Hi! Happy Monday! I have a very exciting post for you. My friend Christina, the blogger behind The Athletarian is here to share her thoughts and experience with "running on plants"! Scott and I are leaving for a European vacation today (!!!) so while we are busy traveling all day, I thought it would be fun for you to hear from Christina!

I am SO excited because Christina happens to be one of my FAVORITE bloggers! She and I first connected on Instagram a few years ago...in fact she was one of the first people I started following. She seriously has the best personality and sense of humor. I absolutely love that she is so into health and fitness while always keeping it 100% real. I always look forward to seeing her posts on Instagram and reading her blog. I wish we lived closer (Christina lives in Toronto, Canada) because I know we would totally be "real life" besties! :)

I will let Christina take it from here!

A HUGE thank you to Lauren for giving me the opportunity to guest post on her amazing blog! I first found Lauren via Instagram and was immediately drawn to her feed full of beautiful food photos. I soon discovered that we had a couple of things in common – running and eating plant-based food – so I thought I’d talk a little bit about both today!

First, let me introduce myself! My name is Christina and I blog over at The Athletarian, a healthy living blog where I talk mostly about running, eating, my dog, and random life musings!

I first started running in university as a way to stay healthy and fit. Sitting in lecture halls for hours can make you go crazy so I used running as an outlet to shake out some stress and break up my day. It was so surprising to discover that I actually enjoyed running and sweating wasn’t the most horrible thing in the world (if there was a Most Inactive Student Award, I would have won it every year since I was about 18). I signed up for my first 10k race in 2005 and loved it. Since then I have run several races, from the 5K to the full marathon distance. I think it’s pretty safe to say that what started out as a hobby has turned into a full-blown (healthy) addiction.

I started getting a little more serious about running and racing over the last couple of years (I blame all of my inspiring blogging friends for that!). I now have a coach, log all of my miles (every.single.one.), and have the goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon someday. Another difference I have made in my training is the way I eat. It took me a pretty long time to realize that athletic performance is largely affected by diet. What do you mean you can’t eat a whole cheese pizza and then go run 16 miles???? There may be some people who have iron stomachs and can perform well regardless of what they put into their bodies. I am not one of those people. For me, sticking to a whole (mostly) plant-based diet is what works best. I feel more energetic, tend to run faster, am lighter on my feet, and experience speedier recovery times. Fueling my body with things like smoothies, fresh fruit, salads, roasted and raw veggies, whole grains (like brown rice and quinoa), and protein-packed legumes give me the confidence that my next run will not suck.

Taking on a (marathon) training plan is a lot of work and a huge time commitment. Eating right is just as important and fitting in all of your runs. They go hand-in-hand and both play critical roles in a training cycle. I like to use the car analogy – in order for a vehicle to run properly and smoothly, you need to give it the right fuel. If you try and use the wrong fuel, it might run for a while but it’s likely that it will struggle and eventually break down. We don’t want our bodies to break down, do we?! NOPE. NOT ME. Give me all the plants to help me run fast and far!

Don’t let all this “planty” talk fool you though – pizza, burritos, and chips with salsa are my kryptonite. I eat not-so-healthy and non-planty things too, but I aim to eat more of the “good” stuff and less of the “bad” stuff! I’m all about balance and rewarding hard work!

I am currently in training for the Pheonix marathon on February 28, 2015. Feel free to follow along as I aim to set a new personal record!

You can find me here:

Blog: theathletarian.com

Instagram: @the_athletarian

Facebook: facebook.com/TheAthletarian

Twitter: twitter.com/TheAthletarian

Isn't she fab?! I love following her running journey...she is so fun to watch! In addition to all of the awesome health and fitness related things Christina posts about, she has THE CUTEST DOG IN THE WORLD. I want to clone her dog Princeton and have one of my own. The cuteness is too much to handle. Christina, thank you so much for sharing a bit about yourself today on Whole Living Lauren!

Go check out The Athletarian and follow her journey!

xoxo,

Lauren

P.S. Be sure to check out my Instagram for pics and updates on our trip!