Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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endurance diet (book review)

Hey friends, happy Motivation/ Marathon Monday! This week I have an on-topic book for you to consider: The Endurance Diet by Matt Fitzgerald.

I’ve been lauding it on Facebook and Instagram for a few weeks, and my husband and friends have endured (get it?) my overflowing commentary since reading it. Thought it was time to begin laying out my thoughts.

Whether you are…

  • a long distance runner or other type of endurance athlete,
  • a curious exerciser who wants to finally figure out the nutrition part of the wellness puzzle,
  • an exhausted dieter who is pretty much DONE with diet culture,
  • or someone who lives with and loves such a person,

…you have a lot to gain from reading this slim book.  

First, let’s clarify that despite its title this book is not really a “diet book,” not in the traditional trendy fad/ quick weight loss/ make some money and sell some protein shakes kind of way. It’s all science and anthropology. Just a smart collection and analysis of best practices, eating habits that have coincidentally been working well for the world’s most successful endurance athletes. The author is a professional running coach and sports nutritionist and early on takes great pains to explain his research process. I groove this.

I stumbled onto The Endurance Diet by accident. During those weeks I was injured and taking a frustrated break from running, I listened to a podcast about dealing with and preventing injuries like mine, and the author happened to be the guest that day. He and the host just grabbed my attention. They dovetailed into a conversation about eating well to support the hard work of training, and how the elites do it all. I listened raptly, took notes between ironing my husband’s shirts, and once the book was mentioned, excitedly ordered it. Paperback, so I could write notes in it, because Know thyself, right? Ha.

As soon as the book arrived in our turquoise mailbox I cracked it open and could scarcely put it down until the final page. It was a pleasant, head-nodding read, largely I think because of the variety in each chapter. Fitzgerald mixes an array of instruction and bullet points, scientific explanation, personal anecdotes, and case studies about actual endurance athletes from all around the globe. That last part was so much fun. I got a big kick out of learning little bits abut other cultures’ food options, morning drink rituals, native grains and farming traditions, etcetera. Fascinating stuff. As I read the stories about other people’s experiences (injury and recovery, weight gain and how they fixed it, depletion versus vitality), deep thoughts and life lessons started clicking into place. I actually looked back at my old running journals and saw lots of similar observations. I noticed familiar lines about how certain modes of eating and exercising had made me feel and perform, both the good and the bad. It was all highly relatable.

OKC marathon 2015, aka “The Crying Games” because my body had revolted against my combination of dieting for weight loss and marathon training. Look at my sweet friends.

This is a point worth stressing: The fact that a below-average exerciser like me can glean the same wisdom offered to elite competitors is cool. Fitzgerald writes repeatedly that what is good for the highest level athlete is also good for most people’s general health and well being. These are not extreme-condition pieces of advice. I love that.

One of the most valuable themes throughout The Endurance Diet is the gentle pressing of a positive food ethos. The inside-out importance of seeing food as not only fuel (of course it is) but also pleasure and a means of connection (of course it is!). The key ingredient, he teaches, is trusting your own body and its complex regulating systems, which, once healed from misuse, will always be more reliable than any external plan or set of rules.

This articulation has been a long time coming for me. I don’t think I have had an eating disorder, not truly, but I have for years tortured my mind and body with negative thinking and unsustainable rules. If this book has had a single measurable benefit for me, it could simply be escape from calorie counting once and for all. I’ll keep you posted.

So. I am not pushing a “diet to lose weight” book onto my friends. Pinky promise. I am suggesting a book aimed at relearning the power of natural nutrition for endurance sports and the amazing (almost magical) ways our own bodies can regulate and heal themselves. I’m really excited to have found a simpler way to view this part of the big wellness puzzle and am hopeful that I can take another stab at long distance running without making those weird mistakes I made in 2015.

Okay. If you’re still with me, here are some specific takeaways:

The book offers habits, not rules, and just 5 of them:

  1. Eat everything.
  2. Eat quality.
  3. Eat carb-centered.
  4. Eat enough.
  5. Eat individually.

The book reinforces the myriad benefits of a good cardiovascular exercise program, whether you are a competitive athlete, an “age-grouper,” or a health-conscious human being:

  1. reduces body fat levels
  2. strengthens the heart
  3. improves circulation
  4. helps the body absorb and adapt to stress
  5. improves metabolic efficiency
  6. sharpens the nervous system
  7. boosts muscular fatigue resistance

The book identifies “endurance super foods,” though the author balks at such labels. The list of 22 items was accessible, too, plus affordable. I feel so grateful to naturally crave good-for-you nourishment!  Seventeen of the foods already make constant rotation here in our kitchen, and only one of these 22 foods was foreign to me, Teff.

