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Meal Planning, Prepping & Batch Cooking (plus some awesome recipes!)

1/10/2022

No matter what the goal, the best way to reach it is to plan ahead. Life is too busy to attempt to succeed at reaching our goals with a plan of action in place and some prep ahead of time.

This is especially true when it comes to changing your diet. Eliminating sugar from our diet is not easy, especially if we are coming from a diet high in carbs and processed foods.

One way to make sure you are successful is by meal planning and prepping ahead of time. Below I go over some tips for meal planning, dive into my favorite way to prep food, and then give you some awesome recipes to get you started!

Meal Planning Tips

Meal planning will look different for everybody. That’s because we need to take a look at our own lives and schedules to determine what approach will work best for us. Below are some meal planning tips that you can apply and tweak to your personal needs:

Choose a day to meal plan: if we don’t make time to plan, it’s less likely to happen. That’s why my first tip is to pick one day to plan out the next week’s worth of meals. But this part isn’t just about choosing recipes, it’s also about taking inventory and making your shopping list. Once you know WHAT you will be making, you need to look at what you currently have, and then create a list of what you still need. This way, you are ready to head to the store and you minimize the chances of forgetting something you need!
Choose a day (or days) to go shopping: while planning our meals and making a list are easy to fit into one day, some of us feel better shopping more than once per week. This is one of those things you need to figure out on your own, and may take a little trial and error. However, you definitely want to know ahead of time what day or days you will be going shopping and schedule it in your planner just as you would any other important appointment.
Choose a day (or days) to prep (more on prep below!): Meal prep is definitely the task that takes the longest so for some, splitting it up works best. However, others find devoting a few hours once per week is the secret to their success. This is especially true in the case of batch cooking, which I dive more into below. Just like above, schedule this time out so that you are less likely to do anything else over it!
Consider creating a recipe bank or investing in a meal planning app like Real Plans: rather than scouring the internet for a new recipe each week, having a bank to choose from or an app that provides them will make your life easier. The reality is, the internet has thousands of recipes, which can make the whole process super overwhelming! Anytime you come across a recipe that looks good to you, add it to your recipe bank! Then, when it’s meal planning day, you’ll have a shorter list to choose from.
Invest in some high quality storage options: meal planning and prepping means you’ll need places to put all of the food. And what you definitely want to avoid are plastic containers. Need some refrigerator organization options? Check out Container Store or even Amazon! As for meal prep and leftovers, some of my favorite storage containers include the following:
1. Stasher Bags
2. Glass Meal Prep Containers (these are dishwasher safe, freezable and can easily be reheated directly in the container)
3. Collapsible Bento Lunch Box (these are great for eaters who don't love their food to touch, for storage and for travel)

Batch Cooking for a Sugar Detox

As I already mentioned, different people approach meal planning and prep differently. While some may feel good purchasing their food on Sundays and then prepping and cooking each night, others require a different approach that allows them to spend less time in the kitchen.

That’s where batch booking comes in.

With batch cooking, you buy all of your food at once and devote a few hours in one day to prepping your meals so that all you have to do is heat and eat (if heating is even required!).

Funny enough, even batch cooking can run along a spectrum. For example, one person may choose to cook up some sides on the weekend to save time during the week whereas another may cook whole meals to be ready for grab and go, when necessary!

Regardless of the type of batch cooking you do, the main idea is this: it saves you time and keeps you out of the kitchen - mostly! - all week!

And during a sugar detox, the more prepared you are, the better, so batch cooking may just be your ticket to success.

Think about it:

When you meal plan and create a grocery list, you’re less likely to succumb to impulse purchases (which are usually much more indulgent than you want them to be)
Having your meals prepared ahead of time makes decision making easier, leading to less random snacking.

Oh and one more thing about batch cooking - you can do it for as far ahead as you want! Whether you cook for a week or you cook for a month, batch cooking is how to get it all done.

Okay, ready for some awesome make ahead recipes to support you during your sugar detox? Check them out below!

Easy Recipes to Meal Plan for your Sugar Detox

1. Instant Pot Butter Chicken

2. Whole30 Chilaquiles With Sweet Potatoes

3. Bacon and Kale Paleo Breakfast Casserole

4. Lemon Chicken Skillet

5. Paleo Beef Sausage and Broccoli Egg Muffins

6. Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chili

7. Chicken Spinach Artichoke Soup

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Balancing Blood Sugar in the New Year (Part 1)

1/2/2022

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Happy New Year, folks. How’s that sugar hangover from the holidays?

Don’t worry, I’m not judging. All of us have the right to enjoy ourselves and after the last couple of years, celebrating and having a good time is more important than deprivation.

But now that it’s a new year, it’s time to reign it in and remind ourselves that as pleasurable as sugar may be, in excess, it can be a problem.

Blood sugar dysregulation as a result of a high carb diet (particularly processed carbs!) can potentially lead to a host of health issues including obesity, heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes!

Sugar is highly addictive, it’s hidden in everything and we typically find we're eating more than we think when we start really paying attention.

The good news is, taking some time to eliminate sugar from your diet can help reverse many of its detrimental effects. Further, giving up sugar means more energy once your body re-acclimates to life without it (or with less of it).

No more energy crashes and afternoon cravings!Say goodbye to the afternoon dip in energy!
Understandably, the idea of giving up sugar can be overwhelming so, I’m giving you some of my favorite tips to make it as easy as possible. Rather than throwing it all into one long post, I’ve decided to split it up for you.

Below, I go over what balanced blood sugar looks like, the stages of blood sugar dysregulation, and I give you some ideas on how to be successful at breakfast (since that’s often the most difficult meal to remove sugar from). In part 2, I give you more tips on setting yourself up for success by prepping, planning, and batch cooking your meals.

Balanced vs Imbalanced Blood Sugar

So what exactly does it mean to have balanced blood sugar? Here’s the simple rundown:

When you wake up in the morning after a 12 hour fast, your blood sugar should be at a healthy level, around 85 mg/dL.

After consuming a well-balanced meal, the body digests the macronutrients from your meal and they are absorbed into your bloodstream. This causes a healthy rise in blood sugar over the next 2 hours (to around 115 mg/dL) and a signal to the body to release the hormone insulin from the pancreas.

Insulin’s job is to remove any excess sugar from the blood and store it in the liver and/or muscles for later use.

After a few hours without a meal, the blood sugar levels begin to drop back toward the fasting levels (85 mg/dL) and the brain sends a signal to the pancreas to release the hormone glucagon.

Glucagon's job is to release stored glucose from the liver back into the bloodstream to be used as energy until the next meal is consumed.

Although the internal mechanisms are far more complex, this is the gist of what happens in our body. However, when we over consume carbohydrates, the system can go haywire.

When you wake up in the morning after an 8-12 hour fast, your blood sugar should be at a healthy level, around 85 mg/dL. However, if the hormones that regulate blood sugar overnight cannot function properly, it is not uncommon to see blood sugar levels drop below 79 mg/dL. This often causes people to crave carbs, sweets and/or caffeine.

As a result of the extra glucose from a high carbohydrate meal, our body responds by pumping out extra insulin. It’s important to note that since our cells only have a limited capacity for glucose, the excess will be converted and stored as body fat.

The excess insulin causes a sharp decrease in blood sugar causing us to feel that “crash” (think: hangry, shaky, irritable). In this scenario, we typically reach for more carbohydrates to bring our levels back up. Simultaneously, the body releases the stress hormone cortisol which is also capable of increasing our blood sugar. (Isn’t it interesting that the body sees low blood sugar as a stress state and responds accordingly?)

The increase in cortisol leads to an increase in insulin and the vicious cycle continues.

Many of us are sadly living with some sort of blood sugar dysregulation, even if we don’t realize it. The best way to better understand what your body is doing is by purchasing a glucometer or continuous glucose monitor. I recommend tracking for a minimum of two weeks, while also keeping a food and mood journal. This will give you an opportunity to see exactly what is going on so that you can make the necessary changes.

Sugar Goes By Many Names

The first suggestion for eliminating sugar from your diet is to focus on the foods found in the perimeter of your supermarket. That means fresh vegetables and fruit, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy (if you can handle it).

The sad truth is, most of the sugar that leads to health issues can be found in packaged products found in the aisles of the store. And often, people don’t even realize they are consuming sugar because it goes by so many names.

The American Diabetic Association recommends a daily sugar consumption below 20g for women, 36g for men, and less than 12g for children. The average American consumes 71.14g of sugar every day, well over the recommended amount. One of the simplest ways to reduce the intake of added sugar is by learning to read food labels.

Look for foods with 5g of sugar or less per serving!
Keep in mind that:

As of July 2018, added sugars are listed separately on food labels in America, but not in all countries.
Naturally occurring sugars from whole foods are not considered added sugars.
Lactose is the naturally occurring sugar from dairy. The amount of sugar from dairy can vary from product to product. Generally speaking, there is approximately 5g of sugar per 100g of dairy with no added sweeteners.

Check the ingredient list for any added sugars!
There are currently 61 different names for added sugar in the US, which makes them challenging to identify.

The main things to keep in mind are:

Words ending in “-ose” are
added sugars.
Words ending in “-tol” are added sugars.
Words such as “syrup,” “juice,” “concentrate,” and “crystals” are sugars.

Just because the label lists “zero” sugar, does not mean that there are no added sugars in the ingredients. You must check both!

Making Breakfast Sugar Free

For most folks who eat a Standard American Diet (SAD) diet, breakfast can be the hardest meal on any type of sugar detox program. SAD breakfasts are usually very high in sugar and carbs:

oatmeal (usually with sugar and dried fruit because who eats oatmeal by itself?!?!)
flavored yogurts (high in sugar) with more fruit and granola
cereals
pancakes/waffles with syrup
pastries

In a standard American breakfast, it is not uncommon to see upwards of 30g of sugar in that single meal. Take for example a yogurt parfait. A single serving of Chobani black cherry flavored greek yogurt has 17g of carbohydrate (which includes 15g of sugar). Top that with 1/2 cup of organic Love Crunch granola, and you've added an additional 40g of carbohydrate (which includes 12g of sugar). That's a 400 calorie breakfast that includes 57g of carbohydrates and 27g of sugar!!!! WHOA!

Your hormones are fighting to keep approximately 5g (that's 1 tsp) of sugar in your blood stream at any given time. That means that your "healthy" greek yogurt parfait just created a crisis in your body because you now have over 5x the amount of sugar in your blood stream. This causes the body to rapidly release the hormone insulin from the pancreas in response to the high levels of sugars in the blood.

To ensure you are successful with eating a balanced breakfast without the excess sugar, I highly recommend you plan your meals in advance and prep them as much as possible. Rather than thinking “breakfast foods”, remind yourself that any food is fair game for breakfast.
Here are my Top 10 Breakfast Recipes while on a sugar detox:

1. Nourishing Warm Paleo Breakfast Salad

2. Spicy Spaghetti Squash Egg Bake

3. Breakfast Stuffed Delicata Squash. Need to up the veggies? This is great served with a breakfast salad (see #4).

4. Breakfast Salad with Everything Bagel Seasoning Dressing. Look for a sugar-free sausage, or make your own using ground turkey or pork!

5. Breakfast Casserole

6. Mashed Cauliflower Breakfast Bowl

7. Smoked Salmon Breakfast Bowl

8. Pesto Cauliflower Rice Breakfast Bowls

9. Green Smoothie. Add your favorite clean protein powder to up the protein!

10. Creamy Zucchini Blueberry Smoothie. Add your favorite clean protein powder to up the protein!

Coming Up Next

Now that you know what healthy blood sugar should be, what to look for on a label so that you can avoid excess sugar, and are equipped with breakfast ideas, we need to dive into panning and batch cooking food.

In our busy world, it’s imperative that we plan ahead otherwise we will find ourselves reaching for convenience food. And, trust me, those are the ones jam packed with sugar (even the so-called healthier options.

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Holiday Survival Guide 2021

12/7/2021

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Ah, the holidays are among us! What an amazing time of year.

I've already spent some time in the forest and found the perfect Christmas tree (thanks to a few friends for the help) and made a wild wreath to hang over the fireplace. The decorations are up and I'm enjoying my morning coffee with coconut eggnog by a fire surrounded by Christmas cheer. Even though I don't love the set up and clean up that comes with holiday decorating, this is the time I love it most. And it really is worth the hassle!

Although we do consider this the “most wonderful time of year”, many of us become more stressed than we have been in the previous 11 months.

We typically have more to do and lots of money to spend. We find ourselves committing to so many things and wondering why we feel exhausted by the end.

And this over commitment leads to us dropping our health and fitness routines. Now let’s get one thing straight...

Body composition changes are generally hard to achieve for most folks over the holiday.

Give yourself some grace this time of year! You don’t need to be hitting every single workout or depriving yourself.

Not gaining body fat, or not losing lean tissue can be considered a WIN over the holidays!

Instead, you can reshift your focus and adjust your goals after the holidays are over and you aren't surrounded by temptations, added stress and a busier than usual schedule.

With that being said, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite tips for surviving the holiday season without completely letting yourself go.

(You may find you feel so good by January 1 that you’ll be ready to hit the ground running for your next training season!)

Holiday Survival Tips

1. Create separate "December only" goals to help you "win" over the holidays.

Consider things like: "walk 8-10k steps daily" instead of "go to the gym" + "eat 3 cups of vegetables daily" instead of "stick to the diet" + "drink 1/2 your weight in water ounces daily" instead of "don't or minimize drinking alcohol."

The idea here is that you’re slightly moving the goal post so that you can achieve something, rather than missing the mark and feeling lousy about it.

2. Enjoy a nutrient dense, real food breakfast.

Even if you generally follow time restricted feeding or intermittent fasting throughout the year, setting a goal to eat a healthy breakfast over the holidays can help ensure you're getting in a nutritious meal at least 1x daily.

The holidays are generally packed with extras (gift shopping, wrapping, holiday gatherings, etc) and it can be easy to 'get too busy to eat a healthy lunch.' Starting off your day with a veggie omelet, protein packed green smoothie, or even a breakfast salad can give your body the energy it needs to tackle the day. Trust me, it's NEVER a good idea to go shopping when you're hungry!

3. Add a few healthy snacks to your grocery shopping list so you have a few quick grab and go items on hand for those busy days.

Some of my favorites are:

Made Good Granola Bars
Epic Bars
Macadamia Nuts or Other Mixed Nuts
Trail Mix
Apple with Artisana Organic Raw Nut Butter Packets

4. Keep the indulgent foods out of your house.

It's TOTALLY FINE to indulge in festive foods from time to time over the holidays, but having them available in your house will create a temptation that even the strongest willed human cannot resist. Fill your house with healthy options and indulge outside of your house instead!

5. Think of simple ways to cut back on the sugar when you have control to do so. Some examples include:

Love enjoying eggnog in your morning coffee during this time of year? Instead of swapping your usual (hopefully not sugary) creamer for eggnog, consider 3/4 creamer and 1/4 eggnog instead.
Search for alternatives to your favorite holiday recipes. There are so many options out there with less sugar but no less taste! For example, my family has swapped a traditional bread stuffing for this all vegetable version instead and I promise, it tastes the same! Plus it’s WAAAY less carbs and WAAAY more nutrient dense!
Minimize the fancy drinks! One holiday cocktail is more than enough. If you must have another drink, go for a clear alcohol with some club soda. Your body will thank you!
If you’re picking up a Christmas inspired Latte, ask them for less pumps of the syrup. You’ll get all the flavor without the excess sweetness!

6. Change up your workout schedule.

If the craziness of this time of year is making It hard to hit your workouts, change your schedule until time opens up again. Yes, of course, we all have the “same 24 hours” but that doesn’t mean you have to be doing something during every single one.

Exercise is beneficial, but it’s also a stressor. And I don’t think you want more stress. But since you also don’t want to lose your fitness all together, I suggest making your routine easier to achieve. Maybe instead of 5 days/week, you commit to 3.

Or, instead of 60-90 minute workouts, you commit to 30 min! Maybe getting to the gym is hard, why not try an at-home workout? Just jump on good ol’ Mr Google and search “30 minute home workout”.

There are so many to choose from, like:

Remember, it’s only a few weeks so don’t worry if exercise takes a back seat. Just do your best to keep moving, as often as time permits.

7. Keep it simple.

Now is not the time to get overly complicated with your meal plans. Plus, if you’re eating out a lot, you likely don’t need to be doing huge food hauls.

Sit down and come up with 3-5 easy meals you and your family enjoy. Then go shopping, get the ingredients (plus any of the above go-to snacks!) and eat on repeat for the next few weeks. You will be grateful for simplicity mixed in with the indulgent.

8. Fill your plate with protein and produce, first!

Wondering how you’ll survive all of the fancy meals?

First off, it’s just food. It’s meant to be enjoyed so go ahead and enjoy it! But, if you’re wanting to enjoy mindfully, I suggest adding protein and produce to your plate before anything else!

Go for 1-2 servings of whatever the choice of protein is (ie - meats, poultry, fish, etc) and then 1-2 servings of veggies! Whatever room is left on your plate can be used for whatever other food is there that you’d like to have. (Unsure of portion sizes, check out this awesome infographic from Precision Nutrition. Follow the row that says “improve health and maintain body weight” for this time of year!).

9. SLEEP!

Getting as much sleep as you can will be so helpful during this time of year. Sleep helps your body recover and gives you the energy you need to tackle each day. Being sleep deprived can lead to less energy to fit that 30 minute workout in and more carb cravings (and not the good carbs!).

If you need to leave an event early to ensure you get enough sleep, don’t feel guilty doing so. Need to sleep in? Go ahead and skip that morning workout and instead aim for a 30 minute walk or workout midday! Sleep is THAT important!

In Summary

The moral of the story is that you don’t need to be chasing your biggest health and fitness goals right now. If you’re able to keep hitting your workouts and sticking to your existing plan, bravo! If not, don’t let that derail you completely.

Keep in mind the saying: “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”.

It’s only a few short weeks until 2022! We’ve all been under immense stress these last 20 or so months. Focus on the merry and bright and have as much fun as you can.

The New Year will be waiting for you!

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Ironman Arizona 2021 Race Recap

11/23/2021

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After three races in a row with downright horrible weather (Ironman Ceour d'Alene at 106F; Ironman 70.3 Worlds with a monsoon; and Ironman California CANCELED because of a bomb cyclone), it was finally time to find out once and for all who's fault this was. Mine? Or my friend and training partner Matt's? We've been on the same race schedule this entire year until this race. He was going to watch the Ironman tracker from home while I toed the line at Ironman Arizona.

The days leading into the event made it look very obvious. This was all Matt's fault. The weather on race day was shaping up to be perfect. 80F, 5-7mph winds and 0% chance of showers. Perfect.

But then Matt showed up. SURPRISE! Not to race, but to spectate. And not to jump right to the conclusion, but we're right back where we started not really knowing if the gail force winds that unexpectedly showed up on race day are my fault or his. I'm still blaming him. ;)

THE LEAD UP...

This was the first year I was attempting 3 full Ironmans in the same year. Ironman Ceour d'Alene in June, Ironman California in October, and Ironman Arizona in November. Ironman California was always my "A" race and all my focus was ensuring I was as trained and ready as I could be for my first ever "hometown" Ironman. And I feel like I was. But we all know what happened on that day. Mother Nature decided that Sunday, October 24th was the perfect day to bring much needed rain (the "atmospheric river") to northern California along with A LOT of wind (the "bomb cyclone") and forced the race directors to make the right call to cancel the event. This forced me into an awkward 4 week re-build/recovery into Ironman Arizona hoping I could somehow manage to peak again. Although a second peak 4 weeks later was definitely not possible, I was feeling ready and capable of laying down a PR in Arizona.

