5 Things That Made Me A Better Runner

Organic? Vegetables? Salads made out of the dark green stuff? Those were all foreign things to me until recently. I was the girl who wanted to eat what she wanted to eat and didn’t want to be told “no” when it came to Costco polish dogs with the works, soda, or Taco Bell’s “fourth meal.” I thought,“I’m not going to be like those girls who don’t eat, limit what they eat, or don’t eat comfort food because they want to fit into those size 1 jeans.” That was not going to be me. I was the empowered girl who was going to eat what I wanted and be proud!

Last month I realized, I had the wrong attitude and distorted point of view.

I’m going to go back a little further to provide more background.

One year ago I ran the Nike+ Human Race, my first 10k. Running had never been my strength. In fact, before last August, I had never run more than 3 miles. And that was like once. In college. Undergrad, that is.

After running the 10k, I felt great and vowed to take up running. Unfortunately, my hectic entrepreneur and graduate school schedule had me choosing all-nighters and comfort food over sleep, vegetables, and exercise. All that changed last month.

I signed up for the Disneyland Half Marathon as a milestone in my training for the upcoming Honolulu Marathon in December. Once I began doing 5 mile runs, I realized that in order to become a better runner, I would need to change my lifestyle. Drastically.

I started by doing a little research and picked up a few things from Runner’s World magazines, Jillian Michaels Master Your Metabolism book, and by trial and error. These tips have helped me to go from running 5 miles at an average of 11 min/mile at the beginning of July to running 10 miles last weekend at a 10:30 min/mile pace. I even ran 2 miles this week at an 8:45 min/mile pace. It completely amazes me. I’m literally 5 feet tall (in the mornings), and by no means do I have long graceful legs. Here some of the things that I’ve changed that have made a very noticeable difference in both my health and my running.

1. I’ve thrown out all the “bad food.” Also, organic food and Trader Joe’s are now my friend! Yes, I have jumped on the organic train and currently loving it.

2. I’ve changed little things here and there (nothing too drastic too soon) so that these new habits are easier to hold onto once temptation comes my way. Sorry Mickey D’s but I’ve ended my love affair with your 10 piece chicken mcnugget meal. Next up, Jack In The Box ultimate cheeseburgers. I’ve had a few of those in the past few weeks (they taste so good at the end of a Saturday night!), but slowly cutting fast food chains out of my routine has worked instead of all out banning them.

On the flip side, I’ve also accepted that it’s ok to have some balance and eat that slice of pizza. If you’re like me, and you’ve had this type of diet where frozen food, fast food, and plate lunches (OMG. Loco Moco Drive Inn is my fave!) were a regular part of it, it’s hard to retrain your brain (and your body) to like vegies and whole wheat bread. So go ahead and have that slice of pizza on the weekend. Just don’t make it an excuse to binge or go into a downward spiral.

3. Vegetables and carbs are my friends. Yes, vegetables. And complex carbs, that is. None of this white bleached flour stuff. Wheat bread or wheat based pasta. I eat that stuff up like crazy! They’re not only good for you, but they help to fuel my runs.

4. I eat breakfast. Mothers always tell you this. All the health books do, and the occasional 6 o’clock news will mention it in some recent study. Eat breakfast. It’s made a world of difference in my energy level and I use it as a tactic to get my metabolism going.

5. I sleep. Now, this was one of the hardest habits to break – and I still struggle with it. Earlier last month I was averaging 3 – 5 hours of sleep a night. I was ridiculously productive, but was very unhealthy and unhappy. This is kind of like number four where everyone and their mother knows the awesomeness that sleep can provide for you. But does anyone really listen or practice this? I made myself start to get 5 – 7 hours of sleep a night and the results were really mind blowing. Now if I can only up that to 6 – 8 hours a night…

I used to think that if I started to really care about what I put into my mouth versus just eating what I wanted, I’d be controlled by what I ate or didn’t eat. Or that if I didn’t work all the time, the world would end. Well, it didn’t. And starting to be particular about what I eat hasn’t turned me into someone who’s obsessed over body image or pants size. If anything, it’s given me the confidence to not worry if I’m a size 1, 3, or 7. And I feel great.

I’ve written this blog because this whole running and trying to change my lifestyle to a more healthy one has become quite a big part of my life in such a short amount of time. I hope to write about more controversial topics regarding what I’ve come across, including why I feel our health care system is fixated with prescription drugs instead of trying to solve the root of the problem. I also want to look more into this whole holistic treatment for cancer patients. It has been a really interesting and insightful summer and I hope this lays the foundation for some really good blogs – and good running and good health.