GF Dinner Party!

Hellooo!!

Last night we all headed over to our friend JC's apartment for a lil' dinner party! I was very excited about this dinner, because JC has recently began a gluten-free diet as well. She has been able to cook a lot in her apartment this year, and has made some pretty delicious gluten-free meals. Last night was chicken and shrimp stir fry with GF teriyaki sauce and soy sauce (called Tamarin).

I helped with the shrimp...

Hello gluten-free stir fry heaven!

JC decided to appeal to the masses and make what looked to be a delicious dessert for everyone. Mint brownies! Ana helped with the frosting:

JC and I munched on some GF cookies I made.. but forgot to snap a pic! I will definitely be making this mix again... once the cookies cooled down they tasted better than a lot of cookies I used to devour pre-GF living.

Earlier this week I went to a screening of the documentary "Fresh." Keep a look out for a post all about the film!

Until then,

Alexis

Sixth Half-Marathon, Check!

Hey everybody! I know I may have freaked some of my friends out with my Facebook status after the race, but I really felt it was a notch in my belt to finally run myself to the point where the medical tent was necessary!

My experience in my sixth half-marathon, and the second time doing the Virginia Beach Half-Marathon was far from ordinary. Upon waking up early last Saturday for our drive to Virginia Beach, I noticed the extreme cold that had come upon me. Despite a good 11 hours of sleep the night before I was feeling pretty awful. I did everything to shake it - cold medicine, Wellness Pills, Zicam, EmergenC, and at least 200 ounces of fluids throughout the day. I drank so much in an attempt to drink away the cold and hydrate for the next day. I had a steady mix of vitamin C drinks, different forms of electrolytes and lots of water. I try not to drink too much water the day before a race, as well as the morning of. After hydrating with so many electrolytes for race prep, you don't want to wash the electrolytes out of your system.

Shelby, Mary and I had an awesome drive out to Virginia Beach despite my sickness. We were on a mission to find a Qdoba for a pre-race lunch and eventually ended up at a real mall with an H+M, Forever 21 and California Pizza Kitchen. It was heavennn and much better than shopping in Charlottesville!

Upon arriving we headed to the convention center for the Health and Fitness Expo. This was Mary's first race outside of the Charlottesville Half Marathon and it was Shelby's first half-marathon, so it was pretty cool for them to see so many vendors and sponsors out there.

After picking up our packets we headed straight to the Larabar booth for free samples galore!

Then we went searching for running accessories!

Later on that night we checked into our hotel room in hopes of getting to sleep by about 8:30. It was only a dream though, as I somehow managed to lock the keys in the car. The AAA man came eventually but my stretching routine and pre-race shower were postponed until he arrived. I didn't get a very good night of sleep, mainly due to all the sniffling and coughing. This was probably the first sign that I should not have done the race the next day, but I was not going to let a stupid cold get in a way of the race.

The next morning we made our way from Norfolk to Virginia Beach, getting pumped as ever for 13.1.

When we got near the start, we encountered some more car drama - in the form of parking this time. Long story short, I founded myself sprinting about 8 blocks to a 7-11 for some cash and on the way back I started to feel very feverish and tired. This was sign number 2 that I should not have done the race.

Yes, I know I'm stubborn.

The race started off well. I started off in Coral 7 with an anticipated finish time of 1:55. My PR (personal record) is 1:57 at the Charlottesville Half. That race is incredibly hilly, so compared to the flatness of Virginia Beach I figured such a PR would be pretty easy to accomplish.

I was well on my way in the first couple of miles, hitting 9 minute splits with very little effort. And then once the first incline came about my cold really started to hit me. My sinuses were hating me, and it became a lot harder to breathe. Every time I tried to speed up, I began to feel very nauseated. The first 6 miles went pretty well, and if I could have kept up that pace I would have a good chance of finishing sub-2 hours. But my body was not ready for that, as I eventually need to take a couple of breaks. I'm estimating I stopped for at least 10 minutes. Mile 8 and 9 were by far the worst, and it was around then that I noticed a pain in my left ankle. This has happened a lot to me in the past with long distances so I didn't worry too much about it. The last three miles are usually the easiest for me - when my adrenaline kicks in and all I care about is crossing that finish line. Not this race. My body was completely exhausted and it really started to affect me. I remember feeling pretty delirious. At this point, adrenaline was not enough to get me sprinting across the finish. I kept at about a 10 minute mile pace for the last 2 miles.

