AWAKENING THE INNER ATHLETE

Around the middle of last year I made a conscious decision to let go of my dieting thoughts, feelings, habits and behaviours as you are all aware of the pain and suffering that was with me endlessly. I made the decision boldly and without hesitation or regret and took control of my life and my internal happiness (as opposed to the front you put on for the world).

Along with this decision and my new lifestyle I also let go of all thoughts of myself as an athlete of any sort. Yes I would continue to train but I was a bit of a lost soul for a while and quite frankly I was enjoying just being "me" without the performance expectations. Hand in hand with that was my absolute commitment to never follow a prescribed restrictive diet again and feeling like every slip up on that diet made me a failure. I was glad to leave all that behind and just trust me to eat well without piling the kilos back on.

Life was chugging along nicely and I was truly so much happier living that way ..... UNTIL .... my decision to challenge myself yet again.

Over the last week I have felt the inner athlete stirring and waking up again. I'm looking forward to my half marathon training with real enthusiasm and my interest in endurance running has truly been sparked. I crave more and more knowledge about it and am looking forward to the range of experiences that are before me. And dare I say it but the nutrition side of it is VERY interesting.

Tonight I hopped onto Calking (I feel like a sinner admitting that LOL) to check if my normal breakfast is high enough in carbs for an optimal recovery after a training session. And just as I thought, its not. So some changes will be taking place. My beloved egg white/low fat creamed cottage cheese/oats/bran and blueberry pancake is too low in carbs and will be modified to include a larger serve of oats (I may reduce the cottage cheese) and replace the blueberries with 1/2 banana. Oh the sacrifices we have to make for our chosen sports LOL. My boys had crumbed calamari for dinner tonight and whilst I would normally join them (I love the salt and pepper version) I decided to go with a Magda special of the following:

80g wholemeal or multigrain pasta cooked ahead of time.
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 red capsicum, diced
handful mushrooms, halved or quartered (depending on their size)
3-4 T tinned corn
1/2 carrot, diced (microwave for about a minute first)
1 tomato, diced
A large handful of spinach leaves
Saute all of the above veges in a non-stick pan. Add a well drained tin of Sole Mare tuna with beans (this is an oily tuna) and stir in the pasta. Add lots of cracked black pepper and a handful of freshly chopped continental parsley and a light sprinkle of low fat parmesan cheese to serve. It makes 2 serves - one for dinner and one for tomorrow's lunch and is guaranteed to fuel me well for my training session tomorrow morning.

Gotta love being an endurance athlete. Gotta love those carbs.

Good night all

Magda