Reflections - AnnaTheApple

August 7, 2013August 7, 2013

Call me goldilocks

Zoom zoom how the days are flying! Thanks for your lovely comments on my baking fail in my last post. It’s the equivalent of an ugly kid I think – you tell them it’s what’s on the inside that matters (i.e. the taste), not the appearance And the cake tasted amazing so that’s all that mattered.

I’m currently feeling a bit achy and tired from my interval session with the running club last night. Ack, it was painful. I literally hate those sessions. I much prefer a lovely nice run. Not this “run to that lamppost at top speed” nonsense. But it must be done. And you do feel great afterwards (after the nausea and pain has disappeared…).

This is a snapshot of the training (a graphical representation if you will…oooh er). I’m amazed that one of my last intervals was my fastest! The intervals increased in distance (as we went to the next lamppost along and back) but none really went on longer than a minute I guess. No way I could sustain this for a long time!

So it’s What I Ate Wednesday today (check out Jenn’s blog for more information).

I thought I’d show you my eats recently. Because I’m running around 30 miles a week (and two of those sessions focused on speed – Tuesday night’s session and Saturday’s Parkrun) and doing two spinning classes a week (and 30 minutes of pump at the weekend) I’m finding myself quite hungry quite frequently (surprise surprise eh). Sometimes ‘hangry’ (angry with hunger – or food rage as Ben describes it).

To combat this I’ve been trying to ramp up my between meal snacking to more filling options. Also I’m a voluminous eater (i.e. I like a big plate of food and regular snacks otherwise I feel cheated with life) so this works out nicely for me.

Breakfast: same old same old but with a slight change.

Oatmeal (a good half a cup) and a tablespoon of chia seeds with enough almond milk to give it a good thick consistency. Zapped in the microwave (I’m sorry, cold over-night oats don’t float my boat. It’s gotta be steamy and stodgy for my liking – call me goldilocks). I haven’t really caught on to the chia seed bandwagon that always seems so hot in the blogging world. However, I’ve recently been reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and he mentions chia seeds (briefly really) in one of the things that seem to help the amazing tribe runners run. Well I am sold. Jeeze I am such a sucker for books and what they tell me. Honestly I believe anything if it’s written in a book by a supposed credible source.

Lunch: I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t snack between breakfast and lunch. I never need to I find. I’m an afternoon and evening snacker.

This might just look like vegetables and salad but I assure you within this vast Tupperware box there is also a whole load of tuna. Like I said, I’m a voluminous eater. I love eating a monster salad that takes me a year to get through.

After this I have a box of popcorn. I’ve been added salt to my popcorn as I don’t think I eat enough salt and with all that running and sweating it can’t be a bad thing to add!

I probably have a couple of cups worth of popcorn. I’ve actually started a wave of popcorn eaters in the office. Everyone’s gone popcorn mad now! I’m proud.

Then I have low-fat (but not 0%) Greek yogurt. I like it a bit creamy but not overly so.

In the morning before work I pop in a load of frozen fruit and by the time lunch comes round it’s all defrosted and the yogurt is still lovely and chilled with lovely added flavour from the fruit.

First snack: usually this is something from my Graze box:

My favourites being the dip ones… ahh I love those sweet jammy dips.

Or other bits and pieces, like dried fruit and nuts.

Then later I’ll have an apple and a banana and lots of peppermint tea. If I’m still feeling peckish I’ll probably dive back into the graze box again (I love them!)

When it comes to dinner the only problem I’m having is that when I’m at running club I find it hard to have a large meal straight away. But this the other night was perfect. I had prepared the tomato sauce and got everything ready to go in the oven before I left for running club and then it was just a case of leaving it to cook while I showered, which allowed my stomach to chill out a bit before chucking food into it straight away.

This was chicken, stuffed with goat’s cheese and wrapped in two pieces of lean bacon. I’m not a fan of stringy bacon but I like the lean stuff. Then I coated it with a herby tomato sauce and served it with broccoli. Perfect.