I reached the finish at 2:19, a time I am not proud of. Accounting for the 10 minutes of rest, I was able to run the 13.1 in 2:09 technically. Even so, I'm proud of myself for finishing. It feels like a very different type of accomplishment, and made me feel really confident about my fitness being able to go to that distance while feeling that sick.

After the race, I meandered around for about 20 minutes looking for Mary and Shelby. I eventually decided to sit down for a second and give my legs a rest, hoping they would find me. And then I collapsed. About 25 minutes later I woke up, with a person sitting next to me telling me I should head over to the medical tent. I disagreed and found myself myself attempting to walk over to look for Mary and Shelby at the car. 30 seconds I was back down on the ground. I got the strength to get back and went over to the medical tent.

I recall slurring my words and not making much sense of the situation, so excuse me if this sounds a bit hazy. I told a volunteer there that I was not feeling well and felt very faint.

His response: "We can't help you."

"Are you serious? I don't know what to do."

"There is no doctor here that can help you."

"Is this not the freaking medical tent? Isn't this your job?"

Eventually a woman came to "help" me. Without really listening to my symptoms or even asking about a medical history, she just gave me a salt packet and told me to leave.

I'm extremely disappointed and this experience really makes me question whether or not I should continue doing races on a bigger scale with soooo many participants. Running such long distances puts a lot of stress on your body that can cause just about anything to happen. The volunteers at the medical tent at this Rock n' Roll race were so unhelpful, and quite rude. I totally understand how stressful caring for tons of runners with various injuries and ice requests. But this was different. I'm quite apprehensive about running in Rock n' Roll races in the future because of this, so hopefully I'll eventually be convinced otherwise!

Soon after, Mary and Shelby found me crying to my momma by the car... and were quick to cheer me up. We headed back to the hotel for showers and made our way back to Charlottesville in time to get some time in at the library. Post race meals were Mo's and Rise Pizza (gluten-free for me!).

I've been still fighting this cold the past few days.. my body was totally out of whack on Monday. Luckily I haven't been too sore since the race, so I think that shows that my body is in good fitness and ready for that distance. I did a nice long strength workout tonight, and was able to increase my weight on the squats- good sign my legs are recovering well!

I'm going to be taking a vitamin C drink supplement several times a day in order to ramp up my immune system so I'll be able to tackle school and upcoming races with ease. We're two weeks away from the Pepsi 10K here in Charlottesville and then it's time to PR at RICHMOND!!!

Sorry for the long time in between posts everyone. I'm really trying to make blogging a part of my routine so please keep following and giving us feedback. We love it!

And one last thing: CONGRATULATIONS SHELBY! One half-marathon down, lots more to go!

-Alexis

Eating Healthy, Srat Style

Hey all! The past week and weekend have been crazy but everything is finally starting to settle down.

One of our best friends Kelly turned 21 this past weekend and it was filled with non-stop celebrating! We started the weekend off with dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant where I legitimately stuffed my face with guacamole and chips to the point that there was no room in my stomach for anything else. Definitely not my healthiest moment, but delicious nonetheless.

Then Friday we headed out to Kluge Vineyards in Charlottesville for a little wine tasting! It was quite the experience as we became friends with a frenchman named Gregory who knew almost an unhealthy amount about wine.

We tried a range of wines from their staple Viogner to their "Simply Red." They also had an awesome Rosé that we enjoyed for the rest of the afternoon.

It was such a beautiful area and a nice getaway from the hectic week at UVa. We'll definitely be heading back there.

Heck even if we're not wine tasting I'll be happy dancing around in the fields!

