This is a giveaway post sponsored by Smarty Pants Vitamins. To enter, read on or scroll to the bottom.
Raise your hand if you’ve trained for a marathon and are familiar with the term “runger.”
Right? Runger is an affliction that typically strikes around the time you get into 18-mile-or-longer run territory. (OK, maybe 15-mile or longer… But really, who’s counting.)
The symptoms are as follows:
- You are constantly hungry.
- You crave bread and deep-fried everything.
- Salad for lunch? Sure. But what’s for lunch?
- If you’re a beer drinker, the amber liquid becomes as much a part of your recovery routine as you once imagined an ice bath would be. Except, ice baths are not awesome, let’s skip those.
- More bread and deep-fried everything.
All that is to say that, unfortunately, marathon training doesn’t always inspire the best choices when it comes to food and drink nutrition and hydration. Ironically, this is the time when what we eat matters the most. Nutrients matter. Fresh, whole foods that are all the (natural) colors. Not just the macros – ever met a runner who was having trouble getting all their carbs in? The micros.
Take, for example, my menu for the day before a long run a couple of weeks ago. Breakfast was a banana and a bagel. Lunch was pizza. Dinner was french fries (the only meat-free item at a roadside diner just outside of LA… the place was otherwise not bad!)… and I snacked on peanut-butter cookie sandwiches. That 17 miler the next morning was not fun.
And I like to think of myself as a mindful eater! I don’t eat at McDonald’s or gobble down a bag of chips in front of the TV (every day). I do honestly do love collard greens and spinach!
But as you can see, some days, my nutrition choices leave a lot to be desired. So for the past couple of weeks, I’ve made a point of taking a multivitamin – especially on days when I know I should have had less rice, more green stuff.
Thanks to Fit Approach, I was introduced to California-based Smarty Pants Vitamins, which makes multivitamin gummies for children, women or men. For each bottle of multivitamins they sell, they make a 1-on-1 nutrient grant to those who need vitamins the most, including pregnant women, new mothers and children. They sent me a bottle of the women’s multivitamin to try and review, and are running a product giveaway, which I’ll tell you all about in a bit.
So first, here is my review: Mmmm, delicious.
That’s not all, of course, but let’s be honest: taste matters with these things. Ever tried a fish oil supplement? Ever burped after taking one? No fun. But with the Smarty Pants Vitamins, there are no such side effects — or any side effects, really. They are yummy and, the best part: a day’s serving is not one, but six gummies. This way, if you are already eating foods like breakfast cereal, fortified pasta or bread, you can only take one or two and not risk taking in too much of certain nutrients.
(You can’t really overdose on most vitamins… but there are exceptions. Taking too much of vitamins A and D, as well as zinc and iron, for example, can have serious – or at the very least, unpleasant – side effects. As with any supplement, you should be careful and know what you’re putting in your body.)
The giveaway
Starting on March 10 and ending on midnight (Pacific Time) March 17, you can enter to win a free bottle of Smarty Pants Vitamins by doing the following:
- Follow SmartyPants on Instagram
- Follow AleksRuns on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram post about the giveaway (this is the only way I can keep track of entries, so do it!)
- Share the giveaway on Instagram, tagging SmartyPants and hashtags #TheGoodGummy and #SweatPink (in addition to the above)
That’s it!
Oh, and remember to eat well — or take your vitamins!