Race week came and I safely made it to Tempe, Arizona. All things were looking positive to have a great race on Sunday until 12:30am Saturday morning. I woke up feeling a knot in my stomach and before long, I found myself moving from the cold tile on the hotel bathroom floor to the toilet with a trash can in my lap. Yup...food poisoning. Sweatshirt on. Shivering. FREEZING. To minutes later ripping the sweatshirt off. Sweating. SO HOT.

Damn it.

At 8am my husband and 'best sherpa of the year' ran over to Wholefoods to find anything he could that might help. My family kept reminding me that food poisoning is quick to come and quick to go which helped me feel like maybe there was a small chance I might be better by tomorrow. By around 9am I was able to start getting small amounts of liquids down which also meant I could get down some Ibuprofen and Tylenol. Once that kicked in, I started to feel like sitting up and maybe even standing was possible.

My bike drop off time was 11am and a 1/2 mile walk from the hotel. My husband gathered all my things and we slowly walked downtown to drop off all my gear. Fingers still crossed that I'd continue to improve by tomorrow.

At 1pm, I was given an IV bag of fluids which really helped me start to feel human again. But despite 1 can on ginger ale, 1000mL of IV fluids, lots of ice and 1 cup of chicken broth, by 8pm that evening, I still hadn't urinated. I knew I was SO dehydrated still. And calories....HA! No chance my body was ready to take on any solid nutrition yet. So I headed to bed and just hoped for a miracle.

RACE DAY

The alarm went off at 4:45am and I immediate grabbed my phone to look at my Oura data. Did the Oura gods think I was okay to race today?!?

Resting heart rate- up. Normal resting heart rate for me is around 48 bpm.

Average HRV- down. This marker changes regularly but that lack of variability in my HR wasn't encouraging.

Body temperature- still elevated. UGH!

The Oura gods advice for the day- "Make recovery your number one priority today."

Great. Now what? Do I race? Do I not race? Do I start and just see how it goes? AHHHH...I don't know what the right choice is!!! I feel better compared to yesterday, but that's not hard to do since death felt like a good solution to my agony yesterday.

I'm now checking in with my two most dependable and smartest advisors...Sean and Matt.

"Sean, feel my forehead. Do I really feel like I have a temperature?!?!"

"Matt. Look at my Oura data. What should I do?"

Start. I should just start with the swim and see how I feel after that. I am a strong swimmer and confidant that if I had a "crisis" in the water, I could get to safety or manage it appropriately. I don't typically panic in the water and of all the disciplines, I feel most confidant here.

Okay, so it's settled. I'm "racing." But I'm not. I'm NOT racing. I'm going through the motions of an Ironman and taking it easy and listening to my body. WHAT!?!?! Do I even know how to do that?!?! Competition is my middle name. I LIVE to compete. Ask anyone who knows me well and I can turn ANYTHING into a competition. I'm honestly not confidant AT ALL that I can listen to my body once I put a race number on and actually pull the plug if that's the smart thing to do. But I guess we're going to find out.

THE SWIM

Do you know what the BEST THING is about having food poisoning the day before a race is?!? You don't have to wait in line for a port-a-potty on race morning. :) This made for a quick race prep in transition. I was in and out in a few minutes and headed to swim start.

The water temperature on race morning was 64.5F. PERFECT! Not too cold. And not too warm. Sean helped me get into my wetsuit and I got a few good luck kisses from Newman, Matt's pup and our loyal on deck swim motivator (he doesn't tolerate a lot of rest at the wall- HA!).

My goal swim time pre-food poisoning was sub 1 hour 10 minutes. I knew I would have to slow down and just take it easy if I wanted to have a chance at finishing this long day. 'BURN NO MATCHES in the swim!!!' So I vowed to bilateral breath by the 3rd breath once I got settled and past the early chaos of the swim start. This would ensure my swim pace was slow enough that I wouldn't burn through a bunch of glycogen I knew I didn't have to burn.

So I pushed my way up to the 1-1 hour 10 minute swim group and waited for the cannon to go off.

6:45am. BOOM!!!! Here we go...

As usual, the first 2 turns of the swim were mayhem. Tons of swimmers who started WAAAAAAY earlier than they should have, flailing around and fighting for a position they didn't deserve. So annoying. Once I made my way around them, I was able to settle into a comfortable swim pace. There was very little contact and the cloud cover made for a swim course you could actually see once the sun came up (the course heads due east and is usually VERY blinding!).

Once I made it to the swim exit, I looked down at my watch and saw 1:09:34. WOW! That's awesome that I managed to beat my goal swim time despite not pushing the pace I would've normally pushed! But, wait. Is that awesome!?! Does this mean I should try to get after my bike goal and see what happens? Maybe I should actually try to race this and see if my body can do it?!

NO...no. Remember you're suppose to be taking it easy today and listening to your body. But...but...

This is what happens when you're transition run is 20 miles long from swim exit to transition (okay...not really 20 miles, but LONNNNNG). My mind had WAAAAAY too much time to start fighting about what is the right thing to do today. Race? Or don't race? I'll see see how I feel once I'm out there.

The final swim stats were 1:09:42 and 9th fastest in my age group out of 89 finishers. I'm happy with that and would've been happy with that even in my best state!

THE BIKE

Transition 1 was uneventful. I did take my time and made sure I had everything I needed. Since Ironman Arizona was using "touch-less" personal needs stations on the bike this year, I decided to carry all of my nutrition on my body and try to avoid an unnecessary stop there if possible. So there was a lot of food being stuffed into pockets in transition. Wishful thinking on my part. LOL!

Once I mounted the bike and maneuvered my way out onto Rio Salido Boulevard, it was time to settle into a pace. I was pushing 280 watts which is far from sustainable for me for 112 miles on a good day. So I went to shift into an easier gear and nothing. Push the button again and nothin'. DAMN IT! Di2 isn't working. So now I'm troubleshooting. The front derailleur is shifting but not the back. So I know it's not the battery. May I can do this whole ride in 2 gears? Ugh, I doubt it. I need to stop and fix this.

Every 'race support' motercycle that passed I asked if they had bike tech? "No, sorry."

Okay, just make it to the first aid station at mile 10. They'll have a bike tech there. Oh, but they didn't. So at the end of the aid station, I stopped and asked if I could please use one of the volunteers cell phones. My plan was to call Sean and see if he could flag down a bike tech to have available at the aid station at the turn around. Then I could ride the first loop (37.3 miles) in 2 gears and hopefully get this fixed for the second and third loop. The volunteer happened to be the aid station captain and he called in to have bike tech come to us ASAP.

Meanwhile, I racked my bike and waited. Not one time in that moment did it dawn on me that I should actually look at my bike and see if I could figure out what was wrong. NOT ONCE! WTH!?!?! Instead, I thought, 'My Di2 isn't working. I need a mechanic. And this the universe telling me YOU'RE NOT RACING TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Okay, I get it. I'll stand here and drink water and try to eat some food and be patient and I won't race. The aid station captain was stressed out that it was taking the mechanic so long to arrive. Meanwhile, I was like...I'll take this GIANT sign that I need to chill the f*ck out today.

After about 10 minutes, the mechanic arrived and just started unplugging and plugging back in Di2 cables. Eventually it started working. 🙄 OMG. Really?!? Why didn't I think about that. Seriously?!? The solution to all electrical problems has always been unplug it and plug it back it. I certainly could've done that 10 minutes ago. But I didn't. And I blame it on the lack of glucose to the brain. HA! But I'm SERIOUSLY grateful for that mechanical glitch that hit me in the face with a baseball bat and set in stone that my race was over and I was seriously just using this as a fantastic, supported training day.

The rest of the bike was a pretty typical Ironman Arizona bike. Long. Uncomfortable. And SOOOOOOOO windy (so much for that 5-7mph wind report).

I was determined to follow my nutrition plan to keep my energy up as much as possible. I entered this race not having eaten for 48 hours and I knew if I couldn't get calories in, it was going to be a long day. Unfortunately solid foods were a no go. Every time I put a Skratch chew, or a 1/2 gluten free Skratch waffle, or a 1/6th of a Skratch rice crispy in my mouth, within 5 minutes it was back in my mouth 🤢(sorry...TMI). So at mile 18, I switched to liquids instead. Over the next 94 miles, I managed to get down 60g CHO of Skratch SuperFuel, plus water and 4 salt tablets. That's it. It wasn't fun. I felt SUPER low in energy and for the first time ever in a race, I felt like I was having a hard time staying awake on the bike. At one point I rode under an underpass with lots of shade and I wondered 'if I just pulled over and laid down for a few minutes would I get pulled if a race official rode by?' Better not chance it.

It took FOREVER, but I finally made it to 112 miles. My original goal time for this event was sub 5 hours and 30 minutes. Even on a great day at 100% wellness, with the winds on race day, this would've been very unlikely. However, I know my time would've been a lot better than what it was had I been well and capable of executing my nutrition plan!

My final bike stats: 6:36:50 and 37th out of 89 finishers. Not my finest ride.

THE RUN

I'm a data geek. I spent 12 years teaching myself how to listen to my body (with a lot of help from a few coaches) which is an invaluable tool to know. But eventually, I started to question all the "feeling." I mean, we have all this data for a reason, right?!? So I've spent the last 3 years teaching myself what certain "zones" generally means by the numbers on my watch too. It's not always perfect, but sometimes it is. And the marathon at this years race is a perfect example of why knowing your data is super important.

My fat oxidation rate was tested on a metabolic cart earlier this year and now I generally know how much fat and glucose I burn at different heart rates. That, in combination with my CGM (continuous blood glucose monitor), has REALLLLLY helped me fine tune my "fat burning zone" (lame term, but you get the picture). I feel SUPER confidant that my heart rate for an Ironman marathon should be somewhere around 155 bpm. However, that's assuming I'm replacing burned glycogen with exogenous glucose (Spring gels, Skratch chews and coke!). And since I wasn't able to do that for this marathon, I knew I needed to drop my HR down into my "all day pace" so I could burn more fat and less glycogen. So I started this marathon with a goal HR of 149 bpm (this is the top of my "L2"). Whatever the pace was, it was.

I was SO EXCITED to finally be on the run. First, because I was off the bike! But second because I could finally get my hands on a coke. I know. Gross. And normally I would agree. But I was SOOOOO tired and so low in energy. I knew if I could get down something liquid with calories and caffeine I would feel better.

At the first 3 aid stations I did it. A 1/2 cup of coke at each. But after the 3rd cup, I realized I was taking it on faster than my gut was ready to accept it. So I switched to every other aid station for the first loop (8.73 miles), then to every 3rd aid station for the final 2 loops (17.4 miles). On the third loop I started to question my stomach and made a few stops at the port-a-potty to make sure I had a 'clean' finish. I swear that little girl holding the poster that read "never trust a fart" had written that just for me. LOL!

It took longer than I'd hoped, but I finally made it to the finish line! The goal run time was sub 4 hours. I ended up finishing the marathon in 4:24:46. A far cry from my goal, but this was a sweet finish despite my time.

NAILED my L2 HR zone! (Even though this wasn't the original zone I wanted to race in.)

My Mom cheering me on. ♥️

Run stats- 4:24:46 and 11th fastest run out of 89 finishers in my age group. Not too shabby all things considered.

THE FINISH

Sean and I at the finish.

Overall finish- 12:28:19 and 15th out of 89 finishers in my age group.

I think it goes without saying that this was NOT what I had trainer or hoped for. But as I stood on the side of the Beeline Highway in the early hours of the race I really did successfully shift my focus away from competing and to an attitude of gratitude. Cheesy, I know. But it's true. I know there were tons of athletes who wanted to be racing IMAZ this year (many of them my good friends) who were unable to transfer from the Ironman California cancellation. I was one of the lucky few who got to race. So despite the day being so far from what I had imagined, I WAS there. I got to pin a race number to my kit and test myself. The test conditions were just changing. And after some fighting it, and one bout of tears on Saturday when I thought I might not be able to race, I accepted the shift.

I've been working for years to learn my body and what it's truly capable to doing. Thanks to YEARS and YEARS of eating a clean, plant focused, higher fat, lower carb diet, now I know I can finish an Ironman on mostly water and salt alone. And the best part is I NEVER HAVE TO TEST THAT AGAIN!!!!

But let's be crystal clear, in the future, I want to RACE. I want to BE COMPETITIVE. And I can't be super fast on no food. I need sugar in the right amounts at the right times to fuel the power and paces I want to hold!!! So here's to hoping I NEVER have to do that again! HA!

MY CGM DATA FROM THE RACE

As you may already know, I wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). Not because I'm diabetic, but because I'm 1. curious and 2. want to be proactive about my health and longevity. I believe this device helps me fulfill these desires. I could talk about my CGM forever, but I'll spare you the lengthy novel and cut to the chase.

If you don't already know, a CGM is a little device that is stuck to the back of my arm in which a thin wire is injected into my skin. It constantly takes measurements of the levels of sugar in my blood. (That's a highly oversimplified description.) It doesn't hurt and most of the time, I don't even remember it's there. I scan this little device with my cell phone and get live data of my blood sugar levels. I hope it goes without saying that it's incredibly helpful with dialing in your diet. It's helped me learn which carbs are best for my body, at what levels I can enjoy them, and what times of day are best for me. But beyond the obvious dietary benefits of knowing your blood sugar levels, I also use it for my training.

In a nutshell, if I push my body outside of my "L2" zone (that infamous "fat burning zone"), my blood sugar spikes. This happens WITHOUT food. Why? Because my brain suddenly thinks I'm in danger, it releases cortisol (the stress hormone) into my blood, which releases sugar from my liver into the blood so my muscles can FLEE. This release of sugar is captured in the data from my CGM. So when I go out to run an "L2 Endurance Run" and my blood sugar spikes, I know I wasn't being honest with my paces. I ran too hard.

Since my little food poisoning episode the day before the race changed my race goals, I knew I'd needed to keep my pace, power and HR low enough that I didn't spike my blood sugar. That would've resulted in a blood sugar crash which I was worried I wouldn't be able to rectify with exogenous sugar.

The image below is of my blood sugar levels from race day. I dropped in blocks from my swim, bike and run respectively.

There are a few things I found most interesting seeing this data:

I was successful at keep my blood sugar from spiking which means I kept my HR, pace and power around my L2. This is why I never really had any big crashes during day. I did get super sleepy on the bike and you can see that my blood sugar did get pretty low by the end. I'm not totally sure if this is why, but I'm sure it was a contributor. When we're tired we crave sugar to help lift/wake us up. And coke. LOL! Which explains that craving too.
That massive drop in blood sugar right when I finished the race. That did kind of surprise me and I still need to explore this more.
That last big bump after the race finished was me drinking a sprite. It spiked my blood glucose up to around 110mg before it started to drop back down. Normally, something that is liquid sugar (39g) would create a BIG spike in my blood sugar, but not typically AFTER a big workout, in which I would categorize this as. 😉 Ideally you don't have any BIG spikes or BIG drops in your glucose (think baby roller coaster). But more importantly is that your blood sugar stays within a narrow range all day. I aim to keep mine between 70 mg/dL and 110 mg/dL (and you should too!).

More and more professional athletes are starting to wear CGM's, so I know we'll have more great data coming out in the future about the best ways to use them.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS & FUN PICS

There are about a million things that I love about my job as an endurance coach and nutritionist. BUT...my favorite of all is getting to celebrate my athletes successes with them. I'm a tiny part of the giant puzzle they put together to find their own success. But when they get on the success train, DAMN IT FEELS GOOD!!!

Julie-anne Lay has done that this year. And she just plopped the cherry on top of her GIANT cake of success this year with a second place finish in her age group and a ticket to the Ironman World Championship in St. George, Utah in May! Matt and Sean were giving me updates on her all day and when she moved herself from 4th off the bike into 2nd in the run, I cried. It made me SOOO happy. It also made a little harder to breath. LOL.

And more than ever at this race, the race supporters were SOOOOO essential to my finish. Thanks to all the support out on the course (Sean, Mom, Leahe, Dottie, Scott, Matt, Julie, Michele, Steve, Emily and Taylor) and to everyone on the trackers at home. It truly kept me moving forward. I'm especially thankful to Matt and Julie for the surprise visit. Now I can keep blaming Matt for everything that went wrong on race weekend. 🤣 JK. I'm pretty sure the Universe wasn't on my side this year, but there's always next year to prove that I can actually be fast!

Julie-anne and a cheering squad!

The bike tech that saved the day.

Matt 'the sloth' calling me into T1

All my LEFT OVER nutrition! UGH. 100% of this should've gone down on a 'normal' race day.

Tempe Town Lake at night. Gorgeous!

Julie in her cheer costume.

Julie-anne takes SECOND place
in the F55-59 AG!

Matt and Julie in spectator spirit!

Julie-anne and I on a pre-race training ride Friday morning.

Over joyed to be at the finish!!!

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Improving Run Form in the Off Season

10/24/2021

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The "off season" can be a challenging time for most triathletes because they don't have an immediate race on the calendar. While finishing a race feels good, the feeling of “what do I do now?” often leads to athletes doing too little (or in some cases, signing up for too much next season).

Now I do think it’s necessary and beneficial to take a break from the regular structure of the race season training schedule, but using this time wisely to improve key areas of your sport while still feeling like you're taking some time off is key to coming back strong next season.

At the end of the day, consistency is key to success and injury prevention, and this is especially true for triathlon. Taking 2-3 months off from swimming, cycling and running might sound great right now, but think about how you might feel about this choice in the spring when it feels like you're starting over again. There is a way to keep the majority of the fitness you've gained this season up while still feeling like you've had a break from a season of structured training.

But what’s the best way to do that?

For most triathletes the best bang for their buck with winter training is focusing on improvements in their strength (aka resiliency) and sports specific form (aka drills). Obviously, in the sport of triathlon, we have three disciplines to focus on: swimming, cycling and running. All three disciplines require specific strength and excellent form to excel, but for this post, I want to focus specifically on running.

If running is a discipline you know can use some TLC, read on to learn what you can do to improve your run while still having fun and feeling like you still got a break from structured training.

(FYI - Unless you live in an area with a lot of snow, running is great discipline during the winter months because it's cooler and still fairly easy to do, unlike open water swimming or road cycling.)

Tip #1 - Get off the roads and onto the trail

Chances are, you’ve spent the entire season running on the road so why not switch things up a bit and hit the trails!

One of the reasons I enjoy the trails after a long season of training is for the break it gives my brain. Although it’s a new environment and my body needs to get used to running over rocks, twigs, and branches, it gives my brain something new to think about which allows me to focus on my body rather than being overly concerned about pace or anything else that typically fills my mind during training.

Besides a brain break, trail running has so many benefits. First off, it can help lower your chances of injury (which may come as a surprise to some!). This is mainly due to the decrease in stress placed on the lower leg during running. It’s also contributed to the fact that your body is required to increase its stability so you can run over “obstacles” on the trail, which leads to a stronger core and knees.

Similarly, as a result of increases in balance on the trail, you can also expect to experience an increase in endurance. Pretty sweet deal for triathletes!

And of course there is the mental health aspect of it. Most of you know my appreciation for the great outdoors. Getting fresh air and being surrounded by nature can contribute to a decrease in anxiety and depression, something not often seen in those who stick strictly to road running.

Tip #2 - Take your watch off and run for the fun of it!

This may end up being the most difficult thing to do but trust me, it’s worth it.

When we are training, it’s critical to be on top of your numbers. The more you track, the more data you have to use to make improvements and crush your goals.

But once training is over, it’s time to take off the watch and let your body move as it wants to. Run by feel, without an agenda, without a specific goal.