I wanted to write about what it's been like to keep up a healthy lifestyle while living in a sorority house with a kitchen full of snacks. We have a new chef at our house this year who has been very accommodating to a gluten-free diet, but the snacks in the kitchen are not. This is probably a good thing, because I would eating a diet consisting of animal crackers and grilled cheeses if I did not have this limitation. Instead I've been all about the apples or bananas with peanut butter, peaches, yogurt, and Cinnamon Life cereal (which is daaa best!).

The toughest thing though are breakfasts. I have early morning classes four days a week that last for almost three hours. So there is a definite need to get to class full, yogurt and granola doesn't seem to do the trick anymore. My meetings with Rob, the nutritionist from San Diego, taught me a lot about fueling for the day. Animal protein is the best way to do so and to stay full. So I've been scrambling some eggs or just heating up some pre-cooked sausage links. I had some more time this morning to make a bigger meal, so I decided on a scramble with tomatoes and avocado and sausage. I was full until lunch!

Also, the other struggle is eating out while at school. Like I've talked about before, avoiding gluten allows me to do choose healthier options. That is until I discovered Rise Pizza which makes a gluten-free crust. After two nights of staying out WAY past my bedtime, this pizza has been the cure at the time but is definitely not the healthiest option. For the most part I've been able to choose healthier options like salads and turkey burgers while out for dinner.

That's all for now! This is our last week before the Virginia Beach Half-Marathon next weekend! Hopefully it will be much cooler there because it has been hot hot hot in Charlottesville (at a current 98 degrees Fahrenheit).

-Alexis

Back in Action

Wowwwwww I didn't even realize how long it had been since my last post! YIKES.

I'm alive and well, I promise. It's been a very very hectic week. From work training, to moving in, to sorority stuff, to school stuff; it's all makin' my head explode! But not to worry, now that I'm getting my routine down everything is going fine and dandy.

The flight back to Charlottesville went well. Instead of reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy like I had promised myself I would do, I watched about 4 episodes of the West Wing. Yes, I am addicted. I had a layover in Atlanta on the way to Cville, where I was determined to find the Qdoba in one of the terminals. Qdoba had been my last meal in this very airport before departing for Lima for six weeks earlier this summer, so it seemed appropriate to finish the circle.

The meal was pretty pleasant. I was in the international terminal, feeling jealous of all the adventures my co-food court attendees were headed on. My coolness decreased tremendously when I dropped the rest of my naked burrito on my lap, but a friendly pilot helped me clean.

The next day I headed off to Poplar Ridge, a high ropes area at UVa. I went with the other Facility Supervisors from the AFC for some good old team bonding. I got to face my fear of heights on the big swing. The iPhone pictures aren't too amazing but still cool nonetheless!

Those first two days in Charlottesville were all about work and seeing friends! Then it was time to start moving into my sorority house. It's been crazyyyyyy so far and I will be sure to post pictures of me and Mary's cute new room when it's all finished up.

So far I have had two days in the Comm School, and let me tell you those people know how to intimidate poor impressionable 3rd year students. But I've loved everything we have learned so far and am really excited about the upcoming two years.

Last night, Shelby and Kelly ventured to one of my favorite restaurants in Charlottesville. Sticks specializes in kabobs that you can get as a platter, in a sandwich, or on a salad.

I went for the shrimp kabobs and sesame beans. And mango lemonade. AMAZING.

Kell went for gazpacho and sesame beans (we love these beans).

And Shelb went crazy for her falafel sandwich.

It's been a lot harder here at school to stay gluten-free, but luckily the new chef at our sorority has been really helpful catering to this request. All the free lunches I have been getting at orientations have been great, but I find myself constantly plucking out the insides and just munching on meat and cheese. It will get better over time when I have all the restaurants in Charlottesville mapped out. We did discover a gluten-free pizza crust at a new restaurant called Rise Pizza that tastes amazingggg and will become a regular occurrence for me.

It's time for me to do a lotta reading! Sorry for being such a bad blogger. Look out for a post soon about the best music to exercise to!

-Alexis

Gluten? Like One of the Seven Deadly Sins?

