Barefoot Boom Boom

21.5 Miles and Sprouted EVERYTHING! Plus Homemade Polenta Wraps

Well, you vegan foodies just might know what y'all are talking about. Mr Brazier, I must say I've been jonesin' to be able to up keep my marathon training and run a 26 mile race for my 26th birthday which is coming up in a few weeks. There just happens to be a new marathon in my area and I would so love to be able to run it! The most I've been able to do is 15 miles for my weekly long run but I thought, hell, I'm experimenting, I'm going to try for the 20-miler I need. After three days on my high raw vegan diet I went for it, with "medjool" date energy bars as Mr. Brazier recommends as my fuel on the run. I did it! And, even more of a miracle, I was able to do "active" recovery on my bike this afternoon. I'm gaining the motivation to stick with this approach to eating, maybe y'all aren't as crazy as I thought. 

Anyway, I have recently discovered the Food For Life Sprouted Grain Line at the Whole Foods: 

 

These are great, quick, go to eats. Today I had a cinnamon raisin sprouted grain bagel before my run. Cinnamon raisin bread was my favorite growing up! We used to by it fresh made after church and go home to toast it up. My favorites are the Sprouted Grain tortillas which have sprouted millet, barley, and the like. I also love the Sprouted Grain Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins. I spread them with raw almond butter and then usually have half a banana sprinkled with some MORE cinnamon like so:

Yum Yum! crunchy outside and soft and chewy inside. One word of warning with the sliced bread though, it can turn hard as a rock if you toast it for too long or you leave it too long out of the toaster before eatin! 

My least favorite is probably the sprouted corn tortillas. I prefer to make my own polenta wraps. See the recipe below: 

Homemade Polenta Wrap cooked low temperature! 

These are topped with low-temperature baked fajita veggies avocado, cashew "cheese" and salsa:

3/4 corn grits

3 cups of water

1/4 cup nutritional yeast (gives it kinda the "cheesy, chewy" flavor)  

Salt and Seasonings to taste (so if you're making it mexican you can add in oregano, cumin, chili powder)

A bit of oil for greasing. 

Directions: Heat oven to 300 F. In a small pot combine corn grits, water, and salt/seasonings. Cook over medium-low heat until the corn grits absorb the moisture and become, well "grits". Turn off the heat and stir in your nutritional yeast. Split the mixture between two medium 9" pie pans which are lined with no stick parchment paper and lightly greased (this is optional but will make it a lot less sticky!). Put the pie pans in the oven and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Then when the top is crunchy flip 'em and bake them for another 5-10 depending on how "chewy" you want the inside of your wrap. That's it! Then they're ready for toppin and eatin! 
 

Barefootin': Well not too much today after that run! I did some yoga stretches barefoot on my floor!

Veganish Barefoot Ultramarathon Champion in the Making

I've been enveloped in a month of helping my husband prepare for his medical school boards in between semesters at school.  During this month I've jumped from mission to mission but none has stuck so much as my desire to go the distance.  I've begun reading about running, pain all being in my head, mind control, and obsessively reading about nutrition because I have quite a food obsession, passion, issue.  A few things have stuck out: barefooting, high raw vegan diets, and mindfulness and mind control. I beat myself up on a daily basis for not taking more time to focus on this while I have the time, before I start my full time fellowship, so I thought this blog might help me really do it and start working towards my goals. 

The Veganish is what I call myself.  I do not eat cheese, drink milk, eat eggs or consume any other animal products besides the following three items: organic from non-hormoned cows greek yogurt, a dressing that has anchovy paste in it (Galeo's Miso Caesar to be exact), and fish oil supplements from wild caught small fish that I pay a boatload of money for at Whole Foods. I tried to give up these three things to fit the official "vegan" label but then decided that was stupid, since I didn't really want to give them up. I tell everyone I'm vegan anyway, so they won't harass me at restaurants. 

The Barefootin' comes in because while I was reading about injury prevention all this new material was available about this trend in the running community. While I'm experimenting I thought why not? I reckon I can become a big old barefooted hippie! Actually, the folks here find that "trendy" and I'm game for fittin' in, since I am in a big city I got some Vibram Five Fingers and will be livin' as much of my life and runnin as much as I can as close to barefoot as I can muster!

The Mindfulness training was brought to my attention by Dr. Joseph Sarno who wrote the book: The Mindbody Prescription. I then read about it through other endurance articles, in Dr. Tim Noakes research, and through reading about mindfulness and meditation. I don't know why it is like pulling teeth to get me to stop watching Top Chef reruns and focus. However, I will try. I also need to get to the bottom of my drive to run Ultramarathons and multiple marathons because I've had it for the past 10 years. I'm just now acting on it, but, better late then never right?