Savory Sundays: Zucchini Bread

Welcome! The first installment of Savory Sundays. Now, this week I will bring you several different recipes, things that I made during the last six days. I'll be rolling out more than one thing today so be prepared for a few more posts with pics.

First up is Zucchini Bread, a recipe I've fallen for. I've made this multiple times both as loaves and muffins, and they are always quite tasty. This week I made two loaves, mostly because I had some zucchini that needed to be used up.

To start, I grated up three cups worth of zucchini. The recipe calls for two but one of the reviews suggested three and I tried that and it worked out great so I'm sticking to it. Originally there were four pieces of zucchini but two gave themselves up for the cause.


After mixing the flour, sugars, oil and all that good stuff you get:


I think it's the tablespoon of ground cinnamon that gives it such a great taste. Then, you need to make room for the zucchini:


Before I got into baking, I probably would have thought that this would have been strange at best. Now, it's appetizing. Pour into pans like so:


I gave one loaf away and the other one was nearly gone before I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the finished product.


Oh, that makes me hungry for zucchini bread all over again.

You mean, as in Finn?

I might be wrong but I don't think I've ever had a huckleberry. I've had strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, cranberry... oh, I had one of those types of berries up in San Mateo, the olallieberry, but I don't think I've ever had huckleberry before.

So this giveaway caught my attention. Lissaloo of One Step at a Time is hosting a Huckleyberry Giveaway. You have the chance to win taffy, jam and gummy bears, all made of huckleberry.

Being conscious of nutrition, I decided to check out the huckleberry and compare it to strawberry (because it's my favorite berry) and raspberry (because... uh, I just randomly picked another berry). It's strange because the nutritional information on calorieking.com is limited when it comes to huckleberries. Five ounces, which is roughly a cup, of huckleberries has 53 calories and, um, probably some fiber... while the equivalent amount of strawberries has 45 calories and 2.8 grams of fiber. Five ounces of raspberries has 74 calories and - get this - a whopping 9.2 grams of fiber!

Okay, curiosity got the best of me and I did a bit more research on berries. Apparently strawberries, blueberries and raspberries aren't technically berries by the scientific defintion (but huckleberries are). But whatever, they're all berries to me.

Anyway, I'm tossing my hat into the ring. Here's hoping for the Sweet Montana Giveaway to come Sweet Californee-way.

New feature - Savory Sundays

In an effort to incorporate more of my interests into this blog - and in keeping with my meal plan's "cheat day" - I've decided to set Sundays aside for cooking/baking. I probably won't post about fitness and probably will keep it a bit light and, hopefully, entertaining.

I've been taking pictures this week of several things I've made and plan on adding pictures and step-by-step instructions on how to make the respective dishes. I had fun doing this once before here on this blog when I made wet burritos last month.

Now, I said it's sort of a cheat day because Sunday's likely won't revolve around fitness, and may or may not feature healthy recipes. For instance, one I have planned for Sunday is my favorite zucchini bread recipe, pictured here with my favorite coffee mug.

Now, you might think "zucchini is healthy." And while this is true, I'm not sure the recipe is really something healthy per se.

Anyway, just wanted to give you trusty readers a heads up for Sunday. I've already got a pair of culinary treats I want to share, although my proudest moment of the week - making the Pasta, Pesto and Peas is sadly not one of them. I get flustered sometimes when I try something new and that was something new that involved several steps and scaling down the recipe... oh, and my daughters were going crazy while I was trying desperately not to mess the recipe up. Needless to say, the camera was not on my mind during this time.

Luckily for you, I had it handy when making the zucchini bread and a couple of other recipes that turned out great.

Plan of attack

I've been on this fruit/veggie challenge for one day now and I'm already planning out my meals. I think I should be able to hit the five daily servings most if not all days, and those are two important elements of the challenge: to plan your meals out and incorporate fruits/veggies into them.

I just happened to pick up some sweet potatoes at the store earlier this week and then I made a quick trip to the store on Thursday evening so I picked up some carrots to add into the mix. I also got some sesame oil to try this recipe. It looks so good. I have everything else... except the cabbage. Forgot to get that. It says I should poach some chicken but I'm not the greatest at that so I will have to figure something out about that.

