I’ve made a few minor adjustments to my “Staple” smoothie/juice/blend recipe. I drink it in thirds throughout the day.
1 cup cranberry juice (the real deal, not the sugary crap)
2 cups water
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 handful kale
1 handful spinach
1 cup mix raspberry, strawberry, blackberry
.75 cup blueberry
1 carrot
1 banana
2 tablespoons of crushed flax seed
1 scoop of whey protein
sometimes about a cup of watermelon
In my last post about Google Plus I predicted a flop. I’m sticking with it.
The post, Google’s Management Doesn’t Use Google+ highlights one of the reasons why.
But also from my observations…
I mentioned last post that I’d plateaued while sticking to running 3 miles every other day. My pace wasn’t improving and my motivation was getting low. And I said I was going to start the bridge to 10k program (b210k) to try to break through the rut.
There seem to be a few different versions of b210k out there. That’s unlike C25K, where there seems to be one single program/outline. Anyway, taking a look at the app on my phone, I decided weeks 1-3 would be too easy given my cardio level at that point. So I started at week 4, which is four 8 minute runs with a minute walk between runs.
I got through week 4 and 5 fairly easily, but nothing to write home about either. Average all around.
Last night, everything must have come together. The sun, moon, planets must have aligned, and I must have had my diet and energy levels maximized because I ran my best run (that I can remember) of over the last 3 years. Week 6 is four 10 minute runs with a minute walk in between. I know my route well, but having to guesstimate how far the 3 walks were I estimate that I ran 4.4 miles in the 40 minutes of run time (9:05 pace). That’s not only one of the fastest paces ever by me, 4.4 miles is one of the longest runs. I’m psyched.
I also mentioned in the last post that I was going to rededicate myself to my diet. I have. And there is no surprise that I’ve seen the results. I’ve been sticking to everything on my healthy living checklist, including eating a lot more fruits and veggies.
I still have a lot of work to do to reach my goal before the end of the year. My biggest challenge is going to be maintaining through the winter–which I haven’t done the last 2 winters. At least this time I have a membership to a gym, which I’ve been going to a few times a week.
After a serious and discouraging plateau, I’ve decided to stop the same old routine and go after something else.
This is the 3rd straight year I completed the couch to 5k program (c25k). You can argue that I shouldn’t have to re-do it each year. And I would agree that I need to do some form or cardio through the winter so I’m not back to square one again.
But each year has been easier and easier. And I’ve started it earlier and earlier in the year. It was so easy this year that something strange happened. I lost my motivation. Finishing 30 mins / 3 miles has become not a physical chore, but a mental one. I’ve bailed more runs due to boredom this year than I’ve ever bailed runs for any reason in the past. And my improvement in pace has come to a standstill. It has been varying from 9:30-10:00. Previously I got it down to close to 9 flat.
I find that I’m really good at following and sticking to a plan. Simply going out every other day for a 30 minute run isn’t enough to motivate me. I had planned (for the 3rd straight year) to mix in interval training. I may still do interval training, but reaching for a longer distance has my attention right now. And there is a outlined plan to get me there.
There is no surprise that the plateau/lack of motivation in running has put a damper on my diet. I have been eating much healthier than I have in the past, but I have been consuming way too many calories for weight loss. I had started out like gangbusters earlier this year, but I’ve remained the same weight since mid June. I can still reach my ultimate goal by year end if I dedicate myself (I originally scheduled to reach my goal my now/September).
Last year it wasn’t until I started to run 4 miles that my pace improved drastically. Hopefully this endeavor will have the same results on the pace of shorter runs as well as weight loss.
With the help of the B210K app (bridge to 10k), I’m going to smash this plateau and get back on track. And hopefully build enough momentum to last me through the winter.
To try to describe a compounding and self-destructive cycle is difficult. I’ll try is so many words.
The Buffalo Bills traded away veteran WR Lee Evans today. There is no good reason why they should have.
1) So they might say Lee wasn’t a part of the Buffalo Bills future. Well who the heck is then? And how far in the future do we expect some success?
2) So they might say that he was overpriced. He’s still better than what else they have. Plus his salary isn’t bankrupting a team with one of the lowest payrolls!
3) So they might say that they want to part with players who were part of a losing culture. But they are perpetuating a losing culture by trading away a player who makes them more competitive NOW! So this cycle has been and will continue to be never ending!
Reports say they are getting a 4th round pick for him. What a steal! The way I see it, a 4th round pick is a gamble. With Lee, you know what you’re getting.
The blind is leading the blind. At some point the Bills need to stop “rebuilding” and start fielding a competitive team. Two steps forward, three steps back isn’t rebuilding. How are the younger guys we’re relying on for the future supposed to improve if veterans aren’t there to help them pave the way?
The Bills have one of the lowest (if not the lowest) salaries in the NFL right now. After 11+ seasons of losing, is it a surprise?
I don’t think this cycle of suck will ever end.
Hey Buddy Nix, what’s your plan? How many years do you need to turn this around?
