Turkey Trot Success!

Well let me tell you, there's nothing quite so thrilling as peeing in the woods to make a Turkey Trot memorable.  Thanks, gents, for making your arrival known to me before we became much better acquainted!


I set a goal going into the 15k Trot of 1:33, and by my watch I finished at 1:33:16. Not bad considering I spent about a minute and a half de-tangling myself from a sticker bush and finding a nice big oak tree to pee behind around mile three! I don't know what this thing is with having to go during races, but I am so over it. Not cool, bladder. It was funny the first time but we're not doing that again.  Please make a note of it.  


Thank you.


Anyway, Thanksgiving was a low-key affair for me. As you know, I am not a big fan of the eating holidays; they're just mine fields for overdoing it in the name of sentimentality.  So I kept all of my Turkey Tips in mind and made it a really healthy day: a nice long run and lots of clean eats including a big Thanksgiving salad full of spinach, turkey, unsweetened dried cranberries, and toasted walnuts. I planned on making my healthy pumpkin pie, but decided to skip it.  My husband doesn't really care for pie, I could live without it, and I didn't want a whole pie sitting around, so I considered it a sign from the Turkey Gods that I just was not meant to gain a pound this Thanksgiving. Thank you, Turkey Gods!  I was rewarded with a nice calorie deficit this morning according to my GoWear Fit. A deficit of 29 calories, but hey I am so counting that as a victory.  Take THAT Thanksgiving!


And now Christmas is rushing towards us like a steam engine.  That means it's time to kick things into high gear!  Over the next month, I'll be here with tips, workouts, recipes, and more to help make your holiday a healthy one.  Starting off - my Black Friday workout at Boot Camps to Go.  


I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!  Now wake up!  Naptime is over! 


The holidays are here!

Turkey Day Tip #3

Wait!  There is still time to be healthy on Thanksgiving! 

Here's how:

1. Exercise, fool! Many many many cities in this great country host Turkey Trots every Thanksgiving morning, and I am willing to bet good money that they are still taking registrations. Starting the day off with a run, or even just a brisk walk, is a great way to kickstart your metabolism plus put you in a healthy mood.  Exercise helps you eat less and feel happier about it, just sayin'. You can find a turkey trot near you!

2. Slim down your favorites. Look, I love sweet potato casserole just as much as you do. But I love feeling healthy and strong all day long more than the 10 seconds it takes to eat it.  Even if you're not a sadist like me, you can at least slim down your holiday favorites with some simple substitutions.  My friend Tiffany at The Gracious Pantry has some great holiday recipes that will make you feel like you're splurging without actually doing it.  Check them out!

3. Remember the REAL reason for Thanksgiving. My friend Ellen sent this article to me the other day because she knew I would dig it - it's not only chock full of my favorite historical demographic - naughty Puritans - but it's also about how Thanksgiving was intended to be a day of meditation and reverence, not gluttony and consumerism. Its a nice reminder to make family the focus of the day, not a personal challenge to eat everything you passed up the other 10 months of the year.

My Thanksgiving day plans? The Turkey Trot 15k, making mimosas and some whole-wheat clean eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast, watching the parade and complaining about all of the product placement, baking my healthy pumpkin pie (recipe below) with my munchkin, and having a delicious Thanksgiving-themed salad full of spinach, home-dried (AKA unsweetened) cranberries, toasted walnuts, and yes, TURKEY. Then a whole lotta rest so I can be ready for my post-Thanksgiving workout at Boot Camps to Go.

And now for the recipe...keep in mind I cook for fuel (which is to say I am not a chef!)

Healthy Heather's Pumpkin Pie


Ingredients:
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
• 8 ounces almond milk
• 3 egg whites
• 1 ½ cups crushed whole wheat graham cracker crumbs (I use Mi-Del)
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• pumpkin pie spice
• 2 egg whites, for the crust


Directions:


1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Make graham cracker crust: combine 1 ½ cups crushed whole wheat graham crackers with about 2 tbsp melted butter and press into a greased pie plate. To make to crust less soggy, brush egg whites over it and bake at 350°F for about 5 minutes before adding the pie filling.

