You Overate... Now What?

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

With the drinks and the sweets, you'll for sure overeat,

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

That's how the song goes... right?

I hate how every time I go to a party and I see all the amazing appetizers and desserts and drinks, I act like this is the last time in my life I'll ever see food again.  Not only do I regret it in the short term with the stomach ache and the bloat, making stuffing my face a habit over the holiday season means I'm also going to regret what my body looks like in the mirror over the long term.

What's a food lover and binger to do?

Tip 1:  All is not lost!  Personally, I do really good when I don't have any slip ups.  The second I eat that unplanned treat, I figure, well I've had one cookie, I might as well have the other 11 in the pack.  WRONG.  That's like saying it doesn't matter whether you choose a 200 calorie piece of pie or a 2000 calorie piece of pie!  Enjoy your treat, and continue on with your day and your healthy choices.

Tip 2:  Forgive yourself!  Stop being so hard on yourself!  It may actually be a whole year before you get to have your favorite Christmas cookies again!  So just have one!  No one is perfect, even the people you see on social media.  So forgive yourself and move on.

Tip 3:  After you forgive yourself, make a plan!  So you had a few treats and maybe things got out of hand.  Tomorrow is a new day.  Grab a pen and a piece of paper and meal plan for tomorrow.  When can you fit in a workout?  What do you have to do tomorrow to make sure you get back and stay on track?  Do you need to tell a friend to keep you accountable?

Tip 4:  Take action!  Implement that plan from yesterday.  To make yourself feel better, sweat it out for about 45 minutes.  Finish with 10-15 minutes of stretching.  It's the best way to start your day off on the right foot and continue with a meal plan full of veggies, healthy fats and whole grain carbs.  Increase digestion by increasing your fiber, limiting your meat intake, and drinking lot of water!

Tip 5:  Stop eating an hour earlier than you normally do.  Brush your teeth, drink more water, and even go to bed earlier!  Whatever you have to do!

Types of Eaters

One thing I've noticed about myself and about the people I've been helping over the last year and a half is how everybody struggles with something different, when it comes to eating.  Your nutrition in 80% of how you look and feel and the thing that people struggle with the most on their health and fitness journeys.  I've also learned that there is not a "one size fits all" solution.  That's why there are SO MANY fitness and nutrition programs out there, but not everyone is at their goal weight and in peak physical condition.

DUH.

Generally speaking, I have found five different categories of "dieters" fall into when they are not achieving success.  I don't like to use the word diet because I think it has a negative connotation (when really, a diet is just the combination of foods that you eat).

Which of the following categories do you fall into?

The Snacker:

You snack throughout the day-- a couple chips here, a piece of chocolate there, maybe even a few apple slices or a handful of nuts.  You may not even know what being hungry OR being full feels like.  You figure if you're not eating giant meals, you're golden... but you're still not losing any weight.

The Problem:  You're constantly thinking about the next snack, and even though you're never full, you still may be eating too much, too often.

The Solution:  Plan out your meals... don't let your eyes and your hands drive what you eat and when.  Save about 2-3 hours in between the food you eat, try to incorporate a little protein every time (keeps you fuller longer).

The Habitual Dieter:

You try every new diet especially that require you to without entire types food groups.  You become sucked into the "science" behind these diets and the success stories behind them, without thinking about your own personal habits and needs.

The Problem:  Cutting out entire food groups (when there is no allergy or other medical problem) can leave your body void of certain nutrients.  In order to cope, your body will react by leaving you dissatisfied, fatigued, and eventually cause you to fail... either by starting to eat the foods you originally cut out OR eating junk foods that satisfy your cravings.

The Solution:  A wide variety, balance and portion control of healthy carbs, fats and proteins is the answer!

The Binger:

Your willpower is strong... until you eat one [insert junk food here].  Then everything falls apart in a wild moment of madness.

The Problem:  Depending on the binge, it can negate all of your hard work and willpower to eat well the other 90% of the time.  Plus, binging is often one of those habits that is connected with your emotions... it starts because of a certain emotion you're feeling, and ends with your feeling guilty and self-loathing.

The Solution:  Know your weaknesses.  Either relax and allow yourself some treats when you normally wouldn't, or create a situation where there is not enough junk to binge (just buy a two-pack of cookies, share with a friend, give the rest away).

The Zombie:

You eat out of habit, routine, and EASE, barely conscious of what you're eating.