In all honesty, running by feel for an entire season is something you can learn a lot from - even without the data. It allows you to dip into your internal feedback system to really learn what different paces feel like for you.

Running by feel is another habit that can give your brain a break! You give yourself a chance to let go of the need to constantly check your watch, which in itself can be stressful!

You also become more attuned to what your body wants or needs that day. During training, we sometimes have to push ourselves beyond our limits, that’s part of what it means to be an athlete. But during the off season, we have the chance to enjoy moving our bodies but also giving them the break they really need at that moment. Maybe one day you’re ready to hit the ground running but the next, your body needs an easy recovery pace.

Leave the watch at home and let your body decide!

Tip #3 - Join a trail running group
or sign up for a trail race in the early spring

If you’ve spent the last season training alone, the off-season is the best time to join a trail running group or even give yourself something to look forward to in the spring, when you’re likely getting back in training gear.

If trail running is something you are new to, joining a group may be the best way to get comfortable with it, while signing up for a spring race can help keep you motivated and accountable. You’ll be surrounded by those who can show you the ins and outs of the trails, likely leading you to learn faster and stick around longer.

Or maybe you’re the type of triathlete that takes off-season TOO seriously, and by that I mean, all the way off! Rather than losing everything you worked so hard for during the training season, you have the opportunity to try something new and reap the benefits which will contribute to next season’s work.

Tip #4 - Run to the Music.

One area of running that you can focus on to improve form, speed, and reduce injury is your stride rate. Sure you could go on a track and get all technical with your approach to this but I think the way to make this more fun is to use music.

Music is measured in beats per minute, or BPM. Staying on beat is a great way to measure your stride rate without forcing your brain to overthink it.

All you have to do is follow the rhythm!

In order to improve your stride rate, you just have to find songs that are slightly faster than your current stride rate. If you’re unsure of your stride rate, here are two ways to figure it out:

Set a timer for a minute and then start running at your normal pace. During that minute, make sure to count how many times one foot (either the right or the left) hits the ground/treadmill. Stop counting once the minute is up and then multiply that number by 2.
Take a look at your running watch, most of these tell you what your stride rate is!

Once you know your stride rate, download a playlist that includes songs with a faster BPM than your current stride rate.

For example, my current stride rate on most endurance runs is 165 spm. Since there are many benefits to improving your stride rate, I will download a playlist that starts with songs around my current spm to warm up. Then I'll play a few songs that have 170 bpm. Then play 1-2 songs that have 180 bpm. My goal is to try to keep my strides in rhythm with the songs.

To find songs with the proper BPM, I use this website: https://getsongbpm.com/ but if you have Spotify you can easily find playlists in your desired BPM range (they have tons of playlists for runners for whatever your music interests are!).

Some other apps you can check out include:
Rock My Run
Pandora
Spring Moves

In Summary

The “off-season” is just as important as any other part of your actual training schedule. It’s crucial to give your body the chance to rest and recover. However, that doesn’t mean you need to lose all of your progress and work.

Instead, think of the “off-season” as a chance to keep up your fitness while having a good time doing it. Since open water swimming and road cycling aren’t options for so many during the winter months, running is something that can easily be done, even when it does get a little chillier.

Plus, working on your run form can ultimately strengthen your body, improve your endurance, and lessen the likelihood of injury in the future.

REFERENCES:

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How Tracking Your Food Can Help You Improve Performance...and Health!

9/29/2021

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Here’s something I see way too often in the athlete community: most endurance athletes UNDER eat!
You read that right, the people who should be taking in quality food to ensure their bodies are getting what is needed to perform optimally are missing the mark. Instead of experiencing PRs and strong races, these athletes are dealing with fatigue and poor performance.

But maybe they aren’t even realizing they are undereating! I don’t blame them. In today’s world, we are often bombarded with messages of “eat less” so even when we think we are eating more, we aren’t simply because of some preconceived notions of what a meal should look like.

That is why today I want to talk to you about tracking your food.

Yes, it can be tedious and time consuming but tracking your food can reveal A LOT about your eating habits and how they are contributing to your performance outcomes. Essentially, you can’t manage what you don’t measure so it’s time to make food tracking a priority!

THE PROS AND CONS

Before diving into the WHAT AND HOW, let’s quickly talk about some of the pro’s and con’s of tracking your food.

I believe the most beneficial aspect of tracking your food is that you gain an awareness of your habits. Once you know what and how much you're eating (and potentially how you feel before and after meals, if you log that!) you can take action. No more wondering why you hit a wall during that long training block or why you were ravenous on a rest day. Tracking gives you data, and data is a wonderful thing - especially for athletes!

Related to awareness is the idea that people tend to improve their behaviors when they are being watched, even if it’s by themselves! How many times have you written down what you ate only to find yourself making better choices purely because you want to log those better choices? It’s an interesting psychological effect, but it works!

I also love that tracking your food is simple and gives you something to look back on. No need to spend excessive amounts of money on a fancy test or tool. A free app or a cheap notebook will do. Then, when you’re training for an event in the future, you can look back and see what helped and what didn’t.

TRACKING ISN’T ALWAYS THE BEST IDEA

Now we all know that most good things still have some negative consequences to them, and tracking your food is one of them.

Eating can be an emotional behavior and so tracking food can sometimes make someone obsessive. This is especially true if they are trying to stay within certain calorie and macronutrient ranges. As you’ll see below, this is why I think short-term tracking is more than enough to provide you with the information needed to make positive changes.

Also, unfortunately, it can be time consuming and tedious to track every meal and snack you eat. There are apps that help and ways to make it easier and quicker but the reality is you still need to take time out of your day to make sure you are logging your food in order to obtain accurate results that you can work off of.

GETTING STARTED WITH TRACKING YOUR FOOD

Before you start counting every calorie, let’s make sure you have an accurate idea of how much you should be consuming each day. Start by completing this online calculator. Do one calculation for your highest activity day and then one calculation for your rest day. This will help you better understand what your energy (aka - calorie!) requirements are based on your activity levels.

Once you have your numbers in place, it’s time to start logging your meals. There are two apps that I recommend to anyone wishing to track:

My Fitness Pal
Cronometer

Both of them are great and provide tools that make tracking easy! For example, you can save meals and recipes, import recipes from websites, manually enter recipes you’ve created, and even scan food products to enter information.

MACRONUTRIENT RATIOS

In the past, tracking caloric intake was usually all people focused on but as we got smarter about training, we realized that we needed to place an emphasis on macronutrients, not just calories.

Different macronutrient ratios are required for different goals. Most athletes need about 1g of protein per pound of lean tissue. This equates to somewhere around 20-30% of your daily caloric needs.

When it comes to fat and carbohydrates, those can shift depending on your performance and body composition goals. For example, if you are a lean athlete working on short but fast training and races (think sprinting), you’ll want to keep your fat intake on the lower end with carbohydrate intake on the higher end.
Whereas, if you are an athlete who trains and competes in longer distances (anything over 2 hours), you’ll want to focus on a higher fat intake with a moderate to low carbohydrate intake. A typical range for carbohydrate intake is 10-50% and for fat it is 30-70%.

IIFYM: NOT ALWAYS THE BEST IDEA

With the popularity of tracking macronutrients growing, many in the health space advocate for IIFYM: if it fits your macros.

Essentially the idea here is that regardless of what you eat, if it fits your macros, it’s good to go. That way, people have more flexibility with the QUALITY or TYPE of food that they eat. So, if a bag of doritos still fits within your daily macronutrient and caloric requirements, they are good to go.

If you know anything about me, you know that IIFYM won’t fly with me. The quality of our food DOES matter. For some reason we have been taught that if we exercise or train, we can eat whatever we want.

Sure, our caloric needs are likely higher but that doesn’t mean we should be scarfing down junk to fill those needs. Fueling your body to optimal wellness and performance is more about eating NUTRIENT rich foods in the right amounts, at the right times.

In my opinion, it’s not “I exercise so I can eat” but rather “I eat so I can exercise”. Focus on high quality foods that provide nutrients to fuel your body so that you can reach your goals.

(And don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy something here and there! But keep it to a minimum so that your body gets what it needs to perform).

To get a better understanding of your nutrient intake, I highly recommend using Chronometer as it will track micronutrient AND macronutrient intake. This will ultimately give you a better idea of what nutrients may be lacking in your body so that you can work towards improving those numbers with real food and/or supplements.

DAILY GOALS VS. TRAINING/RACE GOALS

As athletes, we understand that our day-to-day intake varies greatly from our training and race nutrition. You may eat a generally low carb, moderate protein, moderate fat diet day-to-day, but your training/racing fuel is likely mostly carbohydrate.

For this reason, my suggestion for you, during training season, is to track the meals and snacks you eat before and after training sessions but skip entering your training foods. This allows you to focus on meeting your daily requirements without stressing over the rest.

Now, this does come with a caveat. As you become more comfortable with tracking your food, you COULD choose to do what I do (if any of this goes over your head, it’s okay to skip it!):

Get an understanding of what your approximate calories burned is for a training session (ex: on a four-hour ride I burn somewhere around 3200 calories)
Calculate what your caloric intake is during your training session (ex: on the same four-hour ride, I take in approximately 200 calories/hour for a total of 800 calories consumed)
Calculate the difference between calories consumed and calories burned (ex: 3200-800 = 2400)
That number now becomes the amount of calories you need to replace/consume the remainder of the day. You can use that number in your tracker using your usual macronutrient ratios.

I do this because it allows me to track my calories on high volume training days to better understand how much energy I burned and need to replace. However, since I can and do replace some of those calories with carbohydrates DURING training sessions, tracking that food throws off the numbers in my tracker.

Go ahead and give this a try once you’re more comfortable using a tracker!

WHAT DO I DO IF TRACKING IS TOO MUCH FOR ME?

Everything I’ve written about so far in this post can be applied to anyone - athlete or not. But, as I’ve mentioned above, tracking food can take up a lot of time and cause stress in certain individuals.

It’s not for everyone!

But rather than feel like you don’t have a tool to use, I’d recommend you use a journal instead. The difference is that you focus on what you're eating and not the quantity of calories or macronutrients.
Food journals are better for two different types of people:

Those that are micro managers and who love to stress about every little thing. It may sound a little backwards but the reality is, food tracking will be too time consuming for you. By utilizing a food journal, you can get a general idea of what you're eating, and even general quantities, without forcing you to record every single morsel or calorie.
Those that are experiencing symptoms like bloating, acid reflux, body aches, pains that come and go, headaches, etc. In this case, a food journal is a great tool to help you tune into your body and learn about which foods help you feel energized (and without symptoms), and which ones leave you feeling flat and unwell.

IN SUMMARY

If you’re an athlete who hasn’t been seeing improvement in performance or have been struggling with your training (especially if you’re feeling a lot of fatigue), it’s a possibility that you are undereating. And the only way to know for sure is if you start tracking your food.

Now let’s be clear, despite the time-consuming nature of tracking your food, you can get a whole lot of information from just tracking your food for one week. And the same goes for those opting for a food journal rather than a meal tracking app.

The majority of what we eat on a weekly basis stays generally the same so one week of information can help you get an idea of your daily habits and allow you to understand:

Your caloric intake
You macronutrient intake + ratios
The connection between your eating habits and your performance
The connection between how you feel and what you’re eating (**if you notate your signs and symptoms while tracking your food**)

If you haven’t tried tracking your food once, my send away message is this: try it for one week and see what you learn!

Of course the long term goal is to learn what types of foods and in what amounts help you fuel your performance and your health WITHOUT food tracking, but it's certainly a tool to help you get there!

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The Salty Athlete: A Guide to Sodium for the Endurance Athlete

9/3/2021

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Most diets concentrate on the macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats and proteins. And for good reason, these are important. However, water, and the micronutrients it carries throughout our body, are equally, if not more important! The human body can survive for weeks without food, but only days without water. Just like our survival, our ability to function optimally depends more on hydration than it does on food.

Water plays a crucial role in nearly every bodily function and dehydration is the #1 reason for fatigue. Although water is not nearly as fun of a topic as sugars, fats, or proteins, it cannot be overlooked when aiming to reach optimal health!

As endurance athletes, we understand the importance of staying hydrated. But have you ever considered your sodium intake (and reabsorption) as a key factor to your hydration status?

In this article, I dive into what it means to be truly hydrated, the importance of sodium for the endurance athletes, and how to understand your sodium needs and how to meet those requirements.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE TRULY HYDRATED

Before diving into sodium for training and race day, let’s go back to the beginning so we can cover what it means to be truly hydrated.

With water being the largest component of the human body, you can imagine how important its role is in obtaining optimal health. Water creates our bodily fluids which aid in digestion, blood circulation, circulation of nutrients, absorption, and regulation of body temperature. When our body fluid levels become depleted, we run the risk of dehydration.

Dehydration occurs when you use or lose more fluid than you take in, and your body doesn't have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions.

Dehydration will:

reduce the rate at which fluids are absorbed from the intestines which can lead to bloating and/or nausea
reduce our physical and mental performance
increases our heart rate and body temperature
increases the rate of our perceived effort during exercise
in extreme cases, can create a loss of coordination and impair our ability to make decisions.

Typically, for athletes, the cause for so much fluid loss is sweating.
When we sweat, we not only lose water but we lose electrolytes as well and that includes sodium. While we may think that more water is what we need, an overabundance of water during training and racing can lead to hyponatremia.

Hyponatremia is a condition that occurs when the level of sodium in your blood becomes abnormally low. The over consumption of water causes a dilution of blood sodium levels. Symptoms of hyponatremia include:

Headache
Disorientation
Fatigue
Coma
death (in rare cases)

If these symptoms sound familiar, you’ve likely experienced some level of hyponatremia.

At the end of the day, to be truly hydrated you have to make sure you’re taking in an appropriate amount of fluid AND sodium!

Sodium is considered an essential electrolyte mineral (essential meaning you must get it from your diet rather than relying on your body to produce it). Along with other electrolytes, sodium helps regulate the body’s fluid balance (which also contributes to your blood pressure levels, another important marker athletes need to pay attention to).

Sodium promotes carbohydrate and water uptake in the intestines and reduces the volume of urine post exercise. Both sweat and blood contain high concentrations of sodium. Therefore, if you under-consume sodium, your body has no choice but to shrink your circulating blood volume to compensate.

Same is true if you are a heavy sweater. You will lose higher amounts of sodium, and run the risk of your blood volume decreasing if it is not replaced. This will result in lightheadedness, sluggishness, and potentially unconsciousness.

THE SALTY REALITY FOR ENDURANCE ATHLETES

Most of us have been told to minimize sodium intake. Since sodium has been associated with high blood pressure and cardiovascular events, the FDA recommends less than 2300 milligrams per day. But even FDA admits that overconsumption of sodium is typically the result of the overconsumption of packaged and prepared foods.

However, as endurance athletes, our sodium needs are typically higher. As previously mentioned, due to the nature of our sport, we can experience a higher level of sodium loss due to sweating, which means we need to prioritize replacing lost sodium to ensure our body is getting the required amount.

Although I personally believe that ALL athletes should be monitoring their blood pressure, those of us who have a history of hypertension, stroke, or heart disease should be particularly vigilant about monitoring your blood pressure. By monitoring your blood pressure regularly, you can dial in the appropriate sodium intake for your body.

Athletes’ needs for sodium vary greatly from the general population but they also vary greatly across athletes. This is because our sodium levels are impacted by concentration (i.e., how much sodium is present within sweat) and volume (i.e., the total amount of sweat).

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), athletes can lose up to 5g of sweat in a single high intensity workout! That’s a lot of sweat, and a lot of electrolytes lost (more than 2x the amount the FDA recommends we consume in a single day!).

And this is why taking in salt is crucial during training and race day. My general rule for athletes is to get an idea of their sweat rate by doing an at home sweat rate test (more on that below). Then, rather than forcing water down, athletes should drink to thirst, while keeping in mind that you need to get in as close to as much of the fluids that you lose, alongside sodium.

The ACSM recommends that athletes take in fluids that include sodium with a concentration of 0.5-0.7g/L.

So how does one make sure they are meeting their sodium requirements? Let’s get into that...

MEETING YOUR SODIUM NEED

As I already mentioned above, hydration and sodium needs vary across athletes. So step number one is finding out approximately how much water and sodium YOU need, personally.

The best way to learn your sweat rate is to get a sweat rate test completed in a lab. You can check out Precision Hydration to learn more about testing centers near you. They also offer an online questionnaire to help you dial in your specific sodium and hydration needs.

Lastly, and an option I suggest even if you get tested in a lab, is to perform an at home sweat rate test.

How to calculate your sweat rate:
1. Empty your bladder. Weigh yourself before exercise or sauna with minimal clothes on.
2. Perform moderate exercise or sauna for a given number of minutes (15-60). Keep track of the ounces of water consumed during this time.
3. After exercise or sauna, towel off the sweat and re-weigh yourself with minimal clothes on. Your weight loss reflects your fluid loss. For example, if you weighed 150 lbs to start, then weighed 148 pounds after 60 minutes of exercise, then your net weight loss (and therefore fluid loss) is 2 pounds (or 32 ounces fluid) per hour. This should be replaced (both water and minerals) within 2-6 hours after finishing exercise/sauna. If you consumed any water during the test, make sure to add that back into your calculation.

Once you know your personal sweat rate, here are some things you can do to ensure you are meeting your sodium needs:

Workouts less than an hour: in this case, there is no need to worry about consuming anything special DURING the training session. Instead, focus on consuming nutrient dense foods or just add a generous amount of unrefined sea salt to your post workout meal.
Workouts that are more than an hour: in these situations, it would be smart to ingest sodium. I believe that keeping electrolytes, fuel, and hydration separate is ideal. This way, if (and when!) conditions change on race day (ex: hotter than expected, more humid than planned for), you can adjust one or more of these things without affecting the other.

For electrolyte replacement during these training sessions, I recommend you stick to salt tablets. They are highly measurable which makes dosing so much easier (vs. salt licks which makes dosing very challenging as every lick is different). If you prefer to add sodium and other electrolytes directly to your water instead, the two brands of electrolyte tablets/powders that I trust are Nuun and Ultima.

If an all-in-one fuel is easier for you, there are many over-the-counter beverages to consider when trying to replace your calories, water and electrolyte loss during exercise. My personal favorite is Skratch. I have used both Skratch Hydration Mix and Skratch Superfuel and recommend them both, depending on the race situation. As mentioned before, you need to keep in mind that by using an all-in-one fuel, hydration, electrolyte mix, you lose control over increasing or decreasing one of those elements based on your particular needs in training or on race day. To prepare for this, I still recommend carrying electrolytes, fuel and water separately, or at least have them available in your special needs bag in case you need more of one but not the others.

It has been suggested that an electrolyte sports drink with a 4-6% concentration (4-6g carbohydrate/100mL of water) is optimal for proper absorption.

A HOMEMADE ELECTROLYTE RECIPE TO TRY

Want to save some money and make an electrolyte sports drink at home?

Try this:

1/4 cup fresh lemon or lime juice (or a combo)
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 tsp unrefined sea salt
64 ounces filter water

Combine all the ingredients in a large pitcher and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. This homemade sports drink mix makes four 16 ounce servicing. It provides a total of 100g of carbohydrate (5.2g CHO/100mL) and 1,050mg sodium (56mg/100mL) OR 25g CHO and 262mg of sodium per serving. Aim to consume 16 ounces per hour.

No matter what, the best thin you can do with this information is use your training as practice so that once you make it to race day, you know exactly what you need (AND have extra supplies on hand in case the conditions are different than expected).

