What Runners Eat

(Cross posted with runwithem.wordpress.com) Same writer different blog.

Training for a marathon, you must have a system in place to make sure you’re getting enough food and water in. Part of that is knowing exactly what you need to be eating to help your body recover from each run and get ready for that grueling run. Most people, work out to lose weight or stay fit. If you’re training for a marathon, you’re going to lose weight at some point. (not guaranteed) Your main focus is muscle recovery so your muscles build up.

“I suggest marathoners and half-marathoners do a reality check on their nutrition with a site or app that gives them a nutrition report card. People swear they’re eating enough nutrients but aren’t—it’s a surprise for a lot of people,” ( Jeff Galloway, a former Olympian and the author of Marathon: You Can Do It.)

Part of muscle recovery and build up is to help endurance and tolerance for longer runs. That’s the main reason why each and every training plan has gradual build up in runs weekly. Yesterday I couldn’t figure out what to eat before my run so I made steak and scrambled eggs with 2 slices of bread.

My idea was that protein helps muscles but I also need to remember that carbs are necessary for exercising. That doesn’t give us permission to sit down and binge eat pasta. There are several different kinds of carbs that give you good nutrients. You want to be eating complex carbs such as whole grains, fresh and dried fruit, vegetables, and brown rice. For more information on exactly what you should eat, check out this article: What to Eat if You’re Training for a Marathon

All of this is very overwhelming especially for somebody that is just starting out but it’s important to focus and get it right! Don’t let your frustration get in the way of proper recovery and nutrition. Do not forget that just because you’re burning all those calories doesn’t mean you can use that as an excuse to drink 10 margaritas and eat those oil laced fries from your local fast food joints.

Pyro and Trek

The new best friends!

Hi Mommy

Trek in his sweater

No Longer Active

I’ve moved my blog back onto my own website. so please, if you enjoy reading this blog continue to read on but at my personal domain:

blogs.withem.co/

My blog posts will continue to increase however lately I’ve been busy so please bear with me! I’ll get back to writing regularly again.

Thanks!

GMAT Waiver

GMAT is one of the biggest barriers in applying for a MBA program or even some general business programs. It’s not that we can’t test or practice. It’s that we can’t afford the 250 dollars that it costs to pay for the test and GMAC has come up with a solution for this problem. The only issue is finding the right person within the school and getting them to write a email to GMAC for the 10 waivers each school is eligible to receive.

Right now, I’m on the phone with RIT and I have gone from the admissions office to the GMAT testing center to the financial aid office to now the business department. If you’re applying to any MBA program, and can’t afford the testing fees, be persistant. People are wanting students to go into their program and they want a wider range of choices and if this means requesting fee waivers from GMAC, they will do it.

At RIT, the person to contact is  Heather, For privacy reasons I will not include last name but the general expectation is that they will ask that you send them an e-mail in essay form detailing why you need to waiver and how you plan to pay for business school after the waiver, looking for assistance at any given school, contact the business department. I would bet you the rest of the school has NO idea what you are talking about.

It’s important to understand that not everybody will get the waiver. I don’t even know if I will, after all I’m already pursuing another masters degree and right now I’m not sure how many students have applied for the fee waiver. Just ask, it never hurts to ask and remember that if you receive assistance, be grateful and appreciative because not everybody will get the assistance they need.

Facebook Privacy Concerns

As we all know, Facebook isn’t the place to have any privacy but we still worry about who can see what on our wall and so forth. Honestly, why should we care about who can see what, kind of a funny question coming from someone that doesn’t want xyz to see her wall or comments she makes on other peoples wall. It’s a matter of pride and a sense of privacy. It’s a false sense but who knows what it means to some of us.

Maybe we should learn how to not include information on our Facebook wall that we don’t want anybody to know or only want a select few to know. I suppose that’s why I don’t post about my feelings and how I’m crying tonight about spilt milk or about issues that I’m being faced with. That’s something we as individuals need to decide, how much information we want on the internet. As part of being a writer, I’ve decided that my life is really a open book.

Part of this being true is me writing a book called Truth and Lies. It’s a book full of stories. These stories are partially true and partially false but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a personal tale. Everything we write is personal to us even though it might not seem that way to other people. How much information do we want the generic population to know about us and what do we do about concealing the rest? Before I continue, one of the biggest things we at this place in time and the digital age need to know and remember is: everything we do is being recorded. Even though we might not think that’s true, it is.

Here’s how:

1. Everything we say on our blog is put online.
2. All of our comments to family and friends on Facebook is online.
3. All of our twitter comments are online.
4. Our pictures that we store online are online.
5. All information that we store on our computers are accessible from the internet.
6. Any and all of our bills are accessible online.
7. Our birth dates are available online this also includes marriage information and even death certificates.
8. Our Social Security numbers are online!

That’s only the beginning of what’s online. The internet is information overload and one day, it’ll explode in our face. As somebody that posts drunk pictures online, you’ll probably have a hard time getting a job at a reputable firm 5 years down the road because those pictures are never truly deleted.

Telling your brother to “fuck off” on Facebook is another way that employers will get to know you, obviously the statement you have put in your resume as somebody that handles difficult situations well is false because you’ve resorted to swearing on the internet to your brother over something that appears minor to them.

Pick and choose how you spend your time online and be wise about it. So now, privacy issues on Facebook don’t seem so important do they? Just remember, post only what you want people to know.

KB Homes

There’s a company here in Tucson that sells houses mostly in communities. It seems to be the only way around here to have a personally designed home (to a point). As a resident in one of their houses, let me tell you a few things. But first I want to share something that was seen today. There was a man standing at the corner right next to the sales office. The community here is still being built and some of the houses are beautiful until you live in them. He had this sign that says, “Don’t buy from KB Homes, ask me why.” I could kind of already figure out why but I wanted to hear what he had to say.

It’d be a lie to say that I had expected to hear everything he said based on what I had seen living in this house but wow, some of the stuff he shared was pretty shocking especially since this is supposed to be built by a corporation but then again remember, we’re in a crappy economy so many companies are starting to cut corners just to make money. It’s starting to show in some of the handiwork that’s around here. After hearing what he had to say, I just said one thing, “You should include that HOA fees don’t actually go towards maintenance because I have yet to see any.” He laughed and nodded his reaction was that they are crap.

This particular community I live in, their HOA fees are crap. It doesn’t matter that you pay for HOA, they don’t do anything. While HOA isn’t directly related to the company that builds these houses, it’s just another reason for people not to buy houses in this community. It’s a nice community, people here are nice, and it seems like people care but there are some particular houses with overgrown weeds, people park in the streets, and don’t care about leaving trash out. The first week I moved in, we cleaned our yard because it’s what we read in our HOA rules and we have, since then, seen houses with trash in the front, their yards are not taken care of, and I can smell the landfill.

Some of the things included shingles flying off when it rains, lying about the landfill closing within 2-3 years (it has been 5) and some other things having to do with the structure of the house. It’s sad when companies mislead you but that’s part of the marketing tools they have, the ability to persuade buyers and then leaving them high and dry. Keep in mind, these house are no older than five years and they’re already experiencing structure problems within the house and they also have the water pipes go above the house, what do you think happens when they break?