With all the live races that have been canceled due to the Covid-19 and virtual races popping up in their places, I thought it would be a good time to focus on our eating habits to become a better runner. So many of our friends and families have been gaining weight during this time due to stress eating. Runners are not immune to weight gain, especially if we are not focused on a goal race to train for. I will share two strategies that I used to help me become a faster, more focused runner. I will also introduce you to Gabrielle Cruiess a mother of a 11 year old son, who just began to take up running in order to keep up with him. 

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Many of my listeners and readers already know that I’m really big into the practice of intermittent fasting. I believe that you cannot outrun a bad diet, so just because I fast don’t give me a license to kill all the food in sight. I found that breaking my fast with real food sources, running, and having shortened eating windows during the day works like a charm. The beautiful thing is that it doesn't cost you hundreds of dollars a month on supplements to obtain your goals. The two eating strategies that I am finding very beneficial are the Whole30 method and Paleo. Let’s go over each of them briefly.  

The Whole30 program is essentially an elimination diet that removes certain foods from your diet for 30 days. During the 30 days, you avoid sugar, alcohol, legumes, grains, dairy, and other foods that are considered inflammatory in order to “reset” your body. (

A Paleo Diet typically includes lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds — foods that in the past could be obtained by hunting and gathering. A paleo diet limits foods that became common when farming emerged about 10,000 years ago. These foods include dairy products, legumes, and grains.

Similarities:

To bring down inflammation in the body by avoiding legumes, dairy, grains, and sugar.

Whole food fucus

Encourages home-cooked meals 

Differences:

Whole30 is a strict 30-60 day process.

With Whole30 you cannot have any sweetness of any sort including natural sweetness like maple syrup or honey

With Whole30 you would also have to refrain from all alcohol.

Paleo is a more everyday lifestyle approach. Paleo has more wiggle room. You may have the natural sweetness maple syrup and honey. You may have some good quality organic wine. You can find more snack options when at the grocery store. I enjoy ordering from Thrive Market, both Whole30 and Paleo approved snacks to make things easy on myself. (Check out Thrive and get $25 off your order)

Which should I do?

That is a personal decision, but of course, I will give you my suggestion. I recommend that everyone should do at least one round of Whole30 in their lifetime. To reset your digestive system and truly see which food groups affect you the most. Upon noticing that grains for example really fired up your cravings all day and upset your stomach; then you may choose to only have them sparingly or not at all. Upon completing a round of Whole30, I think transitioning to a Paleo lifestyle may keep your running engines clean and running smoothly.

How will this help my running?

Eating in this way will improve your overall mental health. There are a ton of non-scale victories associated with eating real food, unprocessed diet. Better sleep, mental focus, mental clarity, better mood, more energy, less inflammation, less pain in joints and so much more. All of these benefits and we haven’t even talked about the weight loss, it is no wonder our running improves. My best one-mile test has always come during a month of Whole30. I’m almost 46 years old and I turned in a one-mile time of 6:58 for the mile recently. I never imagined a sub-7-minute mile before. It is my goal to Whole30 like a routine oil change for my body. (Every 3 months or 300 miles of running, lol) In between time, I would like to practice Paleo lifestyle five or six days per week. This would allow me one day or so per week to enjoy some of life’s pleasure like an ice cream cone with my son on a hot summer day.

Three of my favorite books for you to read would be;

Whole30 Day by Day Cookbook

Whole30 Quick and Easy Cookbook

What, When, Wine!

All three books can be purchased right from our Morning Motivation Readlist page.

Remember, you are the captain of your own ship. If you need help and support, please sign up for our Online Accountability Group to help you stay focused on all your health goals. 

Meet Gabrielle Cruiess

Gabrielle signed up for our new 8-week program that started on June 2nd, 2020. Her goal is to run her first 5k on July 26th, 2020. Gabby signed up two weeks prior to her class actually started, and ran one mile on her own. Gabby’s time was over fourteen minutes for that mile. Gabby trained with us for two weeks and when her class started on June 2nd, she took her official mile test and she already is showing improvements by turning in a time of 13:53 for the mile. Great job Gabby. I asked Gabby; 

Coach: Why are you taking up running at this point and time?

Gabby: To be healthy for my son Michael, who has me running all over the place. I also want to keep up with my nieces. 

Coach: You seem to have this bounce to you and I want to teach you to conserve your energy in order to run your mile straight or not have a problem with your run, walk, run intervals. Where does that bounce come from?

Gabby: When I was younger, I used to run everywhere. You couldn’t stop me from running to wherever I had to go. So now I’m really excited to begin my running journey again. Thank you, Coach! 

Coach: Well, thank you Gabby for choosing us to be a part of your journey. We look forward to seeing your improvements week after week!

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Thank You - Coach Tadris 

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