Working Out and Refueling

As you may or may not know, I was training for a half marathon earlier this year. I fell off the training plan with my busy lifestyle and ended up just doing the 5k instead. However, I still want to run a half marathon before my 35th birthday, so that gives me……140ish days to get it done.

Training for a half marathon is quite complex and requires dedication, proper nutrition, and a variety of workouts. It’s not advised to just run to prep for a half marathon. Your body will be going through a lot during those 13.1 miles, so you need to make sure you prepare it properly. And that is a whole body experience.

While I currently haven’t started training for the half marathon, I do run and walk when I have time to stay active. Two years ago, I worked really hard during the summer months and lost weight and gained muscle. Unfortunately I gained some of that back and more importantly I lost the muscle. So it’s time to get back to it.

Recently Nuts.com reached out to me to find out how I incorporate nuts into my workout recovery. It really defeats the purpose of a quality workout to gorge on not-so-healthy options when refueling. You won’t get the progress you want and will most likely feel sluggish. Check out this great chart on post-workout snacks.

Here’s my method:

Post-run, I make sure that I provide my body the fuel it needs to recover properly–a good mix of carbohydrates and protein. Sometimes I have a vanilla protein shake and other times I eat some nuts or trail mix….depending on my mood. And of course, I give my body plenty of water.

All natural almonds are one of my favorite snacks of all time. They are great when I am in need of a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack and keep me from snacking on the junk food snacks that I typically go for. A handful provides a nice snack that is lower in calories and high in protein. Here are some other ideas of great times to eat nuts instead of junk food.

Sometimes I find it hard to find recipes that I feel have adequate amounts of protein for recovery. Nuts.com offers up some great recipes to help you pack your diet with protein in a healthy way.

So while I’m running and enjoying myself this summer in the amazing outdoors of Wisconsin, you betcha I will have some trail mix or almonds on my for recovery! And I know where to go if I happen to run out of them–Nuts.com – Their website has just about everything you can think of.

So please send those kind words of encouragement my way to help me stay on track this time and maybe you will see me out and about running and training this summer!