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU NEED MORE OR LESS ELECTROLYTES IN TRAINING OR ON RACE DAY

You might be wondering what signs to look for when it comes to staying properly hydrated. First off, always be sure to come into a hard session or race well hydrated. That doesn't mean with coffee. That means drinking AT LEAST 16 ounces of water with a pinch of sea salt before your session, especially if you train in the early mornings.

During training or racing, start sipping your water or electrolyte drink immediately and drink at a rate that is comfortable.

If you feel nauseous, you likely have over-done electrolytes or under-done your water intake. Either way, the electrolytes in your belly need to be dilutes. At this point, consuming more PLAIN water may help.

If you feel sloshing of water in your belly, you have likely over consumed water and not taken on enough electrolytes. Consuming more electrolytes may help as they can pull the water from your belly into the tissues. In this case, I'd highly recommend taking your electrolytes in pill form as to avoid adding more fluids into the belly.

If you feel like things are all of sudden getting really hard, this can also be a sign that sodium is low. Consider more electrolytes (and maybe more calories too!).

Cramping can be caused from many different factors, including overworked muscles. From a hydration perspective, cramping can be from too little electrolytes and/or too little water. In this case, I would advise you to take a salt capsule and open it into your mouth. The body, especially your taste buds, have an amazing way of telling you what your body needs. If the salt tastes good, I would start by taking more electrolytes. If the salt burns your mouth or tastes bad to you, then you likely don't need more electrolytes and should consume more plain water.

MY PERSONAL ELECTROLYTE PLAN

While your plan may be different from mine, I thought sharing my approach would help you understand how to approach your own training and race day.

No matter how cold it is, I always take 1 Salt Stick Cap at the top of every hour during training or racing that is longer than 90 minutes. I have an alert set up on my watch to help me remember.

As the temperature and/or humidity rise, I consider more Salt Stick Caps. At Ironman Arizona in 2014, I took on 1 Salt Stick Cap every 15 minutes on the bike and every mile on the run. This resulted in 24 Salt Stick Caps on the bike and 25 Salt Stick Caps on the run, totaling 49 salt caps on race day (that’s 10,535 mg of sodium from the Salt Caps alone).

In hind-sight, this was a lot. I have done more testing since then and have found less sodium still does the trick and I chafe a lot less! But I never felt bad and finishing in 11:37 and in 17th place for my first ever Ironman wasn’t too shabby either.
The bottom line is I tested this amount over and over in training and I knew it worked for me.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

Staying hydrated is something that we all know, as athletes, is important. But now you should understand that true hydration is the result of maintaining an adequate level of electrolytes, mainly sodium.

With so much variability across athletes when it comes to sodium needs, performing a sweat rate test and constantly testing your personal sodium intake during training is the sure fire way to set you up for success on race day!

REFERENCES:

https://www.endurancesportsnutritionist.co.uk/sodium-guide-endurance-athlete/

Mountain SJ, Cheuvront SN, Lukaski HC. Sweat mineral element responses during 7 hours of exercise-heat stress. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2007. 17(6): 574-82

Buono MJ, Ball KD and Folkhorst FW. Sodium ion concentration vs sweat rate relationship in humans. J Appl Physiol. 2007. 103:990-4

https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-education-resources-materials/sodium-your-diet

https://journals.lww.com/acsmmsse/Fulltext/1996/10000/ACSM_Position_Stand__Exercise_and_Fluid.45.aspx

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22110105/

https://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/2/1/151

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Keto Made Easy

7/15/2021

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So you’re thinking about trying out keto. Or maybe you’ve already tried it but feel confused if you’re even doing it “right.” Or maybe you’ve been doing it “right” but felt like it is complicated and unsustainable. Well...I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. Keto can be sustainable, very simple, delicious and also incredibly healthy!

Before I jump into how to make keto simple, let's talk about what it means to truly be “keto”. While many focus solely on eating “all the fat”, there is actually a biological process, known as ketosis, happening. Ketosis is a state in which your body favors fat metabolism over glucose metabolism. To know whether or not you are in ketosis, you would use a monitor which tells you if the ketones in the blood are elevated above baseline.This means that “eating keto” may not be the same for everyone.

In other words, there is no “right” or “wrong” ketogenic diet.

Your ketogenic diet is right when you are burning fat which can be measured with a blood ketone meter. (Just a side note: there are breath ketone meters on the market but as of this publishing, their accuracy is still in question.) This also means that the right ketogenic diet for your neighbor may not be the right ketogenic diet for you.

Just willy nilly eating less than 50g of carbohydrates per day, which is a common recommendation, may or may not get you into a state of ketosis. And believe it or not, some people can eat over 100g of carbohydrates per day and still be in a state of ketosis.

What matters most is that you are burning fat and you’ll know if you are when you can measure ketones in your blood!

So, how do you make that happen...easily?!?

Here are three ways you can get started down the path to becoming a fat burner without a lot of fuss.

ORDER PREMADE KETO MEALS

If you’re eager to quickly find out if a ketogenic diet feels good to you and helps you reach your goals, there is no easier way than ordering premade keto meals.

No measuring. No counting. Just eating.

This takes a lot of the thought and food-prep out of the equation and allows you to experience what ketosis feels like in your body without stressing over macro counting. After a few weeks of trial you’ll have a better idea if you want to keep it up or not. At that point, you can continue with a meal service, or start slowly experimenting with keto recipes of your own.

Pretty much any recipe can be made keto friendly, but if you need inspiration, a quick search using the keywords “paleo keto recipes” will pull up a whole slew of healthy real food keto recipes for you to start playing with.

FOLLOW A MEAL PLAN

One of the easiest ways to learn if keto is right for your body is to follow a pre-done meal plan. It’s almost as simple as option 1, except this time you get to be in the kitchen and cook!

Now-a-days there are plenty of free real food keto meal plans that include shopping lists, detailed recipes and even a prep schedule to keep you on track with weekly meal planning and prep. If you can’t find one you love, check out an online meal planning program, like Real Plans to customize your own. You can even access a free 4 week keto meal plan from Real Plans HERE.

With programs like these, you have the ability to choose your preferences while staying within the keto parameters. That means you can still work towards your goal of ketosis while enjoying the foods you love most. Of course you have to love food shopping and meal prep to use a service like this.

FOLLOW THE 3-2-1 RULE

If rules scare you, don’t worry! This is actually a very simple one and can be useful to just about anyone trying to eat a healthier diet. By following the 3-2-1 Rule, you focus on including 3 servings of vegetables, 2 servings of fat, and 1 serving of protein at each meal.

To be more specific, 1 serving of vegetables is 1 cup of many of the low starch vegetables that grow above the ground. That includes your leafy greens, peppers, cucumber, and of course, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower.

One serving of fat is equivalent to 1 tbsp of fat. This can be a dollop of grass-fed ghee, a spoonful of coconut oil, or even a ½ avocado. One serving of protein is equivalent to the size of your palm. This is usually between 6-8 ounces of protein for most people.

Although it is still helpful to use a blood ketone monitor to ensure your body is in ketosis, following the 3-2-1 Rule simplifies meal time by giving you a blueprint for your plate.

IN SUMMARY

With “keto diets” trending these days, it is no surprise that people who could benefit from keto start to get overwhelmed by all of the information out there. My recommendation is to start by deciding if you have the excitement and energy to shop for and prep your own food.

If you do, either check out a meal planning program like Real Plans, or keep your meals really simple by following the 3-2-1 rule. If you don’t want to fuss over meal planning, keep it simple by using a trustworthy pre-made meal service so you can focus on the rest of your life and just learn what keto feels like in your own body.

If you want to ensure that whatever style you follow is “right,” consider investing in a blood ketone meter to test your ketones. Remember that we’re all different so there is no one “right” way to get yourself in ketosis. But whatever way you choose, it should be easy and enjoyable!

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Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Report

7/5/2021

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Race Report

You just have to spend a few minutes scrolling through the Ironman Coeur d’Alene Facebook page to know that the 2021 event was one of the toughest Ironman events that most athletes have ever done. With one of the highest DNF (“did not finish”) rates in all of Ironmans (26.7%), it was the oppressive heat on race day that did most athletes in. For me, looking at the predicted forecast in the days leading into the event, I knew the day was going to be incredibly tough. Just knowing that the level of suffering was going to be insanely high helped me manage expectations on race day. That, in addition to making a few changes to my race day nutrition plan the week before the race, were the 2 biggest factors that got me to the finish line. Luckily, I was one of the 73.3% that did make it to the finish line to make this my 8th full course triathlon finish (7 branded Ironmans + Challenge Roth).

Pre-Race

My training into Ironman Coeur d’Alene was one of the best preparations I’ve ever had coming into a full. I felt more ready than ever to tackle this course, both mentally and physically. Some of that was my extra long “off-season” (aka- COVID) strength training program that started in summer 2019 and continued into spring of 2020, some of it was the new programming I followed from Dan Plews (loads more swimming and much more L2 training than ever before), but most of it was my new training partner.

For 10+ years, I’ve trained mostly alone. Of course I’ve participated in group training with my friends and fellow Tri club members and I’ve done a TON of training with Sean. But I’ve never really had someone who shares similar paces (let’s be clear that he is WAY faster than me running, but we’ve managed to swim and ride some key sessions together and push each other well) and the same goals as me. But this year, that changed. I’ve been pushed in great ways to get faster and in general be a smarter athlete because of this new friendship. I know this is incredibly hard to find, but when and if you ever find someone who can push you in positive and constructive ways like Matt Cressa has for me, cherish it. It will make you a better athlete.

Travel

Heat acclimation training in Boardman, Oregon.

Beautiful road-trip and easy accommodations!

Sean and I purchased a Ford Transit Van in fall 2019 with the intention of outfitting it for road travel (bed, kitchen, “garage” for all the gear, etc). When COVID hit in March 2020, that dramatically slowed down our progress on outfitting the van. But luckily (thanks to Sean for a few weeks of long hours spent on the van), it was done enough that I was able to take it on the road to get to Coeur d’Alene. Since the drive from Grass Valley to Coeur d’Alene is nearly 14 hours without stops, I decided to split it into 3 days. I drove from Grass Valley to Klammath Falls (5 hours) on Tuesday. I drove from Klammath Falls to Boardman, Oregon on Wednesday. And from Boardman to Coeur d’Alene on Thursday morning. This allowed me to still prioritize training and recovery while on the road. If I had it to do over again, I would do it exactly the same way.

I arrived in Cd’A on Thursday morning and was able to get checked into the race right away. I’m SO GLAD I was able to do that since they were assigning numbers based on a first come first serve basis. That meant, the earlier you completed athlete check in, the better your location in transition. I was assigned bib #204 which meant I was racked near the professional athletes and incredibly close to bike in/out. Prime location for sure.

That evening, I was able to get checked into the Air BnB we rented for the weekend which was just a few blocks from all the race action. We were 2 blocks from the main run loop, 2 blocks from the bike course and just 3/4 mile from the race finish. Everything was walking distance. The rest of our crew showed up Thursday evening as well (they flew into Spokane airport, which is just a 45 minute drive from Cd’A).

Both Friday and Saturday felt long. I was certainly ready to be racing. However, I never felt rushed the entire week which I’m grateful for. Having just 1 day to get checked in, do a gear check and settle in is too short for me. I loved being able to get into the NormaTech boots, walk around downtown a bit on Friday (so I could prioritize keeping my feet up on Saturday) and in general, relax. It also allowed ample time to paint toe nails and play games with fellow athletes and race supporters! :)

Race Day!

The age group race start was scheduled for 5:35am, so that meant a 3am wake up time for me. I naturally woke up without my alarm at 2:45am anxious to get going. After a small breakfast, we walked down to transition from the house and arrived around 4:10am. We had plenty of time to set everything up, use the restrooms, visit with our spectators and line up for the swim start.

The Swim

I self seated in the 1:05-1:10 swim group. There was a very short warm up allowed, which I took since it was already very warm outside. Matt and I lined up together with a plan to start together, but each race our own race from that point forward. They had 2 lines of athletes and were releasing each line every 3-5 seconds. Matt went first, and I followed a few seconds behind. I was able to keep an eye on him until the second turn buoy and then I lost him.

This swim course is a 2 loop swim course where you have to exit on the beach between loops, then merge back into athletes starting their first loop. The first loop was a dream. I generally found clear water and was able to get some good pacing with other athletes around me (so great drafting and not a lot of swimming over/around folks). I finished the first loop in :34.01 which was about 2-3 minutes behind where I wanted to be, I was certainly not pushing the pace or trying to set any records with this swim. I knew the day was going to be long and I did not want to burn a single match on the swim.

The second loop was a $hit show. Merging into athletes whose swim paces were much different than mine was a nightmare. It required tons more sighting and lots of maneuvering around athletes whose paces were not matching up with mine. I finally found clearer water on the inside of the buoy line and took it which helped. Then I only had to get into the water polo style swim around the two turn buoys.

In the end, I finished the swim in 1:11.37 (about 4 minutes slower than my goal pace) and had the 13th fastest swim in my age group on the day. Although slower than hoped, I’m SUPER happy with my swim. I feel like I swam smart and conserved energy for the remainder of the event.

The Bike

The bike is two loops of the 70.3 course (which I completed in 2016 and 2017). The course is certainly hilly, measuring a total of 5,400’ of elevation gain over 111.8 miles of road (according to my Garmin). At the start, the temps were in the mid 60’s F and felt comfortable. My frozen bottle of Skratch SuperFuel had already melted by the time I made it to T1 which just indicated to me that it was going to be a hot day. I felt good with my HR, RPE and power over the first loop. My goal was to get as much nutrition in as I could (within reason of course) while it was still cool so I didn’t wait long before starting to eat (see my notes on nutrition below for more details). I decided to go with 3 bike bottles for this race: 1 aero bottle that holds about 30 ounces of clean water, 1 bottle on my down-tube with 400 calories of Skratch SuperFuel and 1 more down-tube bottle with plain water. Unfortunately, this still wasn’t enough for me. Once the heat turned on at the start of the second lap, I ran out of water and overheated. I got dizzy, my vision was blurry and I felt like a drunk driver who required a ton of concentration to keep my bike moving in a straight line. Once I finally hit the next aid station I had to stop completely, putting both feet down next to a volunteer who just kept bringing me bottles of cold water. I doused my body with one, drank one, and reloaded my bike bottles with clean, cold water. Once I left that aid station, I felt like a new human. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long as my legs were just getting tired. My HR was staying low, but I wasn’t able to push power like I’d hoped to. In addition to losing strength, my bike shoes were KILLING me. In the days of training leading into this event, every time I rode at home in the heat, my feet would expand and create pain on the sides of my feet. I knew getting new bike shoes was needed, but I felt like it was too close to race day to make a change. That was a big mistake. Temperatures radiating off the pavement were around 135F and my feet obviously couldn’t handle my narrow shoes. I’m mad at myself for not changing these before, but new shoes are certainly on their way to me now!

In the end, I finished the bike in 6:39.12, a whopping 40 minutes slower than my goal pace and had the 24th fastest bike split in my age group on the day. Not what I had hoped. Hindsight is 20/20 so besides switching out my bike shoes, I also plan to change my fit slightly, change up my training (more threshold and VO2 max work), and execute my nutrition strategy better than I did here (see details below).

The Run

I think the picture above says it all. LOL! Loop 1 wasn’t bad. I felt the heat, but it wasn’t oppressive. I started cooling myself at the vest first aid station by taking a cold town and wrapping it around my neck. I also carried with me an empty ziplock bag and filled it with ice. I rotated it around by sticking it down my shirt, in the back of my jersey on my neck, and just held it in my hands. This helped me feel cool without getting my shoes soaking wet.

By lap two, I felt pretty hot. I was stopping at every aid station to refresh my baggy of ice, rewet my towel and at the aid station around mile 13, refill my hydration pack with ice. At this point, I started feeling quite nauseous. With the temperatures in the low 100’s, I knew it was likely going to happen, it was just a matter of time. I feel pretty lucky to have had it start so late in the marathon. At that point, all nutrition stopped. Even water was making me feel nauseous. The only thing I could do at that point was suck on ice, so that’s what I did. My energy dropped, but every time I felt a surge of nausea pop up, I kept telling myself “yes, but you're not actually throwing up, so keep running.” That wasn't the case for most athletes. So many athletes were becoming sick and using trash cans and bushes to expel their nutrition. Gross. By lap 3, it seemed like everyone was walking. In the past, my chimp brain would have thrown a tantrum that everyone else was walking and that would’ve been permission for me to walk too. But not this race. I actually felt really lucky to be well fat-adapted and be comfortable racing on little to no nutrition by the end. Although I felt terrible, I wasn’t actually throwing up and nothing on my body was hurting so badly that I couldn’t run. I did however question my gut. I wasn’t totally confident I wasn’t going to have to make an ER stop at a porta potty, so I pulled my race kit down just in case. Disaster averted though. Phew! I managed through the entire marathon to keep a slow run from aid station to aid station and walked nearly all the aid stations to manage my body temperature. I look back on the run now and wonder if I could’ve skipped a few aid stations here or there, but in the end, I finished feeling strong (EXHAUSTED and completely out of energy, but strong in the body). That feels like a HUGE step in the right direction for me both physically and mentally.

In the end, I finished the marathon in 4:24.35, 25 minutes slower than my goal pace and had the 13th fastest run in my age group on the day. I’m happy with my run performance.

Nutrition

With high temps being predicted on race day, about 1 week before the event, I changed up my nutrition plan. I still used all foods I had tried prior in training, but removed all solids (except in transition).

PRE-RACE DINNER was my usual: grilled chicken thigh and sweet potato with butter. No veggies. No alcohol. And sadly, no chocolate.

PRE-RACE BREAKFAST was 2 pieces of gluten free cinnamon raisin bread with butter and an iced coffee with coconut milk and 1 scoop of Vital Proteins Lactose-free Protein Powder.

PRE-SWIM (about 1 hour before race start) I sipped on 1 serving of Skratch hydration mix.

IN T1 I ate ½ almond butter and jam sandwich on gluten free white bread. I did this because I know myself. I’m not the type of athlete who is going to feel full and/or satiated on liquids alone. I need to chew. This seemed like a safe place to put this for me and I feel like it was. I was hungry when I got out of the swim and was REALLLLY looking forward to this. :)

In T1, I also took 500mg of tylenol. I did this to help keep my core body temps down throughout the day.

ON THE BIKE my plan was to take on 60g of CHO per hour for as long as I could tolerate it. To my surprise, I actually felt really stable in the gut and was able to easily get this down for the first lap. I took 1x 180cal Spring Gel + a few sips of the Superfuel + a few Skratch chews + 600mg of salt + 1g BCAA every hour (slowly dripped in). To my surprise, by the time I started lap 2 and did the math on how many calories I had left on my bike, I realized I was very short! I stopped at my special needs bag to refill my pockets only to find that I didn’t add anything to my bag except for an extra tube and 2 single serving packets of Skratch! ROOKIE MOVE!!! So lap 2 not only did I deal with some overheating/dehydration issues, I also was lower in caloric intake than I know I should’ve been. See...even nutritionists make nutrition mistakes (I’m not proud...but I am human).

4 hours into the bike, I took another 500mg of tylenol.

IN T2, I ate the other ½ of my almond butter and jam sandwich and walked (feeling a bit sorry for myself to be honest) out of transition.

ON THE RUN my plan was to take 1 Spring gel every segment of the course (basically 3 out and back sections which means I was planning 6x gels for the whole marathon) + coke at various aid stations. The first gel took about 4 miles to get down, but it did go down. After that, coke was all I could manage until mile 13 when I switched solely to ice. I did take a few Otter Pops from a pop-up aid station near the turnaround and those were great for the first 2 laps. I managed to get my last 500mg tylenol down about 2 hours into the run along with a few salt tablets at the beginning.