As far as today goes, I started breakfast off with a banana and a cup of milk... actually it was less than a cup, I'm guessing .65889 of a cup or so... and then for snack the usual apple. So that was two servings of fruit in my first two meals.

For lunch, I put a half-cup of baby spinach on my sandwich and had a half-cup of cooked and mashed sweet potatoes on the side. It was quite a filling lunch, and I found out that a half-cup of mashed sweet potatoes is satisfying and filling as well.

After I write this I'll be on my way out to a pair of soccer games. I have two girls games to officiate so I probably won't have a true dinner. I will take two apples with me though, one for in between games and one in case I'm hungry after my last game. So I should hit my totals for today. And of course I kept my calories under 1,800. I can't lose track of that.

But five servings of fruits/veggies on my first day... that's a great way to start!

UPDATE: I did have an apple but only one. I wasn't hungry at all in between games so I saved the apple until after I was done with the second game. So all told I had one banana, two apples, 1/2 cup baby spinach and 1/2 cup sweet potatoes while staying under my calorie limit. Again, not bad.

Who's up for a challenge?

This one's not quite as daunting as a half marathon or the Mud Run, but it's a challenge nevertheless.

I signed up for Everyday Food Radio's Fruit & Veggie Challenge. It's actually quite simple: you try and challenge yourself to eat five servings of fruits/vegetables each day. Log your foods for the week and then e-mail them on Thursday nights. You get some recipes in exchange as well as possible mention on the Friday show of Everyday Food.

What the heck is Everyday Food? I guess I should start there. Everyday Food is my newest interest. It's a daily two-hour show that's all about food. It's part of Martha Stewart Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 112 for you subscribers who may never have checked it out. The show is very informative and enjoyable as the topics vary from day to day. For instance, today the show was partly about soups and stews, freezing foods and the like. On Wednesday's part of the show is dedicated to "Use it Up," a segment where callers call and tell the host something they have a lot of in their kitchen and the host offers suggestions on how to use it up. If I had to ask about some tips, for instance, I'd ask about how to use up some parsley since I picked some up for some unknown reason and now it's going to get all wilted in a day or three.

Anyway, today the show was also focusing on obesity and the potential problems that will cause not only for the population of the United States at large but also for the economy, as billions of dollars will be spent over the next couple of decades to treat problems directly related to obesity. The host asked for callers to chime in on their respective ideas on how best to curb obesity and I felt it was my duty to call in. So I got on and talked to the host, Betsy Karetnick. I told her that I felt the best thing to curb obesity was for people to inform themselves of what they put in their bodies. She asked me about my own past and I told her that I had gone from 308 to 180 or so in about 20 months and that I've kept the weight off for good.

Then she asked me "How'd you do it?" to which I replied "I gave up a lot of the bad stuff like sodas and fast food, stopped eating out five times a week..." and so on.

Anyway, she told me about the Everyday Food Radio Fruit & Veggie challenge. Sounds good, I said, so I looked into it and I like what I saw. It's basically a challenge against yourself. Just challenge yourself to see if you can get to five servings of fruits/vegetables each and every day. One serving equals 1/2 cup so it shouldn't be completely overwhelming.

So I'm trying it out. I figure I'm close to five every day anyway so I might as well commit to try and getting five.

If you're up for the challenge, let's go on this thing together!

Running's getting in the way

...of running.

I meant to go on a run this morning but I'm going to be running a lot this afternoon and especially Friday afternoon.

Too much (soccer) running has slowed my (distance) running. Ugh. Now, I don't think I necessarily can't handle it. I have gone on runs of 3.25 miles on days I had games and found that I was pretty mobile and active during the games so I think the running helps enhance my running.

But running takes time, time that I need for another type of running. I can't really take up time in the afternoon for (soccer) running AND time in the morning for (distance) running when I need to fit in some time for (errand) running. In short, I run so I can't run because then I won't be able to run.

