Chia...In My Yogurt? Are you sure that's a good idea, Stonyfield?

I think I have finally recovered from last Saturday's marathon, but I'm still trying to be gentle with my body nutritionally (although I did purchase a dozen cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake, which I have been enjoying! I just could not resist the 25 percent off coupon that showed up in my inbox for the St. Patrick's Day dozen). I've been trying to eat a LOT of protein, in the hopes that my muscles will forgive me for what I did to them, and for the most part, it seems to be working.

Ed figured out how to smoke a salmon using the Big Green Egg that he is babysitting for a friend. I've been mixing that with some eggs to start my day. I have also been eating peanut M&Ms instead of plain M&Ms, which I realize is not really that smart of a move. And, I've been eating cheese as a bedtime snack, which prompted Ed to remark "are you still eating?" last Saturday. Yes, in fact, I was still eating. Running 26.2 is no joke.

Today, when I walked by Whole Foods on my way to work, I was inspired to pick up some Stonyfield Greek and Chia, which I ate as my mid-morning snack (Stonyfield had given me a few coupons for the product - and I was getting my courage up to actually use them). I was VERY nervous about the texture of these seeds, which appear to be all the rage among my runner friends these days. My friends even put them in their water bottles and no, I will not go there. In yogurt, however, the mystery seeds seem to work. The texture of the product isn't messed up much (no more than having fruit chunks instead of blended fruit in yogurt), and if the seeds have a taste, I cannot tell you what it is because the yogurt masks it.

These wonder seeds are supposed to be packed with nutritional benefits, and they must be the cause of the extra 2 grams of protein over my favorite Petite Creme (12 grams per serving versus 10 grams per serving - 5.3 ounces per serving). Both are about double a slightly larger container of regular yogurt.

Here's to the bajillion grams of protein I am eating daily. I hardly have it in me to tell my muscles that we are most definitely going to try our hand at 26.2 again!

Elaine

I am part of the Stonyfield Yogetter Club. As a member, they sent me coupons to test the yogurt with chia. I requested this product, rather than others that I already know I love, because I knew I would never be bold enough to try this without a little push. Thank you, Stonyfield! I'm sold! Although my favorite is still Petite Creme.

Still a Lunchbox Staple - YoBaby for My Elementary School Children

I despise packing school lunches, but Connor and Helen won't regularly eat the school lunch (and to be fair, I wouldn't eat very many of them as a child, and the vegetarian selections are quite limited). It's probably in their blood not to like them. Lucky for me, Ed has scored morning duties most days, so he packs most of the lunches. Helen has been amenable to bringing hot lunches from home (which is awesome, because she'll have leftovers from the night before), but Connor is a little less interested in this route (though getting better)!

Ed and I prefer to vary our diet, so it's hard for us to imagine eating the same thing for lunch all of the time, but I guess Connor doesn't mind it. We still switch him up a bit, but have basically settled on:

• Jelly sandwiches, frozen shrimp (which thaw by lunchtime), and smoked salmon for mains.

We top the box off with yogurt (either YoKids Squeezers or YoBaby), cucumbers, and fruit. Helen has upped her game by adding granola to her YoBaby, which she has decided is a very decadent treat.

I cannot believe I still get away with sending YoBaby, but Connor and Helen both love the smooth texture of the yogurt and it's just the right amount to help them get filled up at lunch, can be eaten in its entirety, and isn't that messy!

Sadly, the very cold weather we're having has kept me from gifting this super cute hat and bib Stonyfield gifted to me to a friend of mine who just had a child. Photo forthcoming when we finally meet up!

Elaine

Disclosure: Thank you for the baby items, Stonyfield! Can't wait to post a photo of my friend's baby sporting the hat and bib. Thanks also for the coupons! I was not required to write about Stonyfield; my children love your yogurt and eat it almost daily!

Jingle All the Way - Family 5K

This morning, I ran Helen's first 5K with her. It was a crazy amount of fun for me. We started out with a friend of hers, but he was traveling a bit faster than we were going to manage. From running with Ed in the morning off and on, Helen has learned that it's best to find a pace you can hold, and then stay the course. So rather than burning out trying to keep up, she just kept putting one foot in front of the other and let him go.

And at about mile 0.5 she asked, "have we gone a mile yet?", which is the running equivalent of asking "are were there yet" as your family heads off on summer vacation, and you haven't even escaped the city limits. No, not a mile, Helen, but we are so strong.

