On the Go Oatmeal Packs

I will be traveling soon and instead of eating unhealthy for breakfast I decided to make my own breakfast on the go oatmeal packs.  I dislike instant oatmeal packs since they have so many preservatives and additives so I made these in less than 5 minutes.  When you are traveling you don’t have much room in your suitcase (carry on) or you tend to squish bananas or pastries making your breakfast mushy.  Plus when you get to your hotel, a lot of times they only have pastries or cereal which are not always good for healthy options.  Vote for On the Go Oatmeal Packs (and Pedro).

What you will need:

-Snack size Ziploc bags (or regular)

-1/2 cup of steel cut oats (regular oatmeal-not instant)

-Salt

-Cinnamon (or Pumpkin pie spice mix!!)

These travel packets will last for awhile and are easy to carry and don’t take up to much room in your suitcase.  When ready to eat them get a cup of hot water (ask a coffee shop or restaurant to give you a cup), add the oats, and let them soak for 5 minutes.  If you like to add peanut butter, coconut flakes, chia seeds, nuts, honey, etc. to your oatmeal, just add that to your baggie (honey might be hard to add, perhaps a travel container?).  Voila!  Done.  Easy to travel with breakfast.

Bridgeland Triathlon Recap

Note:  My phone broke early Sunday morning so I only have the picture of my medal for this post, which makes me sad!  Boo! 

On Sunday I completed my first triathlon…and probably my last! Haha.  The Bridgeland Triathlon had around 1,700 people were competing in the race and it was interesting to say the least.  It is really hard training for three sports at once, and on top of that you have to increase your distance for a marathon. Marathon training had really taken over my training (and life!) and I felt that it was more important as a long term goal to practice for it instead of a triathlon. 

I laid my stuff out the night before so I could leave first thing in the morning and also so I would not forget anything.  I woke up around 4 am (Jabba was excited to eat an hour early) and made my oatmeal while I was getting dressed and set it next to my stuff so I could eat it while on the road.  After a bit of a struggle I put my bike in the trunk/backseat of my car (side note: taking off a wheel from a bike is a pain in the booty!) along with my bag and oatmeal.  The drive was about 40 minutes and I got to the race site at about 5:45 am.  I wasn’t sure what the parking would be like and since this was my first triathlon I didn’t want to be late.  After having some help putting my wheel back on my bike I walked the transition area to get body marked and put my stuff in my area.  I also went over to the bike repair station and they helped me tune up my bike.  I met some great ladies that I racked my bike near and we walked over to the swim start together.

Swim-550 meters (19:32.9)

We were set to start at 7:33 am, but we didn’t end up going until at least 7:50 am.  I am not a very fast swimmer, but I finished!  I got kicked in the head many times, but I also kicked people accidently myself.  I only mildly freaked out in the water once and held onto a lifeguards kayak.  I floated on my back multiple times and just backstroked it out.  I only got to practice twice in a lake (once at 288 lake and once at the Bridgeland lake during the clinic) and I hated my gym pool (it was always dirty) so I didn’t practice swimming very much.  I exited the water and looked for my Mom, but I didn’t see her.

Transition (3:25.9)

I ran down the chute dripping wet and clothes clinging to me.  I finally found my bike and wrapped a towel around me while I put my socks, shoes, and helmet on.  I don’t have bike shoes, so I just put my running shoes on and got my bike off the rack. 

Bike-13 miles (51:01)

I exited transition and hopped on my bike at the orange line and was on the road!  I turned on Fry Road and saw my Mom and yelled hi, she said they were leaving since it was so hot.  I am glad I got to see her at least.  I started pedaling down the road, and pedaled, and pedaled, and pedaled.  My A.D.D. was really losing interest fast in this entire bike thing so I found other ways to entertain myself until I got done.  Boy, biking was boring!  I won’t do a MS-150 because I can only imagine how bored I would get. LOL . Props to everyone who does that all the time. I also only practiced biking a total of 3 times, once was a 4 mile ride, the next was 13 miles, and then a one miler once I got the new bike I borrowed.  Sad, but true. 