  1. almonds
  2. bananas
  3. beets
  4. black beans
  5. brown rice
  6. cherries
  7. coffee
  8. corn
  9. eggs
  10. garlic
  11. olive oil
  12. peanut butter
  13. potatoes
  14. red wine
  15. salmon (or lox)
  16. spinach
  17. sweet potatoes
  18. tea
  19. Teff
  20. tomatoes
  21. tuna
  22. yogurt

Every part of the book makes a big deal out of individualizing your plan, listening to your own body daily, and honoring your actual daily needs, personal chemistry, happiness, and health above and beyond any external motivations. This is huge. I appreciate this so much, as it is something my husband and I (and recently some good friends) had already been discussing for months.

I mentioned the exciting possibility that this book may have nudged me once and for all away from calorie-counting. What the author offers as a stand-in might be of interest to you, though I actually feel relaxed and informed enough now to move forward without it: Fitzgerald separates foods into “high-quality” and “low-quality” and then into sub-categories for each. From there he offers a scoring system that helps you evaluate your daily eats then zero in on ways to make smart substitutions. He sells a phone app, if you’re interested, too. Each food group is worth up to 2 points depending on how often you eat it that day, and the maximum score is something like 28.

High-quality Foods:

  1. Vegetables
  2. Fruits
  3. Nuts, seeds, & oils
  4. Unprocessed meats & seafood
  5. Whole grains
  6. Dairy

Low-Quality Foods, largely made popular during the Industrial Era:

  1. Refined grains
  2. Sweets
  3. Processed meats
  4. Fried foods

(You know, if I continue sharing all of my many notes, this review will end up being longer than the book itself. Ha.)

If you are a long-distance runner, swimmer, or cyclist and this topic is interesting to you, I highly encourage you to read this book. A lot of the content seems like common sense, and Fitzgerald himself admits that; but it is gathered in a compelling way and is supported by all kinds of satisfying explanation.

I feel so refreshed to understand now precisely why certain efforts have failed. I feel excited to test out less dieting and more intuitive eating. Motivated to view my food as absorption for challenging workouts.

I will check back in after a month or so of this effort and let you know how I feel. In the midst of it all I am training for a trail half marathon, too, so I am really happy about the prospect of feeling great during these coming weeks. (Upcoming post on injury recovery and some little things that have helped!)

Gotta go. Thanks so much for sticking it out through a super long book review! If you read The Endurance Diet, let me know what you think!

“…but in the real world, the healthiest and fittest people,
including elite endurance athletes, follow a few basic rules of eating
and let the details take care of themselves.”
~Matt Fitzgerald
XOXOXOXO

 

looking around to improve your perspective

Yesterday afternoon I stumbled into the weirdest funky mood. It lasted maybe 90 seconds and had the effect of a low, dark cloud crawling meanly across an otherwise brilliant sky. It was so distinct and forceful that it literally stopped me in my tracks. I was walking downhill toward the vegetable garden and paused, looked around like maybe I heard something behind me? Klaus stopped too and crooked his head to wait for my next step. His face and the green lawn and a few other beautiful things reminded me that I was home. That the moment was good and the context was magical. 

I’m grateful for awareness when my perspective is shifted negatively and for the power to bring it back to center. It’s often just a small exercise of noticing physical beauty, then maybe indulging in the quiet, inner messages some of them bring:

Fallen tree branches that resemble antlers. I cannot resist collecting them and inserting them into every flower pot, and it gets me thinking of the hundreds of patterns in nature, in the universal patterns of the human experience, from one generation to the next.

A stout gray and white horse who loves to scratch the hollow of his chin against every T-post on the farm. Oh Dusty, I love you.

That weird but pleasant summertime fragrance combination of latex paint, sweet clover, and manure, all warmed by the sun and stirred by the breeze. It’s just nice.