I sang about every holiday song I know. Helen was inspired by every baby she saw being pushed in a buggy, and we laughed a lot at the silly costumes people were wearing and all the dogs running. Extra points if the dog had on reindeer antlers!

By the time we saw a man running around with cracked eggs falling out of an egg carton, only Helen was able to shout "SIX GEESE A-LAYING", which I thought was pretty clever. We had previously seen 4 Calling Birds.

At mile 1.3, I was pretty confident Helen had run further than she ever had before, so I cheered her "distance PR". Shortly after that, she started complaining about:

• being unable to breathe
• her foot hurting
• her shoulder hurting
• and so many other aching body parts that I can't even remember them all.

I just smiled and cheered her forward, shaking my jingle bells. Two or three times, we had to walk. Helen just could not fathom running any further. Before we started walking, I would ask her to name the point when we would start running, and every time she picked up the pace before that agreed up on point - always because a dog or baby passed us that she just had to get a closer look at.

Helen crossed the line with a net time of 39:14, which is an average pace of 12:38. According to my watch, we ran positive splits - slowing down just a little bit with each mile, which was to be expected. Helen sprinted across the finish line, and she is really proud of herself. She plans to write a story about the race in Writer's Workshop at her school tomorrow, and I am very much looking forward to her version of events.

Connor and Ed ran the race together. Ed reports that Connor held a steady pace for the whole race, and at the end - Connor was not even particularly tired. I told him that meant he could've gone faster, but Ed preaches slow and steady, and it was definitely a fun race for Connor. I'm not sure what exactly the men of the family talked about, but I understand they talked through the whole thing. During the last mile, Ed had to swipe Connor's stocking cap off, for fear the little dude would overheat. Ed was worried about Connor's red face. Connor's goal was to beat last year's pace of 11:53 minute miles. And he did! This year, Connor crossed the line at 33:23, which is an average pace of 10:45. 

Bravo, all! I failed to capture any in-race photos, but I got everyone to pretend to run in our sitting room, sans the hats we all wore. Helen insisted we pretend like we were running.

Our recovery food was Stonyfield vanilla yogurt, with granola crumbled on top of Helen's two bowls and cinnamon added to Connor's three bowls! They thought we might run out of yogurt - but there's more where that came from! 

About halfway through the race, Helen asked if we could go to Pinkberry, a nearby frozen yogurt shop, afterwards. And while ice cream on a cold day might not be the first treat I think of, there was no way I was going to disappoint Helen during the race. So yes we can go to Pinkberry, Helen! It sounds like a fantastic idea.

The sweetest moment of the whole experience came at the end of the race. Connor congratulated Helen and told her "You have the family 5K record for 7 year olds"! Which is, he pointed out, a title she will hold forever since there will be no more 7 year olds in our home.

Disclosure: This post was created in partnership with Stonyfield. All opinions are my own. Stonyfield was a sponsor of the Boston Marathon last year, which makes me love them even more than I previously did.

My new protein laden diet

When I'm not running, I like to read about running. Mostly, I am concerned about a running injury, which all runners seem to get at one time or another. One of the things that can help prevent injury, is eating a ridiculous amount of protein. According to this article, I need about 66 grams of protein. There are a lot of articles that report similar numbers.

I've been trying to figure out ways to conveniently increase my protein intake, basically not disrupting the normal flow of dinner time. For me, this has meant that I try and make sure my snacks all have protein (or chocolate, but that's just because I like chocolate - and I particularly like chocolate in the middle of the day when I get bored at my desk).

For a while, I was eating Greek Yogurt from the farmer's market at my desk, but they stopped producing the full fat version, and I'm not particularly fond of light yogurt. I turned to nuts and oatmeal for a while, and occasionally I would just eat a boiled egg.

But recently, I've settled on a new source of protein in the middle of the day - Petite Creme. Stonyfield sent me a box to try, and in the name of product research, I quickly devoured two of them.

It is somehow different from yogurt. It tastes exactly the same to me. I'm getting a walloping 10 grams of protein with each container I consume. That's a pretty good chunk of my recommended grams of protein!

My kids would not eat most of these - because they have actual chunks of fruit in them, which have not been whipped or blended or made to somehow disappear. This is good for me. It means they'll keep their paws off my snack!

Elaine

I received the above Petite Cremes from Stonyfield. I have since purchased my own, and will continue to do so until I get bored with them.