Healthy Ideas for Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey

Hi all!

So, I was thinking about making a Thanksgiving post about how to not blow your diet on this holiday...but that's honestly the stupidest fleeting thought I've had in awhile.  Thanksgiving is the day of indulgence, period.  We work hard to enjoy these special holidays.

That being said, I wanted to share with you guys a few healthy ideas for your leftover turkey!  I think that this is a great way to use what you have and still eat clean after Thanksgiving.  Aim for the white meat.

• Turkey Wrap/Sandwich: Try these combinations!

• turkey, cheddar, apple (toasted?) and cinnamon raison whole grain bread, or regular whole wheat/grain bread
• turkey, goat cheese, and pear
• turkey, cucumber, avocado

•  Turkey as your protein base for a salad!
• Turkey soup
• Turkey in an omelet 
• (egg white omelet or 2 egg whites with an egg if you want a lighter version!)
• Turkey in a quesadilla 
• Quick Snack: cheese, turkey, and lettuce wrap

What healthy ways do you use your leftovers?  What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? Comment below!

Fitness: Winter Motivation General Fitness and Running

One of the hardest parts about living in a 4 season area is the dilemma of keeping up with your running schedule during the coldest season of the year, Winter.  I have had to battle the Winter cold the last few days as the temperatures have dropped to 0 (in combination with the wind chill).  I don't want to give up my running, but sometimes you have to give a little when the weather won't cooperate with you.  I hope that this will just make me more motivated once spring rolls around!

In the meantime, I want to keep my fitness up, and I thought long and hard about how I can do this.  I want to keep running a part of my life, especially since Winter break is coming up, and I will have more time in my schedule to run.  I think some of the running will be replaced with cross-training, though.  Luckily, the month of December I will be visiting the suburbs, where I will have access to a car that can transport me to the gym during my break.  I was thinking of ways to increase my motivation during the cold weather season, and I felt it would be helpful to share with you all!  Here are some tips for both general fitness and then some for running! 

Staying Motivated during Winter:

• Get yourself a gym membership as an early Christmas gift! Don't wait until after January 1st for your New Years resolution.  With the Holidays approaching, now is a great time to keep your fitness in check so you can enjoy the holidays instead of feeling guilty for indulgences.  Indulging is apart of the experience, so even it out by sweating it out!
• Endorphins will help you mentally!  The winter-time will lower your Vitamin D levels since you aren't exposed to the sun, so you may feel a bit moodier at this time.  Release some stress by increasing your endorphin levels through exercise.
• Attend exercise classes.  Looking forward to Zumba or Spin is a great way to keep yourself wanting to go to the gym.  Having a favorite instructor can also help; it almost makes you accountable if you know they look forward to seeing you, too!
• Grab a buddy!  This way, you and your friend will make sure you don't skip out on Yoga or Thursday or Spin on Saturday morning.  You'll motivate each other and bond!
• Incorporate some strength workout with your cardio!  If you do not have time to devote hours to the gym, making sure you get a little of both is important!  Then, you burn fat and can build muscle.  Increasing your strength while working on your endurance is a great way to prepare yourself for when athletic season comes along again.
• Eat healthy!  When you feel well through nutrition, you'll feel well enough to work out! Plus, the better your nutrition, the less chance you'll come down with the flu or a cold and will have to take time off.

Winter Running Motivation:

• Hot beverages are a weird and simple motivator.  During my run yesterday, all I could think about was hot chocolate.  It actually worked!  It was the first thing I made when I got home!
• Spend a pretty penny on some running clothes.  Winter running gear is worth the splurge.  I keep it hanging for specifically runs, and wash them every 2-3 runs.  That way, I get the most out of my money and don't have to have 1 million pairs of everything.  If you spend the money, you'll want to make use of it.
• Sign up for a 5K or 10K!  Things like the Turkey Trot give you a goal that isn't too lofty during the wintertime.   
• This can also offset some of that holiday pie on Thanksgiving, since Thanksgiving morning is when the Turkey Trot is held(;
• Don't forget to layer, also.  Here are some winter running essentials that help me.
• gloves (that have the smartphone touch screen sensor, so I can change songs on my IPod)
• Hat
• scarf, face wrap
• long sleeve shirt
• long sleeve sweatshirt
• winter running jacket
• running tights
• running socks (thick and for cold weather specifically) 
• I want to get a ski mask, too.  The wind is getting to be too much.
• If you're running outdoors, the pure cold has been motivation enough to keep moving.  
• Use that treadmill when it is too cold!  Put your gym membership to use.
• Allow more cross training!  Spin is a great example.  It uses a similar type of endurance and gives you a great workout, especially if you only have a 30-45 min session to spare.  
• Try interval work.  Gives you the best workout in a short amount of time!  You want heart-rate manipulation to get the most effective workout in small increments of time.
• Swap out speed work for distance work when running outside.  As much as I love distance running, I do not want to spend hours on end in the freezing cold working on my distance endurance.   I created a winter goal for myself instead: increasing my speed.
• I do interval workouts outside.  I run normal pace for 3 minutes, then I increase my pace for 1 minute.  This makes my run go by pretty quickly, also.  
• If you are looking to keep your distance in check, save the distance running for the treadmill.

What keeps you motivated during the cold weather?  Comment if you have any tips to share!

Fitness: How I Grew to Love Exercise/What It Means to Me

Hi everyone!

Finals is approaching, and I have been crazy busy.  I'm sorry for the lack of posting; I promise I'll have lots to share with you after this week passes!  For now, I wanted to talk about how my mentality about exercise transformed into a way I began to treat my body with the love it deserves.  My body is something I am proud of, not because of appearance, but because of what it does for me.  It takes me to class, allows me to run, play sports, travel, the list goes on.  Exercsing is my way of showing my body appreciation.

I feel like a lot of people use exercise as punishment, as dramatic as that sounds.  They use it as a tool to lose weight and burn calories.  If they ate out a lot the past weekend, drank too much, or pigged out on Christmas cookies, they feel they need to counterbalance their indulgences with exercise. I used to have this mentality, and it made fitness a chore.  When I began to use it as my "me-time" and for stress release, I changed as a person and I became healthy and fit as an added bonus for the hard work I put forth when working with my body.

I started running to lose weight in high school.  I did not eat well, and I gained a few unwanted pounds because I was not active either.  I wanted to be healthy, and that is why I began to exercise.  I gave it up as soon as I hit my goal weight.  Fortunately, this set off my healthier eating habits, and I maintained my weight as a result.  When I approached exercise with the mentality of using it for stress release, everything changed.  I now use it as a stress reliever and to be the most healthy being I can be.  On-and-off, I have made myself exercise to perform (i.e. the marathon), but that was due to a personal goal.  Trying to pressure myself to perform even transformed fitness into a chore.  I began to lose my love for it during my training, at times.  Don't get me wrong; I would never trade my marathon experience for the world.  I stressed myself out a little too much to accomplish my goals, though.  I am now in a place where I am purely running, spinning, walking, using the elliptical, dancing, or using weights by choice.  I am rediscovering what exercise means to me, and I am happy with the balance that I found. 

This post is not me bashing the goal of exercise for weight loss; I want to make this clear.  Exercise is important to maintain a healthy weight and benefit your heart and mind.  Using exercise to shed pounds is an important goal, but it shouldn't be purely that.  This is my personal opinion; every feels differently about what exercise should mean.  When relying on exercise to lose weight, it does put an unwanted pressure on the individual, at times.  I hope that if you are out there and choosing your goals, that you remember to take pride the most in your efforts to be healthy.  Remember to appreciate your body and give yourself time to get in shape.  Feed it with healthy food to fuel your workouts, and remember to appreciate what your body is doing for you.  Allow yourself to go at your own pace, and think about exercise as your "me-time", too.  It is a time to relax and clear your mind.  I hope you grow to love it, but, if you do not, that is okay!  Try new things, be adventurous, and be kind to yourself.  If you want to indulge on your mother's special Christmas cookies, enjoy birthday cake at a party, have a drink with dinner, do it!  If you truly want something, never deny yourself those cravings.  If you restrict yourself too much, your health journey will become a miserable experience.  Just regulate your indulgences while still making your health a priority.