Hello everyone!

I hope yall are enjoying your August so far. Here in San Diego summer weather has finally arrived, just in time for me to head back east to humidity bleh. I'll be doing some longer runs before I head back where the humidity and heat make it a lot tougher to get through those 10 milers, especially considering how hilly Charlottesville is.

I realized that I have gone on and on about my gluten-free diet, but haven't explain what it is exactly and why it affects the digestive systems of so many people.

First off, gluten is not the same as gluttony!! Believe me I am still indulging with this new diet. An iced jasmine green tea and a seriously delicious gluten-free chocolate chip cookie from Claire's on Cedros:


When I think of gluten, I immediately think of "glue." And that is basically what gluten is. It is a composite of two proteins that can be found in wheat, barley, rye, etc. Actually 80% of wheat is composed of the proteins that make up gluten. When mixed with yeast, gluten allows for bread to "rise." In bread products that are made of wheat, the gluten is what allows for the elasticity and texture.

Here is what uncooked gluten looks like:

Gluten has also become a very common additive. Because it is protein, it can be added to low-protein foods for nutritional purposes. It is also added to foods (like ketchup and ice-cream) as a stabilizing agent. So for people that are intolerant of gluten or have Celiac disease it can be very hard to detect what products may or may not contain the gluten additive.

For people with Celiac disease, gluten causes harm to the small intestine. For those with gluten intolerance, it is hard to determine how much damage is done to the small intestine but it definitely affects everyones digestive system. I personally believe that everyone is gluten intolerant, but there is a sliding scale of intolerance. If anyone eats a ton of bread at one time, it's pretty likely you will leave the dinner table feeling bloated. If I ate bread, I would have an adverse reaction that would cause even worse symptoms. And for someone with Celiac disease, the amount of damage to the small inestine from that much gluten could be fatal.

Also, intolerances show up at every age. Celiac disease isn't necessarily determined at a young age. Many people discover they are Celiac positive later in life. This is also true for gluten intolerance.

I have also learned that there are many false negatives with Celiac disease. I was tested a few years ago when I was positive for H. Pilori, and it came out to be negative. This test is a biopsy of a tiny little piece of the small intestine. This organ, if laid out flat, would be about 6 meters long. So it is possible that another part of the intestine has been affected to prove positive for Celiac disease.

Personally, I'd rather be safe than sorry. I have noticed improvements with my digestive system already by taking gluten out of my diet, and I am considering taking out dairy as well to help with digestion (as well as other things, look out for a post about this!). A healthier digestive system leads to a stronger immune system. I'm hoping if I keep all of this up I won't get sick this upcoming school year!

That's all for now! Please comment or e-mail me at virginiaisforhealthnuts@gmail.com if you have any more questions about this. Have an awesome day!

-Alexis

Disneyland Made Healthy!

Hey all! Sorry Shelb and I have been such bad bloggers lately... she's been roadtrippin' back to Colorado and I've been busy with all the great visitors to San Diego!

There wasn't much time on Friday to squeeze in a run, but that was probably for the best. Standing in various lines for about 12 hours was rough on my legs, especially after our fast paced run the day before. I was pretty happy with how healthy Ryan and I were able to eat at Disneyland.

We started the day with an awesome breakfast with my grandpa on Balboa Island. I went for the Park Avenue omelette without cheese or onion:



Then for lunch we went to a Mexican restaurant in Downtown Disney where I had the greenest meal ever, Garden Enchiladas:



Not sure how great of an idea it was to go straight to a roller coaster after all that Mexican food, as seen here:

My snacks during the day included mangoes, watermelon, a fruit-only smoothie from Jamba, and a much needed mocha later in the night. Dinner was jambalaya in the New Orleans district at Disneyland, but I must have been too hungry to remember to snap a pic!

The next day I got to hang with Jenny and Katya, starting off with a grandma-made breakfast and ended up at Newport Beach for the rest of the day. Afterwards we went to my fav place in the whole world SPRINKLES! I was seriously concerned I wouldn't get to enjoy one of these babies upon starting my new gluten-free diet, but luckily they have gluten-free red velvet cupcakes:

It definitely wasn't as good as the regular red velvet but it was nice to partake in the experience with everyone else!

