In anticipation of an exciting guest post I’ll have up on Friday, I thought I would share some of the foods I’ve been eating lately in an attempt to follow a mostly Paleo diet. This happened to be a mostly Paleo Monday. I’ve never participated in “What I Ate Wednesday” and honestly never thought I would. However, as I have been trying to eat a little differently (less processed foods, more whole, natural foods and more fruits and veggies) I have loved reading about what others (especially athletes/runners) are eating to fuel their sports.
This is very much a work in progress…maybe even an “experiment” because I don’t know if I will be able to keep eating like this (meaning- without pasta!) while I am training for my next marathon.
I’m sharing what I ate on Monday since it was pretty typical (although I don’t eat steak very often so it was just a coincidence that I ate it twice in one day).
First, let’s talk quickly about Monday’s workout. I decided to do Yasso 800s (only 4 of them) to see where my speed is these days. First I did a 1.5 mile warm up, and then started the workout: 3:27, 3:25, 3:23, 3:23, and then a cool down to round it out to a 6 mile run. I was pleasantly surprised by those splits and I wasn’t completely ready to die by the last one. I might have been able to pull off one or two more but I think my pace would have started to slow. I’m not planning to run a 3:25 marathon anytime soon, but it was still a nice confidence booster.
Anyway, back to the eating.
A Mostly Paleo Monday
Woke up at 5am and drank coffee (black). Warmed up and ran for 50 minutes. Came home and drank nuun and ate a banana (6:30am)
After some foam rolling and showering I made breakfast (eaten at 7:30am): eggs, bacon, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, onions
Went to work and ate an almond butter muffin and a pear around 10:30 when I got hungry
Lunch was spring mix, tomatoes, carrots, and steak with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
The afternoon on this paleo Monday became a bit crazy, and I ended up eating some fruit in the car on the way to the chiropractor and a larabar on the way home
Once Rob and I were both home we made dinner which was Rib eyes with sautéed mushrooms, green beans, and roasted red potatoes
The steaks were huge and I couldn’t even finish mine (it’s not often that I say that). I usually have something after dinner like a black bean brownie but I was still full from dinner so skipped it that night.
I should also note that I am always drinking water all day long. That’s pretty much all I drink, except coffee in the morning, occasionally nuun, or wine.
This type of plan is working well for me now- I feel better than I used to feel when I was eating turkey sandwiches and flavored yogurt for lunch- but I am not sure what else I can add to make it work when I increase my mileage. Hopefully we will all get some good advice about this on Friday:)
Luckily I don’t have any food allergies or intolerances, so I can eat other things that are not gluten-free, etc…but I am using this time to expand my options. Thanks for reading about my mostly Paleo Monday!
Questions:
- Any suggestions for how I can modify this plan as I start to train more?
- Are there any awesome foods for athletes that I should be eating but I’m not?
- Ever do Yasso 800s?
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Uh oh we are blog twins today. Very funny! I think the big difference in our days was that you did a hard workout in the morning! We are thinking very much alike recently 🙂 I think all your food looks good but that’s because I eat a lot of the same stuff 🙂 maybe once you get into higher mileage a recovery shake high in carbs could be a nice addition.
That’s a good idea! Sometimes I make a smoothie after my run but then I usually don’t eat a big breakfast. I have such a short window of time between when I get home from running to when I leave for work that I think I will need to plan around that.
A lot of days for lunch I have a bake potato (cooked in microwave) topped with plain Greek yogurt, salt, and pepper.
That feels healthy for me 🙂
Excited for Fridays post!
I hesitate to use the word “healthy” since that has a different meaning for different people- but if it works for you then that’s great! I’ve managed to switch to plain Greek yogurt lately to avoid all the added sugar in flavored yogurt. And the weird thing is that paleo doesn’t approve of dairy…but that is one food that I plan to continue to eat.
Looks like a good day! I’m trying to get back to eating more whole foods, too. Trying to add a wider variety of vegetables into my diet, but then it always seem easy to fall back on the things I’m used to. One new vegetable at a time, I guess! Anything you’ve been really liking lately?
Exactly!
One food I discovered lately is plantains…I include them with my eggs for breakfast (just sliced and cooked on the stove) but over the past 2 weeks my grocery store has been out of them! Also butternut squash is really good roasted!
Sweet potatoes have a great deal of carbs that might help you out–the roasted regular potatoes are great too, but sweet potatoes would also be a nice switch up. I think you are doing pretty solidly with your diet–getting good stuff in throughout the day. I echo the above comment re: smoothies to get in some more carbs. If you are getting in more lean meats, I would add another small serving of fats, like avocado (or in that case, the bean brownie).
Oh yes I loove sweet potatoes. I think I would eat them every day but I try to switch it up so Rob doesn’t want to kill me. Good point about the fats too, its something I’ve been working on but its such a weird mindset to try to “eat more fat” when my whole life the goal was “eat less fat”. I do use quite a bit of olive oil or coconut oil when I’m cooking, if that counts?:)
Another sweet potato fan here (it WAS one of my fave foods, after all!) … and I love roasting them up with parsnips and things like that all year long.
Also second the thought around supplementing with shakes, and I also like to do ‘dessert smoothies’ … which sometimes end up being ‘recovery smothies’ – frozen banana, almond or coconut milk, and melt some good chocolate and combine with peanut butter and mix it all up (I use my Nutribullet). OMG good! 🙂
Great ideas…I love sweet potatoes and I think I’ll just have to start eating them even more when I start running more! I’m also big on the smoothies too, but right now I consider them a meal (I’ll have one for breakfast with a homemade muffin on bar) and I think once I’m training more
I’ll need to have one in addition to my other meals.
This is awesome! I love reading journeys of new diets!:)
I loveeeee Yasso’s. Hurt so good! And when they are done right I feel on top of the world!
I know, right! I always dread them but its kind of fun to see where you are compared to other times you’ve done them.
And yay for being able to comment again!
Your blog so the on,y one that will let me comment! Weird!!!
YUM THAT STEAK!
All of this looks delicious. I love and hate WIAW all at the same time because it always makes me starving. I wish I had an almond butter muffin! (Do you have a recipe for that by chance?)
Haha I know right! Looking at food on the internet makes me want to eat everything.
here is the recipe: http://www.livwrites.com/2013/06/paleo-muffins.html?utm_source=feedburner&m=1
Whoa GREAT eats! I love reading about other people who don’t just eat three solid meals in a day. It’s fun to snack and helps keep me on track, too. Plus your eats are super clean here but you’re not just eating raw veggies and fat free salad dressing or something. Super refreshing!
MY favorite healthy snack that keeps me incredibly full and happy in the middle of the afternoon is a sweet potato with cinnamon and crunchy pb. It’s the BEST!
I don’t think I could handle 3 meals with no snacks! I get hungry every 3 hours so this works for me.
Your snack sounds delicious! I will need to try that out, especially when I am looking for extra carbs during marathon training!
That breakfast looks delicious! Your making me want to get up earlier so I can make a real breakfast that doesn’t involve Kashi cereal….as much as I love Kashi lol.
*you’re
I need something more than cereal to hold me over for a few hours! If I don’t have as much time I’ll make a smoothie. But I knew I wouldn’t have time to cook breakfast this morning so I made it last night and microwave it this morning and it was just as good!
I LOVE Yasso 800s for some reason. I may be the only person on the planet that does 🙂
Haha! Yasso 800s are really tough but I think something about the strategy behind makes them so rewarding!