Breakfast? DO IT!

First of all I am not a nutritionist and no I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  But, I read a lot.  Ok not in the traditional sense but I read lots of articles and subscribe to a few magazines so thankfully that all counts.  So, if you haven't done all that then I'm an expert to you :)



How often do you eat breakfast?  I know a lot of people that don't or didn't until I kept asking them about it.  I'm sure we've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, well its true.  People that skip breakfast typically snack more throughout the day and try to make up for it at lunch and dinner.  What most people don't know is that our bodies go into a kind of "fasting" state when we go to sleep.  After a few hours our bodies think to themselves, "I'm going to conserve as much as I can because I don't know when I'm going to get more food (fuel)."  It doesn't matter if you wake-up, take a shower, read the newspaper or go to work.  Your body is like "Nope, I'm going to do as little as possible."  It actually stops producing the enzymes necessary to metabolize fat and therefore burn it (i.e. you lose weight).  Eating breakfast starts the metabolism process in your body and you start burning fat and calories.  It doesn't matter what you eat.  If you workout in the morning or are active then you have to eat.  Your body needs food to recharge and repair itself after a workout - typically within 15-30 minutes after a workout.

Here is my breakfast rotation that I go through weekly:

• Cereal - Cinnamon Life, Honey Bunches of Oats, Grape Nuts, Total
• Oatmeal - Quaker Brown Sugar Instant
• Frozen Waffles - Nutrigrain Blueberry
• *Bagel - Cinnamon Raisin with peanut butter or cream cheese on occasion.
• McDonald's - Egg McMuffin meal 

*I have switched to deli flats type bread.  All due to me (finally) reading the nutritional information on the package.  Bagel - 260 calories and the flat bread about 100 calories.

Now before you jump all over me.  I probably have McDonald's for breakfast once every two weeks and get the Egg McMuffin, sometimes by itself.  It's the healthiest thing they serve and when I'm in a rush and can't eat at home it works.  As you can see my choices aren't too boring or strict.  Sure I could do a lot better but I could do a lot worse too.  I try to avoid high sugar breakfast food items like kids cereals, bagels, donuts, etc.  I love sweets but try to consume them in moderation for the most part.  High sugar foods are great for instant gratification and energy.  Where as you felt great when you eat them but the high and feeling of satisfaction are short lived. 

Anyway, there you have it, even if you're not hungry - a half a banana, a piece of toast, Nutrigrain bar, just eat something!

Why I use dailymile and why you should too.

dailymile is a website that allows me to keep track of and share my training with my friends.  But its so much more than that!  At least to me it is, it has the definite possiblity to become one of the sites you check out daily.  It reminds me of Facebook but in a different way.  With Facebook you have your friends and life is good.  You connect and reconnect with everyone, spew out status updates and hope someone cares enough to comment or "Like" your post or what's going on in your life.  You enjoy seeing what's going on with other people and how they're doing.  That's the whole reason I joined Facebook.  My younger sister was away at college and we would talk occasionally about what was goin on in our lives.  She would constantly be like "just go look at my Facebook page, all the pictures are there".  But of course I couldn't, back then it was only available to students. Anyway, I digress.  dailymile is a social training website and then some.  Here are ten reasons why you should join!

1. It's a free website that let's you track your work-outs whether they are running, biking, walking, zumba, weight lifting, shopping, etc.
2. By adding friends that work-out like you do you will receive a constant stream of updates on what they're doing.  It's exactly like the Facebook wall.  You can add work-outs, pictures, videos, or notes.
3. It's a good way to keep track of all your work-outs so you can see if you've been bad or good :).  I upload all of my work-outs to the site.  I work-out with a Garmin watch and I can just upload the real work-out data directly to the site.
4. You can sign-up and do nothing!  Even if you don't work-out at the moment, sign-up, add some friends, and just sit back and watch.  I strongly recommend that if you have a Facebook account that you just link them together.  That way you will know what friends are already using the site.
5. All the people you have as friends on dailymile will (hopefully) all share your interest in fitness or being fit.  So, unlike Facebook you all have the same goal to be motivated or to get motivated.
6. It's just a positive site.  I have yet to see any negative comments, only inspiration and encouragement.  But I suppose it depends on who your friends are :)
7. Because you want to get off your butt and do something.
8. Because you want another website to surf when you're bored on a Friday night.
9. Because you want to see if Kelly is doing more than you?  I dunno.
10. Because once a month they send you a coupon for Starbucks!  You wish.

