Category Archives: Lunches
Food Purchasing Practices: Price before Health or Taste before Price?
What the last food purchase you made?
For me, it was yesterday’s lunch – a Southwest veggie-packed salad from Eden’s.
I forked over six hard-earned bucks for a mountain of romaine topped with peppers, carrots, cheddar, olives and a bean/corn/cilantro salad. I was really in the mood for a spicy ranch dressing, so I improvised with equal parts home-style ranch and hot sauce.
Worth every penny – the combo of the ranch with hot sauce was genius!
As I was making a dent in the salad, I came across a recent study that surveyed the driving factors behind food purchases.
It was interesting to learn that 88 percent of respondents placed more value on the taste of the food before the price. Unsurprisingly, females and people with higher incomes were more likely to shell out more cash for food that tasted better, regardless of how much it cost.
Just over half of the participants were more concerned with the price of the food than the nutrition statistics. This group of people was on the opposite end of the scale from the taste-before-price group; men, younger consumers and people with lower educations were more likely to value price over health benefits.
When it came to the decision to purchase organics, never-married, full-time workers were most likely to buy the organically-grown foods.
Comparing the results of the study to my own personal food purchasing practices, I wasn’t surprised by the results. Ever since my family began giving me cash in college to put towards foods, I’ve had the same model for food-buying decisions:
I prefer to purchase foods that offer the most nutritional bang for my buck {i.e. spinach over iceberg lettuce or fresh sweet potatoes over bags of chips}. Certain foods are also worth the cost because of their ethical/environmentally friendly production or “unique” factor: to me, it’s worth it to me to shell extra for organic dairy, specialty vegetarian meats {like Field Roast} and free-range eggs from the local farm. People with special diets {vegan, gluten-free, etc} often have to allocate more money to the foods that fit their dietary or nutritional requirements.
Price does play a hefty role in the equation as well. I’m privileged to even have access to organic items, but I can’t always justify the splurge. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive, but the tab can ring up quickly when you’re stocking your kitchen with pricey organics or fancy prepared foods. I try to stick to the dirty dozen for organics {or score any organics that are a weekly special at my local produce shop} and opt for conventional on other fruits and vegetables.
Ultimately, it’s about finding a price/nutrition/flavor balance that works for you and your budget. As a consumer, you have to decide what’s most important to you in your food economics and how you can accommodate your personal priorities.
What factors do you weigh when purchasing food? According to the study, which group would someone with your consumer characteristics fall into: taste before price or price before nutrition?
The Athlete’s Comparison Trap
Well hello, lover.
Fruity salads have been calling my name lately. As I’ve been eating more raw foods, I’ve been seeing my energy levels skyrocket! A high-raw diet isn’t in the cards for me, but I certainly have been enjoying the benefits of a few extra raw greens here and there.
This variation: strawberries, gorgonzola, chickpeas, broccoli and carrots, drizzled with a creamy ranch.
I need to start stocking my kitchen with more creative salad toppings – this Eden’s habit is getting a little out of control!
The Athlete’s Comparison Trap
As a fledgling runner, I’ve been struggling with a lot of insecurity about my athletic ability. I’ve chronicled it a bit here, here and here, but it’s something that continues to bother me every time I lace up my sneakers or think about my upcoming Memorial Day 8k.
Just like insecurity with your body or appearance, insecurity with your athletic ability isn’t something that magically disappears. Whatever your sport may be, it becomes part of your identity. If you feel as though you don’t measure up, it’s a lot to process and quite the emotional – and sometimes physical – blow.
Athletes are driven by numbers. We love tracking miles, splits, minutes, reps, sets and any other measurable figure we can get our hands on. It’s awesome for measuring our own progress, but it also lends itself far too well to comparison.
Get a group of runners together, and naturally, PR’s start flying. When you hear numbers that seem to get progressively lower and lower than yours, it’s easy to feel tinges of inadequacy. It can delude you into dismissing your own efforts and feeling “unworthy” of calling yourself an athlete.
I deflate a bit when I hear other runners talking about completing full marathons at a pace that I can’t even maintain for a 5k. Over time, it eats at me, makes me doubt my own abilities and replaces the joy I get from running with anxiety about my performance. Is it worth it? Not in the slightest. Especially when I know that what I’m comparing myself to is something that simply isn’t realistic for me at this point in my running journey.
