Life Transitions (and good vegan food)

I really am just amazed at the turns my life can take in such a short period of time. In this past week I turned 25, ran my second 50K (ok, that was on Saturday but still), and got a new job (haven’t started yet but still…)

Since I’ve gotten older and lived on my own for a while now, I’ve learned that doors will open for me if I relax and let them. Take IIN for example. I knew about it, but wasn’t ready to commit to something if I didn’t have the finances or time. Both things lined up at the right moment back in August, so I decided to go for it.

The changes this week happened in much the same way.

On Monday, I turned 25 and spent it with friends. I ran a few miles that morning with my best gal pal, Lesley (her birthday was this week too!) and then got lunch with on of my Strong Hearts teammates, Suzie, who had come to Ithaca for the day to hike. We tried the lunch at Purity Ice Cream and it was absolutely amazing!

On Tuesday I had two job interviews in Syracuse, yup, Syracuse and not Ithaca. This is fitting because I also signed a lease that day because in less than a month, I am moving there! I’ve made it known I’ve wanted to move for a while. I do love Ithaca, but I think it’s almost too comforting in a sense. I’ve lived here or close by all my life. I believe that the time has come to try a new city and see how I do.

So, I will begin a new job in mid December and spend a year, at least, enjoying what Syracuse has to offer. When I told on of my coworkers, she just said she was waiting for me to finally move there because I will be with my people. I will be working at Strong Hearts Cafe (yes, the same cafe that my racing team is named after) and getting my feet wet. I am really looking forward to this move and to being surrounded by other vegans.

The apartment I will be moving into is smaller and a studio but it has what I need. It’s cozy, furnished and has a fitness room, laundry and all that jazz right in the building. I might even donate my stationary bike to the fitness room because it is a bit small, but enough for me. It also does not have an oven, but I really think I will manage just fine. It’s got a microwave and TBH anything you can bake I can microwave in half the time 😉

The rest of the week I spent working and recovering from the 50K. All the downhills made my legs really sore on Sunday, but taking an active approach to recovery helped me out. I did some yoga, foam rolled and spent time spinning while watching Gilmore Girls. I had a few great runs the past few days and feel recovered to get into my next very short training block.

On Friday I ran a VERY windy couple miles with a few newer running ladies. One of them said it right “this wind is strength training.” Luckily the temperature was pretty balmy, so that made the wind less cumbersome. I touched up my hair, both getting a trim and dying it black again. My roots were getting pretty noticeable and short hair is easy to dye.

On Saturday, my mom and I went out for dinner and I took her to a vegan food truck called The Star Truck. They were doing a collaboration with Strong Hearts that day, so it seemed like the perfect place. The food was delicious (I am now always going to top my nachos with macaroni and cheese) and my mom and I had good conversation. I spilled the beans about moving, she asked me to help her solve some computer issues (not sure if I helped but I tried) and we caught up on life.

[not my picture, but this is what I got]

As I write this, I am done with work and have the next two days off from CTB. I put in a couple tempo miles this morning to keep that pop in my legs. I won’t do too many speed sessions in the next few weeks, but just enough to keep a good leg turnover for downhill running. Tomorrow I work my third-to-last shift at the gym, which is kind of sad because I’ve only been there a few months. I only have two weeks left at CTB, which I am trying not to think about so much. I just love my coworkers.

There are a few other things on the horizon, and I might write about them if I feel I can express my emotions in a coherent way. Just know, I’m feeling strong and ready for these next few weeks to be a blast 🙂 I don’t know how posting on this blog will go, but as I mentioned above, I will write when I have words to say and it seems right.

Cheers to the weeks ahead!

Facing The Bonk: I am not invincible

I ended my week with a bonk. I want to talk about it.

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I truly don’t believe I had bonked before this point. Sure, I’ve had some bad runs, but nothing where I nutritionally was unprepared. I have now experienced this terrible bonk I’ve heard so much about, and I’ve become a wiser runner.

Events leading up to the bonk:

1.) It’s been hot all week

I have been working and sleeping in less than ideal conditions for the past week. It’s just so hot and I get heat headaches now when I stand in front of the ovens at work for too long.

2.) I cannot hydrate myself

In addition to the heat, it is very hard to stay hydrated. I joke that I haven’t stopped sweating for two weeks…but it’s true. Spending my time in a constant state of sweat has made it not difficult, but impossible to stay hydrated. I do drink, not just water, but electrolyte beverages, iced coffee and tea and eat foods with a high water content. However, I have been unable to stay on top of my hydration.

3.) I did not plan my route well.