The Problem:  For starters, you're not getting a variety of types of food.  Eating the same foods everyday almost guarantees that you're missing some key nutrients, since there isn't a magic combination of foods that you could eat in one day that would give you everything you needed.  Secondly, you're probably eating the same things everyday because it's easy.  Easy foods usually mean highly processed, refined foods that come in boxes and bags off a shelf or a freezer.

The Solution:  Plan your meals into your day so you have some time to prepare and cook.  Try one new thing every day.  Eat at your kitchen table and have a glass of wine :)

The Comfort Eater:

You eat to fill a void, because eating feels better than your painful feelings.

The Problem:  You don't know when you're hungry, but you know when you're feeling bad.  You don't eat food to fuel your body, you eat to feel better emotionally.  It usually doesn't work.

The Solution:  Talk to someone.  It's more than just the food.  And work on learning when you're hungry and how to eat a balanced meal.  Once your body feels better because you're putting good food into it, it will be easier to make your mind better as well.

Sweet (Potato) Victory

One of my 30 Before 30 goals is to try a new food every month!  Well, I went to Wisconsin and tried a sweet potato!

30 Before 30!

Alright.  I've entered my last year of my 20s.  And I'm not one to set time limits on goals... I take disappointment and failure pretty rough.  Only recently have I learned to turn my failures into positives and to look at the journey not the destination etc. etc.

But I figured, what the hell.  I do like lists, so might as well make a list of 30 Things to Do Before I'm 30.  And because I'm a realist, this is a REALISTIC list.  Meaning, you won't find "Pay off Dan's student loans" there because, well, we'd have to win the lottery.

You should also know that I lead a PRETTY boring life.  Mostly, if in one year from now my life were exactly the same, I'd be happy.  So making this list was difficult.

However, when I offered this idea up to my friends of Facebook, one of them suggested that instead I focus on all the amazing things I have accomplished up to this point, and not what's left.  A glass half full sort of list.  That idea inspired me, so you'll find that list here as well.

I plan to check back to this post regularly to keep you up to tabs with what I've accomplished!

30 Things to Do Before I'm 30 (in no particular order)

1.  Run a marathon (COMPLETED January 17, 2016)

2.  Go to Europe

3.  Finish visiting every winery in NJ (about 9 more to go!)

4.  Go on a city Segway tour

5.  Get tenure (scheduled September 2016)

6.  Go parasailing (COMPLETED June 25, 2016)

7.  Get a tattoo

8.  Get a dog

9.  Finish decorating the "crap room"

10.  Complete Insanity: Max 30

11.  Go to North Carolina with Dan (COMPLETED Spring Break 2016)

12.  Host Thanksgiving for my family in my house  (COMPLETED November 26, 2015)

13.  Try a new food once a month

• November:  Sweet Potatoes
• December:  Over easy and hard boiled eggs
• January:  Butternut Squash (Mac & Cheese)
• February:  Beets (hummus!)
• March:  Radishes
• April:  Moonshine (does that count?!)

14.  Run multiple Rock 'n' Roll races (starting with the marathon)

15.  Get 1,000 likes on my FB page (LIKE IT HERE!! It's awesome!)

16.  Not work during the Summer of 2016 (COMPLETED Summer 2016)

17.  Have a giant display box made for my wedding dress (yes I'm a psycho.  It's like a work of art)

18.  Stop biting my nails (I'm currently doing pretty damn well) (I caved and got fake nails again... oh well!)

19.  Blog three times a month! (November 2015, December 2015, January 2016 so far)

20.  Get new glasses (seriously, mine are like 5 years old)

21.  Own a Louis Vuitton 

22.  Replace the screen door (COMPLETED May 10, 2016)

23.  Get my group fitness certification (part of a bigger goal ;) )

24.  Have $5,000 in my savings account

25.  Go to a Rangers game at Madison Square Garden

26.  Get a piano (COMPLETED November 24, 2015)

27.  Make gnocchi from scratch.  Or raviolis.

28.  Give blood.  I used to do this about 10 years ago.  Then I fainted and I never did it again. (COMPLETED January 27, 2016)

