So long as you don’t mind getting a little wet 9 months a year Seattle generally has mild enough weather to make it conducive to outdoor exercise year round.  Yes it is known as a rainy city but what is ‘rain’ in the Northwest is typically termed ‘mist’ or ‘sprinkles’ in other parts of the nation.  In fact most people are surprised to know Seattle is not in the top 10 US Cities for rainfall.  Take a look:

1) Mobile, Ala.: 67 inches average annual rainfall
2) Pensacola, Fla.: 65 inches average annual rainfall
3) New Orleans, La.: 64 inches average annual rainfall
4) West Palm Beach, Fla.: 63 inches average annual rainfall
5) Lafayette, La.: 62 inches average annual rainfall
6) Baton Rouge, La.: 62 inches average annual rainfall
7) Miami, Fla.: 62 inches average annual rainfall
8 ) Port Arthur, Texas: 61 inches average annual rainfall
9) Tallahassee, Fla.: 61 inches average annual rainfall
10) Lake Charles, La.: 58 inches average annual rainfall

In fact, you have to scroll down to city #24 to find the first city located in the Pacific Northwest (Olympia, WA).  I digress…

Occasionally we do get hit by the extremes and last week was one of them.  Nearly a week straight of temperatures below freezing and depending on where you live 6-18+ inches of snow.  This kind of weather can put a serious crimp in your outdoor running if you are not prepared.  Here are my tips for beating the freezing temperatures, ice and snow while still maintaining your mileage.

1) Layer and Peel – If you’re cold you’ll be miserable…conversely if you are sweating under a down jacket you’ll be even more miserable.  My advice is to wear several layers (2-3) of long sleeve shirts or sweatshirts, a pair of sweats (with pockets – this is key) with running shorts underneath, a stocking cap and gloves.  I generally where the dry wick technical fabric as the base layer (primarily to prevent chafing) and use sweatpants/shirts for the other layers.  When I start out I often tuck the bottom shirt into my running pants/shorts/sweats to keep the cold air out and as I get moving I start to peel things off to maintain a reasonably cool body temperature.  This is important as you don’t want to overheat in 20 degree weather (yes it can and does happen).  I generally start with taking off my stocking cap followed by my gloves.  As I peel them off I shove them into the pockets of the sweatpants.  If I continue to get hot I’ll untuck my shirt which always gives a good blast of cold air followed by a cool draft.

2) Lights – Since you’re running in the winter chances are the sun is likely going down or will soon into your run.  Make sure you run with a good light.  This will help you to see rough spots in the road as well as alert cars as to where you are.  I recommend a good headlight so that you keep your hands free.  You can pick them up at REI, Amazon, Dicks Sports or your local running store.  They generally run between $30-$80 depending on your preferred brightness.  My favorite brand is Petzl.

3) Yak Traks – Ever wish you had chains for your running shoes?  You can very easily and for only about $30.  Check out – http://www.yaktrax.com/product/pro.  They attach to any shoe and work great even on the worst ice.

4) Gels – I find gels to be the best thing to keep me fueled in the winter months.  Depending on the length of your run and the outside temperature it might be important to keep the gel closer to your body so it can stay warm and not freeze.  Consider putting them into an inside pocket of your shorts.

5) Stay Alert – While you’ll have chains on your feet (assuming you paid attention to tip #3 above) providing you with great traction a lot of cars likely won’t (plus the driver could be from Seattle and we don’t have a clue how to drive on snow/ice) so stay alert, away from traffic and stay safe.

Thanks to the Active Runner eNewsletter for this interesting recipe to make your own running gel. We’ve got a bunch of chia seeds and this looks like a good way to put them to use.

From Active Runner:
Make your own gels.

The nutritional value of processed energy bars is often the equivalent of candy bars. Homemade bars and gels with nutrient-dense calories are less expensive and easy to make.

Here is an energy gel recipe you can use.

Blend the following in a blender or food processor:

8 medjool dates or 10 to 12 pitted dates (soaking them overnight makes these easier to blend)
4 tablespoons agave or maple syrup or honey
4 tablespoons chia seeds (high in protein, fiber, omega-3s, calcium)
4 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons lime zest
2 teaspoon dulce (seaweed) flakes, snipped in tiny pieces
couple of pinches of sea salt

The mixture can be stiff so you’ll have to stop the blender and scrape several times. Shape your gel into tablespoon-sized balls and store in the refrigerator or freezer to have ready to take with you as you head out the door for your next workout.