Part of digging your way out of the comparison trap is realizing that in time, you’ll be where you want to be. It may not be next week, and it may seem impossible, but if you’re willing to work like a manic, it’ll happen. It takes an insane level of mental commitment, and you may need several fires lit under your ass, but it can happen.
The other part is realizing that running isn’t everything. If it makes up a huge percentage of what you think about and what you hope to be, it’s not an easy realization. At the end of my life, though, I want to be remembered as more than just a runner. I want to have a marathon under my belt before I kick it (and some days I think that it could be a marathon that would kill me), but there are far more important things I’d rather be remembered for. If someone were to remember anything about me and running, I’d rather it be that I had a passion for it – not that I dragged myself through each run kicking and screaming.
Do you struggle with the athlete’s comparison trap?
How Much Happiness are you Cheating Yourself Out Of?
Yesterday was one of the easiest Mondays of all time. Work felt more like eight minutes than eight hours – all of my article assignments were about yoga and alternative medicine, and I was totally in my element.
I didn’t feel like breaking for a regimented lunch, so instead I just snacked on a spread throughout the day.
I’ve really been loving Heini’s cheeses, made from hormone-free milk sourced from Amish farms. The flavors are downright gourmet – the unique Amish Bermuda Onion cheese absolutely rocks in omlettes and faux-meat rollups!
How Much Happiness are You Cheating Yourself Out Of?
All afternoon, I stared down a mantra on my Lululemon lunch bag.
“The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.”
I agree with a lot of their inspirational sayings, but the more I thought about it, the more this one registered as a big fat “no” for me.
If you wanted a new career, would you wait for the phone to ring with a job offer? If you wanted a new place to live, would you stay in your apartment until your dream home magically built itself around you? If you want to feel happier, why not pursue it?
You get one life to fill up with as many experiences as you can. In the real world, you have to fill it with nitty-gritty day to day stuff and squeeze in crazy monkey adventures where you can. Realistically, every day isn’t designed to be ZOMG AMAZING, but should that be any reason that we can’t be blissfully happy at the end of them? If we aren’t looking for the tiny, seemingly irrelevant things that actually make our lives rich and satisfying, aren’t we cheating ourselves out of insane amounts of happiness?
Pursuing and looking for happiness: is it really the source of all unhappiness?
Run for Life Four Miler Recap
Hello friends! Things are tough to get back in order after a holiday weekend, no? Hopefully everyone had a safe Cinco and transitioned back as smoothly as possible.
Before beginning the salsa-smothered festivities, I kicked off my weekend with a healthier event – the Run for Life four miler. The race had been in the back of my mind for weeks, but I waited until the morning of the event to fully commit.
Note to self: bad idea. The race was so well organized that I had high hopes heading in to it, but my body refused to cooperate. Once my stomach started arguing with my Clif bar and my quads started feeling like lead, my mind dropped out of the race as well. The only thing that keep me going after the first mile checkpoint was knowing how cranky a DNF would make me.
After what seemed like five hours of running, I rounded the final corner. After briefly eyeing up the remaining quarter mile stretch, I realized I could partially redeem my performance and overtake the other two females ahead of me. I’m not entirely sure how it was humanly possible, but I managed to cross the finish several steps in front of the other two ladies.
Even with the last-minute overtaking, I still was plagued with disappointment after I’d caught my breath. My {unofficial} finish of 41:58 was a solid two minutes more than I was shooting for, and despite the flat course, I felt like my body had been through an entire marathon. I skipped right over the post-race activities and requested a face-stuffing stop as quickly as possible.
One of the big qualms I’ve had about racing is that my competitive personality would get the best of me and turn me into a sore loser.
It’s never been an issue of being bitter against the winners of the race – the men and women on the course have worked their behinds off to run as well as they do and I’m incredibly happy for them – but I’m also incredibly hard on myself when I don’t earn the results I want.
I wholeheartedly believe that there’s pride to be had any time you really push yourself and work for something you want – but it’s also tough to be proud of yourself when you feel like you could have given a bit more, run a bit smarter and pushed a bit harder. I understand that not every race can be a PR, but it’s tough to walk away with your chin up when you under-perform.
How do you deal with sub-par performance? Are you able to be proud of “just a finish”, or do you also have to cope with a nagging sense of disappointment after missing a time goal?