Post-dinner snacks: In the evening I always need snacks.

After my post-dinner apples (never changes) a bit later on I’ll snack on a cheese string and a yogurt. Lately I’ve been loving the Activia yogurts especially the thick and creamy ones. Lots of protein so nice and filling before bed!

And that’s me. After running club and my stomach has settled a bit it’s a case of trying to eat as much food as I can within a shortened period of time. I’m not necessarily hungry in the evening but I hate waking up famished and if I’ve got spinning the next day (like I do Fridays after running club Thursday evening) I want to know I’ve got fuel in the tank so I’m good to go.

What do you snack on between meals? I used to only go for fruit (love it) but it wasn’t very sustaining. So now it’s all about nuts and protein-based things like yogurt and cheese (the strings and Babybels).

How do you make sure you’re eating enough for the exercise you’re doing? I don’t want to lose any weight. I want to be strong and healthy and damn fast at running so this is really important for me.

What workouts do you do that you just hate but know you should do them?

July 31, 2013July 31, 2013

Let’s Get Random

Hello, lovely people! It has been stormy and rainy here in Southern England. I couldn’t help but take this photo while lying in bed the other night.

I do love a good storm!

Anyway, it’s Wednesday. Last week I missed out on all the fun, but today I’m back in the game for What I Ate Wednesday and show you some of my latest dinners.

Thanks, Jenn!

Now I’m going to throw out something a bit crazy here. The following eats will win no awards. The will not appear in any great book of recipes. They don’t look pretty. They are simply random, working-week dinners that were thrown together in the midst of hunger.

People, let’s get real here: I am not a fancy blogger. Don’t get me wrong, I admire greatly all those beautiful blogs with beautiful photos and the effort and time that’s been spent on them. I truly admire that.

But this week, I’m bucking the trend. Throwing in the towel. So please, be kind in your judgements…these are just some random meals from a busy working week.

Mystery Fish Meal

I wish I could take credit for this taste sensation, but I have to thank good old Sainsbury’s supermarket. We’ve been ordering our food online recently because life has been hectic at work and the weekends and it’s just easier. Anyway, I ordered fish (just plain old river cobbler) and they gave me this instead. It’s still river cobbler but it’s got some crazy delicious bread-crumb coating. I don’t even want to think of what’s involved to make it taste so good. It can’t be good

Anyway, I had this with broad beans and roasted butternut squash. Heavenly simple.

Random Beef and Egg Meal

I think I saw a recipe months ago that was something similar to the above and then I randomly decided to give it a go. However, I’ve later found it actually involved sweet potato and not mince at all (sweet potato hash maybe?). HOWEVER this was exceptionally tasty for all it’s randomness. For kicks here’s the recipe (it may not be the prettiest meal in the world, or the best titled but it tasted goood!).

Random Beef and Egg Meal (serves 2)

White onion, diced
Clove of garlic, diced
400g minced/ground lean beef
Grated zucchini
2 medium grated mushrooms
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
Crumbled beef stock cube
1 tbsp. tomato puree
Mixed herbs (oregano, rosemary, basil)
2 eggs

– Pre-heat oven to 190C. Fry onion and garlic for 5 minutes, add beef, zucchini and mushrooms (the grated mushrooms was an idea I got from the lovely Jessie – GENIUS. Ben didn’t even realise and he hates mushrooms. Haha those vitamins snuck right in and he didn’t notice). Fry until beef has browned.

– Add Worcestershire sauce, stock cube, tomato puree and herbs.

– Transfer to an over-proof dish (e..g casserole dish) and then make two small holes at either end and crack an egg in each.

– Put in oven for around 15 minutes (until the eggs have cooked).

Egg and Beef Mess

I had some mince left over, I had a lot of eggs, and I had some veg. I threw it all together. New favourite scrambled egg meal right there. And seriously filling. Three eggs, 100g minced/ground beef, veg. You know it makes sense.

