Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional so if you take anything from this and then die as a result, it’s your own dang fault. I’m just telling my experience. I’ve been training for the St. George, Utah marathon for 3 months. Then a week ago Friday I woke up with a terrible sore throat, swollen […]
Health & Nutrition
The things I’ve learned and continue to learn about health, diet, and nutrition when it comes to training for triathlons and related events, including fueling during running, swimming, and biking.
I’ve written previously about how to make green smoothies taste better. Green smoothies are bad enough in that they’re called “green smoothies”. It doesn’t help that you pack them full of a ton of spinach, kale, or other leafy greens. But if the green smoothie tastes horrible to boot, or it tastes fine on day […]
Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, is one of my new heros, along with one of the subjects of the book, Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farms. One of the great blessings that has come into my life as a result of getting into triathlons in 2007 is that I did not just become […]
This post, in a way, undermines the entire purpose of this blog. You see, I started out on the Ironman journey (which I have yet to complete) with the expectation that training for an Ironman would result in me losing my excess, unhealthful weight. I have lost weight. More importantly, I’m much healthier today than […]
Counting Calories
I always knew it would come to this. When I started triathlons, I knew next to nothing about health, nutrition, physical fitness, or basic human biology. I didn’t know the differences between carbs and protein, what you should eat when, or much of anything else related to food and exercise. I was next to completely […]
Back around August I started drinking green smoothies. I held up for a little over a month, and then I couldn’t take it anymore. The taste of raw spinach got to me, and I couldn’t look at a green smoothie without feeling a desire to do the technicolor yawn. It wasn’t that the taste of […]
A week ago I got sick. The more I think about it, the more I think it was my body telling me I wasn’t getting enough rest, nor was I getting very good rest. I’ve known for over a decade now what constitutes a “good night’s rest” for me, but it was based on anecdotal […]
The other day when I woke up sick I weighed in at 203 lbs. Today, after eating, I was around 205. It appears I may have moved from hovering in the 205-207 range to the 203-205 range. But that’s not what’s strange, what’s strange is the tale I will now tell you. You see, my […]
Man, as if everything I’ve gone through in the last week wasn’t enough. Last night, as I was going to bed, I could feel a little tickle in the back of my throat and some minor pain when I swallowed. I also felt a bit “thick-headed” (my friends say I’ve always been that way), and […]
My coach’s green smoothie recipe includes 2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil. But when I went to pick some up, the ground flaxseed was so much cheaper than the oil that I got the ground, thinking it might be as good as the oil. Turns out there is a bit of healthy debate on this matter […]
Morning workouts are best for my schedule, and I used to rarely eat in the morning before working out. If I did, it was half a Clif bar or maybe a banana and a glass of milk. I always felt just fine working out without much in my stomach, or without anything at all. But […]
Up until David started coaching me on Monday, I was waking up, having a smoothie made of non-fat milk, a banana, some almonds, and maybe some other fruit thrown in. I would then go work out, come home, and have a bowl of oatmeal with two cups of milk or or a bowl of cereal. […]
My wife and I have had debates regarding how much choice influences eating habits. Her opinion, if I understand it correctly, is that everyone is the same, but some people lack self-control and therefore have poor eating habits, while other people have more self-control and therefore eat better. My opinion is that certain people are […]
Green Smoothies
On Sunday my dad asked me if I had ever heard of a “green smoothie”. On Monday my coach asked me the same question. I have been known to make smoothies from avocados (one avocado, three tablespoons sugar, some ice, some milk, blend, delicious) which are quite green in color, but that’s not what they […]
If you were getting on your teenager’s case about how he needs to do better with his homework and he said “Yeah, I know, but rest is important too, so I’m taking a week off” you’d haul his lazy behind out in the street and whoop on him until you had more neighbors around spectatin’ […]