Fit Foodie 5K Austin Tweet Your Feet

Fit Foodie 5K: The Perfect Balance

Fit Foodie 5K Austin Tweet Your Feet

I obviously love to cook and eat. I mean, I write about food, don’t I? At the same time, I care about fitness and don’t want my love of the culinary world to override my health. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I exercise just so I can eat more, or that I work out to cancel out what I eat, BUT. I mean. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a factor. If I could genuinely stick to a 1,200 calorie diet of pure vegetables and grass-fed proteins every day, I probably wouldn’t work out an hour a day.

Lucky for me, I do genuinely enjoy running and lifting. I’ve started to appreciate exercise more the older I get – I find it to be a great mental as well as physical release. That’s why I was really excited when I heard about the Fit Foodie 5K – a race series geared around people who love eating and drinking!

The concept of the Fit Foodie was born out of the idea that a healthy lifestyle and delicious culinary experiences don’t have to be separate. Calories burned, calories earned, right?? Life is about balance and working hard so that you can indulge in those things that you are passionate about. When delicious food, working out, and good friends are all combined, it is a beautiful culmination of all that life has to offer.

This event started in San Diego in 2013 but it’s making three stops this year – Fairfax, Austin, and San Diego. Hosted by Cooking Light and Health, and featuring slogans like “Run. Eat. Drink.” and “Calories Burned, Calories Earned” I knew this was a run I could get behind. Plus, they have cool events surrounding the race itself, like a VIP cocktail party the night before and a rad-sounding finisher’s village complete with celebrity chef demos and beer & wine tastings. If you’re going to reward me with early morning wine, I will DEFINITELY run for you. I was planning on registering for the Austin run no matter what, but then Fit Foodie reached out and asked if I was interested in being an ambassador for the program – heck yes!

As an ambassador, I’m just spreading the word about this awesome race series annnd I also have a small bit of power – I have a discount code to share! If you use the code “ENDLESSSUMMER” (yes, summer, not simmer) when registering for the Austin 5K, you’ll get 10% off fees! And yes, there’s still time to register. For my fellow Austinites, the race is this Saturday, September 13. Or if you’re one of our Southern California ESers, you can register for the San Diego leg, which is happening in November.

ALSO! If you want to run this upcoming Saturday, I’m giving away two free registrations, good for the 5K itself (plus the finishers village etc.) and a Sunday morning yoga or bootcamp class! Keep your eyes on @endlesssimmer on Twitter to win. I’ll choose two people on Thursday morning. Cheers!

For more healthy recipes, cocktails, food travel, and restaurant reviews, check out ES Emily’s individual blog, A Time to Kale, or tweet her @emilyteachout.

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Running for Cheese

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As some of you know, over the last two years I have made an attempt to balance out my outrageous amount of pork belly consumption by training for a marathon. For the most part, I’ve used this as an excuse to eat as much food as I want to, but with the New York City Marathon just around the corner this weekend, I’ve actually been taking it easy on the eating and drinking front, trying to do the right thing for at least the week leading up to the race. So when I went to pick up my bib and other materials at the marathon expo yesterday, I was pleased to receive an “Insiders Guide” tucked in the official marathon “Start Village Bag.” It includes a nutrition section with lots of helpful tips about what to eat before the race. This one caught my eye:

For breakfast, a “great option is bread or a bagel with two ounce of Grana Padano.”

Oooh, what is this Grana Padano? Is this a new superfood I haven’t heard of, rich in antioxidants and run-fueling protein? Better make sure I get some before the run! The guide goes on:

After the race, “Good choices include salty soups, tomato juice, pickles, Grana Padano, and fresh fruit.” There are also three recipes for Grana Padano meals, along with a primer on how you should eat it while training: “mid morning: 1.5 ounce of Grana Padano and 1 sliced apple or pear….pre-evening run: 1 to 1.5 ounces of Grana Padano on 2 slices of whole-grain bread with sliced tomato…” and on and on and on. The best way to succeed at marathon running, according to this guide, is to eat Grana Padano morning, noon and night.

As you may have realized, Grana Padano is not a superfood, but merely a salty Italian cheese. Yes, according to this “insiders guide” the secret to succeeding at distance running is to eat cheese all effing day. Now, my first reaction was “what the eff have I been doing eating gross, chewy power bars, when cheese is actually the best thing for me?” My second reaction was: this is a scam.