Chicken and Cream Cheese

This meal is such a staple meal for me. Chicken is one of my favourite meats and I adore cream cheese. Basically there’s a lot of veg (this time onion, zucchini and mushrooms), chicken and cream cheese with a tablespoon of tomato puree and lots of spices. Easy and quick thrown together in a pan and cooked through.

You could argue that the majority of my meals are never that ‘pretty’ or creative. You’d have a good point But as you can see, this week was even more so. I love cooking, don’t get me wrong. I love opening the fridge and cupboards and wondering what to make for dinner. But it’s not always going to be a culinary break-through. Sometimes it’s just a boring, run-of-the-mill meal. Three eggs and some tuna…some chicken with sweet potato…turkey sausages…

I do tend to put a lot of (highly unnecessary) pressure on myself to create elaborate, ground-breaking meals and post them on my blog in beautifully edited photos with a well-written recipe below. But sometimes, I’m just tired. Sometimes I honestly can’t be bothered. That’s not to say I don’t care. I just don’t always have the time.

So please forgive me this week, I will endeavour to do better

What’s your random, easy meal this week?

Do you cook every single day? Unless we go out or order in, I will always cook a meal – the degree of cooking involved varies though (see above ).

As a blogger, do you feel pressurised to upload great recipes and meals all the time?

July 26, 2013

Injury Recovery

Happy Friday, folks. How’s your week being going? Mine has been fairly standard. For some reason I have been so tired. I think it might be the weather. We only finally got a bit of rain yesterday, so it’s been quite oppressive and humid recently.

Anyway, I wanted to do a post on how I recovered from my injury (because I think I’m pretty much fully recovered now). I know I’ve been harping on about my injury and ‘woe is me’ and it does seem to have dragged excessively long (sorry!) so I thought I’d do a ‘lessons learnt’ and tips post.

Quick background if you’re not aware: mid-June I started to get a slight pain in my right leg, near my hip up along my IT Band.

Source

Then after a few too many races, I went out for a run and BANG serious pain all down my IT band to my knee. Game over, no running.

I’m pretty certain I know what I did to cause it. Overuse and not listening to my body. Every weekend I ran a race and was pushing myself quite hard. I was addicted to races (still am…but I think I’m a bit more sensible now!).

Anyway, after confirming with the physio it was hip bursitis which was caused by a very tight IT band, I stopped running. It sucked.

So, then came a long and arduous time of trying to figure out how the hell I can get my leg better.

Number one: stop running. Stop doing the same damn thing that caused the issue in the first place. I even hate typing this it sucks so much. But honestly, it is better to stop completely and heal then try and push through and extend the injury longer. Unfortunately for me I did have to go on the UK Challenge team building event with work which involved a whole lot of running which I couldn’t avoid. This didn’t help. I probably would have recovered a whole lot quicker if I hadn’t have gone. Hey ho.

Post-Challenge, I ran less miles and at less intensity. There was no pain just discomfort thankfully. But still not better completely.

Number two: ice.

Andy Murray does it and so should you if you’re starting to feel an injury on it’s way. Muscles get inflamed and ice helps reduce that inflammation and calm things down. I was pretty much having an ice bath after every single run. It seriously helped.

Alfie liked to get involved. He wondered what all the screaming was about

Number three: not only did I ice but I also took Ibuprofen when my leg was really tender. I also used the Ibuprofen gel on my leg before bed and in the morning.

Number four: stretch and strengthen. After extensive research thanks to good old Google I found that I probably needed to work on my strength. All I did was run, run, run. Yep I love it that way, but my body obviously doesn’t.

I knew I needed to loosen my IT band and work on my hip strength.

The foam roller and I have become best buddies. I seriously foam roll after every run now, and if my leg still feels tight I’ll do it in the evening as well.

