Author’s Note: I’m so excited to have Liz Greenlaw guest posting for the day. Liz is a friend of mine, through church and Capital Area Runners, and is a researcher in the area of nutrition. Through her interest in wellness and healthy living, she earned her certification as a Holistic Health Counselor and became a member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Liz is partnering with Potomac River Running stores to offer a 6-week Nutrition Series. Join her for one or all of the events!
I’ll admit it. I used to be one of those people who just ran because I liked to eat a lot.
It’s not something I’m proud of, but it’s the truth. Cookies, brownies, cake, spoonfuls of peanut butter straight out of the jar…whatever I could quickly get my hands on once I walked in the door after a hard workout was my motivation and reward. I’d think to myself, “Wow! Now that was a hard run. I deserve all these treats!” While this strategy worked for a little while and carried me through my early 20s, it didn’t take long before the damaging effects of a poor diet caught up with me.
Slowly but surely, I watched as my body began to reject some of my beloved comfort foods, leaving me tired, achy, unhappy, and often unmotivated to run. Even worse, I found myself anxious and frustrated in front of every plate of food, wondering if it whatever passed through my lips was going to help or hinder my performance. What does a runner do when he or she finds that everything in the supermarket seems to cause headaches, stomach pain and muscle cramps all of a sudden?
This personal experience leads me to the next question, “…So how did I get here?” How did my former, self-proclaimed “free-for-all-food-eater” evolve into the “now” Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyle Coach? My memory draws me back to the summer of 2010: An injury blind-sided me, forcing me to pause and take a look at how I was treating my body. Probably like many of you other runners out there, I was stubborn and wanted to take the matters of my injury into my own hands. As I studied to figure out the answers for myself, I discovered a whole world I never knew existed, and since then, I’ve never looked back…
I learned how to heal myself with food, finding that I had the power to make good choices that would keep me healthy, happy, energetic and strong in my training. Was I filling my body up with whole, natural foods that truly satisfied and nurtured me? I should have been, but sadly, for years I had been just pumping processed junk into it. Since then, I’ve recovered from many mistakes while trying a variety of dietary approaches and have found the truths amidst the lies out there – truths I feel compelled to share with you – my fellow runners and athletes.
My goal is to help you let go of some old myths you’ve been holding on to and find that performing our best is not just about the amount of miles we put in, or how fast we run our track workouts – it’s in large part the foods we choose to fuel our bodies with that really keep us at the front of the pack!
So, I hope you’ll join me for one (or all!) of my talks as I kick off a nutrition seminar series with the Potomac River Running stores in Virginia, DC and Maryland. I’ll share success (and “not-so-successful”) stories and discuss topics such as foods for healing and recovery, nutrition labels, fad diets, food sensitivities, and so much more. I’m sure you’ll learn something new, and I hope you’ll come prepared to share your questions, stories and struggles, too.
Sign-up for one (or ALL) Nutrition Series seminars: http://potomacriverrunning.com/calendar
PR Fairfax – Thursday 9/12 @ 7:30 PM
- Eating for healing and injury recovery: Traditional foods that have been used worldwide for healing the body and speeding up recovery.
PR Cleveland Park – Tuesday 9/17 @ 7:30 PM
- Sugar Blues: What causes sugar cravings and how to beat them. Discussion about the negative effects of too much sugar in the diet and natural sources of sweetness/carbs for athletes.
PR Burke – Wednesday 9/18 @ 6:15 PM
- Fad diets: Dispelling the myths and lies – a look at what’s out there and why they’re not worth trying.
PR Rockville – Tuesday 9/24 @ 7:00 PM
- Fighting inflammation with alkaline foods: Discuss the difference between foods that have an alkaline vs. acidic effect on the body and our cells (and what that does to our muscles, during recovery, etc.)
PR Reston – Thursday 9/26 @ 7:30 PM
- Super foods to power you through training and peak race season: Top foods to always keep in your pantry for peak performance.
PR Arlington – Wednesday 10/2 @ 7:30 PM
- Labels to Live by: Learn how to navigate a grocery store successfully, decipher ingredient lists and spot marketing tricks that are fooling people into thinking they are eating healthy – along with this I’d talk about which foods are best to get organic, and which can just be bought conventionally.
A little bit about Liz Greenlaw, CHHC, AADP:
Liz Greenlaw is an avid runner and researcher in the area of nutrition. She enjoys training for distances from the 5k to the marathon, while running her own nutrition consultation business in addition to her full-time job. She is motivated to live life to the fullest and thrive in every moment.
Liz’s personal interest in wellness started back in 2005, and her enthusiasm for healthy eating and active living eventually led her to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where she earned her certification as a Holistic Health Counselor and became a member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.
Coupling her knowledge of nutrition with her love of running, she enjoys helping others improve their athletic performance, increase their overall wellness, and find a healthful balance in all areas of life. Liz believes that health is a choice you can make, and she gets immense joy from teaching people strategies so that they can make the best nutritional and lifestyle choices for themselves.
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