Yes, I get that this is an advertisement. We have those here on Endless Simmer too. But here’s the thing: The New York City Marathon costs $266 for each runner to enter ($358 for foreign runners). It is actually called the “ING New York City Marathon” due to a lucrative sponsorship with a financial institution, and every inch of the race is covered in advertisements for various brands. Do they really, really need to accept advertisements (posed as editorial content) that tell runners to eat as much cheese as possible??

If I’m missing the point here, just let me know and I will gladly spend the next 48 hours cheese-loading.

Doing it Right: (Some) Marathoners Eat Like ES-ers, Too

Now that snebbu and I are “runners” or something, we’ve been thinking a lot about what we are supposed to eat in addition to drowning ourselves in beer after a race. We’ve already expressed how we hate endless food plans,  and I hate fitness fanatics who only eat grass and seeds. I’ve learned that a lot of hardcore athletes are afraid of fat—my ex-boyfriend would only eat egg whites, oatmeal, and sandwiches with no condiments or cheese. What’s the point of all that working out if it doesn’t let you eat like shit without consequences?

I think I’ve found my running idol. After 36-year-old Philadelphian Michael McKeeman won the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday, he went to Jake’s Sandwich Board, got the Turbacon Sandwich (Slow roasted whole turkey, cranberry-apple spread, smoky grilled bacon, savory brown gravy and crispy potato pancakes) with a Peanut Chew milkshake. For dinner? A bacon cheeseburger with two grilled cheese sandwiches as buns.

Be still my heart.

(Photo: Jake’s Sandwich Board)

Beer Runs: The 2013 Challenge

For some reason, I convinced snebbu and a few of our other, beer-loving friends to sign up for the Stoudt’s Distance Classic 12k on Halloween weekend. Stoudt’s happens to be one of our favorite breweries for a few reasons: highlights include its central PA location, plenty of older, beer-loving folks, and a free shuttle at most events from the brewery to all area hotels, which are usually around $50 a night. No college girls or heels here. We frequent their microfest and figured, why not do the 12k, especially if there’s a free pint glass and a beer at the end?

I should have known this was a bad idea by the words “Distance Classic” in the title, but I kind of thought it was a joke.  Unfortunately it was not. This 7.45-miler was a tad harder than expected; considering the race was, in my opinion, 80% uphill, including one hill that was 1.3 miles long, and 3/4 of the way my legs almost gave out just WALKING up. Also, the water stops didn’t have beer. Thankfully, we made atomic orange shirts to identify us as members of a fake organization, the FYAEA (Federation of Young Alumni Exploring America), which aided in search and rescue efforts.

Although I completed the race, was handed a loaf of bread at the finish line, and was given TWO free beers for coming in last (awesome), I felt defeated. But had there not been beer at the end, I would have given up at mile 2 and hitchhiked home. So,  I’ve come up with a challenge for myself, snebbu, our friends, and whoever else wants to join (YOU?): use beer to motivate yourself to run in 2013.  Run as many 5-10ks as possible in 2013, all of which are either a) at a brewery b) sponsored by some sort of liquor or c) involve free beer at the end. Not only will we a) be in shape b) be motivated and c) get a lot of free booze, I’m sure that many of these runs will raise money to benefit a cause other than my sobriety.

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Burns My Bacon: Endless Food Plans

Turns out that some of my friends and I have committed ourselves to a 12K Beer Run at the end of October (right, ML?) The end of the race includes a free micro-brewed beer.  So consider myself motivated for the next month or so.  I’m committed to the cause and it wouldn’t hurt to loose the poundage. Running’s part of the recipe—the other part: diet.

So I’ve hit the web looking for “running diets,” “low fat diets,” “running meal plans,” etc…  From there, I’d take the most common things in each “plan” or create a plan that I can follow that is healthy for me. Piece of cake. Of course there are some common themes, but I was looking for more specifics. Turns out that’s not the case.

Some plans say “eat more, weigh less,” others for running purposes say to load up on carbs, while others are just pretty damn ridiculous. Is it really that complicated? I feel like I could publish my own diet by making something crazy up and saying “eat the right fats and carbs and eat plenty of fruits and veggies.”  Eat 20 small meals per day (or maybe it was six?) Maybe running after drinking tons of beer is the key? Thanks for all of the help.