This is a great one to do but hurts like hell:

Source

As for hip strengthening, it’s all about the clam. The least most attractive exercise know to man. Ben laughs at me when I do it.

Source

And side leg lifts:

Source

I do them every other day (10 on each leg three times). And now I’ve progressed to using a resistance band with them. I’ve found this has really helped.

And this stretch for my IT band has been a big help too:

Source

Number five: balance. Along with stretching and strengthening I’ve incorporated cross-training into my week. I’ve joined a gym so I can go to classes like Pump for strengthening and Spin for cross-training. Spin is great as it’ll still work my cardiovascular system but without the constant pressure on my joints and legs in every step.

Above all: listen to your body. Only you can know what’s going on and if you’re pushing to hard and too often. If it hurts, it means something significant.

Remember, there are always other races and other days to bust out that workout.

Hope this helped anyone who needed it!

Have you been injured?/ Are injured?

How did you recover?

July 19, 2013July 19, 2013

The highs and lows of a runner cycling

Hi guys, I’m ‘afraid’ that I am once again off from work today! Until Tuesday!

This weekend is going to be a busy one. Ben and me are off to London on Saturday to see some friends and then on Sunday I’m running the National Lottery Anniversary Run (5 miles).

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. Why? Because Paula Radcliffe is running it!!!! I’m not aiming for a super fast run – this is one of those runs that you just enjoy. Take in the atmosphere and the scenery…and chat to Paula. Ha. I wish.

In other random news, my dear hubby found this hilarious comic strip by the incredibly funny (though rather rude – I have warned you!) writer from the website TheOatmeal.com. It’s called The Terrible & Wonderful Reasons Why I run Long Distances. Since then I’ve actually seen it about on a few blogs. Here’s one segment from it:

Source

It really made me laugh. OK I don’t treat my body like a fast-moving dumpster, but it just struck me as a great satire of a lot of bloggers out there (yes, myself very much included). Yay for spinach smoothies!!

[Incidentally there’s also a HILARIOUS comic from the same website called My Dog, the Paradox]

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been dabbling with a bit of cycling. I feel like I’m cheating on my running when I say this…it’s not too bad. Let me be clear though, it’s not running (duh).

So far I’ve cycled twice this week. One almost 13 mile route and one 15 mile route (in just over an hour). I don’t think that’s too shabby (especially considering the mountain bike I’m riding haha). I made the rookie error of comparing my rides with a guy from work who, get this, went to France a couple of weeks ago to cycle some of the routes for the Tour de France. As you do.

I’m tootling along nicely at around 14mph and he’s zooming by around 19mph!! Up mountains! Jeeze. I got slightly giddy when I realised one of his cycles was 18mph. I naively thought, “Ok that’s not too far from mine” until I realised that was an easy recovery ride haha.

But it’s been a great relief for my little legs to not be pounding the pavement so often I must say. And especially after Sunday’s tough race.

Here’s what I’ve discovered about cycling:

They sell padded cycling shorts for a reason. Enough said.
I hate cars. I just love cycling along gutters…not.
Checking my Garmin to see my speed is not safe for me. I have limited balance so this is just an accident waiting to happen.
Speaking of accidents, what’s the worst that can happen with running? You trip over? It’s painful but it’s not usually life-threatening. Cycling accidents? Jeeze let’s not even think about it.
You have to cycle a lot longer and a lot further to get the equivalent to a run (and that’s still debatable).
You can slack of a lot more with cycling than running. You can coast along with cycling. With running you just stop.
Two words: helmet hair.

But hey ho, it’s something different! And I’ve got my first Pump class booked for Monday morning. My puny muscles are quivering in fear already.

And recently I’ve been trying these yogurts from Danone called Danio. They’re basically a thick yogurt over a layer of fruit at the bottom. If I’m honest I’m not a big fan of the fruit in yogurt…it makes me feel a bit ill.

