Menus, Marathon and Muscle

Okay, technically I'm not giving you menus, but the word recipe did not fit the alliteration! Over the weekend I batch cook to save myself time during the week. If you do not currently do this, I highly recommend it. It take just a couple hours at the most and I have one time mess up and one time clean up of my kitchen. Everything else is just heat and eat for the week.

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I make enough of this casserole for 4 dinners for myself. The recipe is a single serving.

4 oz. ground turkey cooked
1/4 cup cooked brown rice
tsp. Jalapeno
1 TBSP each fresh cilantro and chopped red onion
1 crushed garlic clove
1 red bell pepper (chopped)
1/2 a large zucchini (chopped)
1 oz. mexican cheese mix

In a casserole dish mix all the ingredients together, except the cheese. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the casserole. Cover with foil to keep cheese from getting crunchy and hard. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 - 25 minutes.

Originally this recipe was for a stuffed bell pepper with grilled zucchini on the side. But, I was out of bell peppers one night and I had jarred roasted red bell peppers. I like the creation so well, I have been making it like this every since. This reheats wonderfully.
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The other dish I made was a baked egg white and soy sausage casserole. This is not complicated at all and saves me tons of time.

I usually have 4 egg whites and one whole egg every morning with 2 oz. or soy sausage. I use Morning Star Sausage Crumbles. Would love to show you a picture, but again, picture issues. I make enough of this casserole for 4 breakfasts.

16 egg whites
8 oz. of sausage crumbles

Yep, that is it. Mix them together. Pour into a baking dish that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray and bake for approx. 8 minutes and then stir with a fork and then bake for another 8 - 10 minutes. I like for mine to resemble scrambled eggs and sausage. Sometimes I add a cup of chopped spinach to this mixture. When I come in from a run, I put 1/2 cup of cooked sweet potato into a bowl (cubed or diced), 1 serving of this mixer on top of the sweet potato and then I heat it in the microwave. While it is heating I make one whole egg over easy and put on the very top. Chop it up and mix it all together! The yoke makes a creamy sauce all over the sweet potato and is so yummy!!!! I actually crave this dish!

My marathon training is going really well. My long run this week will be 11 miles and it doesn't feel hard. I'm able to run four days a week this time. When I trained for my half marathon I could only run three days a week without feeling tired and run down all the time. This time I am feeling more fit and strong and my body is holding up well. One thing I have found to be true, is that my days of rest and recovery are a vital part of training. I have been kinda over doing it these past two weeks with the Zumba 3 nights a week, running 4 times a week and weight lifting 3 times a week. I started having little pesky cold symptoms and feeling run down. These are classic signs of over training. This happened in the last month of my half marathon training and I ended up with pleurisy and bronchitis. Luckily I recovered quickly and continued with my training. Since I still have 7 weeks of training before my half marathon and another 4 weeks after that until my marathon, it is important that I head the signs of over training and take some things out of my activity and put some things in.

I will not be taking Zumba on a regular basis while I am training. I will drop in on a class as time and energy allow. I will be adding more rest and recovery time. Additionally, I am focusing very diligently on my nutrition and hydration.

Although I love running and my training is going great, I have decided that this will be my only marathon experience. The training required makes it hard for me to focus on my muscle development. Since I do not have the healthiest knees, my running future is limited, but I could continue to lift weights until the day I die. I have a more muscular build and don't really see myself as a runner. I consider myself a weight lifter who runs.

As long as my body will allow me, I will keep running, but my distances will be shorter and my over all weekly miles will be smaller.

I just realize today, that when I run my next half marathon, it will mark the one year anniversary of me starting the Couch to 5K running program! In just over a year since starting running, I will have ran two half marathons and one full marathon. Wow! What a difference a year makes.

I wanted to include some new bikini pictures this week. I am feeling so much better about them this week. We are going to The Dunes in Michigan City, IN this weekend and I am wearing my bikini in public!!!! I am so excited! It's not that I think I have a killer body, but I am confident in how I feel in my bikini and find it quite liberating to be comfortable in my own skin!

I know this one is blurry, but I love that my muscles are starting to show in my back!

I have purposely not posted any 'before' weeks comparison pictures at this time. Each week my body is changing. Each week how I relate to food, exercise and my body change. I cannot continue to compare myself to past weeks pictures any more than I would want to compare my body to the body of another woman. This is me today. I feel good in my new swimsuit and I like the way my body is looking and feeling today. In a couple weeks, I may do a twelve week split screen picture.

I am so ready for the beach!