Being a runner means being in-tune with your body, and making sure that you are taking care of it as well as you can. This means that in addition to working out, what you are putting into your body is very important as well. While the adage that anything will burn if the fire is hit enough may be true, if you are looking for maximum performance, you had better not be sucking down Big Macs or Mountain Dew.
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| Of course, I’d be lying if I said that didn’t look delicious! |
Now don’t get me wrong. I love bacon, cheese, hamburgers, and all sorts of not-so-healthy foods. One of my favorite dishes is Chicken Riggies, a pasta dish native to my hometown area of Utica, NY. One look at the ingredients list and you can tell it’s no Caesar salad.
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| Heaven in a bowl |
But by and large I try to eat healthy. Fruits and vegetables are always in stock at my house, most notably apples, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers. Lunch for me usually consists of a turkey sandwich on whole-grain bread, an apple, carrots and hummus, and some pretzels. Dinner is typically pasta, or chicken with some sort of carbohydrate (pierogies, mashed potatoes, rice) and vegetables. Breakfast is one meal that usually gets me though.
I’ve never been a morning person, so I usually don’t have a lot of time before work in the morning. If I’m lucky, I might have a few minutes to scarf down a bowl of cereal. Often times, I bring a Pop-Tart to work. I’ve tried instant oatmeal before, but was never a huge fan.
I recently went on a cruise, and every morning they offered a huge spread of food: the usual eggs, bacon and hash browns, but also fruit, yogurt, cereal, and oatmeal. One day I was feeling sick from eating a greasy omelette two days in a row (so delicious, though) and tried the oatmeal. It was actually quite good! A bowl of oatmeal, alongside honeydew melon and pineapple, became my staple breakfast. And when I returned home, I immediately sought out some real oatmeal.
I found a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Thick Rolled Oats and brought that home. While it takes longer to cook than instant oatmeal, and that means I still don’t eat it as often as I’d like, I have found that using real oats provides for a much more enjoyable bowl of oatmeal than the microwave stuff I was eating before.
My typical bowl contains the following (in addition to the oats, of course):
honey
a generous helping of cinnamon
raisins
dried cranberries
dried dates
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| Ain’t she a beaut?? |
This also makes for a terrific recovery meal after a long run or morning workout too! And, despite what the paleo people say, I love my whole grains!
What other great healthy recipes are out there?
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