Also, there are those little knocks I take that could become a bigger deal. I'm carrying a tender ankle right now. It doesn't hurt a whole lot, isn't really more than just a slight discomfort, but I'm worried about it. If I take a wrong step, it could go from an uncomfortable pain to knocking me out of commission for a week or two. And since I already have to run (soccer) I decided to scrap my planned 4-mile run for Thursday. Sad.

Now, I don't want to go too long without (distance) running and in fact I may incorporate another type of run (interval) on Friday since I will have less (errand) running to do then.

So then, it would be... I need to run so can't really run but since I don't need to run I might try a run.

Properly confused? Well then, let me try another run. Here I go running from my computer.

All about intervals

Have I said lately how much I love running intervals?

Since the start of the year, I've gone on four runs and all have been outdoors. I haven't been to the gym since the day after Thanksgiving, which was a really bad experience because the day care part was closed even though I'd called ahead of time and was told it was open. I've been wondering lately why I bother with the gym membership since I don't lift weights anymore as all I do is run (yes, I know I should lift weights but I'm too busy wanting to run).

I realized, though, why I can't cut off the gym altogether: intervals. When I finally sit down to plan out my half-marathon training plan, I will include intervals in whatever I come up with. I know there's speedwork and tempo runs but intervals to me are just as important. The only way I can effectively run intervals is on a treadmill, and I don't have any plans of buying one anytime soon.

I picked up a book a while back on how to train with a heart rate monitor, since I've used one now for about eight months. I have found that training with my heart rate monitor has been the best thing for me since I have learned a lot about how my body works, when I have energy and when I don't, what's difficult and what's not, simply by measuring my heart rate. During distance runs, for instance, I'm at my best and in my comfort zone when my heart rate is in the 170s. If it gets higher than 180, I'm either nearing the end of a long run or have been pushing myself either intentionally or unintentionally.

This book, Training With the Heart Rate Monitor, dedicates some time to intervals. It defines intervals as "a systematic alternation of loading and recovery phases." A loading phase would be one in which you exert some energy and your heart rate is high. A recovery phase is a rest, a break where the heart rate drops and is lower.

The best part about intervals is this: if you use intervals effectively, you can improve your performance and endurance. I can attest to this, as I credit intervals for giving me the ability to maintain my peak performance after having run for 40-50 minutes or so. I'm used to running when I'm exhausted so that's nothing new to me. In fact, during my typical interval run I'm exhausted when I push myself the hardest - a 2-minute sprint when you are gassed is always a challenge.

Now, intervals on their own are great but when you couple them with the use of a heart rate monitor, they take on an extra level of significance. It can help you tailor your own workout system to meet your own needs. Everyone has a heart rate and everyone has their own limits within their own heart rate range, so anyone can use a heart rate monitor to figure out how best to work within their own heart rate zones.

Heart rate monitored training can help with these goals, according to the book:

- feeling for different paces
- familiarity with race pace
- gaining will power, stamina and endurance
- form tapering and development of competition-level performance
- improve lactate breakdown and tolerance
- maintenance and improvement of technique, running style
- increasing anaerobic capacity
- raise performance to individual limits

Interval training has a few stages: warm up, repetition of intense training and rest, and cool down. Usually the rest part in the middle involves walking so you don't have to run for an hour straight when doing intervals, and the intense parts usually don't last for more than a few minutes.

I've found that my own interval training routine has helped me in distance runs and when playing sports, mainly soccer. I can last for a couple of hours when playing soccer and tend to have as much or more energy than most of those who I play with, most of whom are younger and fairly active as well. It's also helped me in my soccer officiating, as I can run around all over the field for the duration of the game and have just as much energy and bounce in my step in the first minute as I do in the last minute of the game. Actually, I have more energy as the game goes on because I'm used to the run-rest-run-rest pace of intervals.

Anyway, intervals have been a key part of my training regimen, have helped me go from struggling to run 2-3 miles on a regular basis to having the ability to complete a six- or seven-mile run without feeling completely wasted and battling to finish.

Watery solution

When people ask me how I was able to lose so much weight, I respond by saying that I gave up a lot of foods. One of the first things I mention that I scrapped from my meal plan is soda.

