Random Fitness Thought for the Day

Did you know that what you eat really affects your exercise performance? I didn't take that seriously till lately.. For a while I'll admit that I felt like since I ran all the time that I could eat pretty much whatever. It wasn't until I had baby #2 that I realized how much of what I eat affects the way I exercise! Because I breastfeed I eliminated dairy since the little man gets pretty fussy whenever I eat it, so finding snacks to munch on during the day (since nursing makes you constantly hungry) was a challenge! For the past two months I've been incorporating a ton of veggies to snack on during the day, a few of you probably see my random yellow squash and kale chip pictures on facebook, haha. As much as I miss dairy, especially pizza and icecream, I feel a lot healthier and better as a whole and my running has improved since then even though I'm not completely up to my distance where I was before I had the baby. But considering it's only been a little more than two months and I am running, even sprinting, like before, I am happy with it.

Yesterday I made brownies and I had a BIG one. =/ I couldn't resist since I put extra chocolate chips in them. Normally it's not a big deal but this morning when I went for my run, my body completely dragged. I had read articles on how eating bad stuff, like extra sugar, high fructose corn syrup etc, can affect how you exercise, and now I know it's true. I pushed myself and made it through my run and feel great now but I probably won't be splurging on brownies anymore as much. I don't really agree with obsessively eating healthy 24/7, I think you should reward yourself once in a while and indulge smartly but just from today, I want to make that conscious effort to continue eating healthy and snacking healthy because I like the feeling of running and doing other workouts when I'm energized instead of getting that dragging-feeling. Just like those Olympians from these past two weeks, it takes years of practice and eating right to get those bodies and to run that fast or be that amazing gymnast.

Anyway, a lot of you probably don't care much about this topic, which is why I titled this RANDOM fitness thought, haha, but I think it's important to consider. =)

Enjoy your weekend!!