Running on Plants

Running is great in so many ways it helps in reliving stress, engages your muscles and improves your overall health. It is also a very easy way to connect with nature and get up and move! But what you eat takes a huge part on how your running performance will be.  For some it may seem IMPOSSIBLE to run and not eat meat because WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR PROTEIN?! Well actually it is really simple you just have to be eating healthy carbohydrates, getting the proper protein and hydrating yourself ! BUT WHERE DO I GET IT FROM? Is a very easy question to answer! As a runner who follows a vegan lifestyle I will be sharing my favorite foods to eat the night before, in the morning and after a run/race.                                                                            













Dinner // night before a race/run

The night before I like to have something with lots of carbohydrates and protein. So I like to have a lentil soup with veggies and potatoes in it. Also a sweet potato with rice and lettuce is a great way to carb up the night before!

Breakfast // before a race/run

 In the morning I first like to drink a glass of lemon water. To eat I like to have a bowl of oatmeal with chia seeds, frozen blueberries, cashews and a little bit of almond milk.  I usually eat an hour and a half before running just so my digestion can take it but if I get a little bit more hungry I usually have dried fruit and nuts. While running it is good to pack small snacks in a little bag  just to have whenever you feel like your energy is running low.

Also having a bowl of fresh fruit or a smoothie before a run/race serves as a great light snack.

Lunch // Post race / run

After a race/ run it is very important to fuel your body because you just burned off a lot of calories that you need to restore. I sometimes like to have the same thing I had for dinner or I like to have a huge bowl of pasta with frozen veggies and spinach. Or also Brown rice with leafy greens and a Japanese sweet potatoes.

Hydrating yourself: Drink lots of water, coconut water or ( add lemon, blueberries, raspberries, mint leaves) or anything you want into your water to change things up and get even more beneficial nutrients.

Snacks: Lara bars, cliff bars, fresh fruits, dried fruits and nuts or even an acai bowl after a run/race.

Raspberry Oatmeal

This Raspberry Oatmeal is a great sweet yet nutritious breakfast that helps start your day in a good way.

Ingredients

Oats

Water or Almond milk

Blueberries

Rasberries

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Directions

1. Put the water or almond milk on the stove until it begins to slightly boil
2. add in the oats and let them cook for about 8 minutes
3. Once the oats are done cooking, let them cool down for 3 minutes
4. Serve in a bowl and add raspberries and blueberries (or really anything you want to add)

Decolonize Your Diet

Decolonize Your Diet is great book written by Luz
Calvo and Catriona R. Esquibel, it talks about how we as
a modern day society who live off of fast food restaurants, unhealthy fats and American based foods can
start to decolonize our diets and eat a more healthy way.
It shows us what health foods our ancestors would eat
hundred of years back and how we can recover to eat that
way once again. It shows healthy, vegetarian Mexican
foods (that also include some vegan foods). From the
publishers description it says: "They promote a diet rich in plants indigenous to the Americas (corn, beans, squash, greens, herbs, and seeds), and are passionate about the idea that Mexicans and Latinos/as living in the US and Canada need to ditch the fast food and return to their own culture's food roots for both physical health and spiritual fulfillment." 

I love how this book shows how food is the key
to health and how sacred it is for us. It teaches
us ways to make food taste so amazing by using
ingredients that are good for us. Following a
plant-based lifestyle has never been easier!

      
                                                                                                  
  Photos from their website: 
http://decolonizeyourdiet.org