Now, I like the taste of a soda just as much as the next person but I didn't find it too difficult to give up. It was pretty simple in fact when I was trying to figure out how best to use my 1800 calories. I felt that 120 or 140 or whatever the typical soda has to offer was too much to drink.

I was reminded today of just how bad soda is for you when I went to drink some water. On the label of the bottle was a paragraph on the benefits of drinking water instead of soda. Now, of course it's probably a bit of a scare tactic to try to get you to drink more water and, in particular more of their water, but there is some truth to it nonetheless.

The label informs us that the typical 12 ounce soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar. Compared to the sugar found in water (zero teaspoons), the benefits of drinking water instead of sugar are great. So if you replace one soda daily with water, you can cut 3,650 teaspoons of sugar from your meal plan each year. That's a lot of sugar.

And really, that's an easy way to cut back. If you are looking at where you can save on calories, drinks are the first place you should look. In general, I don't like to drink my calories away so I opt for water and then the occasional diet soda, although I probably have one or two diet sodas a week, if that.

How much water should you drink a day? Well, I try and get at least 80 ounces, but I'd like to get 90-100 ounces minimum per day. Sometimes, it's not possible - if I'm going to be driving a lot for instance the last thing I want to do is fill up on water and pull off to use the restroom every 15 minutes - but for the most part I try and do well with my water intake.

It's an easy way to cut calories and an instrumental part of the typical healthy meal plan.

Nippin' it in the bud

A while ago, I finally broke down and shared my "condition" with you trusty readers. It's flared up a few times since then, but I bought something that really has been a help.

My new friend:


Of course, it's not really a surprise this works. It was recommended to me a while ago, and then recommended again as part of an ointment that I could concoct on my own.

I suppose the biggest problem I had was actually remembering to buy some of this stuff. I'd just forget when I was at the store, and then when I'd go running I'd remember what I'd forgotten, and the pain would make sure that memory would last.

But no more. So far, this has helped. I know it works too because I feel the pain, but it's distant. Instead of the pain screaming into my ear, it's just some random noise in the background. I can pick it out from the crowd but it's not prominent.

In the coming year I'll log plenty of miles on the streets, in the gym, maybe some on the track, and my buddy will be there protecting me from the evil nipple pain.

Already?!?

Just how popular is the Camp Pendleton Mud Run?

I found out the dates for the 2009 Mud Runs on Dec. 13 (I remember because I was at a Christmas party). The web site said you'd be able to sign up for all of the Camp Pendleton races of 2009 beginning Jan. 1.

Now, the Mud Run has about 4,000 slots available, and there were races on June 6, 7 and 13 available as well as one on Oct. 17.

The June 6 race had sold out by Jan. 4. The June 13 race, the one I signed up for, sold out earlier today. That's a combined 8,000 slots that were snapped up in less than one week, plus however many have been sold for the other two race days.

I can attest to its popularity. Having ran it just once, I became instantly hooked. I had wanted to sign up for it on Jan. 1 since I feared the worst - having all the slots gone before I could sign up for it - but we ended up doing so on the 3rd.

We've talked about competing in the Oct. 17 one as a team (you can race as an individual or as part of a 5-member team) and I suppose if we are going to do it, we should go ahead and sign up for it now. Otherwise, it might be gone before we know it.

Change in plans

All along, I had eyed a 5K run in Ontario, Calif., real close to my house. The race is on Jan. 24 and I'd decided to run it.

But now, I've decided against it. Really, the deciding factor is money. Now, the cost itself isn't that bad, just $25. However, I've already spent $50 on the Mud Run, will spend another $45 on the half-marathon and then there is the outside possibility of participating in the Mud Run in October, which would be another $50... not to mention the Disneyland 5K ($40) and the Camp Pendleton Half-Marathon ($40) both of which are strong possibilities later this year.

The whole point of wanting to run the 5K was to beat my 5K time from last year. I ran the Fontana Days 5K in 25:05 in June and wanted to see how I fared now that I had quite a bit more running under my belt. But when I was tallying up the potential costs for races this year, it just didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Aside from the races, I'm going to buy a new pair of running shoes, probably some new headphones, have to stock up on the Vaseline and other creams for my, uh, condition (no setbacks recently!), and then there is the Garmin I was recently turned on to by blog buddy Thrashers Wife. I don't mind investing money into running - it's better than sinking it into useless hobbies - but I have to be smart about my funds.