I really don’t think there is anything I could’ve done differently here with nutrition. The high temperatures were wreaking havoc on everyone's gut and honestly, this is a fat-adapted athlete's time to shine. I’ve done SOOOO MANY fasted workouts and I know I can survive 13 miles without food pretty easily. It won’t feel great, but it’s better than a DNF!

POST RACE I felt pretty awful. I was nauseous and exhausted and for the first time that I can recall after a full Ironman, I went straight to bed. Sleeping it off felt like the right thing to do and the next day, I felt so much better!

Final Race Thoughts...

This race was generally awesome. Mostly because, as usual, the support we all received was top notch. Not just from the town of Coeur d'Alene itself which is exceptional, but from all the support that came from my hometown! 3 athletes (Matt, Todd and I) came with 13 additional support crew. Honestly, the yelling, water squirting, cow belling, high fiving and just non-stop support from them is what keeps me going on race day and beyond. They can never be replace. It really does take a village!

Overall, I feel really happy with my swim and especially happy with my mental toughness on the run. I made a few mistakes on the bike in addition to not being in as good of bike shape as I should've been heading into this event. All things that are 100% in my control to fix for next time (Ironman California in October).

Due to COVID (I hate hearing that saying!!!), there were 200 (yes, you read that right...TWO HUNDRED) slots to Kona for the 2021 World Championship. I personally had 12 slots in my age group and I felt confidant that if I could string together a good day, my chances would be high to earn one of those slots. Unfortunately, my final time of 12:25.59 was only enough to put me in 16th place and the Kona slots rolled to 14th in my age group. Close, but not quite enough. I know there are things that are within my control to change for the next race, but I'm also really sad that despite some pretty great improvements both swimming and running, it feels like Kona is getting further and further out of reach. That won't stop my from continuing to try to improve in all areas of the sport and keep pushing on to better myself and those around me in the process. If I'm meant to go to Kona, I know someday it will happen.

Post Race R&R!

One of the reason I race triathlon is to see new places. After this race, Sean and I took the van into Yellowstone for a few days of camping. Without wifi or cell coverage for 3 days, I was forces to chill out and was left without a way to agonize over my times and results in Cd'A. I highly recommend it! ;)

I've already got myself registered for Cd'A 70.3 in 2022. This venue just never disappoints. The neighborhoods, the scenery and the course are some things that will never get old!

See you again in 2022 Cd'A!

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Ironman 70.3 St. George- Race Report

5/11/2021

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Sean and I at the iconic Ironman statue in downtown St. George

When I think back to how I ended up at this race, I can’t really remember. It was a deferral of a deferral from some race in 2020. That whole year and the movement of all those race registrations is somewhat of a blur. I was originally signed up for Ironman St. George (the full) in May 2020, which got deferred to the fall of 2020, which ultimately got deferred somewhere else (I think Coeur d’Alene in June 2021). However I ended up here at the 70.3, I’m so glad I did. This race was awesome.

I decided to drive from Grass Valley to St. George via Bakersfield over 2 days. I drug a friend along for the long journey (thanks for joining me Sara!) and joined a caravan with 2 other athletes. Although the drive was very long (735 miles), it went by really fast. From northern California, it is a faster drive to go up through Reno, however, the hotel options are very limited in that direction which is why I opted for a longer route with more sleeping options. Since this was a Saturday race, I left Grass Valley on Wednesday and wanted a good night's sleep that night, which we ultimately got in Bakersfield.

We arrived in St. George on Thursday afternoon. We had just enough time to get to the expo to complete athlete registration which was nice to complete Thursday (instead of Friday). However, by the time I was able to get onto my bike for a little tune up ride, it was 6:30pm Thursday night, which was too late for me. If I had it to do over again, I would’ve left a day earlier (Tuesday) for a Wednesday evening arrival in St. George. That would’ve allowed for a more relaxed workout and race registration process on Thursday. Like many, I didn’t think about the long drive from Bakersfield on top of the 1 hour time change (an hour lost) from Nevada to Utah and Thursday just ended up being a really long day.

Most of the Gold Country Triathlon crew preparing to get into the cold water for the first time (that's me holding onto my friend Todd wishing he would just drag me along. LOL!).

FRIDAY, APRIL 30
(1 day out from race day)

We met up with our triathlon club at Sand Hollow Reservoir at 8am on Friday morning for a mini swim, bike and run. I saw so many posts on social media platforms about the swim temperatures being SO COLD (high 50’s F), but I personally was pleasantly surprised how it felt when we got in. Don’t get me wrong, it was COLD! But besides my face, the water felt comfortable on the rest of my body.

My family flew in later that morning and we generally spent the remainder of that day resting and preparing bags for the next day. I dropped my transition 2/run gear bag later that afternoon, which was fully stocked with everything I needed for the run. I had no intention of revisiting that bag on race morning, even though we had the option to do so.

PRE-RACE DINNER: Chicken thighs, cooked sweet potato with butter and roasted broccoli.

Sean and I before I got into my swim corral with the amazing sunrise behind us.

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2021
Race Day!

Woke up at 3:30am, even though the alarm was set for 3:45am. Excited, I guess.

BREAKFAST: Two gluten free waffles with butter and 1 scoop of Vital Proteins Coffee Protein Powder with unsweetened coconut milk over ice. I don’t eat waffles very often (like 2x a year), so it felt like a treat and was really easy for me to eat. I don’t typically have an appetite on race morning so I like to find something that I look forward to eating. Waffles were a good choice for me. :)

I chose to have Sean drive me and 2 other athletes to swim start. There were plenty of athlete shuttles running from the finish line to the swim start, but honestly, I didn’t want to leave that early (my bus time was 4:15am with a 7am swim start...no thank you). There was a bit of a walk (maybe 1 mile) from the spectator parking area to swim start, but I was happy to do it. Most of my gear had been dropped the night before so I was only carrying my swim stuff and bike nutrition. It was an easy walk and I’d do that again in the future.

Once in transition, I got my bike loaded up with nutrition and got my swim stuff on. They called athletes to the swim corrals by swim time. I was aiming for a 30ish minute swim and decided to line up in the :30-:33 corral.

PRE-RACE NUTRITION: At 6am (about 60 minutes out from swim start), I slowly sipped 1 serving of Apple Cinnamon Skratch (a seasonal flavor that I order in the fall and save enough for all race mornings). If you haven’t tried it, you should! Other than Skratch, nothing but water from breakfast to swim start.

photo from swim exit (that's me in the pink cap looking for my people!)

THE SWIM
1.2 miles in Sand Hallow Reservoir

There was no swim warm up, so I did a band warm up while waiting at my bike and just did my best to stay warm and loose once I got into the swim corral. I peed 4 times (FOUR!!!) waiting to start the swim. Just stood there around all the other athletes and peed right there in my wetsuit standing up. I wasn’t alone. The ground was wet everywhere and we all know where that fluid was coming from.

It took about 14 minutes from the time the cannon went off for age group athletes to the time I got into the water. The water temps felt great (Garmin says 63F) and I felt pretty relaxed for the first 200ish yards which was great seeing as it only my second open water swim of the year (the first being the day before!). I had fairly clear water and there wasn’t a fight, which felt great. But once I got about 200 yards into the swim, I started catching up to other athletes in front of me and passing them. I HATE being swimmed over, so I try really hard not to swim over others. This means I had lots of maneuvering around other athletes which went on for the entire swim. In hindsight, I would’ve self seeded earlier (27-33 minute corral) so I didn’t have to deal with this for the entire swim. In general, I felt really good about my swim. My lungs felt great (I was definitely working, but I never felt like I was over exerting myself), but my lats were ON FIRE. I remember thinking towards the end of the swim: “more pullups and pushups next time around!”

Swim time- 00:33.29
13th out of 115 athletes in the 40-44 age group

I was happy with that. (And when I say “happy with that” I was actually a little bummed with my swim time when I got out of the water, but was able to brush it off very quickly. I became happy with that time when I looked at the pro swim times and they seemed slightly slow to me also, so my attitude about it changed.)

photo of me wishing I had another gear in Snow Canyon

THE BIKE
56 miles with 3.162' of elevation gain

Transition 1 from swim to bike was a little slow, but I wasn’t in a hurry at all. I knew what was coming (the hills and the heat) and I wasn’t about to forget anything. I ran from where my bike was racked to the mount line with my shoes in hand. Once I hit the mount line, I stepped off to the side, leaned my bike against the fence and threw my shoes on. A group of spectators standing there cheered me on, gave me lots of compliments on my swim, transition and bike set up, then I was off. Spectators are the best.

The bike course was AMAZING. The roads were SO SMOOTH (until the very end) and the scenery was gorgeous. My riding plan was to ride mostly off RPE (rate of perceived effort) and not worry too much about HR and power. My garmin power pedals have been off lately (something I need to fix ASAP) and I feel very confident using RPE for a 56 mile ride like this. My goal was to have a strong ride, but not burn too many matches as my REAL goal was to run the entire run and not fall apart. The hills on the bike course didn’t worry me coming from a hilly area, but I certainly underestimated them. By the time I got to Snow Canyon around mile 44, I was really feeling my legs A LOT. I gained a little confidence as I passed male rider after male rider (most of them with full disc wheels) either standing on the side of the road trying to catch their breath, or walking their bikes up the hill. But let’s not be fooled, I had been passed by TONS and TONS of riders from the very beginning of this ride and it was hard to ignore that I knew I was losing time on the ride when others were excelling. In hindsight, I would’ve trained differently into this course. I would’ve added much more low cadence work on my bike and kept up with strength training until much closer to race day. Something I plan to add in for my lead up to Coeur d’Alene since that course is very similar.

BIKE COURSE NUTRITION: I had 2 bottles on my bike. My aero bottle was for clean water, and my down tube bottle was full with a double serving of Skratch. I had 6 gluten-free Honey Stinger waffles (all cut in 1/2) in my bento box along with 1 Spring gel and 1 packet of Skratch chews in my kit pocket. The plan was 60g carbohydrate per hour in the form of 2 waffles and 1 serving of Skratch for the first 2 hours and a gel for the last hour. So I basically took 1/2 waffle at the 10 minute, 20 minute, 40 minute and 50 minute on my watch. I took a generous amount of Skratch at the 30 minute and 00 minute on my watch. I had planned for at least 2 salt caps per hour in addition to 1g BCAA capsule at the top of each hour. Unfortunately, my aero bottle top broke at mile 11 on the bike course and the entirety of my bento box was soaked. So I managed a few salt capsules, but by the middle of the ride, they were all mashed up in my bento box. Luckily, the cloud cover stuck around for most of the ride, so it wasn’t as critical as I expected (race day weather prediction was 96F!).

Once I hit Snow Canyon (around mile 42ish), my nutrition plan fell apart a bit. This is also the time of day when the cloud cover had burned off. My Garmin shows temps around 88F in the canyon. When I finished off the bottle of Skratch around mile 44, I passed up my nutrition from that point on. Just water from that point to the finish of the ride. From a nutrition perspective, in hindsight, I would’ve taken my Spring gel at the top of Snow Canyon (mile 46) to “top off the gas tank” before the run. But once I started that descent, I wasn’t taking my hands off the bars! I topped off with a speed of 46.2 mph…so not really a time to be eating.

Once I hit Diagonal Street, the road conditions were awful…but it didn't last long. At the first round-a-bout downtown, I started to get out of my bike shoes. A little early for that. I should’ve waited until I got through the second round-a-bout then wiggled out of them on the last stretch of road into transition.

Since transition is more like the olden days of triathlon, we had no bike catchers and you rack your own bike. At your designated transition area, you also have all of your T2/run gear waiting for you from the night before. With bikes being so spread out and honestly, being a little rusty at transitions, I had a little bit of a hard time finding my rack location. Probably a 5 second loss of time which felt like 5 minutes in the moment.

BIKE TIME- 03:04.16
35th out of 115 athletes in the 40-44 age group

photo of me (ice in hand and cooling bandana around my neck) giving my family a thumbs up before I climb one of the steepest hills on the course at mile 3.

THE RUN
13.1 miles with 1,267' of elevation gain

I was THRILLED to see my friend and training partner Stacey in T2. So we headed out on the run course together! It was nice to “talk shop” for a few minutes before we quickly got back to our individual race plans.

The run course is hard. I don’t know any way to sugar coat it. I had been warned over and over again by athletes who had raced it previously and I feel like I prepared appropriately for it, but it didn't make it any less hard. We drove the run course the day before and I won’t lie...it scared me. The hills are just so long with some pretty steep sections with absolutely NO flat sections to be found.

In training, we did a lot of long brick workouts (long rides followed by long runs) where we left for the run with a straight 1 mile uphill between 3-9% grade. It was GREAT training for this course and I highly recommend that style of brick for this event. The course is all asphalt with some cement sidewalks but it is certainly hot and exposed. Absolutely ZERO shade to be found. In the end, I felt pretty ‘good’ for the entire run (‘good’ for me meaning I wasn’t having long conversations with myself about why I really should keep running even though it was hard). I managed to run most of the course, minus a few sections at aid stations and one super steep section around mile 8, which was a HUGE accomplishment for me on a course like this. And since this entire race was a “training race” for me into Ironman Coeur d’Alene in June, this run gave me a big boost of confidence for that event.

RUN NUTRITION: I was ready for a HOT run in addition to the hills, so right from the very first aid station, I started taking on ice. I actually stopped at the aid station in T2 and wet my cooling neck wrap and stuffed it full of ice. I didn’t skip a single aid station for ice. I chose not to carry anything with me for this run and rely fully on the aid stations for hydration. I still had my Spring gel and Skratch Chews in my kit from the bike and around mile 3.5 (at the top of the first climb) I opened the gel and started to slowly sip on it. This particular Spring gel has 45g carbohydrate so I made sure to take it on slowly (it literally took me 45 minutes to eat the whole thing). It was a little annoying to have that plus a cup of ice in my hand for 45 minutes, but I’m not sure I would change that if I did this race again. I never felt overly hot. I never had any gut issues. And most importantly, I never really had a drop in energy until the last mile. In total, I took on one Spring gel and 2 sips of coke around mile 8 and 10. In hindsight, I would’ve taken on a few more calories towards the end so that last mile didn’t feel so bad, but that would’ve just been icing on the cake.

RUN TIME- 02:03.34
33rd out of 115 athletes in the 40-44 age group

Happy to be finished!

FINAL TIME- 05:50.38
29th out of 115 athletes in the 40-44 age group
185th out of 704 females

In total, I LOVED this event. The community of St. George was incredibly welcoming and seemed genuinely happy to have us all there. There seemed to be plenty of Air BnB’s and hotels for athletes to stay, although not many of the hotels are that nice. Sean and I were hosted by some friends in their Air Bn’B on the west side of town and loved everything about the condo complete and area. There were TONS of athletes there and I would definitely stay in that area again if I were to go back. So about that...registration for Ironman St. George has opened and although I have good friends signed up to do it and I really did love this event, I’m holding off on my 2022 plans for the moment. I’m eager to head back to Ironman Cozumel but that’s all I have in my sight at the moment.

If you’re racing this event at the World Championship in September 2021, GOOD LUCK! You’re in for a treat. Just plan accordingly for a very hilly course and I’m sure you’ll do great!

The Gold Country Triathlon Club crew...aka, my triathlon family.

Post Race...

Sean and I packed up and headed home via the 395 route. We took a side trip to Mammoth Lakes where we relaxed at Wild Willy's and slept mostly. LOL! After moving houses the weeks before this race, we were running a little shy on our zzzz's.

Many other athletes spent time in Zion and Bryce National Parks which I HIGHLY recommend! Sean and I have done both of the those national parks multiple times and knowing they would be crowded, opted for a different experience on our way home. But it you haven't been, be sure to add Zion and Bryce Canyons to your travel plans!

Wild Willy's Hot Springs, Mammoth Lakes

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Grass‌ ‌Fed,‌ ‌Pastured‌ ‌Meat‌ ‌vs‌ ‌Conventional‌ ‌Grain‌ ‌Fed‌ ‌Meat:‌ ‌which‌ ‌is‌ ‌the‌ ‌better‌ ‌choice?‌

4/12/2021

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Have you ever seen the 2004 American documentary Super Size Me?

In the film Morgan Spurlock ate only McDonald's food for 30 days. As a result, the then 32 year old gained 24 lb (a 13% body mass increase) and his total cholesterol went up to 230 mg/dL (6.0 mmol/L). In addition, he experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. This documentary is a prime example of how quickly our health can go south when we eat a diet that our genetics are not set up for.

The same quick decline in health happens in animals when they are fed a diet that is unnatural. That’s right, the term “you are what you eat” applies to more than humans.

Grazing animals are genetically set up to do exactly that...graze. On grass.

Unfortunately in the United States, most conventionally raised cattle are moved to large feedlots shortly after birth where they are fed an unnatural diet of corn and soy while they are kept confined in stalls to fatten up. This creates a very unhealthy animal...one in which I personally advise my clients against consuming.

The grass-fed vs grain-fed debate has been going on for a while so I thought I would take the opportunity to lay out the differences between the two so that you can get better educated and understand why grass-fed, pastured meat is far superior to meat from grain-fed animals.

What do all of the labels really mean?

Before diving into the comparisons, I wanted to quickly run through a few definitions. This will help you understand what you are looking at when you’re at the supermarket.

Grass-fed

The USDA definition of grass-fed is “grass and forage shall be the feed source consumed for the lifetime of the ruminant animal, with the exception of milk consumed prior to weaning.” The definition goes on to say “animals cannot be fed grain or grain byproducts and must have continuous access to pasture during the growing season” Essentially, if you see the USDA grass-fed label, you can feel comfortable knowing that the animal was fed grass it’s entire life.

Pasture Raised or Free Range

While you may see these words on meat, poultry, and egg labels, they actually have no legal definition in the United States, leaving interpretation up to the farmer. Typically “free-range” means that the animal has had access to the outdoors, whereas “pasture raised” is reserved for those animals who are outdoors year-round, with the exception of some sort of housing for nighttime or inclimate weather.

Organic

The “organic” label is definitely one that has grown in popularity over the last decade or so. The label can be seen on meats, poultry, and eggs, as well as produce and packaged products. For the purpose of this post, we will focus on what organic means for meats, poultry and eggs:

“For organic meat, regulations require that animals are raised in living conditions accommodating their natural behaviors (like the ability to graze on pasture), fed 100% organic feed and forage, and not administered antibiotics or hormones. As with all organic foods, none of it is grown or handled using genetically modified organisms, which the organic standards expressly prohibit.”

As you can see, the USDA has set some pretty high standards for being able to use their organic label, however, “organic feed” does not ensure a diet that is compatible with the animal. And that can be the difference between a healthy piece of meat and a not-so-healthy one.

Grain-fed

You can probably understand at this point what the “grain-fed” definition is. These are animals who are fed a diet of “barley, canola, corn, flaxseed, mixed grain, oats, rye, sorghum, soybeans, sunflower seed, triticale, and wheat, and any other food grains, feed grains, and oilseeds” that have been established by United States Grain Standards Act. Some additional foods that can be included in the diet “are rice, millet, amaranth, buckwheat, and distiller’s grain”.

To some this may sound harmless as some of these grains are “okay” for human consumption but the digestive system of a ruminant isn't exactly set up to process food the same way ours is. If one of these animals eats too much grain, their digestive system builds up lactic acid which can slow down motility and lead to diarrhea, dehydration, or worse!

One more label that is making big waves to help support both land and animal welfare!

There is one label that isn’t as well known: Land to Market.