Watching our German Shepherd (I can no longer in good conscience call him a puppy) and our llama play together like little boys. Remembering the girls when they were little and prone to indulging in “Mud Monster” afternoons. Dreaming of their futures. Watching the dog and llama again, best friends on the muddy edge of the pond. 

The pond is still so high! Exceeding its banks, our own small lake, all these weeks after the heavy rain. Grace is abundant. We are fattened by it.

Walking around the bee hives, seeing the Honeymakers float and parade near their respective porches. Each colony is so unique, and all three of them are so entrancing. This is an endless metaphor.

Raking up great, thick, heavy clods of crabgrass, recently tilled, and shaking loose the dirt. Looking up just enough to visualize the food that will soon be growing here.

Checking for the day’s newly laid eggs, having to gently lift each hen to find them. Feeling the warm, sticky film on eggs that stay in the nests, waiting to hatch. Learning to trust the life cycle without counting chicks too early.

The lingering smell of marigold blossoms and arugula, the rough texture of kale, the jewel toned petunias and geraniums near the kitchen door. Oh man I had the best Grandpa…xoxo

Neatly pruned trees that had once been a chaotic black jack grove. Peace and strength that have brought some order to a fearful heart. Order and more beauty.

Frozen things are long thawed, mountains are moving, fear is losing once again to Love.

“Most people think it takes a long time to change. It doesn’t. Change is immediate! Instantaneous! It may take a long time to decide to change…but change happens in a heartbeat!”
~Andy Andrews in The Noticer
XOXOXOXO

home sweet home

That last morning we rose to a gentle cell phone alarm, dressed quickly in still wet swim suits and cover ups, and scrambled across to the beach for an even gentler sunrise.

It’s the exact opposite of a mountain-enclosed sunrise, in that it begins ahead of schedule and is far from shy. That far south, dawn illuminates everything with concentric rings of glowing pastels, not unlike what we love so much at home.

The sky above us was ice blue, and the sky that drew our gaze- all the way to the razor edge horizon- was now stacked with intense pink and lilac, no longer stormy grays from the day before. The moon still hung smooth and silver over the fishing pier. Just barely less than half full.

The waters were evenly choppy, calmish, a brilliant metallic blue. Sparkling. Again, not unlike our pond at home lately. What few waves cropped up in little crescendos managed to strike flashing moments of gold in the blooming daylight.

We fed the birds again and walked barefoot once more on the damp, pliable sand. We inhaled the salty air and scanned the bay for our shark friend. I felt that familiar mix of emotions tied to leaving a place you love to return to a place you love. We had just done this a few days before.

A little while later, dispensing hotel coffee into my Styrofoam cup, I thought of buttered grits with salt and pepper, of dense, creamy scrambled eggs and warm watermelon. Chicory coffee and the smell of powdered sugar and fresh pralines. Spicy shrimp scattered over excellent salad greens and sub-tropical potted greens exploding from every iron balcony. Live music and unbridled artistic expression, crooked sidewalks and smooth carved statues, some of them now removed.

Then I thought of our beautiful farm and even better coffee. And my own wild gardens and that upstairs closet full of recently edited artwork that wants to see the light of day again. I thought of our animals and our family, of Mother’s Day and summertime and new adventures on the horizon.

I thought of Colorado sunrises and a certain artist who enjoys them.

This morning I woke to the strong fragrance and gurgling sounds of my own coffee machine. I felt my big, muscular, silky dog nuzzling my feet and growling in that early morning, contended way he does. We crept outside together to see the shimmering daybreak and feed the horses and chickens, explore the gardens again, and play an early round of fetch.

Our own Big Easy, our own beachy sky, our own home base thrumming with all the Love we have cultivated.

And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
XOXOXOXO

 

greek relish (quick cheap & easy)

Do you ever crave something that’s cold and salty, tangy and juicy, something with a bite to it but also some delicateness, maybe a grassy freshness, something that will fill you up but not bring along a thousand calories? And while you could always use more veggies, you have already eaten enough actual salads that day, so how about something different?

Me too. Frequently. And I have a suggestion for you.

I realize this barely counts as a recipe. It’s just an excellent combination of average ingredients, really, and likely not too original. But I stumbled on this edible pleasure last Friday and wanted to share. I also want to document it for myself so that on some hungry, salt-craving, fresh-food needing summer afternoon this “recipe” might pop up and make me happy all over again.