Another smaller factor is the refereeing. I'm running now despite having games the same day. I ran 3.25 miles on Friday morning and reffed a game that night, and finished the same route earlier today and will ref a game later tonight. I can't quite yet plan out a true training plan because my soccer schedule changes from week to week but I did want to start running more frequently. I may not have the legs to do what I want to do with regards to running while having to ref games as well.

Oh well. Races come and go, and I've got to figure out what's best for me. And right now, running the half-marathon in April (while anxiously keeping one eye on the Mud Run) is what's best.

You mean finishing isn't enough this time?

I got together on Sunday with several of my fellow Mud Run members. We were all talking about the Mud Run, about how excited we were over having signed up for it again. Six of us are going to take the plunge yet again and run it on June 13.

Then, the question came up: "So how fast do you want to run it in?"

Great. I can't get away with just trying to finish the Camp Pendleton Mud Run now. I have to actually set a goal and try to finish under that. Finishing slower than the 1:07:44 I ran it in last year would constitute a failure, and getting between that and 1:07:00 wouldn't really be a great achievement.

Nope, the bar was actually set quite high as four of the fellow participants each said they were going to aim to finish the run in under one hour.

An hour is really fast for me. Running a 10K in under an hour wouldn't be a great challenge, considering I ran one in 52:55. However, running a 10K that includes hills for a good three miles, a river crossing, two five-foot walls, a mud crawl and a steep hill that features mud and water... well, that's going to be a challenge to finish in under 59:59 or better.

If I can shave a couple of minutes off my time from last year, I think I'll be happy. We'll see how I feel when the event gets closer, especially after my half-marathon. My thoughts are consumed with the half marathon for the most part right now.

Of course, we took the time to reminisce a little about it on Sunday. Here are the six of us who signed up for it already.


The quartet with shirts got together for some Sunday morning soccer. The outside pair, sans shirts, will be running it for the third time. Here's how we finished amongst our group, from left to right: fourth, fifth, third, first, sixth, second. Everyone can do better than their time from a year ago for various reasons. I know the two who had run it before hadn't trained very hard leading up to the event so if they train for a longer time, or actually train for it at all, they'll do well. And the rest of us should improve simply because we know what to expect now and can tailor a training plan around that. My youngest brother (the one to my right) doesn't have quality running shoes with traction so if he gets some of those, watch out! My younger brother (also in the black shirt) thinks he can beat the rest of us but he's full of it sometimes! (our other brother isn't into running and isn't pictured by the way)

Also, I am third from the left if you hadn't figured it out.

Anyway, there you go. The lines in the sand have been drawn. They'll all be training for and thinking of the Mud Run while I'm more concerned about the Run Through Redlands 1/2 marathon. But if training is any indication of how things will go, my 1/2 marathon should be excellent preparation for the Mud Run.

Food journal, Jan. 5

Well, this is certainly taking the feel of a daily thing... ugh. I guess I should embrace it. What I found after logging my food for two days and then not logging my food for two days was this - when I log my food, I don't go over my calories; and conversely, when I don't log my food, I tend to go over my calories.

I think.

I can't say for sure if I went over on Sunday but I think if I didn't go past the 1,800-calorie mark, then I was up against it. On Saturday, though, I can say with almost certainty that I went past my limit, maybe not 2000 calories over but I was over nevertheless. I'd probably say I was around 2,000 calories on Saturday, give or take.

And that's the problem. If you log your food and you are honest about it, you know exactly how much food you are putting in your body. You also become more accountable to yourself since if you have an extra portion or have a cookie or something else you shouldn't, you know you will have to account for it later.

When you keep enough food journals - and I probably journaled about nine months worth of food when I first started my weight loss program - it sort of becomes second nature. You know exactly how many calories things have because you've researched them time and again. You know an apple has around 70 calories depending on size (and 30 without the skin), a banana has about 100, a couple handfuls of baby carrots has around 40, a plum has about 30, a cup of milk has 120, three tablespoons of peanuts/cashews/mixed nuts/etc. has around 140 calories... and so on.