Target Acquired
One 5k down, one 8k coming right up!
Seeing improvements in my time is always fun, but I’ve always preferred seeing improvements in my endurance. With a six mile long run under my belt on Monday, I’m psyched to dedicate the next month to prepping for a Memorial Day five miler.
It’s true what they say about races being like tattoos – you get your first and can’t stop thinking about your next!
{Don’t worry – I still have no plans for a second tat}.
I do have plans, however, to repeat yesterday’s lunch…
My first visit to Chico’s Tacos was a bit of a letdown, but the recurring $5 for $10 Groupon keeps bringing me back. The barbeque chili ranch is really the kicker – it makes the ordinary salad extra bold!
Oof – time to do the work thang!
Any races or competitions coming up in your fitness roster?
Now More than Ever
Is the time to go live your life.
To not worry about being too loud:
Or looking ridiculous dorky dancing for your friends’ amusement:
To not worry about staying up past self-imposed bedtimes:
Or how many calories are in fried cheese sticks :
To not worry whether or not you’ll get back on the “healthy” wagon {because you will}:
Just do the damn thing.
{Please meet the boyfriend.}
What do you need to do now more than ever?
Off the Clock
This week’s long run is officially completed!
I’d penciled five miles in on Monday’s schedule, but impromptu dinner plans prompted me to postpone them until Tuesday.
I started working on psyching myself up around lunchtime:
{Romaine, cucumber, carrot, chickpea and gorgonzola salad, side of honey mustard.}
I don’t even have a Pinterest and still managed to spend a half hour browsing running photos for inspirational mantras.
A little later in the day, I put some carbs in the tank with the best flavor of Clif bar known to man:
White chocolate macadamia nut for the win.
To make the run more interesting, I plotted a path through a gorgeous part of town I was introduced to last weekend.
I was taken to the Orlando Science Center last Sunday, and on the walk over, I fell in love with the scenic roads around the museum-heavy strip of north Orlando.
Running past the museums yesterday was almost as fun as wandering through them last weekend!
The only downside to the run was the pretty heavy peppering of stoplights. Yesterday’s route was dotted with at least five major lights {and plenty of other short stops}. The lights are usually a welcome relief, but I’m never quite sure how to handle them when tracking my time.
{Without accounting for forced stops at the traffic lights, the 5 miles took me 52:38}.
Because I have to stop at red lights whether I want to or not {runners may be a crazy breed, but not quite crazy enough to dart into oncoming Orlando traffic}, I’ve been pausing the Soleus while I catch my breath and wait for the walk signal to flicker on.
I have no problem leaving the clock ticking when I take walking breaks on my own volition, but waiting for the longer lights to turn green can chew two or three full minutes off the clock. I don’t want those wasted minutes to skew my final stats.
Unfortunately, race clocks don’t stop ticking, and I also don’t want to chart my training using unrealistic patterns. A break is a break, and if my body is used to them, it’ll be hard to perform at the same pace without them come race day.
Decisions, decisions!
Even though I spent the last mile of my run mulling over my clock-stopping strategy, the debate was quickly forgotten once dinner was underway.
Long run, hungry girl!
My bowl was packed with quinoa, vegan spinach artichoke dip and tomatoes – I’m not sure I stopped to chew, but I am sure that you won’t want to miss the recipe for the dip coming your way tomorrow. See you then!
If you run outdoors with a tracking watch, how do you handle forced breaks for traffic? Do you take a breather off the clock or let the minutes count against your final time?
Confidence Run
Hello friends! Today has FLOWN! I love it when Mondays aren’t one big clock-counting party but I also am a little freaked at how quickly time slips through our fingers. Life is freaking short!
Despite zipping through projects today, I definitely made it a point to savor my lunch. I had recreated last week’s tastebud-blowing apple, walnut and sharp cheddar salad (with organic yellow carrots this time) and loved every single bite!
And just to give some perspective on how monstrous these lunch salads are {that’s a standard-sized apple, for the record}…
These huge servings have been giving me so much mid-day energy!
After work had zipped by, I immediately jutted home to get today’s run marked off the schedule.
