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Showing posts from February 20, 2011

Racing nutrition

I can't believe it is almost March!! I signed up for the Gate river run 15K for March 12th but I am not sure if I am feeling 'it' at this moment. I have my eyes set on New Orleans 70.3 (and Kona) and my internship is keeping me entertained with little room for "free-time". I guess I have a week or so to think about it but I believe that you have to mentally prepare for a race, just as much as you need to train for a race. Right now, there is not much room for visualizing and getting excited to push my body to the max. I'm 100% exhausted and my training is a great way to start my day and relieve stress. Over the years, I have learned to center my energy around a race and be 'ok' with not doing every race that is on the "to do" list...in the case that I am not feeling energized to do the race. More often than not, if the mind isn't excited for the race, the body won't be either. I don't believe in compromising my training (or exerci...

Carbo-loading

It's hard to sum up all the fantastic info in my latest issue of Nutrition Action (March 2011) that came in the mail today. I loved the front page that featured the words CARO LOADING in large print. Sadly, the article isn't geared towards athletes but rather to the average American. Pg. 3 - 6: In 1970, the average American consumed about 430 calories a day from grains (wheat, rice, corn, oats, etc.), according to the USDA. By 2008, we were up to 625 calories a day, a huge bump. And roughly 90% of the grain we eat is refined, not whole. Only one other category - fats and oils, which includes butter, oils, margarine and shortening - supplies that many calories. (So much for the popular notion that we've been on a low-fat diet). Added sugars also climbed, though less so. They're up by about 60 calories a day sine 1970. How does so much refined grain creep into our diets? Restaurants pile on the pasta, rice, pancakes, breads and other cheap carbs. Many restaurants combine ...

I quit

No..I would never do that. But I could sure use an interning break! I wanted to write something great today or feature a yummy creation, but I got nothing except for a tired brain. I wish I could say that my body was tired from training but it is recovery week and I am taking full advantage of just exercising this week. This morning was 30 min on the elliptical and weights. That's it! Tomorrow I plan to swim and hoping to find my inner-nemo that loves to come out twice a week from 6am - 7:30am. With 9 1/2 hours of interning at the hospital, you'd think that I would be able to see a dozen patients but I spent the entire day seeing 3 patients. Yesterday I saw 4, which is an improvement from my 2/d average but these three patients had me scratching my head and looking up a lot of info. Because I am still in the "interning" phase of my internship, it's important that I take my time and learn as much as I can so I don't overlook medications, physician orders or sta...

Training to be a RD

What an amazing weekend...weather wise. As for me, 15 hours of last minute studying on Sat and Sun and a B on my mid-term (I had another quiz on medical nutrition therapy on burns, wound, stress and surgery on Fri). The difficulty of the questions exceeded my expectations and I was nearly in tears mid-way through my exam. Giving myself a grade for my test-taking skills, I'm probably a high A for not being the best test taker. I tend to overthink and right now in my pursuit to be a RD, there is still a lot of thinking and second guessing. The body is amazingly complex and I am still struggling putting all the pieces together. But nevertheless, 150 questions and 1 hour and 54 minutes later, I was finished with my exam and I did much better than I expected. Whewww. My training has really taken a back-seat lately...as has much of the other things I like doing for fun (ex. blogging). But, I had no trouble getting out the door on Sat at 7am for a 3hr and 30 min, 67 mile bike ride. Karel...