We made the trek from Newport to San Diego, which took much longer than expected given the mass amounts of traffic. We made do though, with Ryan as D.J.

I have gone cobbler crazy and made another one for my lovely guests, this time with peach! I added a personal touch:

Today we went to Tendergreens for some delish salads before dropping Jenny off at the airport. Then we headed to Knott's Soak City for a change of pace. It was definitely not as wonderful as I remembered, but the hours spent on the lazy river were definitely necessary. Afterwards Ryan and I met my parents for some sushi. This is the first time I have had sushi since I have stopped eating gluten. I brought Tamarin with me, a gluten-free soy sauce that is not processed with wheat. I also avoided my usual favorites, sushi rolls with tempura.

John also made me his special sauce for gluten-free customers that was made up of lemon juice, onion, and sea salt. It had a similar taste to soy sauce.

Here's crazayyy John, "No Money No Honey!!"

He also helped me out with one of my favorites the Albacore Special Roll (as seen above). He replaced the tempura fried shrimp with boiled shrimp and asparagus for crunch. It was almost as good as the original!!

Ryan leaves tomorrow sadly, but only 10 more days until CHARLOTTESVILLE! Can't wait! I'm going to be doing lots and lots of running this week to enjoy my favorite trails before heading back to Charlottesville!

-Alexis

Food iPhotography

So remember that 9 miler I was supposed to do yesterday. Didn't happen.

Man I was soooo bummed.

The second my right foot hit pavement my calf was throbbing. I told myself to just try and run it off, maybe I was just stiff from my longer run the day before. But no, the pain only got worse. I made it about a mile and finally made myself turn around and drag my discouraged butt home. I knew that I would be able to do the run but it may leave me injured. I have a month of training left and enough time to fit in about three more long runs, so missing out on this one was not a huge deal.

My mom sensed my disappointment and she knew just the cure. So we ventured out for a Target/Jimbo's run that got me in a great mood. I decided to try out some delish lookin' recipes from Eat Live Run. My momma and I threw together some fish tacos with guacamole and homemade mango salsa:

and I made a gluten-free blueberry crisp with gluten-free flour and oats! So so goood!!

I met with Rob again today to do some measurements so he could determine what exercises would be best for me. He also filmed me running in all of my different running shoes (yes I own more than one pair) and with or without my custom orthotics I'll be seeing him again tomorrow to learn the exercises and also to go over my running footage! I'm really excited for this because he'll be filming me do the exercises so I will now exactly what the proper form I need to be in, and it will be pretty impossible for me to forgot how to do the exercises!

I found out from him today that my hips are wayyyy out of line. I'm thinking it has something to do with sitting at a desk 8 hours a day working on a computer that's on the right of the desk, which is the way my hips are aligned to. So I'm going to try and remedy that situation tomorrow and move some things around in my workspace. But because of this I'll be taking a break from yoga for a little while. It's worse for my body to be doing certain poses when I'm not in proper alignment, so I'm going to work on that and focus on running for a while and go back to yoga when the time is right. I'm bummed, especially because I'm pretty much in love with my yoga studio here in San Diego but it's more important for me right now to become a stronger runner.

For now, I'm seriously looking forward to Ryan coming in on Wednesday, seeing Jenny and Danny on Friday, venturing to Disneyland, and havin' one of my fav running buddies in town especially since I will be making up that 9 miler this week.

My favorite members of the Virginia Swim team (Danny and Jenny!):

That's all for today! I also wanted to apologize for the crappy iPhone photos I've been trying to pass off as legitimate food photography. My baby, aka my Canon Digital Rebel, is off for repairs after some major Peruvian over usage. Not to worry only a couple more weeks of dealing with my Food iPhotography and then we'll be good to go!

-Alexis

Larabar Treasure Hunt

Heyy yall! It's Alexis this time around.