Okay, I am known for saying some t.m.i. stuff on my blog so here it is!  My ‘lady bits’ were hurting so much from that stupid bike.  I kept having to stand up and pedal because it hurt!  I am still sore even though I had one of those special bike seat covers.  Biking is not comfortable! 

Transition (2:20.3)

I hopped off the bike after 13 miles and my legs felt like lead.  I had heard that they were supposed to feel like bricks, and did they ever!  I could barely walk it was so weird. All I had to do in transition was put the bike and helmet up and I was ready to go.  I also drank a bit from my water bottle because I didn’t have one on the bike itself.  To help my legs adjust I walked out of transition to the run to give my legs some time to adjust.

Run-3 miles (41:37.4)

I brought my water belt with me on the run, but with my clothes still wet it kept slipping off of my and got more and more annoying!  I almost ditched it at the one mile mark, but thought that wouldn’t be good (or polite! Don’t mess with Texas y’all) so I just dealt with it.  By this time I was so stinkin’ tired that all I wanted to do was walk the entire time.  I decided to do a walk/run strategy though so I could still finish within a decent time frame (decent on my standards).  I ran into one of my friends that I had met at the clinic the week before and I stayed with her the rest of the time.  They were handing out sponges at one water stop that I put down my shirt to cool off-it was HOT by this time of day.  The water stops had water, Gatorade, and ice at them and some people from the neighborhood had water soakers or water hoses for us to run through.  The cold water felt SO good!

About a half a mile from the finish line we were told that we were almost there by one of the families in the neighborhood.  My friend that I was running with said, well of course we were going ot finish since it was longer to turn around! Haha.  (I just thought that was really funny..was I delirious or did you think that was funny too?)

We saw the finish line up ahead and I sprinted to it!  I was sooooooo glad to be done.  Overall my time was 1:57.57.

Finish line and after race celebration

They ran out of water at the finish line and in the food line.   I understand it is hard to predict food levels that athletes will eat but it's still no fun to have no water at the end.   For such a big race they need to calculate the numbers correctly or at least save some supplies for the slower people.  The women’s waves all go last so of course we are shut out of water/food after finishing after all of the men.  (edit:  I did fill out the race survey and the race director emailed me directly about the lack of water at the end.  He was very professional and explained the situation.  He listened to my concerns and worked with me to find a solution for their next race.  I think that is very professional on his part).

The next day

After I got home I took a shower and went straight to bed and slept for 3 hours.  I got up on Monday morning to go to work , but by the time I got there I was feeling even worse than Sunday.  I went home about 11:30 am to rest for the day and drink lots of liquids.  I was dehydrated and it was not fun.

Will I do another triathlon?  Probably not, I have had my fill of them.  I loved the bling I got though, it was super nice!

Fueling for a marathon

Last year at this time when I was training for my half marathon I had attempted to eat healthy, but the temptation of cupcakes and frozen yogurt was a bit too much. :/

This time around for my marathon I am going to make more of an effort to have healthier foods around.  I have tried to cook foods in bulk over the last few weeks and then freeze them, buy more nuts, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.  I am trying to go out to eat less (which is only halfway working) and eat less red meat (‘white’ meat=lean protein).  I am trying to eat less packaged foods with fewer preservatives and stick to fresh made foods in the deli section at my grocery store or foods I prepared myself.  Experts say that you should stick to the outside areas of the grocery store and only go into the aisles for spices.  Get foods with an expiration date that is coming up.  If it is 2012 and the food doesn’t expire until 2015, then that might be full of crap that you don’t need to eat it, if you can’t pronounce words on the label then you probably shouldn’t eat them!

As I start to run more and exercise/cross train more I am going to be hungrier, but right now this is what I have been getting from the grocery store to fill me up for the week.  I haven’t been able to find a good farmers market or farm close to where I live now (I loved Froeberg’s Farm in Alvin by my old house) so I have to make do with the supermarket foods.

This is my typical day of eating lately:

Breakfast

1/2 cup of oatmeal with a fruit (usually either blueberries or banana), chia seeds, unsweetened coconut flakes, cinnamon, and honey.  I just purchased ground flax seed and I am going to start adding them to my oatmeal routine.

or

2 eggs and either a side of toast with jelly or a piece of fruit

Lunch

 Sandwich-either pimento and cheese (fresh from the deli-not the packaged kind-and I know that it isn't the best, but it is really tasty and better than a burger) or PB&J sandwich on whole grain bread.