29.  Paddle board at the beach (in the bay or ocean)

30.  Something that's just for me... I don't have to tell you all of my goals :)

29 Things I Accomplished Before Turning 29

1.  Got a Bachelor's degree
2.  Got a Master's degree
3.  Got married
4.  Bought a house
5.  Paid off my college loans
6.  Got a teaching job
7.  Ran two half marathons
8.  Recovered from knee surgery
9.  Traveled to Hawaii (and climbed a volcano!)
10.  Went white water rafting and camping in the Grand Canyon
11.  Went to Mets Spring Training
12.  Sang in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in NYC
13.  Toured Boston and DC completely by myself
14.  Flown on a plane by myself many times
15.  Did not get pregnant by accident!
16.  Donated my hair twice
17.  Saw Celine Dion in concert twice!
18.  Secured a weekly PiYo class
19.  Saw seven Broadway shows
20.  Been to Canada and Mexico
21.  Been on a plane over 100 times
22.  Had a massage
23.  Was in an infomercial!
24.  Cut down my own Christmas tree
25.  Pay my own bills
26.  Never tried drugs... or beer (lol)
27.  Made a lot of new friends... on the internetz.
28.  Spent significant time in 15 states.  Many more if you count flight layovers!
29.  Gave blood!


Can't wait to check in and let you know when everything happens!

Spaghetti Squash Virgin

"What is that?!"  I said with weird disgust.

"It's a spaghetti quash."  Explained my roommate.

"Why? Does it have spaghetti inside?!"  Now I was getting excited.

"Well, no.  It's a squash.  But after you cook it, it looks like spaghetti."

"Oh.  That's gross."

That was the end of that conversation a mere five years ago... until two weeks ago, when on a whim, I purchased a spaghetti squash from the super market.  The scariest food purchase I've made, to date (I'm just not ready for beets yet).

What to do with this thing?  Can I made it taste like spaghetti?  Forget cooking it, how do I open it?!

My Facebook friends seemed to have a lot to say.

Some hate it, some love it.  Some swear it tastes like spaghetti, some told me if I expect it to taste like spaghetti, I'll be disappointed.  Some told me to bake it, some to microwave it, some to cut it first, some to cut it later.  I became very confused.  Then I became sick with a cold.

So the spaghetti squash sat patiently on the counter.  Until last night.

Armed with a lot of how-to pictures, I preheated my oven to 400 degrees,

carefully and somewhat awkwardly sliced my squash in half,

scooped out the centers (like a pumpkin!),

placed both halves facedown in a baking dish with some water, covered them with foil, and cooked them for 40 minutes.  

The sensation of being able to scrape the insides of the squash with a fork and have it come out like spaghetti was strangely satisfying.  Dan got half a squash and I got half.  Covered both with sauce and meatballs.  The moment of truth.

It was ok.  Yup, just ok.  I didn't love it, BUT I didn't hate it.  It didn't taste like spaghetti.  In fact, it didn't really taste like anything.  Dan and I were amused by it's tastelessness.  So instead of focusing on my tepid review of the taste, let's focus on the amazing things that happened last night:


-I tried something new and out of my comfort zone
-I found a VEGGIE that I would eat again
-I got Dan to try it with me

All wins in my book!  Tell me, how do you like to prepare and eat your spaghetti squash?!

Did I tell you...?!

Did I tell you I'm training for my very first marathon?!

I'M TRAINING FOR MY VERY FIRST MARATHON.

I feel very excited and very much like a psycho.

I entered into running pretty reluctantly.  When I was young I played soccer and softball and I danced and did aerobics videos with my mom.  But when I got to college, all of that was gone and what was left was a gym with a treadmill.  So I got on it, and that's how I got my start.

I remember when my best friend asked me if I wanted to run a 5K with her my senior year of college.  

I thought she was a lunatic.

I legitimately trained for that run.  And listen, I KNOW how hard it is to run 3 miles when you have never run or you are not a runner.  That's why I'm telling you... I trained for that run, less than 8 years ago.  It was painful.  I thought I was running forever.  When we finished the run, I thought I was such a badass.

Less than a year later, I got this crazy idea that I should try running Broad Street, the largest 10 miler in the country.  I don't know what I was thinking, except that I could do it.

And I did it.  I remember finishing that 10 miles and thinking, "I have no desire to run a half marathon.  What psycho would run 3 more miles?"

Two and a half years later, I was that psycho.

And as I ran from mile 12 to mile 13.1, I remember thinking, "I will ABSOLUTELY do this again."

I signed up for two more half marathons (with the possibility of a marathon in the back of my brain), and with that, most definitely jinxed myself.  In January of 2014, just six weeks after my first half, a piercing pain in my knee sidelined me.  It took four months, two MRIs, PT, a knee brace, a cortisone shot, and three doctors to diagnose my mysterious injury:  Synovial Plica Syndrome.  On June 18, 2014, I had arthroscopic knee surgery and on June 19th, I signed up to be a Beachbody coach.  That day they introduced a new program called PiYo, that promised to be low-impact, especially for knees, but high-intensity.  My thought was, "Well, I won't be able to do anything else, I suppose I can do a little yoga."  You guys know my story.  PiYo taught me that I don't have to run to feel strong, healthy, and in shape.