With my race this weekend and three consecutive sub-par runs, I was starting to feel really nervous about Saturday. Silly worries, I know – I’ve run the distance countless times before – but since I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually logged 3.1 in one swoop, I felt the need to complete it again at least once before the race, for confidence’s sake.
It wasn’t a cakewalk, and it wasn’t my goal pace, but it was a nice confidence boost to at least have the distance covered. Additionally, after reading all of your comments (aka voices of wisdom), I’ve realized two things:
A) Race day performance is usually a surprising improvement from training runs, due to adrenaline and the atmosphere.
B) I’m freaking myself out too much over pace – for my first race, I should just relax, have fun, and be excited about the new experience my body is pulling me through!
Let the countdown begin!
Do you freak yourself out unnecessarily over big events you’re getting ready for – races, presentations, tests, etc?
The Newest Addition
There’s a new toy in my collection of runner’s paraphernalia:
For the past week or two, I’ve been in the market for a GPS-equipped running watch to simplify my running routine.
Until now, I’ve been a pretty low-tech runner, tracking my pace and time with the Map My Fitness app on my Android. The GPS tracker immediately proved to be not-so-reliable, marking my first run at less than half of what the distance actually was, so I began pre-plotting my running route around the neighborhood and simply using the app for a timer. Naturally, I kept it klassy by tucking my phone into my sports bra while I ran, which…well…do I even need to explain all the reasons that was less than ideal?
During my lunch break today, I did some final research on my sports watch options while enjoying an awesome avocado and Gardein salad:
{The crispy meatless tenders and creamy avocado made each bite a texture-lovers dream!}
I first ruled out the Garmin line; although truly impressive pieces of machinery, they cost more than I was looking to spend. As a recreational runner, I didn’t want to drop several hundred dollars on an advanced runner’s watch. I was hoping to keep things in the $70 range, but all of my Google shopping results made it clear I’d have to pony up a little more for a GPS-enabled watch. I was really intrigued (and price-giddy) by the IronMan sports watches, but in the end my desire for a pace function won out.
One Track Shack stop and $106 later, the Soleus 1.0 was securely strapped around my wrist and set for its inaugural run! It was extremely comfortable and easy to read, although it did take a few seconds to adjust to major changes in pace {it took about six seconds to register the faster speed whenever I broke into a sprint}. So far, it’s doing exactly what I needed it to do, and I can’t wait to play with it again.
I ended up paying more attention to the new gadget than my run itself, and after only 15 minutes I was back at my house, ready to get some food into my empty belly.
The quickest thing to pull together was sautéed asparagus and scrambled eggs with organic sharp white cheddar. I’m totally wishing that I hadn’t used up all the asparagus – a repeat meal sounds great right now, but I’ll have to come up with something new!
Have a great Friday!
What was the last fitness item you splurged on? Are you still happy with it?
Count von Coffee
Left to my own devices, I’d happily sit and swig coffee all day. It’s not just the caffeine – I really do love the taste, and without keeping a conscious tally, I’d never be able to cap myself at two cups each day.
This morning, as I was filling up for the second time, I couldn’t help but her the voice of Count von Count Coffee himself… One ah-ha-ha. Two ah-ha-ha….And now you’re done.
I never said I was sane.
I did, however, say I was good at making salads.
The caffeine consumption was cut off after this beastly lunch:
I was in the mood for a new combination, and this turned out to be one of my favorite blends of all time. Into a three-liter Tupperware went:
- Organic romaine
- Carrots
- Cucumber
- Red onion
- Gala apple
- Walnuts
- Sharp white cheddar
- Ranch dressing
Normally, sweet/fruity salads don’t do it for me the way a good Cobb or taco salad does, but trust me when I say this was the absolute best! The sharp cheddar was just enough bite to counterbalance the sweetness of the crunchy apple.
Currently chewing on a touch more fruit to cool myself down after a run…
{Frozen mango, scored at the Dollar Tree of all places. Next time you’re stopping in for paper towels or other household staples, check out their food section. There’s definitely a lot of processed crap, but there are also some gems, such as preservative-free frozen fruit or unsalted raw almonds for only a dollar per bag}.
Time to figure out what’s on the menu for dinner. I’m thinking lentils or pinto beans – any last minute suggestions?
Do you try to consciously cap your coffee intake? Do you drink it more for the flavor or the energy boost? Ever scored any healthy food from the Dollar Tree?