The Land to Market verification label is based upon Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV). While the other labels focus on the tools and techniques used (or not used) in farming methods, Land to Market looks at the outcome as a result of the tools and techniques being used. This then allows them to adapt as necessary.

Directly from the Savory Institute website:

“EOV measures and trends key indicators of ecosystem function, which in the aggregate indicate positive or negative trends in the overall health of a landscape. In addition to providing an outcome-based verification of the health of the land base, EOV also provides critical intelligence to the farmer as a steward and manager of the land. By recognizing both land regeneration targets and trends, EOV endorsement and associated incentives are bestowed as long as land health moves in a net positive direction”

Let’s compare

Now that you have a nice overview of what each label really means, let’s get to the important stuff: how is grass-fed meat superior to grain-fed meat. What a cow eats on a day to day basis has a large effect on the types and levels of nutrients found in their meat. Here is how that breaks down:

Calories and Fat
Overall, grass-fed beef contains lower total calories and lower total fat. Farmers feeding their animals a diet consisting of grains do so because they know that their animal will get fatter, faster (which means more money, quicker!)! More fat = more calories.

While meat from grass-fed animals may be leaner, it does have a higher amount of important micronutrients.

Omega-3’s

Omega 3 fatty acids are important for every single cell in your body. We need omega-3’s for our eyes, brains, muscle activity, immune function, digestion, and fertility. Getting appropriate quantities of omega-3 fatty acids is a crucial part of living a healthy lifestyle. Moreso, we want those omega-3’s to be in an appropriate ratio with another type of fatty acid, omega-6.

The concentration of omega-3s in grass-fed beef can be 10-15x higher than that found in conventional counterparts. Further, the ratio of omega-3s to omega-6s is lower (which is more desirable!) in grass-fed animals than in grain-fed ones.

CLA

CLA stands for “conjugated linoleic acid”, another essential fatty acid that is naturally occuring in food. It is actually an omega-6 fatty acid. And while you may have heard that omega-6’s are the “bad kind”, we actually need to eat some omega-6s in order to have balance. CLA has a variety of benefits in the human body including helping us burn fat, fight inflammation, support our immune system, and keep blood sugar balanced.

Grass-fed beef contains approximately 3-5x more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) as grain-fed beef.

Vitamins, minerals, other nutrients

The benefits of grass-fed meat go beyond calories and fat. Grass-fed beef contains higher amounts of beta-carotene and other precursors needed to obtain Vitamin A.

Grass-fed beef contains higher amounts of antioxidants, such as Vitamin E, glutathione, and superoxide dismutase.

The Environmental Argument

Going to the store to purchase some grass-fed meat may result in sticker shock. It’s possible that you may decide the above nutritional differences don’t matter enough due to your budget, and that’s understandable.

But let’s go beyond nutrition and talk about environmental issues. This topic can easily be a blog post of it’s own (or 5!) so I will keep this as simple as possible.

From the book Sacred Cow, “without ruminants chomping, grass just grows, oxidizes, and eventually dies. When ruminants have to move, they only eat the top portion of the plants, which maintains the root mass and prevents overgrazing. Perennial grasses, common in grasslands, have deeper root systems and are often part of a latent seed bank. Ruminant manure onculates the soil with beneficial nutrients and microbes, increasing the biodiversity underground and leading to a much more resilient soil profile. The urine and manure from animals increase moisture to the soil and the microbial diversity of bacteria and fungi that form “the gut” for the soil in a symbiotic system. Grasslands need ruminants to be healthy.”

It has become very apparent that the conventional, feedlot approach to raising animals is what is hurting our environment. The more we can support farmers who raise their animals on pasture, the quicker we can help our environment.

How to Find Grass-fed, Pastured Meat

One of the best ways to find quality grass fed beef is through a local rancher. Look for an operation that raises their cattle in an open field where that can roam freely and are allowed to eat both fresh and dry grasses. Ideally, these ranchers would avoid using any types of pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics or hormones.

If you live in an area where access to grass-fed beef is limited, there are a variety of online distributors who make getting healthier meat to your door, easier:

Richards Grassfed Beef (which happens to also be a local ranch to me!)
Butcher Box
Thrive Market
US Wellness Meats

Even doing a quick google search for grass-fed beef delivery in your area may help you find farmers who raise healthier meat.

Be prepared to pay a little extra for good quality grass-fed beef. In a conventional feedlot where cows are fattened up quickly with soy, corn and hormones, a cow can be big enough for slaughter up to a year faster than a grass-fed cow. That means that ranchers who are raising grass-fed cattle will have higher operating costs purely on the time it takes to raise one cow.

The good news is you will be rewarded with a much more flavorful end product that is richer in nutrients! Plus, grass-fed beef has been shown to reduce the carbon footprint and help the environment!

Some final thoughts...

Change is hard. Humans don’t really like change. I get it.

Switching from conventional beef bought at chain grocery stores is cheaper and can be more convenient than grass-fed beef. But as you’ve learned, grass-fed beef is more nutrient dense and better for your health than grain-fed beef. Not only are you prioritizing your own health by choosing grass-fed beef, but you’re also using your dollars to vote for the proper treatment of cattle who are meant to live in wide open spaces eating a diet full of grass as well as supporting the environment.

Luckily, the demand for grass-fed beef is on the rise which means finding it for purchase will get easier and easier.

By choosing to purchase and consume grass-fed beef you are prioritizing your own health by selecting a food that has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, improve blood sugar levels, and even improve the environment!

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Holiday Gift Guide for the Health Conscious: UNDER $25

11/30/2020

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Sometimes we need inexpensive gift ideas that still have a lot of meaning for the people we care about in our lives. If you haven’t already read the blog on gifts over $25 for the health conscious, you should.

We talk about how price doesn’t matter when it comes time to gifting.

More important than finding a gift under or over $25, is finding the right gift that is most appropriate and meaningful to the one who gets to receive it. If that means homemaking a gift from scratch with all reusable items for someone, you should! And you can check out some of my suggestions for that HERE.

So onward with more gift ideas that just happen to cost lest the $25. :)

image from Unique Health Products

In our family, we’re big on stockings...so I very much had that in mind as I compiled this list:

Chocolate- I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t appreciate a good bar of chocolate in their stocking around the holidays! When I look for chocolate, I personally look for organic, dark (over 70%) and soy free versions. If you happen to live in a town or city that has a local chocolatier, I highly recommend checking in with them to see if they have any quality chocolate bars for purchase. My personal favorites are:

Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee and Elixirs- Mushrooms have long been a powerful superfood loaded with tons of nutrients and we certainly don’t eat enough of them! This company has tastefully found a way to blend various beneficial mushrooms with other ingredients (like coffee) to provide you with high levels of antioxidants and other compounds.

Their coffees are ½ the caffeine with more of the focus and energy!

Depending on the blend you choose, they can enhance your focus and thinking capabilities, help you sleep and even lower your anxiety and support your adrenal glands. Perfect for any health focused friend of family member!

These come as bags or individual packets, which are great as stocking stuffers! You can get the mushroom elixir sample pack, latte and hot cocoa sampler, or a pack of lion's mane and chaga & cordyceps and chaga coffee blends (my personal favorites).

Clay Facial Masks- self care is a pretty important piece of living a healthy life. And for athletes, health care of the skin can be crucial. We sweat a lot. And most of us spend a lot of time outdoors training. That means we need to take care of our skin! For that, small packs of natural facial clay masks do the trick! This derma e Purifying 2-in-1 Charcoal Face Mask with Activated Charcoal all natural, 100% vegan and cruelty free, and does not contain parabens, sulfates, mineral oil, lanolin, gluten or GMOs.

Books- All health enthusiasts generally have 1 thing in common: they like to eat healthy food. These food-focused books are just a few of my favorites that can be used by anyone interested in being active and healthy (triathletes, runners, hikers, yogis, etc).

Run Fast Eat Slow by Shalane Flanagan
Feed Zone Portables by Allen Lim- this is easily the book I’ve personally gifted most. I love it.
The Real Food Athlete by Steph Lowe

Silicone Popsicle Molds- I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my silicone popsicle molds for any extra post workout smoothie that I might not be consuming in the moment. They can oftentimes get me through the last few minutes of a hard workout in the heat! For any of your active friends of family members that complete hot workouts, these popsicle molds will be much appreciated!!!

Biodegradable Natural Body Wipes- These no-rinse body wash wipes are a perfect gift for an athlete constantly on the go. Bonus that they are biodegradable, so they break down naturally. These wipes will leave an athlete feeling a full-body cleanse while also supporting the planet the planet.

Coffee- If your loved one is a coffee drinker, specialty coffees make a great gift! Many sustainable coffee growers offer online ordering

Peak Performance High Altitude Coffee
Larry’s Organic Fair Trade Coffee 3 Pack- Larry’s Coffee is an eco-friendly and sustainability-minded company that creates small-batch Fair Trade, Organic, Shade-Grown coffee.
Ethical Bean Fair Trade Coffee

Image from Brothers Coffee Blog

Hopefully this guide helped you find the perfect gift, or even inspired your own wish list! If you’re feeling like you can spend a little extra, don’t forget to check out my OVER $25 GUIDE.

And, if you’re feeling extra giving and want to spend time making a gift for your health conscious friend or family member, then head on over to my DIY GUIDE.

Please note that some of the links are affiliate links.
Meaning, if you buy someone a gift by using those links, you’re also giving us a gift (a small commission) in return – at no cost to you! I appreciate your support in this way!

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Holiday Gift Guide for the Health Conscious: OVER $25

11/30/2020

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The holiday season is upon us which means gift giving is on the mind. There can be a lot of pressure to give big gifts this year, especially if you feel like your loved ones have been suffering.

But here’s the thing, we’ve all been suffering in our own unique way this year. So just because 2020 has now officially become a cuss word (okay...that’s not true, but maybe it should be!!!), doesn’t mean you should feel obligated to go into debt (or more debt) this holiday season.

Remember it’s the thought that counts so do your best to stay within your means. One option is to DIY your gifts. If that’s up your alley, check out my DIY guide. If you’re not feeling particularly crafty, and you’re on a tight budget, head on over to my UNDER $25 guide. Whatever you choose to do, make it meaningful and by all means, don’t add stress to your life over it!

James and the guys over at the BroBasket said it best when they wrote ‘there’s an unspoken pressure during the holidays to give extraordinary gifts. It’s when you’re supposed to go all out and celebrate a special time of year, but it often leads people deeper into debt. Before you purchase anything this year, remember a simple truth: Money doesn’t make the gift.’

However, if you’re ready to spend a little more dough on your loved one this year, then read on, because I have a great list of ideas over $25 that they’ll love!

1. Verilux® HappyLight® Lumi - This is a UV-Free LED therapy lamp, which you might be asking yourself ‘why is it on this list?’ According to the Mayo clinic, light therapy is thought to affect brain chemicals linked to mood and sleep, and also to ease SAD symptoms.

Using a light therapy box like the one recommended above, may also help with other types of depression, sleep disorders and other conditions. Personally, for me, I use my lamp when I travel across time zones or if I have any trouble with sleep for more than 2 days in a row.

And since sleep is at the heart of ALL good recovery from training, this item is a must for athletes! This lamp has 10,000 Lux light, adjustable brightness, a detachable stand, and is wall mountable!

2. The chiliPAD- oh man. This is the ultimate gift! Anyone interested in optimizing health also knows how important it is to optimize sleep! The chiliPAD is a cooling and heating mattress that is great for enhancing sleep. A single size starts at $499 and prices go up from there as you buy larger pads. This is a game changer for athletes and their sleep!

3. Essential Oil Car Diffuser + Oils- It’s pretty remarkable how powerful our olfactory system is. When inhaled, the scent molecules in essential oils travel from the olfactory nerves directly to the brain where they impact the emotional center of the brain (the amygdala). And since most of us will be doing most of our travel via car for a while, this diffuser can make a really great gift!

4. Indoor Herb Garden or Edible Flower Garden- If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know how much love I’ve put into my backyard garden this year. And here’s the thing, not only is it giving me nutrient dense herbs, vegetables AND edible flowers that I can pick minutes before consuming, it’s also turned into a therapy center for me.

Just walking outside and getting my hands in the dirt has done remarkable things for my brain this year. And since anyone interested in improving their health needs to do it with nutrient dense food and brain health, an herb garden or edible flower garden is a great way to go. If your giftee doesn’t have a large area, not to worry, these kits are designed for a windowsill. And no gardening experience? No problem! Both kits have everything they need to get started!

The herb kit is a complete 40 piece kit which includes everything they need to bring the joy of planting savory herbs into their one's life. Your loved one will enjoy 9 different herbs including: Dill, Basil, Chives, Thyme, Parsley, Oregano, Cilantro, Sage, & Mustard. The edible flower kit comes with 4 types of Non-GMO, heirloom flower seeds for planting indoors or outdoors; Cornflower, Pot Marigold, Shasta Daisy, Viola Tricolor. What’s not to love about that?!

5. Personal Blender- OYeet 1000W Personal Blender is BPA free and can create a post workout smoothie in 10 seconds. The best part is that it can actually blend ice. Most personal blenders do not have enough power to actually create a smoothie from ice, but this magic blender can! And since it’s personal, it doesn’t need to be plugged into work! So it’s great for your exercise enthusiast who might need a postwork drink on the go!

6. G4free 40L 3-way gym bag- A fitness enthusiast can never have too many gyms bags! This one is water resistant, can be carried as an over the shoulder bag, a duffle bag or a backpack, and comes in 9 different colors. It has a waterproof compartment for wet swimsuits or dirty shoes and also has multiple extra compartments for keys, cell phones, or anything extra your athlete might need to carry.

7. Road ID- What better gift to give a friend or family member who plays outside than the gift of safety. This gift is also great for your animal loving friends! Sean and I have them on our dog collars, and my sister has them around her horse's ankles.

Living in California has given us all the honest fear that someday, we (or our neighbors) may need to release our fur children into the wild to flee from fire. If that ever happens, and my goodness I hope it never does, this tag can help bring them back to us easily and hopefully safely. Prices start at $19.99. To get $5 off your order, you use the link above.

8. Urth Box Subscription- Urth box is a subscription that will surprise your loved one monthly with full size healthy snacks that must pass strict ingredient, sourcing, calorie, nutrition and manufacturing standards before making the cut.

You can get even more specific by selecting Classic, Gluten-Free, Vegan or Diet box options. Subscriptions are the ultimate gift that keeps on giving. But don't worry, you (the gifter) won’t be charged indefinitely. You can purchase a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription in 3 different sizes and as a bonus, get your own box FOR FREE!

image from chiliPAD

Are you thinking that some of these gifts sound great but might not be exactly what you’re looking for?

Check out the Gifts UNDER $25 guide HERE or the DIY gift guide HERE.

Please note that some of the links are affiliate links.
Meaning, if you buy someone a gift by using those links, you’re also giving me a gift (a small commission) in return – at no cost to you! I appreciate your support in this way!

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DIY Holiday Gift Guide for the Health Conscious

11/30/2020

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“All you need is a pair of running shoes” said no runner ever. If someone you know is a fitness fanatic and/or health conscious then trust me, there are some really amazing gifts you can buy them that they don’t already have and they will love!

If you have a friend who really, truly has everything they need, or a friend who owns a single pair of running shoes and they pride themselves on being minimalist, then there are some really fun, unique, and not-too-complicated reusable gifts you can make them that they are sure to appreciate!

This holiday season, I’m excited to put together a few different gift guides for you, each of which is focused on the health conscious person in your life:

A “Gifts Over $25” guide,
A “Gifts Under $25” guide, and
This Guide: “DIY Gifts”

The hardest part about them will be not buying everything for yourself!

Let’s start off with my top 5 DIY gift ideas since these might take a little more time than something you can purchase.

Make sure you read through the descriptions in the blog posts I’ve linked because many of them offer options for reusable materials, which is always a big bonus if you’re on a budget or just want to be more friendly to the earth!

Reusable Beeswax Covers- Beeswax covers are natural, zero-waste, and much more visually appealing alternative to plastic wrap. These sheets are surprisingly easy to make and only require a few items, all except 1 (the beeswax itself) you probably already have on hand! And they don’t require a sewing machine! These are great for wrapping up leftovers or snacks and can be washed and reused many times. They’re perfect for your eco-friendly, health conscious friend! You can find a great DIY blog and video about how to make these from Deanna over at Homestead and Chill HERE.

Homemade Herbal Bitters- Herbal bitters have been around for hundreds of years and used to flavor drinks and cure ailments. Today, I am a big advocate of using these before all meals to aid in digestion. These take some time to infuse, so make sure you start them a few weeks before you want to gift them. You can find a complete guide on how to make these from Emily Han at The Kitchn.

Napkin Flatware Rolls- Most active folks have a reusable water bottle, but do they have reusable utensils to take with them for their packed lunch? If not, this quick and easy sewing project can make a great gift for them! Don’t forget to stuff it with utensils and a reusable straw once you're done. Check out the full “how to” from Calli over at Make It Do.

Reusable Snack Bags- Reusable snack bags are great for any active, healthy person looking to live more sustainably. They’re great for trail mix, raw mixed nuts and any post workout deli wrap. This project requires a sewing machine, but the pattern is very simple to follow and only takes 15 minutes to complete! Be sure to use a phthalate free and BPA free laminated cotton for this project. Check it out HERE.

Reusable hand warmers- These are great gifts because they are typically made with scrap fabric. If you are a sewer, the likelihood of you having all the items you need to create these is high. And for your active friend or family member who’s willing to brave the elements, these can make a great gift! Check out the complete guide from Sarah Ramberg at sadiesseasongoods.com.

Not inspired by any of these ideas, but still want to make something for your friends and family this holiday season? You can always consider homemade snacks (like mason jars of healthy trail mix), homemade cleaning supplies, salt or sugar shower scrubs, or loose leaf tea jars.

Don't get too worried if you’re not crafty.

You’ll be surprised how much joy you’ll bring those in your life when you hand make them a gift. And if hand making isn’t your thing, be sure you check out my gift guide OVER $25 and gift guide UNDER $25 for the health conscious.

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REAL FOOD low carb recipes for a Thanksgiving Feast!

11/16/2020

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Thanksgiving is generally about families getting together, enjoying some good laughs and enjoying a feast together (hopefully). Although there are no guarantees of get togethers this year, you can still control your fun factor and certainly your meal!

As many of you know, I’m a huge fan of eating low carb, high fat. Personally, I feel so much better when I eat this way. However, I have been known to indulge in a sugar treat from time to time. As much as I’m a huge fan of the LCHF lifestyle, I’m an even bigger advocate for balance. And since I don’t have any metabolic conditions that prevent me from an occasional splurge, I do it (sparingly)!

Thanksgiving can be one of those splurgy meals for many people who traditionally follow a LCHF lifestyle. And that’s GREAT. Personally, for our family, we actually don’t treat it that way. Over the years, many of us have slowly adapted our diet to be more low carb, high fat and we’ve found that eating a real food nutrient dense Thanksgiving meal is actually a lot easier than many other meals to keep LCHF. If this whole way of eating is newer to you, or you have friends and family members who may not share your passion for fat bombs and bacon...well...this may be a bit harder.

My hope is that if you are wanting to spend this Thanksgiving following a lower carb, higher fat meal, this list of my favorite nutrient dense recipes will help you do just that!!!

Turkey

If your family traditionally eats turkey for your Thanksgiving meal, you're in luck because turkey is already low carb! However, turkey is not high fat! If you're wanting to keep your meal LCHF, I highly advise you reach for the darker cuts of meat and eat the skin, which will provide some added fat to this naturally low fat protein.

However, if you're interested in taking this low-fat protein and make it keto friendly, my advice is to add an herbed butter! This is a very simple thing to do ahead of time and bring to your Thanksgiving feast. You can add it to your turkey, but also to steamed green beans and many other lower fat dishes you might find at your table.

