Recent Eats, My First Post-Marathon Run & An Exciting Announcement

Hello and happy Friday! I’m so glad you guys liked the look of the Lentil & Brown Rice Herbed Salad recipe I posted yesterday! I’ve been enjoying the leftovers for lunch. On Wednesday, I enjoyed it atop some salad, with a side of oranges, sliced soccer-practice style. :)

For dinner last night, I was inspired to bust out our crockpot once again. I’m really loving this thing! “Set it and forget it” = best way ever to make dinner.

I ordered some groceries and pantry items on Relay Foods earlier this week (my full Relay Foods review is here – it’s a cool local CSA + grocery delivery service for DC/VA area peeps. Follow this referral link to get $30 off your first order over $50.), so I was looking to use up some local pork tenderloin and organic sweet potatoes I ordered from a nearby farm. After Googling healthy slow cooker pork tenderloin recipes, I came across this Balsamic Pork Tenderloin recipe over at Robyn’s blog, and decided to give it a shot.

I received the Google Nexus 7 Tablet from Staples about a month ago to test out, and I’ve been loving using it in the kitchen as a way to view recipes while cooking. So much easier than my bulky computer or my tiny phone! (I purchased the blue case/stand on Amazon – love it.) It’s also awesome for watching movies or TV shows in cars or on planes/trains, since you can download them.

Anyway – it only took about 5 minutes flat to throw this together. I followed Robyn’s recipe exactly, except that I left out the Worcestershire sauce because I didn’t have any. Since I needed to use up the sweet potatoes, I threw them in with the pork, too, and then poured the sauce over everything.

I set the crock pot on high for 3 hours (my tenderloin was pretty small, so it didn’t need too long) and by the time I was done with work and Matt arrived home around 7 p.m., dinner was ready. Crockpots are so. awesome.

The meal was not beautiful but it was so delicious – the sweet potatoes were a great addition to the balsamic pork and we both loved the flavor from the light sauce. I’ll definitely be making this again!

We had simple salads on the side, too. Baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, grated carrots, and a little feta, plus a homemade balsamic dressing (just olive oil + balsamic + dijon mustard + lemon juice & salt/pepper).

Awesome dinner! Excited to enjoy some leftovers today.

In other news, I went for my first run yesterday since the Richmond Marathon! It’s weird that it’s been less than a week since I ran 26.2 miles – it strangely feels like it was ages ago. After your helpful comments on my First Marathon Training Reflections post, I knew I should only do a really short, easy run for my first one back, so I hit up my running buddy Mary for a casual 3 miler yesterday morning.

I actually took that photo above by accident but it came out cool, I thought!

Mary and I ended up only doing 2 miles – that’s all my legs were feeling up for! You guys weren’t kidding that it would take some time to get back into it! Regardless, it still felt great to be outside in the morning air again. I’ve been feeling some runner blues this week without my normal endorphin-tastic workout routine!

I’m going to do another run tomorrow (Saturday) morning with my friend Karen – probably 4 to 5 miles, depending how I feel. As for today – it’s back to yoga. :) I’m hitting up Edge Yoga – my Arlington favorite.

In other fitness-related news: I’m excited to announce that I’m officially the new sports dietitian over at the Endurance Athlete Center in Falls Church, VA!

The Endurance Athlete Center is a cool one stop shop for athletes, comprised of a bunch of entrepreneurs all under one umbrella. There’s:

• Fast Track Physical Therapy (physical therapy & sports massage)
• Functional Fitness VA (personal training)
• Strong Foundations Foot & Ankle (run by a sports-specific podiatrist, Dr. George Lane)

They had a dietitian on the team, but as she was moving they were on the lookout for someone to take her spot. They wanted someone that already had their own practice (since this will just be a supplemental thing – not full time) and also “got it” with endurance athletics. Kerri, the owner of the Endurance Athlete Center and also of Fast Track Physical Therapy, found my AnneTheRD business website via Google and reached out to me a few months ago to see if I would be interested in the opportunity. We first met for coffee so she could share more details, and then since we got along well and it seemed like a good fit, she invited me in to pitch myself to the whole team.

Everyone gave me the thumbs up after my pitch presentation, so I’m so excited to be joining their group! I’ll be working on site at their office a couple days a week from now on offering sports nutrition and general nutrition counseling services to their clients. I’ll still be operating my own separate private practice as I have been, so that won’t change, and when I’m operating at the Endurance Athlete Center I’ll still be working via my own business as a contractor, which is great. It should be the perfect mix of still running my own business, having flexibility and being able to make my own decisions, with the bonus that now I’ll have people to collaborate with and a team to interact with. All the staff there are awesome and love running and fitness as much as I do – it’s a perfect fit! I’m already working with the trainers to come up with some packages we can offer together, which should be great. I’ll likely be out in the community with the team more doing workshops and such, too, so stay tuned.

I spent some time on VistaPrint the other day making myself a brochure to place in their lobby and got a little help from a graphic designer to make sure it didn’t look too amateur. It just came yesterday and it looks good! I’ll be taking it over there later today.

On the inside, I have a short bio, plus some testimonials from my AnneTheRD website.

Plus information about my services. I also added this new info to my own website – there’s a new “sports nutrition” tab.

Anyway. If you’re in the area and looking for sports nutrition services (or need help recovering from/preventing running or other endurance sports related injuries), check out the Endurance Athlete Center! They even have an Alter G treadmill – I’m excited to try it someday.

Have a great Friday, everyone, and a happy weekend!