Fitness Update Feb 2nd

February 2, 2017 by Zucchini Runner in Fitness, Running | 2 Comments

There are 31 days in January, and I somehow managed to workout 27 of them. And guess what? I didn’t feel like I was overexerting or torturing myself either! hahaha I think in our society there is still the whole “no pain, no gain” mentality… but that is just not the case. It’s more about “slow and steady wins the race”. The race, being your own personal goal of course.

In 2017 I started marking the days off the calendar in the bathroom each morning, as I record my weight. In the corner of each square on the calendar day, I put 5/365 or 10/365 or today, I did 33/365. I use it as a reminder to not waste a single day. Not wasting a single day, is going to mean something different to everyone, but for me currently it means; have a positive outlook, get a workout in, and focus on putting good food into my body. That’s really about it. That is my own personal goal/race. I’m plugging away at it slow and steady. I don’t kill myself with each workout, I balance them out so I have mostly moderate effort and one or two hard effort, and a sprinkling of yoga.

Below are the workouts I did over the past week:

Friday – Upper Body Weights + Indoor Spin (morning)
Saturday – Long Run (12 miles; morning)
Sunday – Yoga (evening; 21 Day Yoga Retreat – Stretch Wk. 1)
Monday – 3 mile evening run; joined by family on bikes and roller blades
Tuesday – Fitness Blender – Kettle Bell HIIT (evening)
Wednesday – 5 mile tempo run (morning)
Thursday – Yoga (morning; Ted’s Yoga | Muscle Recovery)

The past 7 days are a total WIN in my book. Not only was I able to stick to 95% of my workouts, despite a somewhat hectic schedule, I also had my weigh-in and measurement day Monday.

Drumroll please…

I lost 4 lbs. and 3.5″ total between my arms, chest, waist and hips. I was STOKED! I mean, I knew about the weight, cause clearly I just mentioned I weigh myself each morning — but I don’t put a whole lot of stock into weight. But the measurements were exciting! That means I’m toning up and turning some of my fatty parts into toned muscle. That was part of my GOAL! Would a smaller number on the scale be nice? Sure, but I’m more interested in tightening up some things. I am not getting any younger people… the big 4-0 is fast approaching!

Also, I hit 102 miles in January, which is about 46 miles more than December — another number that surprised me! I feel really good right now too. I started to feel some twinges here and there, due to the new strain on my body. But I am making a huge effort to get 7 hours minimum of sleep each night; 8 hours if I can. I also try to allow myself one day where I just sleep in, without an alarm. (But, that only adds an additional 20-30 minutes usually!)

I also started seeing Mr. Zucchini Runner’s massage therapist. She is amazing. Every week, I go in for a visit and it helps to loosen up the tight spots I can’t get with stretching alone. (If you are in the Tempe/Chandler/Ahwatukee area, you should give her a try. Just click the link to shoot her an email, let her know I sent ya!) I should also mention, that I see a chiropractor every 2-4 weeks as well. It occurred to me there are things I take for granted in my every day routine, that are second nature to me, so I never think to share them. But the chiro and massages, and good sleep make a huge impact on my ability to workout so regularly — especially at this stage where it is a new routine. It’s important to reward your body with the necessary sleep and extra care when you implement any new physical activity. Which leads us to the nutrition segment.

I am still using my Be Well Fitness Log daily, and it is REALLY helping me to stay on track. Well, almost. haha As you can see, Tuesday night we made some homemade cookies. They were very low sugar (banana, a little honey, a little maple syrup and very little coconut sugar), gluten-free and vegan so I may have had more than a couple. As you can also see, I ate SUCH a huge (and late) lunch, that I only had hummus, crackers and a grapefruit for “dinner” Tuesday. That might explain the cookies later that night. But as I mentioned last week, I do not aim to be “perfect”, just to focus on plants first and eating high nutrition 80% of the time. This is my life. This is real.

Lastly, I wanted to update you on the Garmin 235. It turns out, I can use my old heart rate monitor chest strap, to ensure I have more accurate HR readings on my runs. BOOM! Besides the watch freezing up a couple times since the purchase, and having to do a force restart, I am loving it! I feel like that is par for the course, for all electronics these days… but maybe I’m wrong. Has anyone else experienced that with their Garmin watch — particularly the 235?

Until next week!
Sleep hard.
Get moving.
Trust Your Gut.

Veggie Marinara Casserole

February 1, 2017 by Zucchini Runner in Food | Comments Off

Are you ready for a Zucchini Runner dish that only takes 10 minutes to prepare? I sure hope so! One of the things I hear most often is that people don’t have time to cook, and because I understand where people are coming from, I created this dish.

Last week we made a version of this recipe that was all from scratch. We used our leftover homemade marinara, cut our own veggies and boiled the noodles first. THEN we added it all to a casserole dish and baked it for 20 minutes. The finished product was delicious and only took both of us cooking/prepping together 55 minutes. But I wanted to see if I could create a version with less hands on time, and less dishes. (Sneak peek: if you like this recipe, be sure to catch the bonus video at the bottom of the post!)