Let’s call it “Greek Relish” or maybe “Grain-Free Tabloueh” or just “Olive Salad,” whatever you fancy.

It’s just green and black olives mixed with tomatoes and cucumber, a couple of flavor helpers (garlic, black pepper, oregano, and fresh parsley), all chopped up and refrigerated for a while. Easy peasy.

I ate mine greedily stuffed inside whole wheat pita bread, and it was perfect. Had it been diced more finely it would have made a really great dipping salsa for those tortilla chips.

I didn’t add any oils or dressings, just drizzled some of the green olives’ juice into the bowl (the black olives were drained).

All you need, just combine and chill:

  • 1 medium can black olives, drained & chopped
  • 1 similar sized jar of green olives, juice retained, chopped
  • 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 cucumber, chopped
  • half bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
  • oregano, black pepper to taste

This was fast and easy, delicious, satisfying, and inexpensive! Surely you could get a bit fancier and use kalmatta olives, sun-dried tomatoes, maybe feta cheese and grilled chicken breast, etcetera, but I love having pantry staple ideas like this in my back pocket. Craving killers that do not require trips to the grocery store.

I served this at an impromptu bonfire party we hosted last Friday and everyone who tried it loved it. I can’t wait to make this again.

Welcome to warm weather, cold food, easy eating, healthy season!!

Over and out!
XOXOXOXO

 

monday may first

How fun to begin a fresh, new month on a Monday. And what a gift that our Oklahoma skies are (at least temporarily) clear and blue, warm and friendly. This has been an auspicious beginning.

I spent most of today setting up for the rest of the week. It’s an easy-rhythm thing around the farm, every Monday, and I like it. Plenty from my list of good intentions remains unfinished, but I feel content and even a little drunk on tiny pleasures.

Honeybees exploring tomato blossoms near the kitchen door. Pacino chittering to the wild songbirds. Klaus, black and shining, panting, catching his breath after several exhaustive romps with Meh.

Our pond is higher than we’ve ever seen it, rippled by the stout afternoon breeze and glittering, really truly glittering and navy blue instead of muddied by clay It’s a welcome sight, as are the rolling green hills and soft, lush pine trees. 

Having neglected to collect eggs yesterday, today I found twenty-six! They are scrubbed clean and drying now on a thick towel on the kitchen counter. The smell of soap. I have this ever-expanding vision of supplying fresh edibles at a local market. A detail of this vision is inviting people to select their own eggs, taking home only the shell colors they like best. I have a large powder-coated basket and stack of empty cartons perfect for this fun. Until then I mix them up, tan and green and dark brown. ($3 per dozen, locals!)

As Handsome was driving home from the City, I sat on the kitchen patio and wrote and played some easy fetch with Klaus. The breeze was mostly cool, but sitting still in the afternoon sun baked my jeans against my shins and melted away some tension. Like a massage for my bones and my emotions. I stood up, stretched, and planted a new rose bush he had gifted me before bedtime last night.

I feel full and empty all at once, and I have stories stacking up inside me like hurried, disgruntled train passengers desperate to disembark at the perfect destination, heck any destination; but I can’t slow the train to let them exit safely.

Things I hope to tell you wonderful people this week:

  • All about the Listen to Your Mother event on Sunday. Wow. 
  • Some exciting running accomplishments from a few of my favorite humans.
  • The easiest non-recipe I have ever shared. I made it by accident last Friday.
  • My own running lately and a plan for May and June
  • Two books I read recently that you just might LOVE. Or hate. Your choice.
  • Bliss Lists!!
  • Even more about LTYM because I just had no idea what it would really be like. 

As we go about the first few days of this gorgeous new month, let’s urge each other to be grateful for the gifts we have and gentle to everyone who crosses our path. Let’s work really hard at our goals (more focus, smarter ingenuity) but also rest more often and luxuriate in what we have already accomplished. Best of all let’s take time (and help me remember this ok?) to sometimes not even think about those things. Just love our men and our dogs and our horses and gardens. Once in a while that has to be enough. And, because life is truly magical, it will make us stronger for the things we can’t do much about, after all.

See you soon, magical hard-working people.
XOXOXOXO