I was psyched when I fine tuned my Staple 2.0 smoothie/juice to near perfection, but that didn’t last long as I was getting some nasty sore throats. Well, actually, it was one long sore throat that lasted the entire month of July.
It’s hard to pinpoint the cause of things when you are throwing so many changes at yourself. Also, the sore throat came after a sinus infection. Was it strep throat? Was it the oats in the smoothie? Was it something else?
I’m reluctant to go to doctors. I guarantee I would have just been prescribed antibiotics or just told to take it easy. After the sinus cold was over in a few days, I had no other symptoms of a virus or other infection, so I decided to wait it out and do some trial and error.
It’s gotta be something in the smoothie, right? The sore throat started soon after I added oats into the mix. So I took them out. The sore throat remained. Were the berry seeds scratching my throat? I stopped smoothies all together, but the sore throat remained.
What made it tricky, is it varied in intensity day to day, hour to hour. So I would think it was coming to an end, just to wake up in the morning with it hurting again.
I was close to just giving up and going to the doctor, when it hit me. Besides the smoothie, I was snacking on Nutella like there was no tomorrow. Hmmm, could it be?
I stopped it and sure enough the sore throat ended.
What’s weird is that I have no other allergies that I know of. And according to WebMD and Wikipedia (aka my doctors), an allergy to hazelnut (Nutella) also is an allergy to cashews (which I can eat an entire can of with no problems–other than being a pig). Plus the symptoms of a tree nut allergy really don’t match up with just a sore throat. Who knows…I guess I should get tested some day.
The whole thing put a damper on my training progress. But I’m back on track now.
I went back to the drawing board with The Staple. Thinking it over, it had too much sugar (71+ grams). I decided to test it out without the 2 biggest sugar containing items, bananas and apples.
I mentioned in the last post that there is a reason for me picking these ingredients to start. I’ll get into more detail some other time, but the ones I picked have the highest nutritional value antioxidant wise–and provide a variety of antioxidants. Taking out bananas and apples did not disrupt this too much. I tried (and an continuing to try) to keep it simple too. I don’t want to have to search far and wide for something. And I don’t want to include overly expensive things either. Also, I leave out things that don’t agree with me taste wise, like tomatoes. High nutritional value, high taste value, high convenience value, low cost.
Without a banana and an apple, the sugar is down to 41 grams. We’re also looking at 620 calories (down from 820).
And to simplify it some more, I took out broccoli in favor of more spinach and kale. What broccoli provided in nutrition is also found in spinach and kale. It was become more of a PITA than what it was worth. So broccoli got axed.
And the taste… It still isn’t bad! And it keeps me full through lunch.
Here is the recipe:
1 cup cranberry juice (the real deal, not the sugary crap)
1 cup water
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup mix kale and spinach
1 cup mix raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, blackberry
1 carrot
about a cup of watermelon
2 tablespoons of crushed flax seed
1 scoop of whey protein
It’s another flop.
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
-Charles Mingus
From day 1, most of the posts on there are people figuring out how to use it. Tons of posts on how it’s sooooooooo much better than Facebook and Twitter, only if we can just figure it out some more.
Google has a sneaky way of bragging about things. How it’s the fastest growing social network. Ummm, both Facebook and Twitter didn’t have the clout Google has to begin with. They grew from nothing. I’ve seen this misleading hype from Google when Buzz launched and during the growth of their Chrome browser.
Google+ right now is an echo chamber. Early adopters (who all seem to hate Facebook and Microsoft) figuring out what to do with the new shiny object. Something that struck me with Buzz is my less tech savvy friends and family asking me “what’s this for and what do I do with it.” Exactly! I get the same vibe with Google+.
Supposedly Google+ is looking beyond simply a social networking tool and into an integration of tools like Google Docs, where collaboration is revolutionized. Sounds like Wave to me. What ever happened to that? Plus, again just by polling my non-tech friends and family, very few use Docs, Calendar, Reader, etc. Mostly all only use Gmail and search.
I’ll wait and see. I’m not very impressed so far. I think it’s going to end up on my list one day.
I’ve gone back to the drawing board and changed up The Bigger Deal a little bit. I’ve named this one The Staple. I don’t know how much more I’m going to add/subtract anymore.
I found that the sugar content in other mix was getting up there. I checked everything for nutritional value and peaches were the odd fruit/veggie out. I think I had been adding them in for taste anyway. So I swapped a peach with a 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats.
Soon I’ll be posting the reasoning behind all of these ingredients. I’ll say it again… It does not taste bad at all! Or else I would not be able to tolerate it–especially in the morning.
This bad boy comes in at 825 calories. Consumed throughout the morning. And relied upon to keep me full so I don’t get too hungry before lunch. It’s been doing the trick.
1 cup cranberry juice (the real deal, not the sugary crap)
1 cup water
1 apple
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 banana
1 cup mix kale, spinach, broccoli
1 cup mix raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, blackberry
1 carrot
about a cup of watermelon
2 tablespoons of crushed flax seed
1 scoop of whey protein