Written By: Catherine C.
http://fitarella.com

My marathon training is in full force now. With less than 16 weeks to go, focus on my nutrition and workouts is key to ensure success. This will be my third marathon, so with this one my goals are more time and performance oriented, whereas previously the goal was to just cross the finish line.

I’ve been playing around with my nutrition the last few weeks (adding some new things, taking out others), and I am amazed at the difference in how much better I feel during training and throughout the day since I’ve upped my dairy. I’ve always been very conservative with my dairy intake when it comes to training, mostly because I wasn’t sure how my body would react. Sometimes it responds differently to foods during periods of intense training, so it’s a trial and error process. However, I have to say that with some small dairy additions I’ve felt more satiated and performance-ready lately.

Here are some of the additions I’ve made:

- Low-fat cheese to my egg white & veggie omelets: Sounds so simple and I’m sure most people already do this, but it’s new to my diet. This addition not only tastes really yummy, but the good amount of low-fat cheese has been keeping my hunger satiated until the next meal so I’ve been snacking less.

- Non-fat yogurt/cottage cheese with frozen berries: Again, probably a no-brainer for most people, but because I was so focused on keeping my dairy intake low before, I never gave these options a chance. Now I’m bringing a small portable cooler bag to work so I can keep my yogurt and cottage cheese handy.

- Adding new recipes to our ‘family meal’: My husband and I both work full time and are avid sports/health enthusiasts so we are always looking for fun, healthy recipes for our family. Our daughter will try anything once so if we are successful on the first try then the recipe goes on the ‘permanent list.’ Here is this week’s winning recipe that our 3 1/2- year-old absolutely loved:

Crustless Spinach Quiche

Makes 4 servings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30-40 minutes

2 teaspoons canola oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 1/2 cups grated low-fat Cheddar cheese
6 large egg whites
1 large egg
1/3 cup fat-free or low-fat cottage cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne red pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Drizzle oil in nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté for 5 minutes, or until translucent. Add spinach and stir for 3 additional minutes, or until spinach is dry. Set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly coat 9" non-stick pie pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle cheese in pan. Top with spinach mixture. In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites, egg, cottage cheese, red pepper, salt and nutmeg. Pour egg mixture over spinach. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set. Let sit 5 minutes. Cut into wedges. Serve warm.

If you have some great low-fat dairy recipes to share I’d love to hear about them. My long run this Saturday showed an 8 minute improvement on my time so I am positive that the changes I’ve made in my daily diet – including more dairy -- are a big part of the reason.

Enjoy!