Vegetable-either steamed (with my favorite microwaveable steamer) or raw with hummus Fruit for ‘dessert’-lately it’s been cherries, mango, banana, or apple

Cheese-sometimes a Gouda Babybel piece (love!)

or

Leftover frozen bulk item I cooked (Chicken Spaghetti, meatloaf, 15 Bean Soup, Lasagna, etc)

Dinner

It depends on what time I get home to decide if I am going to eat a big dinner or not.  Usually it’s leftover items I cooked or some fruit if I got home late and I am not hungry.

Snacks

I usually get hungry around 9:30-10 am so I eat some nuts that I keep in my desk, and then around 3 or 3:30 pm I get hungry again and have some more nuts, or sometimes I bring an extra piece of fruit with me.  FYI: A serving on nuts (get unsalted!) is a shotglass size.  Don't go and eat a huge handful of nuts, that's a lot of calories.

Drinks

When I do go out to eat I try and stick to water (plus it saves you like $2.50 each time you go out) or if I do get another kind of drink I get unsweetened tea.  In my tea I used to add 1 packet of Sweet n’ Low, then when that go too sweet I switched to ½ a packet.  Then I started hearing all sorts of things about Aspartame and tried to nix it from my tea all together.  Now I get tea with lemon, but honestly it tastes like water almost so I might as well save the money and get water…working on switching over 100%)

Hydrating drink-During and after a workout I have been drinking a sports drink called Nuun and I love it!  Nuun comes in dissolvable tablets (like Alka-Seltzer) that you add to your water bottle, let dissolve for 2 minutes and drink!  Super simple and it comes in a ton of flavors.  The best part is it’s not really sugary like Gatorade or PowerAde and is still really tasty and hydrating.

Margaritas-I have stopped drinking over the last few weeks in preparation of my triathlon and marathon.  Maybe in a few months I will go back to drinking something every once in a while, but overall I am trying to stop the additional calories and dehydration that alcohol brings. If I do happen to go out once in a while I won’t be that girl who orders water (unless I am driving) at the bar so I wouldn’t mind getting a drink then, but I am trying to reduce unneeded calories that will hinder my progress towards weight loss/marathon training.

That is my food for this week!  Let me know what you guys are eating, or if you have found any healthy foods that you can’t live without.

OIAJ-a recipe!

What?!  A RECIPE coming from ME?!  Yep!  I can't believe it either. ;)  I have a few favorite blogs that swear by Overnight Oats in a Jar so I was determined to try it once I finally got a jar of empty nut butter (and remembered to save it!).  The best part of OIAJ is that you don't have to cook anything, you just mix everything together and leave it in the fridge overnight.

So, as this is my first time making OIAJ...it might not be pretty!   When making your OIAJ, feel free to change the ingredients to fit your tastes. The most important thing is the jar, the oats, and the liquid (milk or water). 

In the mix :
-Almost empty peanut butter jar (or you can use almond butter, or sunflower butter)
-1/2 cup oats
-1 cup milk (I used skim milk but you can use any kind of milk or even water)
-chia seeds
-coconut flakes (I used unsweetened)
-blueberries (they were frozen from when we picked them)
-Cinnamon

Step 1-Nearly empty jar of nut butter (this looks like more is in there, but really it wasn't a lot since I had just stirred it).

Step 2-Add the oats!

Step 3-Chia seeds

Step 4-Add the coconut flakes

Step 5-Then add milk (do you see my bike in the background I am using to train for my triathlon?!

Step 6-Stir and add the lid (I have had those spoons forever but I hardly ever use them!)

Step 7-Place in fridge overnight (Go Astros!)

Step 8-Add toppings (I added blueberries) that you don't want to get soggy (some people add granola here).

The verdict? Well, I think I added too much milk or something because it was still sort of runny this morning. :/ I told y'all I can't cook!  Did you think this recipe was going to turn out wonderful? haha. :)

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite breakfast.  I prefer stove cooked oats or eggs. 

Let me know if you make OIAJ and how they turn out.  Lots of blogs swear that they are so good.