Going green (nearly)

Well today I was meant to get onto my green level on Nike+ (which is 250km+). I measure my distance in miles and the last time I logged on it told me I had 2 miles to go. After a super efficient day at work J I went out for a 2.6 mile run, and logged on again, only to be told that I now have less than a mile to go. How does that work? I converted it over anyway and it appears that I need 0.2 miles to go. Seriously if I had realised I would have run up the street and back to get it- but by the time I had realised I had already had a shower and dinner so am not going out now. It’s annoying because I am not going for another run until Friday now, as I have aerobics and body pump Tues/ Thurs, and on Wednesday I am at work late. Anyway, my run was good. After work I had a Nak’d cocoa orange bar- those bars are amazing! Each time I have one I think I forget home good they taste, how moist they are and how they seem like such a treat. My run was nice and quick which was good as it is so muggy out there- I very much needed a shower once home!

Dinner was tasty- mexican bean wrap (kidney beans, onions, peppers, corn, tomato and chilli all mashed up in a wholemeal wrap and baked-mmmm) and a nice salad with flaxseed oil (am trying to concentrate on upping those omega 3’s- had some ground flaxseeds in yoghurt yesterday evening).

For a snack today I had half a punnet of a graze snack- this was brazils, dried cherries and dried mango. It said in the packet that 3 brazil nuts contains your rda of selenium. I looked this up and found that it is needed for your immune system and it is found in soils. I am sure before I read something about wheat, which said that when Europe used to import its’ flour from canada it was rich in selenium, but when it started getting it from elsewhere the selenium levels dropped which then impacted health. That may have been in my Felicity Lawrence book; Not On the Label . But I am not sure where I read it. I thought when I learnt about nutrition at school it was mostly found in meats and fish, and when I looked it up today the vast majority of selenium sources are meat or animal dessived (eg eggs, some cheeses). So this seems to me to be a great snack for a veggie! It was also delicious, and a nice balance between crunchy creamy nuts, and sweet and chewy dried fruit.

 That’s all folks!

Feeling hot hot hot!

Ten miles planned today and the weather is hot! I had a yummy breakfast (cornflakes and Dorset Delicious Muesli, plus half a banana) and then made some dough before I went out. By the time I left it was half ten which wasn’t so great as I knew I would be ending my run in the heat of the day. Oh well, I need to get used to it as my next half marathon is in June, pretty sure it will be hot on that day! I felt good on my run; my legs had recovered from body pump and I managed to keep up a consistent pace, finishing the ten miles in 109 minutes (so about one mile per 11 minutes); if I manage that for the half marathon I would be very pleased with myself. I was brave and wore my vest top with running trousers; it takes me a while to move over from taking my jacket with me- it’s a bit like a security blanket and having it tied around my waist doesn’t bother me. I feel quite exposed with bare arms as I would not normally wear vests, especially at this time of year. But I got no horrible comments or looks (one car toot but that tends to happen on most runs and doesn’t bother me- today it was when I was a few hundred metres from home so I had a bright red face!) and I was cooler than I would have been in a t shirt.

To combat the headaches as soon as I got back I had some water (but it felt like I had too much in my tummy as I had drank on my run), the other half of the banana and half a Trek Mixed Berry energy bar. I also sprayed myself with cold water after my normal shower; not quite an ice bath but I find it does help my muscles. After my shower I made some more foccacia bread with sundried tomatoes and basil (I didn’t take a picture as it looked the same as last weeks one), and had it with Covent Garden Butternut Squash soup, yum. Plus the other half of the Trek bar.

Those people at Natural Balance Foods were so kind to send over all those samples so here is my review:

The bar has a good short list of ingredients; dates, oats, soya crispies (soya, tapioca starch, salt), raisins, apple juice, maize starch, raspberries, strawberries, ginkgo biloba extract, ginseng extract, natural flavours. The bar is 68g and had 204 calories, 11g protein and 38g carbs, so a good balance of nutrients. The bar is fairly moist but not squidgy, and has a nice berry flavour that is quite sweet. You can see little flecks of the strawberries and raspberries all through the bar. Compared to a flapjack it has way less fat but still moist (due to the dates I suppose). I definitely recommend you to try one if you haven’t already.

As for the rest of today I have made some pasta sauce (roasted vegetables; I make a big batch then freeze it in little tubs to defrost when I want it) and might potter about in the garden. Even more of my courgettes need potting on, plus the tulips are flowering so I might cut some to have in the house. If I do any baking I will post later on!

I may have a nice afternoon snack to try and keep a headache at bay; my Graze box came today. One of the mixes (Aztec gold) has green raisins, almonds and dark chocolate coated cocoa beans- sounds amazing so I may have to try. (Code KKJX34J for a free box).

Yummy nibbles from Graze

I am looking forward to my Graze box coming this week. I signed up to this a while ago and now have a box every fortnight. I love the range of nuts and dried fruit that they have (check out the website- they do so many yummy mixes- a personal fave of mine is “dark rocky road” which is a mix of pecans, dried cranberries and dark chocolate buttons- heaven!). If I bought the same ingredients on my own I think I would get bored before I ate the whole pack (plus to get the variety I would end up with an overflowing cupboard looking like a shelf from Julian Graves or something!). I often have a pack (or share one) after a run as they make a good snack (in my opinion); the mix of nuts (protein to repair muscles) and dried fruit (sugary carbs to replace the lost energy) make me feel better especially after a long run. The other week I had a punnet called “tropical praline” with dried mango, mini chocolate coated hazelnuts and green raisins (which tasted fairly similar to normal raisins but still very tasty!).

Their customer service is also great; I have emailed them several times and they reply very quickly and always sort any issues out really well. If you want to try it for yourself you can go to www.graze.co.uk and enter code KKJX34J at the checkout and get yourself a free box and your next box half price (and then you can cancel if you don’t want any more).