Let's Play A Game

Do you ever get to the point where you feel that you cannot work any harder in your runs, workouts or races?  A lot of times outside of improving your actual training plan-nutrition is the hardest and many times the worst habit runners have working to improve.   I am not going to get into any hardcore nutrition habits changes for example not eating processed foods, eating only whole grains, or staying away from high fructose corn syrup; we can all tackle the nutrition game beginning slowly so start with an individual mini-challenge.

I started a little game with my running & nutrition two weeks ago. I stepped onto the scale and was motivated to be faster by being way more healthy with my diet. I took out 3 things that I was eating/drinking that I knew I was not supposed to be doing....but really enjoyed eating/drinking. Deep into mile repeat workouts I felt I could not push any harder, and there was something holding me back at that point to hit my goal times so I came up with a big 3 list.  I put soda, ice cream, and those addicting Reese's peanut butter eggs on a do not eat list.  The Reese's eggs are the most tricky because they change with the seasons. Those things are Christmas trees, Valentine's hearts, and Easter eggs so that junk food vices does not go away from the stores ever.  By giving up those 3 big food vices for me, I finally made a positive baby step with some nutrition stuff.

As I mentioned earlier there is a ton more we all can do by just cutting out the garbage foods from our diets but you have to begin somewhere small.  In my case I have been losing 1 pound per week since starting this little game...the duration of the game for me is 35 days which wraps up with the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8k in Chicago on March 25. From that point the hope is to just be smart about things after I get some of these better eating habits in place leading up to a big race.