With that then, I've kept this journal for my food intake for Monday. Now, this is an incomplete list of course. I've just finished lunch so I will update this after my snack and/or dinner.

* Breakfast
> Fiber One cereal (180 cal, 13g fiber)
> 2 percent milk (50 cal, 5g protein)

* AM Snack
> apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)

* Lunch (Pepperoni Pizza Wrap)
> Wrap (210 cal, 3g fiber, 6g protein)
> Pepperonis (130 cal, 7g protein)
> Mozzarella Cheese (~150 cal, 14g protein)
> Spinach, Marinara sauce (~30 cal)
> 1/2 banana (53 cal, 1.5g fiber)

[I skipped snack, slept right through it]

* Dinner - Pasta, Pesto and Peas
> Farfalle pasta (200 cal, 3g fiber, 6g protein)
> Pesto/spinach sauce (~250 cal)
> Peas (150 cal, 4g fiber)

* After-Dinner coffee (50 cal)

Totals: ~1522 calories, 21g fiber, 32g protein

I'm planning on some sort of pasta for dinner as my wife requested some pesto for dinner tonight. I don't like pesto so I might... well, I'll probably... aw crap I don't know what the heck I'm going to do... but I'll do something.

UPDATE: I did not snack. I took a nap with my daughters and woke up after 3 and not hungry so no snack.

LAST UPDATE: I made this Pesto, Pasta and Peas recipe. I probably am way off on the calories but even still I have a couple-hundred calorie cushion to play with.

And my conclusion was right on. I logged my food and I was under my calorie totals. Of course, that's not necessarily good news as I may have to start logging my food now. Great.

Motivational Mondays (Jan. 5)

About those New Year's Resolutions... please don't analyze them right now. Just forget it.

There is no way to make a judgment on them after, what, four days. It's not possible.

If you made resolutions (or in some cases improvements) - and I would venture to say that many people did - first, be happy that you took the time to think about what needed change or improvement in your life. It really takes a lot of effort to recognize an area where you feel you have fallen short in or one you think needs a change; and it takes an even greater effort to make the conscious decision to try and make a change.

And there is no way you can tell whether you've reached your goal or not after four days. I'd venture to say that it's not possible to make a judgment after four weeks. Four months, possibly.

It's so easy to try and look back at how the past few days have gone and how your resolutions are going. On the one hand, you are trying to keep them in the forefront of your mind. Mine, for instance, I'm trying to recognize that I need to stay on top of my nutrition, wear my CPAP and run outdoors twice a week. Now, I'm not going to take the time right now to look back on that because it would be counterproductive. I'm just going to continue to try and meet my goals, plain and simple.

If you reach four days, five days, 10 days and you've consistently met your goal, it might be easy to feel overconfident, and feel some sense of false confidence. And that's when you let your guard down. That's when you revert back to old habits and you leave yourself open and vulnerable.

Now, I will say one thing. If you haven't met your goal at all, not even for one day, then perhaps it might be time to get on ball. But even then, it's too early to consider that a failure as well.

Keep your goals in front of you and try not to look back yet. There will be time to assess the goals - now, though, is too early to do so.

Long way to go

During a recent trip to a bookstore, I flipped through a book on running, some "ultimate guide" or something. It was a thick book, hundreds of pages long, but for some reason it drew my attention. I grabbed it off the shelf and actually read through a decent amount (I found out I'm considered a basic competitor in this guy's system for instance).

There were so many different things the author wrote about, techniques, tips, definitions, information, etc., that I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. I wondered if I had gotten into the right hobby.

I didn't buy the book so I don't have it around to calm my fears so I'm just going to have to do that here. There are several things that I will do to help myself figure out this running thing.

First, I have to run of course but I have to do so consistently to figure out what amount of miles I put in a week in order to figure out a training plan. I think I run between 11 and 16 a week - which isn't a whole lot - but I could be off. I'd like to run around 20 to 25 miles a week but I don't know if I ever have or when the last time I ran that much was. So I need to do a better job of logging my miles, which I'm doing here on my master run list.