I woke up early to run in the cool morning (haha) and miscalculated the amount of mileage I would get before meeting up with friends. I was planning to do some myself and some with them. By the time I got to them I was 9 miles in. I drank and felt fine, but after a few miles with them I decided to turn and cut it short. I thought it would be a faster way to get home by doing this, but I should have just turned around.

4.) My foot was giving me problems.

On and off the past few weeks my right foot hurts. I can still run on it, but after about 10 miles it gets uncomfortable. Well, 14 miles in things were not looking up. This is when I turned a around…only to have 6 miles to go.

5.) I ran long the day before.

I was planning to race today (just for fun) so I ran 16 miles yesterday morning. Then worked on my feet all day. I felt great yesterday and still planned to race. This morning however I made the decision not to based on cost, time that I could spend working in other passions and my niggling foot. Sunday was my only day off and I wanted to work on other things. After races I am not that productive.

I felt fine the day before. I felt fine during the first part of my run. I chose to continue for these reasons.

What happened?

I ended up doing the runner slog up a few hills until I made it to a Burger King three miles from home. It was in that Burger King stall that I put my head in my hands and thought about my life choices.

I felt like a fool.

Why did you run without water? Who do you think you are?

Why do you put hope in running? You might get injured from this!

Your running group thinks you’re a wimp.

You want to coach people to do this? What do you know?

All these things flew through my mind as I sat there. I didn’t know what else to do, but put my head down, drink a liter of Coke (thank you kind BK worker!) and slog my way home.

I made it. Tired legs, messed up gut, totally humbled by this experience.

I think, as regular runners, we think we know our bodies. Sure, someone else might need water or food, but I don’t. Someone else might need a break during a run, but I’m ok. We put ourselves on a pedestal because “if we’ve done it before we can do it again.”

Change means defeat.

Change means I am less than.

Change means I was wrong.

What I learned this day is that change means adaptability and learning how to deal with hard situations effectively.

I did not fail, I learned what my breaking point is. I learned how to do it better next time.

Next time I will not fail.

Bonking taught me how to be a better #health coach. What has a bad experience taught you? #runchat @runningblogs Click To Tweet

How this experience will make me a better running and health coach:

1.) Not only is each client different, they are different in each moment.

I will learn what things motivate them and what goals are important each time we meet. I will be aware that these things may change and it is important to meet the client where they are at.

2.) Nutritional needs vary upon the situation and no food is off limits forever.

I will discuss my ideas about “eliminating certain foods” in a future post, but today showed me that when you need energy, any calories will do. I don’t drink Coke, I don’t really like it either. Today, it was the elixir of life. It got me home safe. I will remember that some foods are like that for people. A necessity part of their world. That’s ok.

3.) Planning is key to a good experience, no one is “above” mapping it out.

I thought I knew myself and my town well enough to guess a practical route. I was wrong. For each of my clients, I will never assume how a meeting will go or what mindset they will have on that day. I will be prepared and open to anything they bring to the table. I am not against doing specific research for their problem if I do not know the answer straight away. Part of what I look forward to in this profession is always being a student of wellness research and modifying my health ideas based on that.

Today I am linking up with Meg for a review of my most impactful run of the week. Be sure to show that mama some love!

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What is one experience you have that was a big eye opener?

What did you learn about yourself from it?

Snapchat, late shifts and vegan Mac&Cheese

Good morning everyone!

Last week I posted everyday. Every. Single. Day.

Honestly, I didn’t plan that, but when the mood strikes, why not post right?

The really weird day was Saturday. I want to get more active on Snapchat so to encourage myself to do that, I need accountability. By sharing my snapchat username and posting about it, I have gotten more followers and I feel the need to practice on that social media platform much more.

If you haven’t already, follow me at e11epe11

What do I post?

Post run thoughts

Food

Recipes

My coworkers and our job

My cats

Essentially, I want to be more open because it’s fun and I like the engagement. So feel free to ask questions on there, comment or snap me back. I look forward to hearing from you!

I also want to thank you all for your thoughts and comments about my post on Eating Disorders in Collegiate Running and for taking the survey from Lauren Fleshman and Julia Hanlon. It’s an important issue and unfortunately still too common to be taken seriously. If more women talked about their struggles, we would be able to come to a solution to help all women and men, not just runners.

Before I ramble on too much longer, I’m going to link up with Meg for week in review.

This past week I really stepped up my food preparation game.

I bought fun-shaped pasta and made both a cheese sauce from Oh She Glows and a roasted kale and avocado pesto, which I invented. All pasta tastes better when it’s a fun shape.

I made blueberry chia jam, my first experience making jam, and a recipe I will post hopefully tomorrow.

I ate a lot of quinoa and black beans which I’ve decided are my current favorite. Chickpeas will always have a place in my heart, but those black beans are stealing the legume show. I’m not mad at all.

