Chili for Breakfast

Yesterday afternoon I met with my Naturopath, Dr. O'Leary. We talked about my diet and mainly the one thing that was lacking from it. Protein. So today, I am starting my morning with a nice big bowl of Amy's Chili. I know...it sounds a little crazy, but it actually is pretty good. A nice change from my routine of oatmeal or plain yogurt with granola.

When we sat down in her office, we brainstormed some ideas about how I can get more protein in my diet. I weigh 160 pounds, and it turns out that someone my size should have 72 grams a day. I was only getting in about half that every day. We also talked about when I am running that I need to take in even more protein. I think she said some where around 130 grams. Yikes! Protein and a complex carbohydrate is a good breakfast and snack because it will leave you feeling full for longer as well as it will help to stabilize you blood sugar over a longer period of time.

So she gave me a good list of things to snack on, which I will include below for you. And she stressed that it would be important for me to get at least 20 grams every morning for breakfast. Hence the chili. Amy's Organic Medium Chili has a whoppin' 15 grams per serving, and each can has two servings. Go Me!

I don't think that chili will be a staple for my mornings from now on, but it is a good change every once and a while. It also is a nice start to the changes I am making to diet.

Suggested High Protein Snacks

- Hard boiled eggs

- Nuts/ seeds (almond, sunflower, pumpkin, walnut, cashews

- Nut butters with fruit or veggies, brown rice cakes

- Turkey or salmon jerky

- Tuna or wild caught salmon wrap or nut thin

- Hummus with veggies or brown rice cakes

- Smoothies

1 tbs. flax seeds, ground

1/2 c. liquid (coconut milk, unsweetened rice or almond milk)

2 heaping tbs. brown rice powder

1/2 c. frozen fruit (bananas, berries or some other combination)

Add water to thin and blend well

Little Hood to Coast Relay

During the month of February Mark and I are having a friendly competition to see who can log the most miles. I as some of you know have a a half marathon coming up in May, and I need to start running a little more than I had been.

So today kicked off with my first run, as did Mark. I started my run with one of my favorite mixes, and did some speed work. I am not a fast runner, so when I say speed work I was alternating running 9 minute miles with about 11:30 miles. Once I was finished, I had run just under four miles. I still felt pretty good, so got into a comfortable pace and just kept going, with the music just playing over again. I ended up running a total of 7.25 miles in 82 minutes. Hip Hip Hooray!

Since we are tracking our distances I documented mine as I should have, under my name for the first day of the month, and added a little Woo Hoo (this is the first time I have run that far). I didn't tell Mark how far that I had run when I when we talked. When I got home in the evening I looked at the chart, and he had run 4.1 miles. Next to it he wrote "It's On" Yippy...hopefully my knees wont feel too bad tomorrow. It would be nice to win though.