The time has finally come for me tell you all about my first meeting with Rob Yang.

Rob has some pretty intense credentials to his name, so no phony stuff here! Check out his e-mail signature:

Robert Yang

Certified Nutritionist (CN)

C.H.E.K Institute Faculty Member

Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) - Nutrition Advisory Board Member

National Pitching Association (NPA)- Advisory Board Member

He's legit! Check out what he's up to and some pretty intense pictures of him at www.RobertYang.net!

Like I said before my reasons for meeting with Rob were to talk to him about my gluten-free diet. Rob asked me a long series of questions that related to just about everything from energy level to hunger level to in depth questions about bowel movements (too much information yet?).

From all of this he agreed with my decision to avoid gluten in order to improve digestive functions, especially considering my past stomach problems. Taking gluten out of my diet leads me to a lot of healthier alternatives. So instead of a sandwich, I turn to a salad. Instead of a burger with a bun, I turn to a burger in a bowl aka protein style with a lot more veggies to make up for the bread. So not only am I avoiding something very bad for me, I am upping my intake of other nutritious goodies.

Rob is helping me to create a good program of vitamins and supplements to take to help my immune system and also help my digestive system to repair itself. While in Peru, I got pretty sick after eating some cuy aka guinea pig (among lots of other interesting meats of which I still don't know their names). At least I got to enhance my experience while abroad and visited a Peruvian emergency room where I received some antibiotics. Ever since I came home I've been taking probiotics to help restore the healthy bacteria killed off by all of the antibiotics. Rob and I are meeting TWICE next week (woo) and will go over a finalized plan for supplements to take when I'm back at school.

I also picked Rob's brain a lot about the best exercise schedule to allow me to improve my running and hopefully put down a few PRs in this upcoming racing season! On Monday, we'll be doing a full exercise consultation but Rob did notice something interesting about my joints. The best way to improve in a sport is to ensure the safety of your joints in order to prevent injury.

Here's a direct quote from Rob about what makes me unique and requires me to take a different approach to my running:

"Your body is too flexible meaning your joints are hyper mobile. You can hyperextend your elbows and knees. Since you have too much mobility in your joints as you run, the body is using energy from the nervous system and muscular system to stabilize the joints versus using the energy to allow you to run faster. "

My crazy knee joints seen here:

This is pretty much my normal stance, something that needs to change! So we'll be working on creating a strength-training program for me to do in order to help me get stronger to help both my posture and to become a better runner! I'm so excited and can't wait to share pictures with you all from our upcoming meetings.

Well that's a somewhat intense summary of what he and I went over. I'm just so excited about becoming even healthier and with his help I'm going to get there!

Today was a pretty wonderful day, even though I'm jealous of Shelby's day of fun in Charlottesville! I was a little worried how this long day would turn out after staying out late last night and waking up early for CPR Recertification. A tall chai latte did the trick and the day ended up turning out great! CPR class was an awesome refresher, so I'll be prepared for any crazy situation that may arise while at work at the Aquatic and Fitness Center at school! Then it was time for errands and I made it my mission to find some unique Larabars. These lovely little treats were the product of searching at THREE different stores!

SUCCESS!! So excited about these babies. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough will be accompanying me tomorrow on my 9 miler!

I also found some other yummy gluten-free treats that I can’t wait to try:

These were sooo good and an awesome reward after my trail run today!

I also had a change of heart in regards to my reading for the upcoming week. I finally finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and decided I would start Eat, Pray, Love in hopes of someday finishing The New Book Classics.

And then I found this baby while searching for a new running water bottle at REI (left the Fuel Belt in Charlottesville dang itttt!). I'm pretty excited about this read and will be sure to write up some sort of review when I'm finished.

In close, I thought I'd leave with one of my favorite parts about being home. It's pomegranate/mango/strawberry/chocolate bliss in the form of frozen yogurt. If you ever need a reason to come visit me in San Diego, this would be a good one.

I hope you all are enjoying your weekends! Think of me when I'm stuck at work tomorrow (booo!).

-Alexis