About the Food
Ok, so where to begin? I guess the beginning is the best place, and in this case the beginning of the blog is the title: ‘Good Food Running‘ – so why this name?
Well, 2 reasons really. First up, it’s made up of my 2 passions – you know, when people ask you what you love? In my case it’s good food and running! Simples!
Second, and linked to the first, I chose the name because it reminds me of the saying ‘You are what you eat’. Taking this literally, it seemed to me that it would be awesome to be literally a member of a community that was made up of good food running!
Oh, and it sounds a bit like Good Will Hunting! 😀
Seriously though, I believe that truly ‘good’ food for us runners should be food that tastes great and, at the same time, supports our fitness journey. So, I guess that will do as a definition!
Real-world runners
Oh, yeah – the tagline mentions that this blog is for ‘real-world runners’. I’m guessing that not too many of us are full-time athletes with an eye on the Olympics, living off a diet of white fish, steamed chicken and steamed veg, right?
Or that we are happy to live off a powdered diet (Huel, anyone?). Maybe it has a place as a supplement for people on the go. Maybe, but I prefer real unprocessed food – jeez, I like to chew my food, not suck it up! Except for smoothies, natch! Nothing worse than a chewy smoothie!
And, anyway, there is no need to live off powders because of a lack of time to cook!
I’m guessing that fellow ‘real-world runners’ don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen, when they could be out running, right? I got ya back on that one!
The recipes I share can either be made pretty quickly, or left to do their own thing in the oven/slow cooker while you get on with your life. So – nothing that you have to watch in the oven like a hawk, nothing with a hundred stages, and nothing that involves you spending hours of your life in the kitchen.
So, what’s cooking?
Ok, in a nutshell – the recipes in Good Food Running are designed with the following aims:
- Fuel and support an active lifestyle
- Don’t involve hours in the kitchen
- Emphasis is on lean proteins, healthy fats and plenty of veggies and fruit! I try to link my carbohydrate intake to my activity level, and the recipes reflect that. I will try to give lower carb suggestions for those lower activity times/ rest days. I tend to favour lower GI complex carbs for the most part, but with an increase in simple carbs during and post exercise.
- No food groups are demonised – I have tried many restrictive diets over the years (sound familiar?), but found them ultimately to be either lacking in an aspect of nutrition, unsustainable to me due to a lack of variety, or both. Having said that, the recipes as a whole will tend to limit unrefined sugar, replacing it with alternatives that also offer a range of micronutrients that the white stuff doesn’t.
- I rarely add salt to food these days. Although runners may have higher electrolyte needs (note, not just sodium!) than sedentary folks, I aim to get a range of electrolytes from my diet, rather than a dump of sodium from the salt cellar!
- I do, however, use electrolyte drinks, gels and isotonic drinks when I’m running long, hard or in hot weather as appropriate. However, I also plan to show you some natural alternatives to these along the way!
Good tasting, easy cooking, no deprivation – food as fuel to support your running and active lifestyle!
So, there you go – that about sums up what you can expect on these pages in the way of food ideas. Food that tastes good, is easy to prepare and will help sustain a healthy active lifestyle. I like the old saying that ‘Nothing tastes as good as feeling fit feels’, but I would also like to add my own (less catchy) saying: “Nothing sucks like feeling deprived!’ And there is NO NEED to feel deprived! I am planning on showing some healthy makeovers to favourite treats and takeaway food favourites – that will let you enjoy all the taste without hijacking your running lifestyle!
The proof of the pudding . . .
Hope it sounds good – but check out the RECIPES from the homepage menu to see what you think! I hope you enjoy making and eating them. Please let me know what you think, what you like or dislike, or if there’s anything you would like me to include. Either comment on the posts, or use the contact form
Thanks again for dropping in! 😀