But these I actually enjoyed! Ben was shocked (and a little disgruntled as he thought he’d be having them all, haha). I really genuinely enjoyed them. The flavours I was able to get were peach, cherry, strawberry and passionfruit (passionfruit hands down was the best – that’s the photo above). But I believe there’s also blueberry and raspberry.

The yogurts are described as “super thick” and they’re not wrong! They also have a good level of protein (11-13g) in them, so you’re kept fuller for longer.

They have no artificial preservatives, flavourings or sweeteners. In fact, the ingredients look pretty good for a fruity flavoured yogurt. And they’re between 120-150kcal per pot and most are 0% fat. Not too shabby. They are quite sweet and they do contain sugar but for a fruit yogurt it’s not too bad at all for a nice afternoon snack to tide you over until dinner.

Funny related story. I bought so many in Tesco (as the company had kindly given me a voucher to purchase them) I looked like I was obsessed.

They’ve take over half my fridge!!

Right, I’m off to indulge in a bit of coffee and cake with my mum and sister. Ciao for now!

Are you running any races this weekend?

What classes do you do at the gym?

July 4, 2013

What makes you happy?

Hi guys, hope the week has treated you well. I thought I’d be a little reflective in today’s post. I read something online during the week that really got my brain ticking. It was this article from the BBC news website:

Can we make ourselves happier?

Everyone wants to be happy in life. I think when people make goals and plans, whether that’s to save up for a new outfit, run a significant race, or progress in your career, it’s ultimately to be happy. Unless you have some pretty altruistic goals, that tends to be the case I think.

In the article, for example, apparently you’re happier if:

You’re in a long-term relationship
Go out to dinner (that’s my kinda happiness right there )
Lead an active life
Actively engage in politics (I listen to the news does that count??)… and so on.

So this got me thinking: what makes me happy?

Well, I guess it comes as no surprise that my husband is on the top of the list.

Marrying him was the best thing I ever did.

Oh sure he annoys the hell out of me quite frequently (man-related bathroom paraphernalia not put away, ringing me panicked and confused when I ask him to put the washing on if he gets home before me from work despite the fact I have told him a million times how to do it ) and I’m 100% certain I annoy the hell out of him too (apparently I malt like a yeti…). But we’re stronger every day because of our trials and tribulations.

Sorry, mush over.

I would also say that a strong contender for increasing happiness (that I didn’t see mentioned in the article) is having a pet. Specifically, having a dog. Cat-lovers don’t hate me – I have limited experience with cats…but we’ve always had a dog. When I was living at home my parents had dogs (and still do) and now Ben and me have our own pooch, Alfie.

He’s part of our little family and our home would be empty without him. His little quirks which drive me mad (eating kibble on the LIVING ROOM FLOOR, thus crumbing everywhere) only make me love him more.

And obvious family (and friends) in general:

They’ll do

And it will come as no surprise that I love running and it makes me incredibly happy.

When I couldn’t run properly for a couple of weeks it made me the grumpiest person known to man. And my husband (and family) were getting pretty fed up of me. I called it my Running Depression.

But we’re through that. I’m past it. I’m a new woman. A more-cautious-terrified-of-any-niggle woman, but it’s all good. Though honestly, I don’t even want to admit how many races I’ve got coming up. It’s become a problem. But I’m hoping they’re staggered sufficiently to avoid any over-training/injuries.

Food. BIG contender for making me happy. Cooking healthy, hearty meals:

And enjoying not-so-healthy, but equally enjoyable food:

That was the day is ate three and a half puddings. It was a great day.

Food for heart and soul is essential for happiness. It’s all about balance.

And though there are hundreds of things I could write that make me happy, the last thing I will note is reading.

Going to bed with a good book is the best way to end a day in my opinion. I may sound like an old granny, but I really relax when I lose myself in a book Currently I’m absolutely gripped by Ken Follet’s Winter of the World. It’s a good’un.

Just one simple question today: what makes you happy?