It’s hard to eat healthy on-the-go, and it’s even harder to eat healthy when one is traveling for a few days at a time. To successfully eat healthy foods when traveling, I plan ahead which often requires stocking the cupboards a week or two ahead of the trip. When I’ve done this, I can pack a variety of snacks that keep me happy for multiple days at a time, including on the airplane, in the morning and for those times that I just need something to keep me going. Last month, Ken and I headed to Vegas for the marathon and half-marathon, and it was especially important that we ate healthy leading up to our races. (See the picture of the snacks I took for a 6 day trip.)

When packing snacks for a few days, it’s important to include a variety. I use  the following as my guide for how much to pack:
* bars 1-2/day
* nuts or beef sticks (high protein), 1-2/day
* healthier treats (for me this is chocolate), 1/day
Variety is key for me. I only pack 1-2 of each snack unless it is an absolute favorite or comes in different flavors.

Remember, snacking throughout the day is part of a healthy diet. Happy Snacking!

Given that most New Year’s Resolutions involve some aspect of health and fitness (generally weight loss, specific fitness milestones, etc.) I thought it would be appropriate to highlight some recent studies and posts made by experts about how snacking can help.

How to Lose Weight… By Snacking

The ecology of eating

Snack the Smart Way and Lose Weight

Eat, Sleep, Breathe: Passive Weight Loss Strategies for 2012

On a diet? Follow the crowd

While studies and experts frequently contradict these are all pretty straightforward and common sense.  They are also from a diverse audience involving sanctioned studies, influential bloggers and in the case of the last link a crowd sourced survey so I don’t think there’s a lot to debate here.

Regardless of what your resolutions are this year I encourage you to get started on them today.  Good luck!

Chocolate # 9 survives the washing machine. Of course, I find the typical coins, hair bands, legos and other goodies in the wash, but I wasn’t expecting to pull out a relatively undamaged pack of Chocolate #9. Most likely left in the pocket of my husband’s running shorts, it appears as good as new. This is just one more reason to love Chocolate #9, my favorite pre-run snack.

We knew there had to be healthier (and better tasting) alternatives.

Thanks for the great response we continue to get from our customers.

Yes it’s important that you read the ingredients of even condiments.  Check out the make up of KFC’s Honey Sauce:

- High Fructose Corn-Syrup
- Corn Syrup
- Sugar
- Honey
- Fructose
- Less than 2% – Carmel Color, Molasses, Water, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Malic Acid

In addition to the sugar that naturally occurs in honey they’ve added at least 4 other ingredients to sweeten this ‘sauce’.  Note that it contains ’7% Real Honey’ but they call it “Honey” Sauce.  That’s like giving you seven pennies and calling it a dollar.  Seems like a more accurate name would be ‘Corn sugar sauce…with a little honey’.  Bottom line, please read the ingredients of everything at fast food joints.

Looking for a great breakfast? Today I had a Simple Squares Coconut Confection. It was sweeter than I expected which is a good thing in my opinion. It was perfectly matched with a strong cup of black coffee and a couple of fresh, organic strawberries. The six grams of protein helped get my day off on the right track.

Have you ever wanted to be on the Amazing Race (the TV show)?  The problem solving, the running around, the inevitable conflict management with your teammate, not to mention the aspect of feeding the competitive instinct inside of you….okay, so have we…and we did something about it!

The founders of FitNosh recently competed in a race called the ‘Great Urban Race‘ in Seattle, WA.  It was a blast!  We highly recommend it.  It’s a one day, 5 hour max, mini version of the Amazing Race.  Teams of two (yes, we were team FitNosh), are given a set of clues and rules (which basically says don’t do anything illegal and you can’t take a cab/bike/etc. to solve the clues) and you are off.

In addition to having a lot of fun running around our hometown team FitNosh also placed within the top 25 teams which means we qualified for Nationals and received medals (since Nationals are in New Orleans, a town we don’t know that well…we’re happy with the medals, thanks).  Here’s a picture we took with another team just before the race.

Team FitNosh and Friends and the Great Urban Race, Seattle

Check out the Great Urban Race for more details.

Ever struggle to determine what exactly is and is not in the products you buy at the store? Food marketing is often misleading, and I struggle to be a healthier consumer. Thank you to my dear aunt for forwarding the following link about deceptive use or non-use of blueberries.  I like the video’s format in that it describes the problem, gives specific examples of blueberry offenders as well as blueberry stars and tells you how to avoid falling for misleading advertising. Here’s the 7-minute video that educates quickly. Nice job Natural News.