I relaced my Kinvaras and can wear them pain free now! When I couldn’t sleep on Thursday night (more about this below) one of the many things I thought about, and was mad at myself about was how I spent money on shoes and couldn’t wear them. Well, out of anger came ingenuity. I decided to replace meant, at 1:30 in the morning while I was sweating, and ran in them the next day. I feel better about that purchase now.

I caught up on my school work and cleaned my room floors.

I successfully worked a 2-10 shift at work and did not hit the wall or get moody. The backstory to this is that my boss promised me I would never have to close. I was very thankful but also know I deserved this. I have put in my time, I work hard, and am happy now working either 9-5 or 10-6. Well, my one coworker went on vacation and the other one has this mental block about working Fridays. I really don’t want to deal with his moods or cause an anxiety attack by forcing him to work on Friday. I was further bummed by this shift because my friend Natalie was having her “I’m A Ph.D party!” That night, which I missed. Well, I prayed a lot, took a nap and ate before and made it through the shift with enough energy and happy. Then I slept in on Saturday because I had it off.

I finished two running workouts with success.

I had a low moment on Thursday, and just a terrible feeling day. Nothing bad happened, but I was just in a funk. When I get into these moods, I start questioning everything. Running is worthless, school has no meaning and I just feel like a pile of poop. It’s these times I just put my head down, get through work and go to bed early. I woke up the next morning feeling better, kicked out a good tempo run, and felt like myself.

I am working with a practice client! So I technically cannot practice until 6 months into the IIN program is complete, but when my coworker’s roommate told me she wants to be vegan and wants me to get her there, who am I to say no? We’ve been talking about her goals, what her budget is and what her struggles are. I told her I am not certified and therefore I don’t charge money or anything. I’m really happy she wants to be vegan and I am honored she asked me to help her. I think as I learn through this program, I will be very ready to help her transition. This is fun! I already have a shopping list for her from Aldi’s and plan on making her a vegan cheese recipe because that is a big struggle for her. Anything that gives me practice can’t be bad right?

I started writing recipes. I’m not sure for what yet, but it’s fun to experiment and write things down. Key word here, writing them down.

I got ice cream, actual vegan ice cream from Purity, my town’s local homemade ice cream shop on Saturday. Cookie dough with rainbow sprinkles was on point!

I contacted a few of my nut butter sponsors for what they need from me in the coming weeks with posts.

I started drinking smoothies to get in my leafy greens. My current favorite is raspberries, blueberries and spinach.

I remembered to do foot maintenance this week and it’s kind of gross how much skin I cut off my feet each week.

Podcast recommendation of the week:

Dr. Melanie Joy on the RRP

Dr. Melanie Joy speaks about “carnism”, the ideology of eating animals and the cognitive dissonance we must maintain to love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows. I enjoyed this because in addition to talking about veganism, she ties in sexism and racism and how the same ideology that we have been able to break for women and other races will eventually be broken for animals as well. I left this listen feeling very encouraged.

Lauren Fleshman and Melody Moore on Eating Disorders in the running community
Please listen to this and take the survey!

#vegan Mac&Cheese, podcast recommendations and weekly #running rambles #WeekInReview @cleaneatsfast Click To Tweet

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What do you do to get out of a funk?

What is the best thing you did last week?

I am a Barney Butter Ambassador! #HealthyBBSummer Contest

Good morning all! Just a quick Week In Review before getting to the fun part of today’s post! Thanks to Meg for hosting!

This past week was very eventful, so just like Friday, I feel happy just writing them down!

1.) I finished the fundamentals, module 1 and half of module 2 for the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I am almost caught up!

2.) I took time to read this week. Like a magazine. Seriously, it’s been a while!

3.) I visited my sister at her job, it was nice to see her.

4.) I sat down and really thought about what I want out of life. What brings me joy. What my passion is and how I will use my certification from IIN to get there. My brain is a working on that one!

5.) I made lentils, quinoa, mac&cheese, quesadillas, black bean brownies, and a new dessert I need to name (go me for the food prep!)

6.) I used my brain. Man, it feels good!

7.) Oh, and I posted some blogs…and a recipe for White Chocolate Carrot Scones…CHECK THEM OUT!

Ok, now to do my job as a Barney Butter Ambassador!

BB_Influencers_Header

When I think of almond butter, a certain company always comes to mind. I always see that bright blue labe and brown font that provides an iconic taste. I am, of course, talking about Barney Almond Butter.

barney-butter

A couple months ago, I connected with the Barney Almond Butter company and provided some information about me. I had no idea what their social media team was cooking up, but quite honestly, I was very excited. Imagine if Nike asked for your picture and bio.

Kind of the same thing for me. Y’all know I love my nut butter!