Also, I need to figure out if time is important to me. How much do I want to improve my time? Or am I just concerned about finishing races in a decent time? I know I probably will never run a 5K in 17 minutes but do I want to try and run one in under 20 minutes? Is that even possible? Should that matter to me? Honestly it doesn't but should it?

Now, there was a lot that made sense, and that boosted my confidence. I know what intervals are, tempo runs, some of the jargon like lactate threshold, and some of the heart rate stuff. So I have at least informed myself well in some regards.

But there certainly is a lot that goes into running, and that book sort of brought it all home for me. I suppose I will continue to approach it like I have everything else, day by day, run by run, little by little.
Its a good thing I have this blog to help me get to where I'm going. Otherwise I might not remember it all.

Mud Run redux

I did it. I signed up for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run.

June 13, 2009, 9 am sharp.

Whereas last time I was quite worried about the event, this time I'm quite looking forward to it. That doesn't mean it won't be a challenge.

Another journal entry?

I know, I know... I said this wasn't going to be an everyday thing, but I've fallen into a trap for the second consecutive day.

I kept tally of my food intake on Friday as well, for the second straight day. On Thursday I logged my food and found I had 1,234 calories with a sufficient amount of water. That worked well, forced me to think out my meals and snacks and kept me under my target for the day - although I should have consumed a bit more calories.

So I figured I'd have a repeat performance.

* Breakfast - Fiber One cereal
> cereal, 1.5 servings (270 cal, 13.5g fiber, 4.5g protein)
> 2 percent milk (75 cal, 7g protein)
> coffee (75 cal)

* AM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)

* Lunch - Turkey sub, mashed sweet pototoes
> Sandwich roll (220 cal, 2g fiber, 6g protein)
> Turkey - (~60 cal)
> Mashed sweet potatoes w/milk, sugar (300 cal, 8.2g fiber, 4.5g protein)

* Dinner - Denny's Grilled Chicken Sandwich (490 calories, 4g fiber, 39g protein)
> coffee - (~30 cal)

Total for the day: ~1600 calories, 31g fiber

The only thing I missed on a day ago was my fiber intake. I was well short of the 25 grams I liked to get on a daily basis. So I started the day off with a 13.5-gram dose of fiber. Now, I'd planned on snacking on apples for both my AM and PM snacks - a combined 6.6 grams - so I knew that I'd only need to find a way to get about five grams of fiber between lunch and dinner to meet my goal.

As it turned out, I ate a heavier lunch than I'd anticipated so I skipped my PM snack. I had a soccer game to officiate so that was a reason to skip it as well. Anyway, after lunch I'd consumed about 1,072 calories or so, which frankly is a lot. If I'd have realized that I would have had a 500-calorie plus lunch, I probably would have gone with one serving of cereal instead an extra half and may have gone with a bar altogether. The sweet potatoes after all had a lot of fiber in them, which brings me to the positives. By lunchtime I'd consumed 27 grams of fiber, more than my daily goal. I exceeded that by lunchtime!

It's just sort of hit and miss then, really. I focused on the fiber from the start of the day and I got it but after lunch, with the rest of the day staring at me, I had less than 800 calories to play with.

After my game, I didn't feel much like cooking so we went to Denny's, about the only place we can go with our little ones. I checked the trusty calorieking.com web site and found a couple of good options but I went with the Grilled Chicken Sandwich which has under 500 calories. I opted to get the applesauce but I didn't eat it after all. I knew I had enough calories to splurge so I got some coffee.

Anyway, probably more in detail than you needed but just wanted to walk you through my thought process.

New Year's Run

I wanted to get out and stretch my legs on Thursday, take advantage of the great weather and make good on my quest to run more outdoors and I did just that. But I also wanted to set the bar a bit higher than I had in '08.

The only problem was that I didn't realize the latter until I was already on my run.

In '08, I ran quite a bit outdoors, but most of it was in the spring and early summer, and most of those runs were four miles or less. This year, I've got two half marathons in my future so outdoor runs will be a necessity.

I figured running a three- or four-mile run would be okay but whenever I'd look back on the start of the year I'd remember a relatively short run. So I wanted to run a bit longer to have a bit of a higher starting base. Now, five miles isn't exactly a super-long run, but it's a formidable run nonetheless.