If you're the lucky one who gets to make the turkey this year, consider adding your herbed butter as a rub before you roast it! Maya Krampf of Wholesome Yum has a great blog on the whole process, including a great EASY GARLIC BUTTER HERBED BUTTER recipe that you can check out HERE.

Stuffing

Looking for a nutrient dense stuffing that isn't bread based but still tastes and feels like traditional stuffing? Heather Dessinger of Mommypotamus has one of the best EASY GLUTEN FREE STUFFING recipes (pictured above) that I've ever tried! Seriously, I didn't think it was possible to make something taste like bread that doesn't actually have bread in it, but this recipe does it.

If you want to stick with a bread based stuffing but still want a low carb option, be prepared to make your own keto bread (unless you can find a quality keto bread in the stores). It can be more time consuming, but it's worth it! One of my favorite recipes for a bread based KETO STUFFING comes from blogger 'Howtodothisandthat.

Mashed Potatoes

There really is no way to make a potato low carb. So if mashed potatoes are a Thanksgiving favorite of yours, you might want to consider making yourself a side of cauliflower mash. Honestly, if you load up your cauliflower mash with good fats from olive oil and butter, and then add some of your favorite herbs, you won't miss the potatoes! Check out this MASHED CAULIFLOWER WITH GARLIC AND HERBS recipe from Downshiftology. It's a family favorite in my household!

Gravy

Gravy was one of the last dishes our family converted from a package, to a nutrient dense and absolutely DELICIOUS thanksgiving dish. And I'm always wondering why the heck we waited so long to do it! It's really not hard to make a fantastic gravy from scratch...it just takes a little pre-planning.

Most gravy recipes call for broth. Yes, you can buy this in a can or cardboard box, but trust me, if you make it from scratch ahead of time, it will add a punch of flavor to your gracy that won't go unnoticed.

I personally have broth on hand at all times which makes the step of the process a little quicker. You can find jars of it in my fridge and if I have extra, you better bet I'm freezing it for later. All week, I collect vegetable ends and bones from our meals. Once I have a pretty good amount of these bits, I'll throw them into my instant pot with a package of chicken paws and water to make a delicious broth! You can find a recipe for CHICKEN BONE BROTH similar to the one I follow (I just use scraps in mine) from Jennifer McGruther from The Nourished Kitchen. If you are going to make this recipe specifically for Thanksgiving, be sure to pull the giblets out of your turkey a few days ahead of time to use in the broth!

Once you have your broth, I really truly believe that the best tasting gravy's come from the turkey drippings. You can find a very easy, low carb and GLUTEN FREE GRAVY recipe from Regina at Leelalicious.

Cranberries

Despite all the talk of avoiding all fruit while eating keto, really what most people are trying to avoid is natural sugar from fruit. Luckily, cranberries are very low in natural sugar which actually makes them keto friendly. That's also why most traditional cranberry recipes call for massive amounts of sugar!

To avoid this traditional sugary side, you can easily swap the table sugar found in most traditional cranberry recipes for an alternative keto sugar like monk fruit or swerve. This CRANBERRY SAUCE recipe from Chad Campbell at That Low Carb Life blog is great and includes a little orange zest for an added kick of flavor.

Vegetable Side Dishes

When I ask clients about traditional thanksgiving vegetable side dishes, it never seems like I get the same answer twice. Each family seems to have their own favorites, and luckily, most of them tend to be pretty keto friendly.

Like the turkey, if your traditional vegetables sides are naturally low fat, consider adding a dollop of herbed butter on top to add both flavor and a good, healthy fat to the dish.

Dessert

Dessert is where keto can get tricky if you don't plan ahead. Luckily, there are many different alternative sugar options to pick from now-a-days that can help you create a dessert that both tastes amazing and won't spike your blood sugar!

Three of my favorite low carb sweeteners are monk fruit, stevia and swerve.

Monk fruit is a natural source of sweetness that has been around for centuries (despite many of us only learning about it recently). The name was given to this fruit after the monks who harvested it. The fruit itself has a very short shelf life which is why it is dried. The dried fruit is what is then processed into the sweetener we use today. The sweetness of monk fruit comes from mogrosides which are actually antioxidants! It is about 200-300x sweeter than regular table sugar however, it contains none of the calories and does not impact our blood sugar in the same was as table sugar. It can be found as liquid, powder, or granules.

Stevia, another natural sweetener that has been around for a long time, is derived from the plant Stevia rebaudiana ( I grew it in my garden this year!). Like monk fruit, the compounds that make Stevia sweet are about approximately 200 times sweeter than typical table sugar but without attack on your blood sugar. In its pure form, stevia has zero carbohydrates, and zero calories. However, most stevia products combine stevia leaf extract with other ingredients such as dextrose, maltodextrin, erythritol or other fillers to help reduce the sweetness and mimic the taste of traditional table sugar. So be sure to choose a brand that doesn't contain these fillers if you're sensitive to sugar alcohols.

Swerve is a blend of three ingredients. Erythritol is the first and most prominent ingredient, and is naturally made by fermenting glucose. Prebiotic fibers called oligosaccharides are added, and then the blend is enhanced with some natural flavor from citrus. Swerve provides a similar level of sweetness to sugar and has the ability to caramelize, which makes it great for many holiday recipes!

Some of my favorite recipes include this CLASSIC PUMPKIN PIE (with crust recipe) from the Paleo Running Momma, this KETO PECAN PIE from Taryn at Joy Filled Eats, and our families personal favorite KETO APPLE CRISP from Vered DeLeeuw at the Healthy Recipes blog.

My hope is that these recipes help you enjoy a Thanksgiving feast while still honoring your health goals this year and beyond! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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3 Simple Strategies to Boost Your Immunity

10/19/2020

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With “cold and flu season” right around the corner for the northern hemisphere, I wanted to share some of my favorite tips to staying healthy. Something I think we are all prioritizing this year with a threat of a second round of COVID erupting this fall.

Sure, there are many, many things I can think of to boost immunity, but none of us need any more complications in our lives. My hope is that these 3 simple focuses will be a reminder on what to do to stay well this fall!

LIFESTYLE

If there is one thing that will lower your immunity fast, it’s stress. Living in a chronic state of stress, even if it’s a low grade stress, can create a constant release of cortisol into the system. Over time, elevated cortisol will lower your ability to fight infection.

So right now, if you can think of a few ways you can lower stress in your life...do it. If you, like most, feel like stress is a little out of your control at the moment, consider focusing on a few things you CAN control that we know help lower stress.

Sleep
You need at least 7 hours of sleep each night to fight off infections. If you haven’t already established a good sleep routine that prioritizes blue lights being off 2 hours before bedtime, now's the time to refocus on it!

Meditation
Learning to quiet your mind, even if it’s just for 5 minutes each day, has been shown to lower cortisol. If meditation isn’t your thing, you should try some restorative yoga, stretching or even a quiet walk outside where you focus on your breath. All of these things can help you turn off the thinking cycle and give your brain a break.

Exercise
Daily movement boosts your immune system! Ideally, you would make time to get in a 30 minute sweat session each day. Not only will this improve your immunity, but sweating daily helps drive unwanted toxins out of the body!

Hydration
Your body needs the proper amounts of fluids and electrolytes to function at its best. Proper hydration levels are especially important to maintain a healthy mucus membrane in areas like your gut, lungs and sinuses (the areas that are usually first to encounter harmful bacteria and viruses).

Supplements

Sure, there are a few supplements that are helpful to have on hand this time of year! But if you know me, you know I’m a “food first” person. However, in the case of these supplements specifically, the evidence I have seen shows that the dose you can obtain from food alone is not enough to effectively fight off certain colds and flus. Therefore, it is my recommendation to consider additional supplementing with specific nutrients during cold and flu season. Three of my favorite to add in this time of year are:

Zinc
Zinc is an essential mineral that plays many vital roles in the body. It is the second most abundant mineral in the body (behind iron) and is present in every single cell. However, since the body can’t make zinc on it’s own, it needs to be obtained exogenously through diet and supplements. Foods rich in zinc include: shellfish, meat, fish, legumes, nuts and seeds, eggs and dairy products. Prioritizing these foods during cold and flu season can help provide the RDI of zinc (which is 11mg for men and 8mg for women). However, when exposed to a bacteria or virus that challenges the immune system, additional support can be helpful!

Supplementation of zinc between 80-92mg per day has been shown to reduce the length of the common cold by 33%!

It is generally recommended to obtain zinc supplementation during cold and flu season in the form of a lozenge. With the majority of cold and flu infections starting in the throat, using zinc in lozenge form puts the zinc directly in that region allowing it to be effective in the throat, nose and mouth.

“Borrowing from the research on the common cold, I think the best way to enrich the tissues of the mouth, nose, and throat with zinc is to use zinc acetate lozenges at a low dose preventatively, at a more intensive dose when encountering a potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2, and at a dose used in common cold trials at the first sign of illness” says Chris Masterjohn, PhD.

Vitamin D
We know that vitamin D is an important nutrient to promote calcium homeostasis and bone health. What we also know is that a deficiency in vitamin D is associated with an increased susceptibility to infection. As humans, we can obtain vitamin D from foods, but most of it is absorbed through our skin from sunlight. That poses a challenge during cold and flu season when rates of infections are higher but the hours of sunlight during the day are shorter. This means supplementation with Vitamin D3 and K can help keep your vitamin D sufficient.

Before you willy nilly take a random dose of Vitamin D, I recommend having your vitamin D levels tested in your serum. This will help you understand where your current levels are and will allow you to dose appropriately. My recommendation for most healthy adults is to aim for a serum vitamin D (Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy, Total) level between 60-80 ng/mL. If your test results reveal that you are lower than that range, consider taking a Vitamin D3 with K supplement. My favorite Vitamin D supplement is Designs for Health Vitamin D Supreme.

Probiotics
Did you know that 70% of the cells that make up your immune system reside in the gut? This is why focusing on gut health can be so powerful in boosting the immune system.

The gut is an interesting place. Despite what you might think, the gut is technically outside our body. When you eat food, the nutrients it contains don’t actually enter into the body (specifically into the bloodstream) without first passing through the lining of the gut.

This lining plays an important role in the body’s immunity because it acts as the body’s first line of defense against unfavorable bacteria and viruses. It does this by lining itself with a whole crew of “body guards,” otherwise known as beneficial bacteria. They hold the key to deciding if a nutrient gets in, or has to say out.

You can only imagine that if the body is flooded with lots of bad guys (like during cold and flu season), we want as many (or more) good guys to help keep them out. This is where probiotics come in very handy. One specific probiotic you should be looking for is Lactobacillus. These guys have been shown in studies to enhance the immune system and reduce cold and flu symptoms if you are to be exposed.

My favorite probiotic is Klaire Labs Ther-biotic Complete which has multiple types of Lactobacillus, but includes all 3 forms of Lactobacillus that have been clinically tested and have shown to give the immune system a boost: Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus paracasei and Lactobacillus acidophilus.

Whole Foods

It’s pretty amazing how whole, unprocessed foods can boost your overall health! Some of my favorites to prioritize this time of year to naturally boost your immune system include:

Garlic
Garlic has been used as an antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal agent for thousands of years. Garlic contains the compound alliin which has been shown to boost the disease fighting white blood cells when they encounter an invader, like the virus that causes the common cold or flu. Looks for different ways to include garlic into your cooking during the cold and flu season. And check out the fire cider recipe below for your daily dose of garlic!

Vitamin C rich foods
Vitamin C has long been touted as the immune boosting vitamin. And it’s true...Vitamin C is fantastic for the immune system because it helps encourage the production of white blood cells which make up our immune system.

When most of us think of vitamin C rich foods, we think of citrus fruits such as oranges. The problem with these foods is they are also full of natural sugars, which can add stress to the immune system. Instead of increasing your vitamin C rich foods from fruit, considering adding in vitamin C rich vegetables such as bell peppers, brussel sprouts and broccoli! That fire cider recipe below also includes rose hips, a herb chalk full of Vitmain C!

Bone Broth
Bone broth is a highly nutrient rich broth that is obtained from simmering the bones and connective tissue of animals. The nutrients in bone broth work mostly in the gut by helping repair damage done from a poor diet, stress or unfavorable bacteria.

This type of damage causes a weakened immune system, so using bone broth to help it heal can also improve your immunity! The main nutrients hard at work in bone broth are amino acids which aid the immune system, including arginine, glutamine and glycine.

Bone broth can be consumed daily. It is generally recommended to swap water for bone broth in recipes such as soups and stews, rice dishes and even smoothies!

Fire Cider
Fire cider is a traditional herbal drink used to boost the immune system! It was developed by an herbalist in the 1970s. She started with apple cider vinegar, a fermented ingredient proven to have antibacterial and antioxidant properties, as the base, adding other ingredients such as horseradish (for decongestion), ginger (for warmth), garlic and onion (for antibacterial properties), cayenne (to boost metabolism and immunity), and honey to tie everything together and make the drink more palatable.

Fire cider is said to restore and invigorate one’s system, and additionally, many claim it has benefits that include boosting energy, warding off colds and flus, easing sinus congestion, lowering blood sugar, curbing cravings, and aiding digestion.

Most people drink 1-2 tbsp of fire cider daily, either as a shot or diluted in water. Personally, I love to add mine to homemade salad dressing to give it punch of flavor and a kick of heat! If you feel a cold coming on, consider taking a shot every 3-4 hours to help support your immune system.

Fire cider is SUPER easy to make, but since it is a ferment, it needs time to sit. So plan ahead by making a batch early in the fall!

Ingredients

1 onion, coarsely chopped
7” ginger root, grated
7” horseradish root, grated
2 jalapeños, coarsely chopped
10 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 lemon, sliced
1/4 cup rose hips
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1” turmeric root, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
raw apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup raw honey (or more to taste)

Tools

1/2 gallon jar
plastic lid

Directions

Prepare your roots, fruits, vegetables and herbs and place them in a 1/2 gallon jar. **
Pour the apple cider vinegar in the jar until the jar is full and all of the ingredients have been covered.
Use a plastic lid, or a piece of parchment paper under the metal lid to prevent the vinegar from touching the metal. Shake well.
Store the jar in a cool, dark cupboard for 1 month. Shake daily.
After 1 month, use a cheesecloth to strain out the pulp while reserving the vinegar in a clean jar.
Add the raw honey to the vinegar, and stir until incorporated.
Taste your cider and add more honey until you reach the desired sweetness.

** If you have never grated horseradish before, you are in for an experience! Be prepared for a powerful sinus opening. To lesson the impact of the horseradish on your sinus, grate the root in a well ventilated area with plenty of air flow.

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6 ways to manage health, besides weight

10/6/2020

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You can’t manage what you can’t measure. -Peter Drucker

For years, people have known that if you track a metric (like calories, or weight for examples), you’re more likely to change them. Take the study done in 2015 on the effect of adherence to dietary tracking on weight loss. In the study, participants were encouraged to do the following:

maintain daily food journals and physical activity records
reduce portion sizes
reduce foods high in calories, fat, and simple sugar
increase consumption of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products
weigh themselves frequently and at least weekly

The findings were clear.

Those that consistently tracked these metrics more than 66% of the time had significantly higher weight loss than those that tracked these metrics less than 66% of the time. This study is just one of many that shows the importance of frequent tracking for consistent, long-term, positive health changes.

But here’s the thing. Counting calories and stepping on a scale are old school metrics that may have seemed helpful at the time, but aren’t quite cutting it anymore. Today, we have so many other more useful tools available to us to give us better data about our health, are easier to use, and are becoming more and more accessible and affordable to everyone.

Measuring optimal health is complicated. I recently listened to a podcast from a well known fitness coach who was arguing that as long as you feel great, it doesn’t matter if your A1c is high, your hormones are imbalanced and your cholesterol is less than ideal.

WHAT?!?

I agree that these maybe aren’t the best (certainly not the most affordable) methods of measuring your wellness, but they are certainly a player in the game and should not be ignored just because you feel good!

If our western culture has done anything “great” over the last couple of centuries it has taught us to “suck it up” and ignore the signals our body is telling us. So pardon me if I’m going to advise against the “yeah, I feel pretty good” measure and actually take advantage of the now more affordable and more accessible tools we have that help us prioritize prevention. I’d rather not wait until I don’t feel good to start trying to figure out what might be out of balance.

First, let’s start with WHAT you might want to consider measuring.

GENERAL BLOOD MARKERS

One of the most common questions I get from private clients is, “I’m going to my doctor for my annual check-up. What should I ask him/her to pull?”

Well...this depends. Mostly on what your goals are, what your family history is, and if you have any current symptoms.

Let’s assume for the sake of ease, that your goal is to be as healthy as possible, that you have a clear family history and that you don’t currently have any symptoms. AKA- you “feel pretty good”.

Here is my basic panel I personally pull on my private clients and myself at least 1x per year:

CBC + DIFFERENTIAL + PLATELET
Hb, Hct, RBC, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RDW
WBC, Lymphocytes Absolute, Neutrophils Absolute, Monocytes Absolute, Basophils Absolute, Eosinophils Absolute
Lymphocytes %, Neutrophils %, Monocytes %, Basophils %, Eosinophils %

BASIC CHEM PANEL
Glucose
Uric Acid, BUN, Creatinine, BUN/cr, eGFR
Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Calcium, CO2, Phosphorus
Total Protein, Albumin, Globulin, A/G Ratio
Total Bilirubin
Alkaline Phosphatase, LDH, AST/SGOT, ALT/SGPT, GGT
Iron & TIBC, UIBC

LIPID PANEL
LDL, HDL, Total Cholesterol, Triglycerides, Chol/HDL ratio
Lp(a), Apo B

THYROID PANEL
TSH, T4, T3, T3U, Free Thyroxine Index (FTI)
TPO and Anti-thyrogolubulin Antibody (every 5th year if they are negative)
Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3

VITAMIN D + INFLAMMATION
25-OH Vitamin D
Homocysteine
CRP-hs

+ADDITIONAL MARKERS
Ferritin, Iron Saturation
Hemoglobin A1c, Fasting Insulin
Fibrinogen Activity

Let me just give you a fair warning now. Most doctors aren’t going to like this list. They are going to find it way too extensive for a “healthy person.”

Which is the perfect time to bring up the difference between not being sick and thriving.

If you lack a symptom (headache, low energy, dizzy, etc) that does not mean that you are thriving. In other words, the lack of disease does not equal wellness.

So if your goal is to be thriving well into your late 90’s, you might want to consider not waiting until something goes wrong to seek help to fix it.

We want to PREVENT the onset of disease and there are SO MANY THINGS on a blood panel that can help you catch and fix things long before you have a symptom. I’m a HUGE advocate of being PROactive about your health! This is just one way you can do it.

When - and if - your doctor agrees to pull a panel like this, you need to make sure you work with someone who can interpret it for you outside of the conventional lab ranges.

Conventional lab ranges are the ones listed on the blood results. They are the ranges that the lab uses to determine if your markers are high are low. If they are, the likelihood of you having disease or developing disease in that area is high.

The problem once again comes back to the difference between lacking disease and thriving.

Just because your markers are within the lab range, does NOT mean that they are within a functional range. Functional ranges tend to be much tighter and are set to help get you reach optimal health, not just a “no disease” range.

If you need help with interpretation, reach out to me. This is one of the things I love most about what I do! Blood interpretation doesn’t typically lie, so this tool is incredibly valuable in personalizing a wellness plan for someone!