But, four and a half months after my surgery, I ran a 10K race, and less than a year after surgery, I was reunited with my true love, the Broad Street 10 Miler.  That race sealed my fate.  I was all in, and a week later, I signed up for the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia on October 31 and the Rock'n'Roll Marathon in Phoenix, Arizona on January 17.

I truly believe things happen for a reason.  I have seen so many things happen in my life that, at the time, felt like the end of the world, but in the end turned into a lesson or a blessing of some kind.  Being able to run this marathon means more to me now than it ever would have before, had I not gotten through the surgery, become a coach, and discovered PiYo.  Of course, there is a little voice inside of me wondering if I could beat my last half marathon time of 2:08, but I keep reminding myself, that's not what THIS half marathon is about.  This half marathon is just one more triumphant return to running; another distance my healed knee was able to carry me, the halfway point to my marathon, the ultimate goal.

In the next few days, I will post my marathon training calendar, along with how I came up with it!  Thank you for all your support and for sticking with me through this!

Beachbody Performance Line: How I used it on my long run

I was so excited when I woke up on Sunday morning for my 9 mile run!

And no, it wasn't because I was about to run 9 miles.  That would be crazy talk!

Back in July when I went to Beachbody Coach Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, I purchased a sample pack for the brand new Performance Line.  There was one serving of each of the five new formulas in the pack.  The main purpose of the sample pack is to make sure you like the taste of each formula, since supplements do their best work when used consistently over an extended period of time.

HOWEVER, I wanted to make sure that if I used them, I was using them in a way which would maximize their ability to work.  And what better time to use supplements than before, during, and after a 9 mile run?

So, I was very excited!

First up, the pre-workout formula Energize.  Energize is a combination of three main ingredients:  Beta-Alanine, which inhibits muscle acid buildup; Quercetin, which is known to increase the production of mitochondria and therefor improve exercise performance and recovery; and finally, low-dose caffeine from green tea.  I mixed one packet with 8 oz of water and drank it about 30 minutes before I started my run.  I had already had a bowl of oatmeal.  It was really yummy... it tasted like thicker lemonade, but it wasn't gritty AT ALL.

During my run, I put the during workout formula, Hydrate, in one of my water bottles with 8 oz of water.  Like a sports drink, Hydrate is a combination of carbohydrates and electrolytes to help keep your body hydrated during sweat loss.  Unlike a sports drink though, Hydrate has much less sugar, allowing the formula to be absorbed more quickly and easily into the bloodstream.  This was also delicious and tasted like a thicker citrus gatorade, but didn't leave my mouth feeling sticky and like I needed to keep drinking... which is the effect gatorade has on me.

Finally, after my run, I enjoyed the post-workout formula Recover.  Recover is essentially a protein shake, made with a variety of different proteins (whey isolate, pea and macular casein protein) and branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) which help to promote muscle synthesis.  There is also pomegranate extract in it, which is being studied as a natural non steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs)!

All in all, I had NO negative side effects with any of these products!  Yay!  If we are being 100% honest (and we are), I didn't feel much different after I took the Energize.  And I'm not surprised.  First of all, I don't need energy to workout... ever.  Second of all, caffeine has no effect on me.  There were many times in my former life that I would fall asleep half way through a can of Coke.  So... yeah.  But if you're someone that needs your morning cup of caffeination, I bet you'd really like Energize.  And like I said, it was tasty!  I'm not quite sure how the Hydrate worked for me.  I don't think I felt much different... that being said, it's been five months since I ran nine miles and almost two years since I was running that much consistently... and I felt really good!  So, I may be looking into a container of that!  Finally, I LOVED the Recover.  Loved it.  I actually thought it tasted better than my chocolate Shakeology!  I didn't blend it, I just shook it with water.  You are supposed to drinking it within 30 minutes of finishing exercising and usually, I don't feel like putting anything in my stomach that quickly.  But the Recover was SO easy to make and drink, that I had no problem.  I also felt fantastic the rest of the day, as well as the next day.  No sore muscles!  Was it the Recover?  MAYBE!  That's definitely going on my list!

All in all, a VERY positive experience using the Beachbody Performance line.  I know they are meant to be used with Beachbody workouts (duh), but they are even more valuable to me if I can use them as a runner as well.

Looking for more information?  Just fill out the form below!  I'm excited to talk to you!