In my household an hour prep time for dinner is totally normal and enjoyed by us… 90% of the time. We both work from home so no commute time or juggling schedules, therefore we both typcially work on dinner together and we don’t have any kids — it’s just us in the kitchen, jamming to music and cooking food. Mr. Zucchini Runner and I have talked about this A LOT; that other people don’t have some of the time luxuries, or freedom, that we do.

That’s why I was bound and determined to test a packaged version, to see if the finished product could still be healthy and taste great! In the taste arena – YES, it passed with flying colors. It tasted delicious; even passed the test of my 24 year old niece and her boyfriend. She watched me make it and exclaimed, “Hey! Even I can make this!” So, yes, it takes 10 minutes to throw together, but it still takes 50 minutes to cook. But that is 50 minutes where you could do a workout, help a kiddo with homework, enjoy some couch time, whatever! But I promise you, it’s only 10 minutes in the kitchen.

Now, the health arena… I give it a B-/C+. The main thing I will caution against… (because come on, my whole goal here on this blog is to be a resource for those who want to think outside the norm; to focus on eating whole, plant-based foods, that you make yourself from the freshest source possible) is the marinara in a jar. Check the ingredients! Read all the labels. Watch out for hidden sugars and boatloads of sodium. Look for something low sugar, low sodium/no salt added.

Sugar Situation: How much is too much, anyway?

The maximum daily sugar intake for an adult female is 25g; the max for a male is 38g. So if you are buying a marinara sauce that has 10g per serving, which is usually a 1/2 cup, then you are cutting it close to maxing out in just one sitting, especially depending on how much sauce you like. If you make the sauce at home, you get to control how much sugar (or lack thereof) that you add to the sauce.

Sodium Situation

This dish was delicious, and I loved the low maintenance aspect of it, but we both felt like we had hangovers the next day — and later realized it was from the sodium content. We do NOT use a lot of salt in this house, and if we do it’s Real salt or himalayan salt. In a 1/2 cup of sauce, there was 550 mg of sodium! To put this in perspective, the daily allowance is no more than 2,300 mg/day. HOWEVER, the ideal limit is 1,500 mg/day for most healthy adults. The body only needs 500 mg/day to function properly. So even if we just had a serving size of one half cup, we would still be over what our body actually needs. Furthermore, 550mg per 1/2 cup (serving size) of sauce is the equivalent of 1/4 tsp. of salt. And lastly, there is this little, fun fact:

“More than 75 percent of the sodium Americans eat comes from some processed, prepackaged and restaurant foods – not from the salt shaker.”
– American Heart Association

So now that I said my bit on added sugars and sodium, please feel free to enjoy this recipe with a heart-healthy marinara sauce of your choice.

Ingredients

3 cups GF macaroni noodles (or your favorite noodle)
2 – 25 oz. jars of marinara sauce (look for low sodium and low sugar)
2 – 16 oz. bags of mixed, organic vegetables (we did corn, pea, carrot, green bean)
6 TBSP. chopped dried onion (optional)

Instructions

Place uncooked noodles in a 9″ x 12″ baking dish.
Pour one jar of marinara sauce over noodles and stir.
Sprinkle 3 TBSP. chopped dried onion over sauce layer. (optional)
Using a strainer, rinse mixed veggies with hot water to defrost a bit. Pour over sauce layer.
Pour second jar of marinara sauce over veggie mixture.
Sprinkle remaining 3 TBSP. chopped dried onion on top if desired.
Finish with second bag (rinsed with hot water again), frozen veggies.
Cover with foil and bake at 375°F for 50 minutes, or until the noodles are cooked through.
Serve immediately. Great as leftovers or to take to lunch the next day or for the week even! Can be served alone or with a fresh, green salad.

And another layer of rinsed, frozen veggies.

Enjoy the step by step instructions in the slideshow below!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Looking for more quick recipes like this?

We don’t cook hour long meals for every meal, every day, somedays we are like normal humans and throw quick things together — while still being healthy and plant-based. A lot of these I post in my Instagram Stories, as I’m making them. They are only available for 24 hours on IG, so you need to catch them and follow along if you are interested in more like this! I clipped these videos/photos together from yesterday’s IG story, so you can get a preview of what I mean.

This lunch was simply a bunch of my favorite frozen veggies, thrown into a steamer and then topped with some boxed beans that had been rinsed and drained. I then topped it with a drizzle of salad dressing and a few splashes of liquid aminos.

The steamer I use is a little fancy, but you can get a simple basket like this one, or get a something a little more like mine and go this route. You just need to throw it all in the pot with the steamer insert, cover and then turn your heat on high until the water in the pot boils, producing steam. Once you have the steam going, you really only need to cook the veggies for about 2-5 minutes. (Which reminds me, be sure you have a good kitchen timer on hand too!) You want everything to be BRIGHTER than when you put them into the pot, not washed out or have muted colors.

Archives for February 2017

Fitness Update Feb 2nd

Veggie Marinara Casserole