But when I walked out the door - and even when I set out on my run - I didn't realize that I'd be running a five-mile run. It wasn't until I started thinking about the first run of the new year and how it was officially welcoming in this year in terms of running did I feel that a five-mile run was necessary. Instead of zigging, I zagged and headed in the opposite direction I'd intended on running. Before long I was out on the open road, running a route I'd done only three times before.

It was enjoyable though, even if I hadn't mentally prepared for a run longer than four miles. It felt good to stretch my legs, felt good to get some time alone, to ponder the year in running and all the outdoor runs that await in '09. I completed the run in 47:19 and averaged a heart rate of 172 with a max of 184. Ultimately, it was an excellent run as it set up the year's runs very well.

Now when I look back at the start of the year, I'll have a pleasant five-mile memory to fall back on.

Eating throughout the day

One of the first things I learned when I started my fitness renaissance was the importance of eating throughout the day.

It's fairly simple to fall into a trap when it comes to food and how often to eat. If you don't eat that much for most of the day and stick to a couple of meals, you've got to be losing weight, right?

No, actually, not right. Dead wrong. There are several reasons why you should eat throughout the day as I've learned first-hand.

First of all, such a schedule probably would look like this:

7 am Breakfast
9:30 AM Snack
Noon Lunch
3:30 PM Snack
6 Dinner

The longest you'd go without eating as 3.5 hours between lunch and PM snack, but if you eat dinner earlier, you can eat the snack earlier. That's just one positive. You don't go very long between meals.

Also, by eating more often, your body is working more efficiently and you burn more calories that way. If you eat two big meals a day, the food sits and does not go through your system as quickly and the body hangs on to all the bad stuff.

Another thing, since you will eat more often chances are you won't get to the point where you feel like you are absolutely starved. If you get to that point, it is easier to make bad choices. If you aren't starving when you prepare dinner, for instance, it will be easier to fight off temptation.

Also, the snacks are easy ways to sneak in some fruits and/or vegetables and get some fiber into your system. One of my favorite snacks is to have an apple and small fruit/veggie as well, such as some carrots, a plum, some orange slices. It's easy to keep it at around 100 calories and the fiber you pick up is much needed. It beats a bag of chips for 140 empty calories with hardly any nutritional positives.

Now, it took me a while to get this system down and get used to it. But now if I can keep my breakfast to around 200 calories, the combined calories for snacks at around 200, I've got 1400 calories to split between lunch and dinner. That's quite a few calories, to be honest. That's not too shabby of a tally.

Logging on

Well, I didn't want to commit myself to this but I'm going to log my food for today.

Repeat: for today.

I know if I say I'll do this every day I won't and then I'll just let myself down.

But here goes:

* Breakfast - Zone Energy bar (210 calories, 3g fiber, 14g protein) Coffee (120 cal)

* AM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)

* Lunch - Wrap w/sliced deli meat - 360 cal
> Wrap (210 cal, 3g fiber, 5g protein)
> Monterey Jack cheese (~60 cal, 4g protein)
> Deli meat (~60 cal)
> Thousand Island dressing (30 calories)

* PM snack - Apple (72 cal, 3.3g fiber)

* Dinner - Turkey sandwich
> Sandwich roll (200 cal, 1g fiber, 6g protein)
> Turkey meat (~100 cal, 21g protein)
> Thousand island dressing (30 cal)
> Coffee (70 cal)

That's what my New Year's Day consisted of. All told, I got in 1,234 calories and 15.6g fiber. I was well under my 1,800-calorie limit for the day but I fell well short of my 25g fiber I'd targeted for the day.

As far as water goes, I wanted to get at least 80 ounces and I'm pretty sure I got more than that. I didn't keep track of the water per se but I was drinking throughout the day and having kept track of it closely in the past am fairly certain that I exceeded the 80-ounce goal.

We'll see what Friday brings. Hopefully I can get in some more fiber grams. I picked up a Fiber One cereal box recently and one serving has about seven or nine grams of fiber so that would be a great way to start off the morning.