A few days ago, I was offered the chance to be a Barney Butter Ambassador!

BB Ellie Picture

I am beyond thrilled because I love Barney Butter and want to share the ways this company is magical to you all. Small nut butter companies are important to me because of what they represent. Barney Butter is a California based company and uses almonds from right down the street.

All their butters maintain 6 basic promises:

Kosher

Vegan (except for Honey and Flax)

Quality (blanching the almonds eliminates phytic acid)

Non-GMO

Gluten-free

Peanut-free

I am so passionate about Barney Butter simply because it is a nutrient dense, chemical free energy source that fuels my 80-90 mile per week training. I eat a lot of nut butters during training, so quality matters. I can’t constantly put chemicals and fake ingredients into my body because it will eventually affect my running.

Barney Butter takes all the worry away. I feel safe fueling my body with this handcrafted butter.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, this company can’t possibly get better.

Well guys, it does!

Not only do they make smooth and crunchy plain almond butter, they also have a few delicious flavors for the nut butter eater who likes to mix it up.

Vanilla Bean & Espresso
Honey & Flax
Cocoa & Coconut
Raw & Chia
My favorite is probably vanilla espresso. It is a completely new to me flavor and I finished the jar in two days. These flavors are spoon worthy but I also love to put them on waffles and bananas.

10ozVanillaBeanEspresso-Front-600x600

Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, my favorite recipe for this almond butter is stuffing it in a date. Serve that at your next party #fancy

On August 1st (TODAY! Welcome to August!) Barney Butter is offering you, yes YOU the chance to win 2 $250 gift cards, one for you and for your friend. And I know whichever one of you wins will want to give the gift card to me, but sorry my friends, I cannot win. The contest is called the #HealthyBBSummer contest.

To enter, submit a photo using the hashtag #HealthyBBSummer on Instagram or Twitter, or submit a photo through Facebook. The photo must show a Barney Butter product outside.

BB COntest

Go get your tan on! Explore your city! Share your nut butter with your dog (it’s hilarious!)!

More contest details can be found here.

I am excited for this partnership to ensue, and I am excited to share it with you!

Check out our Ambassadors page, get yourself some Barney Butter and tag us in some pictures!

What flavor do you want to try?

What will you do with $250?

5ks, Kinvaras and Lost Season 1

Good morning and Happy Monday! I am currently writing this while watching season 2 of Lost. Needless to say, I’m on the bandwagon. After a long weekend at work, I’m ready deload my brain and link up with Meg for Week In Review.

I finished the first season of Lost

Lost-season1

My first impression of this show was positive. I like adventure, survival and mystical themes in shows. I loved 24 and the 100, so I had high hopes for this show even if people say the ending is weird. Well, it locked me in. I will keep watching. I enjoy the stories behind the characters. Coming from a Disney Channel show background growing up, I enjoy when characters are neither totally good, nor totally bad. I like complex sub-plots (which is kind of lacking right now but I have faith) and random friendships you wouldn’t expect. My favorite character is probably Sawyer. Something about him just gives me all the feels. Let me know if you watch, we can discuss!

Solving my shoe dilemmas

I bought another pair of Saucony Kinvara 6s online a few weeks ago. These are the same shoes I wore for my marathon. However, the second time I wore them, it downpoured and they got soaked. I dried them out, but now they fit weird and rub me the wrong way. I wear them once in a while, and did this morning, but still, they feel weird now. I am still loving my Saucony fastwitch for speed workouts and my Skoras. After I got the glass out of that shoe, they have worked really well. I like the feeling of minimal shoes and the strength I am getting from them, but I want to get a pair of Skora Tempos for long runs and see how they do. I did a 15 miler in my Skora Phases and was fine. Hopefully this means my feet and calves are able to handle them more full time. We’ll see.

My First (real) 5k is this Friday

Oh man, am I really racing a 5K? With competitors not in Ithaca? AT NIGHT?!?!

Why yes, yes I am. And I am scared sh*tless. I will have to enter the pain cave for a really long time and I don’t know if I’ve ever done it like this before. This will be a great learning experience no matter what…but still OUCH!

I’m going to try to remember to do this every Monday, so bear with me. I listen to billions of podcasts, many I’ve talked about on Eat Run Pavement. Each week I want to give you one to listen to.

Podcast Recommendation Of The Week:

blissful

Blissful Bites with Brittany From Eating Bird Food
I’ve been enjoying listening to all the past episodes and learning from Nicole through her interviews. Who doesn’t love hearing from female entrepreneurs who are making it in the food world? Inspiring, creative and fun. Give it a listen!

Shoe dilemmas, Lost and @BlissfulEats podcasts #WeekInReview Click To Tweet

What was the highlight of your week?

Have you ever had Blissful Eats granola?