WIAW Leftover Edition

I had a lot of fun participating in Peas and Crayons‘ What I Ate Wednesday last week, from taking pictures of my daily eats to getting inspiration for simple meal ideas from other bloggers. I am excited for my second WIAW, and hope to do this more in the future. Yesterday’s meals were pretty simple, pulled together from leftovers. I hate wasting food and will always use up leftovers (or freeze them) before cooking a new meal, even if I am getting bored. Freezing leftovers has been a huge help in the past, since I will often freeze individual containers and then have my own, homemade TV dinners when life gets hectic. Another way I have found to avoid leftover boredom is to reinvent them. Keep reading for some of my leftover makeovers!

Pre-breakfast snack: 7am

I set my alarm for 6:45am, with no intentions of leaving my warm cozy bed for class. Instead, I brewed a pot of my pumpkin spiced coffee, grabbed a handful of peanuts in the process, and crawled back under the covers with my mug and clinical textbook to learn about the cardiac exam.

Breakfast: 8am

After making it halfway through my reading, I decided to face the day and my cold apartment. I finally made myself some Pumpkin Oatmeal! I saw it on so many WIAW’s last week, and pumpkin recipes keep appearing everywhere, so I knew I had to have some. I followed this recipe at Oh She Glows for the oatmeal, but skipped the suggested toppings, choosing a few toasted almonds and some fresh ground cinnamon instead. So yummy! A hearty breakfast that sneaks good-for-you veggies without you even realizing… (Yes, pumpkin is a vegetable and it is rich in fiber and Vitamin A!)

Lunch: 11:45am

Lucky I had leftover Subway sandwiches on hand for what turned out to be a hectic afternoon. The break in the rain I needed to bike to campus never came, and so I was resigned to taking the bus. Unfortunately, the bus takes at least 3 times as long, and so I had to inhale my lunch as I was getting ready and flying out the door. I gave the Veggie Sub a little more staying power with a slice of melted cheese on one side, some hummus on the other, and a few extra pickles in the middle. Perfection. Good thing my new travel mug kept my peppermint tea piping hot until I got to school! Peppermint tea works way better than gum as a breath freshener (no one wants their (future) doctor to have Subway breath!)

Snack: 4:30pm

A long day of learning about heart sounds and the complete cardiac exam left me quite hungry by 4:30pm. I didn’t want to eat too much, since my yoga class was in an hour and it is not advised to go to hot yoga after eating a meal. I ate the pear I had picked out for lunch and didn’t have time to eat, and drank a whole lotta water in preparation for yoga. Good thing! This was the hardest yoga class I have ever taken! Granted, I have only been to 3… but it was a challenge, and I loved it! My arms feel strong, my legs feel stretched from the previous day’s 10.5 mile run, and I sweated more than I knew possible! (TMI? Sorry!)

Dinner: 8pm

The only One problem with not being able to bike to class is not being able to bike home! I was probably a treat to sit next to on the bus – sweaty, tired, and hungry (read: cranky). I heated up some leftover winter melon soup (almost through that gigantic pot!) but was sick of having eggs with it. Instead, I sauteed a few mushrooms in chili oil and added them to the soup with some soy sauce for a different spin. It was a nice change since I have eaten a lot of this soup lately, and it was good to have so much liquid after hot yoga.

Dessert(s): 9pm

Still pretty hungry after my big bowl of soup, I sought a sugar-free dessert. This is a trick from my roommate for “baked” cinnamon apples! Just cut up an apple, sprinkle it with cinnamon, and microwave it for 2 minutes. The apples give off a bit of juice that makes a quasi-sauce, and the natural sweetness and spice of the cinnamon really shines through. Not eating added sugar really opens up your taste buds!

Still hungry, I munched on some peanuts and raisins after my apple. I was really craving something salty, and needed a bit more protein in my day.

I settled down to finish studying for the evening, and was still hungry and thirsty from yoga! I made some decaf green tea with a few slices of fresh ginger (my new favorite night time drink!) and had a slice of toast with Smart Balance. I may or may not have sprinkled a tiny bit of salt on my toast… finally hit the spot!

Question: Have you ever done hot yoga? Do you experience weird salt cravings afterwords, or does it take your body a while to recover from the fluid loss?

Cure for a Long Day at Work

Today was a really long day at work. It was a myriad of factors that coalesced into a perfect storm of exhaustion and frustration, leaving me completely beaten down by the end of the day. I wasn’t feeling well, I was tired and sore from sleeping on the couch (9 people in our modest house is a lot!), and the day started with an ominous tone. Our first patient clearly did not want help. They were angry at being old, and refused to face the truth about their manageable illness. By the end of our ten minute encounter, I was questioning what the point of the visit even was. Luckily, the next patient had a complete and opposite countenance, giving me some hope for my future to actually help people as a health care provider. However, the tone in the office was yet again sobered by a visit from a less-than-friendly representative from a state-run charity program that my doctor participates in. By lunchtime, I wanted to bury my head in the sand, and was so exhausted that I took a ten minute nap on the steps outside of the building. I never nap, so that can tell you about my morning! I felt energized for the afternoon for the next hour, but exhaustion soon hit again when I realized that we were completely overbooked. Somehow, twelve patients were scheduled within our last hour of the day – an impossible feat when each person is designated a minimum of ten minutes. This kept us in the office for an extra hour! While it was a long and busy day, I did learn a lot – I even got to remove my first set of stitches! My excitement for the day’s events was simply dampened by my fatigue.