3. Mix pumpkin, milk, and egg whites until smooth.

4. Add the pumpkin pie spice

5. Pour into crust and spread evenly. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 45 minutes (may vary depending on ovens).


Have a WONFERFUL Thanksgiving...see you soon!

Turkey Day Tip Number TWO!

This always freaks me out.
This is just WRONG!

Here's the thing - one day of overeating is not going to wreck much of anything. You'll feel like crap and retain a lot of water, but if that's okay with you then put on your stretchy pants and worship at your food altar on Thursday.  I'll wait.


But four days of overeating is another story. The average Thanksgiving meal is about 3,500 calories, equal to a pound of fat. If you're on a sensible weight-loss plan, that is about one week's worth of hard work. That may be a bargain for you, I don't know. I have to practically chop off a limb to lose a pound so it is not worth it for me.

Just so we're on the same page, you won't actually gain a pound unless you eat like 5,000 calories, because your body is still going to burn about 2,000 just laying around watching football.  But still.  Be reasonable.


So if you do that on Thursday, and then eat the leftovers on Friday, and then get the Christmas baking started on Saturday, and then figure by Sunday that you're so far in the hole that the diet will start over on Monday, its not unrealistic to think that by that point you may have sacrified a full week of hard work because you "deserve it." I'm just sayin', it's science.


SO! If you want to avoid that, make a plan. It should look something like this:


1. On Thursday, be sensible. Enjoy your favorite Thanksgiving foods and counteract the calories with some exercise and lots of water. A Thanksgiving walk is a great family tradition to start!


2. On Friday, go back to your normal routine. Give away the leftovers or make less food on Thanksgiving so you don't have as much left over. Eat normally, exercise a little extra, and be thankful for how great you feel as a result.


You do not have to give into the Thanksgiving gluttony hype!  I promise, there is no winner. 

It's not too late to register for your local Turkey Trot!

Tomorrow, one last Turkey Day Tip!  

Turkey Day Tip Numero Uno

This is one of those weeks when I am not very popular.  The nutritional finger-wagging routine doesn't have many fans in a week that has an entire day dedicated to eating.  I'm not sure that it really has many fans in a normal week, either, but I do it anyway. 

BUT!  I would be a completely useless Healthy Heather if I did not implore you to remember that you CAN celebrate Thanksgiving without taking a step back in your fitness goals.  It's what I do.  If I didn't say this, I honestly would not be able to sleep at night.  Well eventually I would but it would not be quality sleep and I value my sleep so listen up! 

I am only going to say this 15 million times between now and the end of the year.

Check out this Thanksgiving Meal Calories Calculator to give yourself an idea of what you're looking at...and then decide how much of your hard work you're willing to throw away.

Tomorrow, making a Turkey Day Survival Plan.  For the calories, just so we're clear. I can't do anything about your family.

Good day! :)

My Favorite Mistake

Who would have thought that accidentally sprinkling pepper on my Thanksgiving oatmeal yesterday would be the tastiest decision of the day?

Lately I've been making what I call "Thanksgiving Oatmeal," for my morning snack.  It is so yummy and nutritious.  The recipe is a cinch:

40 grams of old fashioned oats
15 grams of raisins
15 grams of chopped walnuts
15 grams of chopped apple
15 grams of whole, unsweetened cranberries
Pumpkin pie spice
Hot water

Combine, fuel, move on. It's good and good for you!

Anyway, I also like a dash of salt in my oats. I know, weird.  But the salt and pepper shakers at my office are always mixed up and I can't rememember which is which, so I usually sprinkle a little in my hand to check.  Well yesterday I was in a hurry so I skipped that part, and ended up with PEPPER in my oatmeal.

And then I was all, "Well, that's just great. So that's just sooooo awesome."  But in a really sarcastic internal voice. 

But what do you do?  Toss it out?  No way!  That is some high-octane fuel right there!  So I ate it.  And it was really not bad!  In fact, I think I may do it again today!

Just a tiny tiny bit.  Try it!

Have a good, tasty, high-octane fuel kind of day!