You work hard, and you deserve to fall in love with yourself because you are making strides in taking care of your body.  Take care of yourself, and stay well(:

Marathon Recovery: Learning to Listen to My Body

I like to consider myself an athelete.  Although I am not elite in any sense, I strive to perform well when running and maintain my fitness, while challenging myself to be the best I can be.    I truly enjoy it and have a passion for physical activity, and that is what I consider to be an athlete.

When I signed up to do the marathon, I did not anticipate how long recovery would take.  I thought about how I began training (early, please note) in May/June, and my body probably needs the rest that it deserves.  I became injured, as you all know, through my training, and that will require even more rest.  That being said, I won't keep me down.  I have been focusing on my rest, and I will continue to rest.  I want to keep my fitness up and make sure that I am not letting it falter.  The big question is: How do I come back from a marathon (especially keeping my injury in mind)?

My best advice: Listen to your body.   This has been the hardest lesson I have had to learn since I began competing in races and acquired a few injuries along the way.  I feel that the struggle is mental; you feel motivated to exercise, yet your body cannot perform the way you want.  When you think about recovery long-term, it makes sense.  You get injured, you heal.  If you push yourself and don't allow your body to heal, you make the injury worse.  I do not want to make my injury more severe in my knees; I want to run throughout my life.  It is something I truly enjoy and do for myself.  Therefore, I made a promise to myself to quiet the voice that I usually see as motivation if I feel any warning signs that my knees are acting up during a run or on the bike.  Is my IT band tightening?  Lesson the gear on my bike.  Is there a weird pressure in my kneecap?  Walk.  Are my knees hurting after a run?  Cut my mileage.  It is so difficult to find the balance, but I am determined to heal properly and get back into running when my body catches up with my brain(:

As I have been recovering the past month, this is what my exercise schedule has looked like, starting from day 1 after the marathon.  Keep in mind, I am in no way a professional, and every body is different.  I do not advise anyone to follow this schedule, but this is what I have personally done to maintain my fitness and recover as much as possible.  My purpose is to give you all an idea of what it looks like to recover, even with injury.  There are so many conflicting articles and advice on recovery, so you have to do what works for you.

My recovery has been a lot of cross-training.  That is the best advice I have received post-marathon.  Cross training is a great way to maintain your fitness level while lessening the impact you have on your joints as opposed to running.

Week 1  (Zero Week)

•  Monday: nothing
• Tuesday and Wednesday: Extremely light biking (only because I teach spin for my job)
• Thursday:  1 hour on the elliptical, doing interval work mostly.  I avoided adding a lot of weight and gear work to make it easier on my knees and hips.  I kept a moderate gear and did heart rate manipulation for the most part.
• Friday: Cycle 55, 40 minute easy walk with a friend
• Saturday: Elliptical 45 minutes 
• Sunday: easy 3 mile run 
• My knees were acting up, and I made the decision to take a few days off of running to let them heal. 

Week 2

• Monday: 1 hour 45 min leisurely walk with a friend.  
• I wanted to rest my legs and knees, but I felt a little antsy.  It was a nice day out, so I decided to go for a walk and actively recover.
• Tuesday: spin 60 minutes
• Weds: spin 45 min, spin 60 (subbed a class)
• Thurs: 5 mile run
• Friday: spin 60 min
• Sat: 6 mile run (getting back into long runs here!)
• Sunday: rest

Week 3

• Monday: 5 mile run
• Tuesday: spin 45 and spin 60 (taught double this day)
• Wednesday: spin 45
• Thursday: 8 mile run
• Friday: spin 60, weight training 15 min
• Saturday: 5 mile run
• Sunday: rest

Week 4

• Monday: 4 mile run
• Tuesday: spin 60
• Wednesday: spin 45
• Thursday: 8 mile run
• Friday: spin 60, weight training 15 min
• Saturday: I plan on doing a run today, whatever distance I choose.  Either that, or rest!
• Sunday: If I run Saturday, I will rest. If not, I'll run this day.

This has been my recovery so far! If you are ever recovering from a race or competition, all I can advise is to be very in tune with what your body is feeling.  It is something you have problem learned to read during your training, so take advantage.  You deserve a rest after all the work you put into training, so enjoy and be safe!