Trying for a Tri

Well this is indeed a momentus occasion. My first blog post! I’m going to be (hopefully) blogging a lot over these next few days to sort of get things rolling. I’ll eventually fall into a routine where I should be updating almost everyday.

Before I get into it I want to talk about the purpose of this blog. In some ways, it will be self-serving. I want to formally track and record my 6 month journey to completing my first ever triathlon (and maybe beyond!). But it will be more than that. Besides sharing my training routines I will be sharing my food. I LOVE food. Getting my diet on track has really brought the foodie out in me. So, like any good foodie, I will be blogging photos of my favourite foods and all the great things that fuel my workouts.

Being a journalist and an all-over curious person, I am always reading, researching and questioning everything fitness and nutrition related. Here, I want to share some of the best things I’ve learned, whether through articles, studies or personal experience.

Now! Onto the meals and exercise! Breakfast was one of my all-time favourites:

It’s 1/3 cup oatmeal cooked with 2/3 cup water, then layered with 3/4 cup mixed frozen berries, 1/3 cup plain yogurt and 1/4 cup Fiber One cereal. Sort of like an oatmeal parfait of sorts. It’s chock full of fiber, filling and only 300 calories. It’s also carborific, so I like eating it on mornings where I’ll be working out later.

After breakfast was my morning piece of choclate:

Usually, I like a piece of quality dark chocolate, I find the richer the better as far as my sweet cravings go. But these Christmas chocolates were on sale for $1.35 and I couldn’t really pass them up. Despite the fact that the ingredient list isn’t as great as 80% Lindt.

Today is a long workout day, so I usually like to have a snack right before I go to the gym, otherwise I get hungry halfway through my workout.

Good ole’ apples and PB. I picked up some ambrosia apples because they were on sale. I’d never tried them before. They’re good, kind of like galas.

Today was workout B3 of Stage 3 of NROL4W. Phew! It took me 1 hour and 25 minutes. Here’s the stats:

Romanian deadlift/bent-over row: 3 sets @ 60 lbs x 6
Partial single leg squat: 3 sets @ 16 lbs x 6
Wide grip lat pulldown: 3 sets @ 50 lbs x 6
Back extension: 3 sets @ 8kg x 6
YTWL: 3 sets @ 10 lbs x 6
Swiss ball crunch: 3 sets @ 6kg x 10
Incline reverse crunch: 3 sets @ bw x 6
Lateral flexion: 3 sets @ bw x 10
Prone cobra: 3 sets @ 90 sec
15 minutes HIIT on spin bike

I was starving before the workout was even finished. So I made myself a large post-workout meal/snack:

Just a pretty simple protein shake made with 1 cup skim milk, a scoop of chocolate whey and 6 ice cubes. Then I fried up a couple eggs and ate them on top a small toasted whole wheat bagel.

I decided to brave the grocery store this afternoon and needed a snack to hold me over in case I got stuck in lines for a while. I needed something that wasn’t carb heavy and came up with this tasty snack:

15 cucumber slices with two wedges of laughing cow cheese and smoked herring. The herring is from the Brunswick company, just a few hours from here! They specialize in canned seafood and all of it is of good, Atlantic Canadian quality.

I worked up quite an appetite grocery shopping so I made a ginormous supper.

A chicken pita pizza! The pita bread is from another New Brunswick company called Mother Nature’s. They don’t use any shortening or fats in their pita breads and as a result are about half the calories as any of the other pitas at the grocery store. Plus, I find pita bread makes for a nice and crispy thin crust. The toppings are 5.6 oz sliced chicken breast, tomatoes, green pepper, red onion, mushroom and low-fat mozzarella cheese. The sauce is Eden Organic’s traditional pizza sauce. Tres yummy!

And to round off the day I had my old standby of yogurt and pressed dry cottage cheese:

On top are some fresh cherries I picked up at the grocery store today and slivered almonds. I like eating yogurt or cheese at the end of the day because it keeps me full through the night. I don’t wake up crazy hungry early in the morning like I have a tendency to do otherwise.

Gotta be up early tomorrow! I have a whole day of work and school ahead of me!