So to summarize... dailymile is a great social, motivating, fitness inspiring, active lifestyle, work-out training log thingy.  Go check it out and get moving!

Race Calendar

• May 15th - Historic Half - I'm running this one due to peer pressure, ha. I will probably run the first half with friends and the last half at my marathon race pace to see if I can hold it together when tired.
• June 4th - Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k - I'm in search of a personal best here, weather permitting.  Like last year I'll probably be starting a team in memory of my mother who passed away from breast cancer when I was a wee lad.  It's a great opportunity to run/walk with people that also like me :-) and its for a good cause.  So get training... or walking.
• June 4th - North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler - Yeah right! I'm only "pacing" my buddy and his girlfriend for the last 10-15 miles.  I'll be bringing them down the home stretch!  Cool race in that they allow "pacers" on the course to help out the runners with the mental aspect of ultra-running.
• June 19th - DC Triathlon (Sprint) - This was my first ever triathlon last year and I thoroughly enjoyed it once I got out of the water.  I am very much looking forward to it.
• October 4th - Giant Acorn Triathlon (Sprint) - Warm lake swim... the crowd cheering me us on.  What's not to love? (aside from the swim and breezy conditions)
• October 30th - Marine Corps Marathon - This is why I am doing everything I'm doing this entire year.  I am seeking redemption from the first time I took on this beast.  Once again I am looking to break 4 hours!
• November 5th - Colon Cancer 5k - For a good cause and for a friend that was lost in her mid-30's.  Team Tara will rise again and we'll do it in grand fashion!

* As always, everything is subject to change. I have a lot of room in the Spring and Summer for more races so I will keep my eyes peeled.

Following Me

If you want to follow me you can do it several ways:

1. Be logged into your Google account, if you have one and become a follower that way.
2. Bookmark the site and check back every few days, weeks, or never.  Buuuut, nobody does that anymore.  Not with all these fancy tools available to us.
3. Subscribe using an RSS reader.  Don't worry, Internet Explorer can do it for you easily... unless its really old :-)

So, go to my site and find the RSS button and icon.  It's the orange one, second from the left... push it!





This will pop-up and you can just click on Subscribe to this Feed.

Then you can locate all of your Feeds by clicking the Favorites button from the toolbar and selecting the Feeds tab.  Now you can just check in from time to time, it will appear bold if there is new content.  So, if its not bold then I'm being lazy and you have no reason to go to my page.

Alternatively, if you use Microsoft Outlook at home or work it integrates in seamlessly.  Like so!

Why?

That's a great question that I'm not sure I have an answer for.  This all started when a friend came up to me and said "Hey, I think you should start a blog.  I think you have a lot of good/funny things to say".  Hmm... What! Really?  I know that I'm pretty random, anyone who really knows me knows that but is that necessarily a good thing?  We'll see.  Anyway, I continued to think about it and about what I could possibly write about that people would actually care to read.  Most bloggers and people in general can only relate to what's going on in their lives, work, family, friends, and the other distractions that fill the free time.

The name of my blog was kind of forced on me since my initial batch of names I was after were already claimed.  But I think I ended up with a good one because in life I do try all the time.  I know I don't always get it right but I learn and move on.  The athletic part is just an extension of me, anyway... My blog will be about my training, my life, and other things that I think I think. :-)

I don't see myself doing any homework in the near future but...

All too often WE find reasons or excuses as to why we can't go to the gym, go for a walk, run, etc.  This girl is just getting it done, period.  I like the effort!