Did you see it??

Today was the big reveal by runDisney of the 2019 Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend medals! In case you missed it, you can see the medals and read the entire article on the Disney Parks Blog here.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of this event and I am so excited, both as a chef and as a runner, to be there. After an accident and having to cancel my solo trip back in the spring when I was supposed to run the Star Wars Rival Run Challenge, I have regrouped, healed and rescheduled my trip. I’m crazy excited for what will be both my first Wine & Dine runDisney event and my first 10k.

If that Olaf & Sven Frozen themed medal isn’t motivation for me, I don’t know what is. Maybe it’s the Canadian in me, but that icy finish on the medal…love it!

Ok, but to get that medal takes a lot of work on my part.

I’m not going to lie, it’s been 3 months of sloth recovering from my injuries, and I’ve put on 10 lbs, so I’ve got some work to do to get back in shape. Thankfully, my training has already begun.

Meal Prep

Two of the big issues for me when it comes to getting back on track and maintaining my optimal weight and fitness level, are portion sizes and making better food choices. Nothing helps me with this more than a little meal prep.

I don’t go crazy here. I’m not one of those people that worries about fats vs carbs vs protein, or weighing out each of my ingredients. Kudos to those that do, but I don’t. That just doesn’t work for me. So I do what does work..

I’ve found that spending a couple hours in the kitchen once a week (usually Sunday afternoons) doing meal preparation helps A LOT. My weekly staple prep items tend to be a sugar-free fruit compote (to mix with Greek yogurt or to top buckwheat pancakes), simple grilled vegetables and chopped raw veggies, salads for quick lunches, tuna burgers, and spinach egg muffins. These things are my go-to items that are almost always found in my refrigerator.

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Then I plan other items to add to the mix just to shake things up a bit every week to avoid boredom. Things like spinach vegetable quinoa cakes, pumpkin quinoa burgers, sweet potatoes topped with Buffalo chicken, or pesto vegetable pasta with roast chicken all add big flavour and keep me excited about food while not going overboard.

As long as its in the fridge and ready to go, I won’t linger in the kitchen and grab the wrong thing, or eat more than I should.

 

(Happy) Planning My Workouts

One thing I’ve discovered is if I write it down, I’m more likely to do it. And that includes workouts.

I schedule my workouts like I would a doctors appointment. I find mornings work best for me and scheduling three workout sessions per week works well. If I get in a couple more workouts or manage to get in some kind of physical activity with my family above and beyond that, great. But I find if I try to schedule more than three, I end up missing or cancelling those extra days when life gets crazy (or my kids make plans over my plans) and I end up frustrated. If I have an upcoming run, my three workouts tend to be runs as per my running plan (that’s discussed below). Otherwise, it’s three workouts of my choosing: a run, gym session, weights at home, running hills & stairs along the waterfront trail…whatever.

So, like meal prep, once a week I sit down and plan out the following week. I look at what appointments I have, what hours I have to work, where I have to be and when, and plan my three workouts to fit. I do all of this using fitness pages in my Happy Planner. I know to some this might seem silly, adding stickers and washi tape to a fitness planner, but for me it helps. I can add whatever sticker quotes I come across that help keep me motivated for whatever mood I’m in that week, or add a habit tracker sticker so I can track how many meals I’m NOT skipping, or how many meals I ate sugar-free. I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but it’s really helped me. Recording my workouts and seeing the results in writing (how many calories burned, miles I ran, or steps I put in) is incredibly rewarding and motivating for me, and formatting the pages ahead of time help keep me immersed in all things fitness.

As for the workouts themselves, I mix it up. If I have a marathon event on the horizon, I do try to follow the Jeff Galloway training plans on the runDisney site (you can find them here). I love the walk/run combination and have had good success with them for my past runs.

I also love Pilates and try to do a couple short sessions (20 minutes or so) each week to help build core strength, and I mix those up with a couple weight sessions. I have found these critical to proper form on my runs and in building speed.

Off and Running

Alright, so I’ve shared what works for me. What works for you? Do you use a food journal? An exercise log? What are your favourite meals to prep ahead?

Anyone else have a run coming up, runDisney or otherwise?