I got home and was in need of some serious recovery. My grandparents and mom greeted me with a glass of red wine on the back patio, and let me vent about the day. That was the first step in my cure for a long day. I suddenly felt energy enough to pull together a fantastic dinner (which I will tell you all about tomorrow!) I knew that dessert was in order, and but wanted something light. Good thing for me that my lovely friend Helen had sent me a message a few days ago about a fantastic dessert she had been hooked on. Glazed peaches over ice cream? What could be more perfect! Helen, I can totally see how you have been making this so many nights in a row! I’m going to have to get more fruit to make this again… so simple and perfect. Step two in my recovery. Finally, after dessert, I sat down for a little bit of yoga. Usually, I am too energetic and hyperactive to quiet my mind long enough to practice yoga. However, it was exactly what I needed tonight. It was relaxing, energizing, and a great way to stretch my muscles that are always sore after being on my feet for 8-10 hour days. I want to continue to try yoga at least once a week this summer, and see if I can incorporate it into my normal exercise routine. I know how great the stretches are for running recovery, and really think this might be a good way to help me learn to relax as well!

Question: What do you do to relax at the end of a long day?

Balsamic Glazed Peaches

serves 5-6, recipe adapted from Helen

3 – 4 peaches

1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp milk

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp agave nectar (or sub 1 tbsp vanilla)

vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt

In a bowl, mix together all ingredients except for peaches. A thick syrup should form. Cut the peaches into thirds or slices, and dip in the syrup. Add to a pan coated in cooking spray and cook on low heat until peaches begin to get soft. Once peaches are a desired texture, turn the heat in the pan up so that the syrup begins to thicken and fully bubble. Serve peaches over vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, with the remaining syrup as a crunchy drizzled brittle.

For more peach recipes, check out:
Peach

Learning to stretch as a runner

Inspired to go enjoy the sunshine with a little outdoor activity yesterday? Feeling a little sore today? Now what?

Stretching after a run is one of the most satisfying feelings. My muscles are nice and warm so my legs tend to be a little looser, and it feels so great to let that final bit of tension out. However, I wasn’t always a fan of stretching. When I first started running (I only became a serious runner the summer before my senior year of college when I began to train for my first 10k), I was not very good at stretching. I already had trouble with the time commitment of a regular running routine, and stretching seemed like a corner I could cut to spare myself those few precious minutes. What a mistake that was! The stronger my legs became, the more inflexible too. I lost all of the stretch I had built up from 14 years of dance, and began to notice that my legs generally felt stiff the day after my runs. When I began to train for my first half marathon the following summer, I finally learned my lesson. I would have some hip pain after long runs, and learned that stretching was an essential way to deal with that. I am now much better about stretching after I run, and even have learned to use the roller for my IT band (ouch!).

My roommate has recently begun to incorporate more dynamic and ballistic stretching into her post-run routines at the recommendation of a friend’s physical therapist. Dynamic stretching is “taking your muscles through a large range of movement in a steady and rhythmical fashion.” Ballistic stretching is like dynamic stretching, but the movements are faster, sharper, and slightly less controlled. She claims that this gives her a deeper hamstring stretch and has helped her prevent re-injuring her knee. However, I was skeptical, since the one take-away message from all the stretching that I learned in dance was to never bounce while you stretch. I decided to do a little bit of research to learn what experts (aka Google) could teach me on the subject. Looks like we should both learn to trust each other in our respectful areas of expertise. While I may know what I am talking about in the kitchen, she is the expert on all things sporty and athletic. Maybe I should take my own advice!

My research on stretching for runners turned up a few interesting finds:

Static stretching of leg muscles is best post-run, or after a 5-10 minute light warm up, since they are looser and less likely to get injured. To think of it in a more relatable way, imagine a big stretchy rubber band. Now imagine the difference between stretching that rubber band after it has been in the freezer for an hour, and stretching that rubber band on a really warm afternoon. A lot easier to stretch when its warm, right? Your leg muscles work the same way, and stretching when you are warmed up will be easier, feel better, and be less likely to lead to muscle tears and injury.

Dynamic and ballistic stretching of leg muscles is a good option for a warm-up stretch, since the movement built into the stretching routine will help to warm your leg muscles up. You should start out with slow, controlled, dynamic stretches to help warm your muscles up, and then ramp up towards faster ballistic stretches towards the end.

Dynamic and ballistic stretching do not help to improve flexibility; they only help prevent injury in serious athletes by increasing range of motion in your joints. Static stretching will help to improve flexibility, and the longer you hold a stretch, the more flexible your muscles will become.

With all of this being said, ballistic stretching is still only recommended for people working with therapists or who are serious athletes. Most people tend to overpower the motion intended for a ballistic stretch, which can lead to muscle tears and injury. Dynamic stretching is the safer intermediate, in which you still incorporate movement with your stretching, but do so in a controlled and rhythmical way.

Here is a great pre-workout dynamic stretching routine from Runner’s World to help improve range of motion and prevent injury. Here or here are some ideas for post-run static stretches to help improve flexibility and prevent injury. Simple yoga poses are also great for runners, and can be used as recovery or incorporated as part of training to help improve speed, endurance and flexibility.

Question: Do you stretch before or after your work-outs? What are your favorite stretches? I stretch after my runs, and my favorite stretch is a hip opener that stretches the piriformis muscle. This muscle helps with lateral hip flexion, and has really helped my hip pain during long runs. You start by placing your ankle over your knee (you can do this standing up or sitting down). If standing, bend your standing leg and bring your butt down towards your ankle while feeling the stretch deep in your bent leg’s hip. If seated, the motion is the same except you are in a folded, seated position.