, opinions are mine.

Spring Training: Week 10

Spring Training posts document my training for the Run the Bluegrass Half Marathon on March 30 and my "A" race, the Wisconsin Marathon half, on May 4.

The week, in training:

Monday: TurboFire Stretch 40 + 4 miles
Tuesday: 5 miles + Tabata
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 5 miles, intervals + Circuit class (womp, womp)
Friday: 3.55 miles
Saturday: BODYPUMP (taught)
Sunday: 11.2 miles, long

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Boy, do I have a treat for you! It's me, in video form!

I haven't done a vlog about my training in six weeks, and I thought I'd take this week to personally thank you for all of the kind comments on yesterday's post and chat with you about my epiphany of sorts.

If you don't have earbuds at work, hate the sound of my voice or are annoyed that I do close my eyes when speaking (how do I fix that?), here are the highlights:

• Thank you for being awesome. Each and every comment yesterday made the situation that much better and helped me to feel more resolved and determined than ever.
• Training is going well, and I fell like things are clicking.
• My boys have been able to join me for portions of the past three long runs, and I think it's helping.
• My epiphany: Don't focus on what you've done but what you are doing. It applies to probably, like, everything in life.
• When in doubt, bring your attention to the very small things in the now: breath, form and lifting feet.

After all, you don't want to face-plant in someone's underwear.

And I'm out

This blog post is for me, mostly, to work some things out in my head. Seeing as this blog is mine and I try to write about what I want to remember or share and, at times, what I need to, I'm going to take advantage. It will be whiny and stupid and so, if you read on, you have been warned.

◊ ◊ ◊

 I thought it was my big break. More than attending BODYPUMP teacher training or landing a regular class at the gym, I thought the corporate wellness gig on Thursdays was going to make my fitness career.

Instead, at least for right now, it seems to have broken it.

The gym is rearranging the class schedule at the corporate wellness site so one instructor cam teach the site's two classes. And I am not that instructor.

The participants didn't really like me. Plain and simple. I've been able to sense it and when I got an email from the coordinator to call her, I knew something was up. She didn't have a lot of feedback for me but among the few things she did know was that I closed my eyes while teaching, I wasn't the right pace and I wasn't bubbly enough.

I tried. I really did. I was encouraging. I listened to what they said they wanted. For God's sake, I took out lunges two weeks in a row. I gave them stations. I made it so they could move around the room. I went out and bought resistance loops, "The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises" and scoured the Internet for the "it" group fitness class, hoping to glean strategies and structure. I thought about what I could do to make it better constantly, staying up at night thinking and penciling things down in meetings.

Heck, I even accepted my in-law's offer, borrowing $600 to get my personal training certification because I was sure I was going to need it now that I was teaching the class.

But now I'm not. And I sort of feel like I wasted my in-law's money, my husband's time and sacrificed evenings with Miles to work toward a future that I had no business dreaming of. I did all of that thinking I could do something when I obviously can't.

While people will say it's their loss, it's mine. I'm still out the money and locked into a personal training program. I'm out my confidence. I'm out my drive.

I have a recovery run on the books tonight, and I'm hoping four slow miles will be just what I need to recenter and refocus. Be less of a baby. Right now, though, it hurts.

P.S. The coordinator said I'm not supposed to take it personally, and they are going to keep me on tap for other corporate wellness sites that could come up.

Sunday uniform

Fact: Running more than 10 miles diminishes my ability to dress myself as a presentable adult.

Top to bottom:

• Sparkly Soul headband
• Random Target cardigan
• 26.2 apparel T-shirt (purchased at Columbus Marathon expo)
• Decaf Starbucks
• Precocious toddler
• Clearance-find Old Navy crop sweatpants
• Old Navy flip-flops

I have pretty much worn this exact outfit save for the flip-flops (sub fake Uggs) every Sunday for the past month. From trips to the library to napping on the couch, I find that this combination is comfortable and easy to slide past my legs, which I'm convinced are swollen post-run and post-hot bath thus making actual pants a bitch to put on.

In the warmer months, my post-long run style suffers a bit less as sundresses and flip-flops are easy to throw on over my fatigued body and, with the addition of a lightweight scarf, quite reminiscent of what I would wear on an otherwise normal weekend afternoon.

I probably could invest in some nicer knit bottoms that look more like pants than yoga wear and pair it with a cute sweater. Then again, that look wouldn't proclaim to people, "Hey! I'm a runner!" and thus causing people to question why my frozen yogurt bowl was 12 ounces.

On a side note, I totally forced Mark to embarrass himself and take this photo outside of Dick's. I was hoping to score a few sports bras after I had to throw a couple away that could not get the stank washed out of them. Unsurprisingly, I didn't find anything cute and in my budget - just sale-priced Nike low-impact bras (read: sweat through these in 5 seconds) and locked and loaded UA bras.

I did have luck, though, at Kohl's. With a 30 percent off coupon, I nabbed - for less than $40! - a sports bra (in orange), racerback tank and cheetah-textured capris.

Because I'm born to be wild. Obviously.