BLOOD SUGAR

Blood sugar outside of an ideal range (ideal fasting ranges being between 80-99mg/dL) is one of the five signs of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Roughly 90 million Americans are unknowingly living with abnormal blood glucose levels and up to 70% of them will end up being diabetic if they don’t catch it and address it immediately.

One of the biggest issues with having abnormal blood sugar (aka- being pre-diabetic) is that it comes without obvious symptoms.

The typical signs that accompany dysregulated blood sugar are energy imbalances and constant hunger. Two things that are fairly common in our culture, but not at all “normal”.

Need a coffee at 2pm to get through the afternoon? Or are you constantly thinking about food and where you’re going to get your next meal? Your blood sugar is likely out of range.

Here is how I recommend tracking/measuring it:

BEST- Continuous Blood Glucose Monitor (CGM)
Unlike a single reading from a blood glucose meter, a CGM provides real-time, dynamic information about the speed and direction (trending higher or lower) of your glucose levels. Having continuous feedback on diet, exercise, and lifestyle from a CGM can help you make more informed decisions about how to optimize your health.
Unfortunately, these CGM’s are incredibly hard to get if you are not currently diabetic. Luckily, there is a new company called Levels that is working hard to change all of that.

BETTER- Fasting Blood Glucose Readings
Nowadays, getting your hands on a blood glucose meter is EASY! Every pharmacy has them and you don’t need a prescription to buy one. To start, take your fasting blood glucose levels every morning for 7+ days in a row. If your readings are constantly between 80-99mg/dL, you’re probably headed down the right path. However, you can use this meter to help fine tune your diet and lifestyle too! Learn more about how to use this device to complete a carb tolerance test HERE.

GOOD- Annual Blood Tests
There are a few blood tests you get on an annual basis that most doctors will typically pull including: fasting blood glucose, A1c, and fasting insulin. These 3 markers are snapshots to your glucose tolerance. However, they are just a very small snapshot that will not give you an accurate picture of how you’re doing day to day. So if this is your only form of measuring your glucose levels, make sure you are keeping track of your numbers year to year and ensure they aren’t trending in the right direction!

BODY COMPOSITION

Oh, the scale. I’m pretty happy to hear that most people don’t own them anymore. They can be helpful, but they also are very limited in what they can tell you about the health of your body.

Instead, here are a few other body based metrics to consider:

Body Fat Percentage
Lean Tissue
Visceral Fat vs. Subcutaneous Fat
Bone density

How do you measure these?
BEST- DXA scan
DXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) is one of the most accurate and precise methods of evaluating body fat percentage, types of fat and lean tissue. In most metropolitan areas, there are now centers or traveling vans equipped with DXA machines. If you are close to one, these scans are typically very affordable for the information you are receiving.

BETTER- The “waist-to-hip ratio”
The waist-to-hip ratio can not scientifically evaluate body fat percentage, lean tissue or types of fat. However, this measure is a great measure of generally being overfat and is accurate for everyone. The great thing about this measurement is it can be done at home with one simple tool: a tape measure. What’s the ideal ratio? The waist, measured at the belly button, should be less than half the height. In other words, you’re striving for a measurement that is 0.49 or less. Having a measurement 0.50 or higher indicates being overfat. This measure can be easily measured over and over again, which makes it a great measure to know if your health program is working.

GOOD- Body Fat Scales
Unlike a tradition scale that just provides weight, the newer body fat scales can provide a few more metrics to help keep you trending in the right direction.

SLEEP

Gosh, if you haven’t read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker yet, you need to. He does a fantastic job in his book explaining why getting restorative sleep is so critical to our health!

So I’ll assume you already know all those details and jump to my favorite ways of tracking.

For this, there is only one way I recommend tracking your sleep and that is with a wearable device like an Oura ring, a Whoop strap or a FitBit.
All 3 companies are continually doing research to provide better data through their devices and additionally give better recommendations to their users on how to improve sleep. In the end, the data means nothing if you aren’t doing anything with it, right!?

I personally wear the Oura ring and love it! But I have many clients who use the Whoop strap and have a similar affection towards it.

Whatever device you choose to use, you need to make sure you want to wear it. If wearing a watch to bed sounds terrible to you, the FitBit and Whoop strap may not be the best options for you.

STRESS

Stress is something that many of us experience more than we would like, but have found a way to cope with it.

Unfortunately, that coping mechanism may be hurting your health.

To better understand how your body is responding to stress, I highly recommend tracking your HRV. HRV stands for heart rate variability.

Many of the above mentioned trackers, like Oura and Whoop, track this data automatically for you. However, there are also apps you can purchase on your smartphone to use to take your HRV.

Simply put, HRV is a measure of the variation in time between each heartbeat. This variation is controlled by a primitive part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

The ANS controls out heart rate, blood pressure, digestion and breathing, but it also controls the hormones that help us fight or flee.

The more stress we have in our lives, the less variation we will have in our HRV (resulting in a lower score). The healthier our autonomic nervous is and the better response we are having to daily stressors, the higher our HRV will be.

Since this is a non-invasive way to measure your ANS, I highly recommend this as a trackable measure...especially for athletes who tend to think that their training is stress relieving.

PHYSICAL FITNESS

Depending on who you ask, there are a couple of key components to staying fit and active as you age. I can only assume that if you want to live a long life, you want to live it disease free.

You want to be able to carry your own luggage through the airport. Walk from the furthest parking spot in the lot to the entrance of the grocery store. And certainly to do your own grocery shopping (which includes loading and unloading them into your car).

For that, there are a few areas of physical fitness that you might want to consider measuring and monitoring as you age:

FLEXIBILITY- you know...to bend over and pick up a pencil.

You can certainly create a list of movements that you can test monthly for free. I personally have found a love for the GoWOD in which they provide a daily protocol, tailor-made for you that can be done in 8, 15 or 22 minutes. No excuses!

STRENGTH- you know...to be able to pick up your old dog and lift her into the car without throwing out your back.

If you have the proper flexibility and strength, you should be capable of exerting force on the muscles you need in the direction they are supposed to go without dissipating that force to areas that don’t need it (like your back or your knees).

When you lack strength, especially in the little stabilizing muscles, that is exactly how injuries occur.

For strength training, I highly recommend you work with a professional to have an assessment done of your specific goals and body. A custom plan can be put together for you that doesn’t have to be complicated or require fancy gym equipment.

Once you have a few movement routines to complete weekly, keep a log and track your progress. There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing (and feeling) your ability to lift more weight as you age!

AEROBIC FITNESS- aka “easy cardio.”

Majority of your cardio fitness should be done at this level. The general rule of thumb is 80% aerobic and 20% anaerobic.

The best way to monitor your aerobic fitness at home is with a heart rate monitor and a clock. You can test your fitness by doing your fastest 40 minute treadmill/track, elliptical or bike test WITHOUT allowing your heart rate to go above 180-age (maximum aerobic function or MAF heart rate).

As you continue to train your aerobic system, your aerobic fitness should increase and you will see your pace increase with a lower heart rate. Of course, working with a coach who understands endurance training is helpful if improving your aerobic fitness is needed.

ANAEROBIC FITNESS- aka “HIIT training.”

This is the high heart rate, don’t want to talk to anyone right now, type of training. This type of training should only make up about 20% of your endurance training.

Monitoring this type of training is similar to aerobic training. You don’t need more than a heart rate monitor and a clock.

The difference is you are trying to get close to your max heart rate (220-age) for just a few seconds multiple times during a workout. The measure of anaerobic fitness comes when you can recover faster between these bouts of sprints (aka your heart rate drops back down to an aerobic level faster).

IN SUMMARY

So, do you still feel tracking weight is the best way to gauge your health?

Monitoring metrics that actually have an effect on your long term health are now more accessible and more affordable that it doesn’t make sense not to use them. There are many other markers besides the ones I mentioned here that you can use from both a lab and at home that can help keep your health on track. But this is where I recommend you start!

Information is knowledge. However, understanding what to do with the data can feel overwhelming at times, so be sure to surround yourself with a team of health care professionals who can help you interpret and use that data to be driving far away from disease and into a state of optimal health.

If you want to explore these metrics, I’m here for you! Just click HERE to schedule a free discovery call where we can discuss your goals and how I can best help you reach them.

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Food isn't the only factor in blood sugar regulation

9/23/2020

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We’re wrapping up a series on blood sugar. Seriously you guys, this topic is so important. And now more than ever. The mainstream media isn’t great about sharing the data that researchers are finding on the relationship with COVID moralities and metabolic syndrome, but it’s incredibly frightening!!!

The Lancet recently published some data from a study they performed in England looking at the relationship between COVID deaths and diabetes. They found that type 1 and type 2 diabetes were both independently associated with a significant increased odds of in-hospital death with COVID-19.

Obviously all of this data is new, but the relationship between metabolic syndrome and pretty much every other disease is NOT new. The Journal of the American Medical Association published in 2004 (a long time ago!) that the presence of the metabolic syndrome was associated with a 1.4-fold increase in the risk of all-cause mortality for both men and women, and with a 2.3-fold increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality for men and 2.8-fold for women.

Metabolic syndrome is a series of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Those conditions include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels. So obviously we need to be mindful of ALL of those conditions, but blood sugar is one that can affect EVERYONE (including lean athletes) regardless of their age and sex and often times people have no idea they have pre-diabetes.

Pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes can both be reversed pretty easily with more mindfulness around diet and lifestyle. So if you haven’t read the last 3 posts on the diet portion of how to balance your blood sugar, start there. If you have, and you’ve dialed in your diet but your blood sugar is still high, you’re in luck. Because that is exactly what we’re talking about this week!

In private practice, I have yet to find a client with high blood sugar who only has to adjust their diet to get back into normal blood sugar ranges! Usually, there are lifestyle factors that also need to be adjusted. So let’s dive into what those are...

Using Non-Caloric Sweeteners

Have you ever heard of Pavlov’s dogs experiment? Pavlov was a scientist who showed the theory of classical conditioning through his infamous dog experiment. He presented a stimulus (e.g. the sound of a metronome) and then gave the dog food; after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the stimulus.

We humans are also subject to classical conditioning. When you place something sweet into your mouth, your brain receives a signal that something sweet is on the way. In response, the brain can send a signal to the pancreas to release insulin to prepare for the sweet thing to enter the bloodstream. But nothing arrives. And you repeat this action again. And again. And again.

You continue to use non-caloric sweeteners, but your body continues to respond as if sugar is coming in leading it to wear out it’s blood sugar regulation system.

You can see how if you constantly chew sugar-free gum, drink non-caloric sweetened drinks (such as diet soda) or eat treats that are sweetened with non-caloric sweeteners, that your pancreas can quickly become incapable of keeping up with the insulin demands, and the cells of the liver and muscles can become immune to the signals of insulin.

This is especially important for those that have a level of insulin resistance already. Limiting and/or avoiding non-caloric sweeteners all together can help your body be sensitive to insulin, which is what you want for longevity!

Stress

In psychological terms, stress is the reaction to something that threatens our physical or mental equilibrium1. This means that it can come from a ferocious tiger threatening to eat us, or an overdue credit card bill that we don’t have the funds available to pay.

Genetically, our body is hard wired to deal with stressors in a way that is meant to protect us from things like predators and angry enemies. Historically, these types of threats were typically quick to come and quick to go. Between threats, our body could unwind and had time to recover before another threat revealed itself.

Today, most of us no longer have to worry about dangerous animals threatening to eat us, or our neighbors breaking into our house with a spear. Today’s threats are much different.

In the book The Adrenal Reset Diet author Alan Christianson says “within the last few decades our world has gotten more toxic, a lot noisier, and much faster pace. Our food has more sugar, less fiber, and many more chemicals. We spend less time in sunlight and we sleep less. We take more medications, feel less certain of our financial futures, and have fewer friends.”

Not only are all of these things causing increased stress, but the type of stress has turned from acute to chronic. This type of chronic stress has a completely different effect on our adrenal glands than acute stressors.

The adrenal glands are responsible for the production and output of our main stress hormones: cortisol and adrenaline. Neither of these hormones were intended to be in the system for the long term. These hormones help you survive immediate threats by raising your blood pressure, blood sugar and shunting blood to your working muscles and brain, so you can fight or flee.

In today’s world, where threats are not solved in a single afternoon, these hormones are working overtime to try to protect you. Meanwhile, your blood pressure remains high, your immune system is weakened, your digestive system slows down and does not work properly, your sleep is affected because you are wired (and exhausted), your ability to learn decreases, and…you guessed it…your blood sugar stays higher than normal.

If you have balanced your diet and still feel frustrated that your fasting blood sugar levels are higher than normal, you needed to consider that stress is playing a large role in this.

Remember that anything in your life that creates a chronic stress response can create a chronically higher than normal blood sugar.

Many of these stressors are things that have become part of our normal day-to-day life and therefore we don’t look at them as a stress anymore. But how does your autonomic nervous system feel about that?

Some of the areas to really explore when trying to reduce the stress load are:

lack of sleep, lack of sleep, lack of sleep!
exposure to toxins (chemicals, molds, etc)
nutrient poor diet
poor digestion, which creates a lack of nutrient absorption
lack of social face-to-face interaction
guilt, grief, depression, anxiety, lack of self-esteem
increased financial obligations
illness
lack of sleep (did I already mention that?!?)

And the list goes on and on.

In addition to higher blood glucose levels, other symptoms commonly associated with high stress are: you lack a sex drive; crave sweets and salt; get dizzy when you stand up quickly; have achy joints or other body aches; have low blood pressure; suffer from mild depression; require stimulants to get moving in the morning or stay awake in the afternoon; or have been told that your cholesterol is high.

Reducing the load on the adrenals and supporting your system with the proper nutrients can help balance your steroid hormones and therefore lower your blood glucose over time.

Sleep

Sleep is one of four biological needs (the others being: eating, drinking and mating). Sleep has been shown to have a direct impact on overall health, lifespan, productivity, safety and ability to learn. Sleep is one of the top five reasons that patients visit a clinic for care every year and lack of sleep has been associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

A study performed at the Leiden University Medical Center took 9 healthy individuals, with healthy blood sugar response, and restricted sleep for one night (subjects were allowed to sleep from 1am to 5am). The result was insulin resistance in multiple metabolic pathways in all subjects.

Additionally, data from large published studies, including: Sleep Heart Health Study; Finnish Type 2 Diabetes Study; Quebec Family study; Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; National Health Interview Study; and Isfahan Healthy Heart Program, have all demonstrated that middle-aged to elderly subjects with self- reported short sleep duration are approximately twice as likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and are at higher risk for impaired glucose tolerance.

Most adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Not 7-9 hours in bed with the lights out laying awake. 7-9 hours of actual sleep. If this isn’t your situation, here are the first steps to dial in:

1) Follow a sleep schedule.

2) Eat a diet that promotes quality sleep at the right times:

Eat a dinner full of melatonin rich foods.
Avoid caffeine, including chocolate after 12pm.
Avoid alcohol before bed.
Avoid large meals and beverages 2 hours before bedtime.

3) Exercise at the time that best suits your chronotype. Avoid intense exercise 2-3 hours before bedtime. If AM blood sugar is higher than ideal, choose 20-30 minutes of a relaxing activity before bed, like gentle walking.

4) Get your daily dose of natural sunlight for a minimum of 30 minutes per day. If you can not get out into the natural sun, consider morning exposure to artificial light for at least 1 hour.

5) Only nap before 3pm.

6) Schedule time for relaxation for at least 20 minutes before bed. Espom salt baths, foot soaks, reading and meditation are all great options.

7) Create a bedroom that is most conducive for proper sleep.

avoid electronics in the bedroom
create complete darkness
The general suggested temperature for an ideal night's sleep is between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit.
invest in comfortable and non-toxic clothing, pillow, mattress and linens.

8) Avoid medications that cause stimulation before bed. Some examples of these medications are hypertension, allergy, and thyroid medications. Consult with your doctor about options for taking these medications at earlier times of day in order to optimize your ability to sleep.

9) Don’t stay in bed if you haven’t fallen asleep after 30 minutes.

One book I absolutely love that talks about sleep is called Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. If your blood sugar is still high and sleep is an issue, you definitely want to dive down this rabbit hole more deeply!

If you are consistently following the 9 sleep foundations above, and are still experiencing constant fatigue and irritability during the day after getting 7-9 hours of sleep, waking up several times during the night, staying awake for more than an hour without being capable of falling back to sleep, or taking longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, and/or higher than normal fasting blood sugar levels, it might be time to seek out a sleep specialist for help.

In Summary

So there you have it. All the steps you need to test your blood sugar levels, test your diet to make sure it supports healthy blood sugar levels (carb testing), carb timing so you can still enjoy carbs and sugar from time to time without having it affect your overall wellness, and lastly, other considerations if you blood sugar is still high after dialing in your diet.

I hope this series has helped you step closer to optimal blood sugar and health. As always, if you're struggling with blood sugar or just reaching your health, wellness and/or sport performance goals, reach out to me! I’d love to set up a free discovery call with you to find out if working together to discover your own personalized path to reach your goals is the right fit for both of us!

REFERENCES:
1. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(20)30272-2/fulltext
2. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/217011

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How many carbs should you eat? And when should you eat them?

9/16/2020

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This is part 3 of a 4 part series on blood sugar. In part 1, we address the basics of blood sugar and why everyone, including athletes, should care about their blood sugar levels. In part 2, we discussed the importance of testing your own body to specific carbohydrates and how exactly to do that. In this article, we are going to address how to use carbohydrates in your diet so they fuel your life instead of create disease. There are some very important things to address before we jump into the details of how to properly “carb cycle.” Starting with what carb cycling is and why this even matters?

What is carb cycling?

Carb cycling is a method of eating in which you go back and forth between higher carb days and lower carb days. There may even be days that are “keto.” Typically, “carb cycling” is a method of eating used by athletes where they consume higher carbs on days that involve more intense exercise. In my experience, this method of eating works best for athletes who are already fat adapted. This creates an ideal situation to burn fat on days of low intensity training (which is usually 80% or more of an endurance athlete's training) and strategically use carbohydrate on days when you want to include more high intensity. This type of eating can ensure you are getting enough carbohydrate in your diet to aid in recovery, but not so much that your body starts to prioritize sugar for energy over fat.

I realize that the terms "low" and "high" are relative. That's because it really does depend on how "fat adapted" you are. For an athlete who has trained their body to efficiently burn fat, it is not uncommon to see them eat 120-150g of carbohydrate on a "high" carb day and 50-80g of carbohydrate on a "low" carb day.

You can test your body in a lab to discover exactly how "fat adapted" you are by getting a lactate threshold test completed. This type of data can help you learn what a "high" and "low" day might look like for you.

Periodization

If you are an athlete, or have even been an athlete, you should be fairly familiar with periodization. Periodization is a strategy in which you target varying specificity, intensity and volume at specific times of year to improve your performance. By training at the right intensity and volume at the right time of year for your sport, you increase the chance of obtaining your performance goals.

Successful athletes do not typically train at the exact same paces at the exact same distances all year long. For example, if you are training for a marathon, most well built training plans will have a period where you focus on building your endurance, which is typically separate from a time of building speed, which is all together separate from a time of recovery.

Of course there is a blend of endurance, speed and recovery in each microcycle but the general focus for each block of training at different times of year is also different. Nutrition can, and should be treated the same way (curious about this approach to training, check out my post on building an annual nutrition plan that lines up with your on and off seasons!). When training volume is high, the amount of food you eat and the types of foods you eat will be different than the amount and types of foods you would eat during a recovery block.

Once you understand how important it is to change your diet in order to support the different demands your sport can bring throughout the year, it makes it much easier to understand why learning to “carb cycle” can be important to your performance and recovery!

You Need Carbs… but the right ones and in the right amounts!

Carbohydrates are the preferred fuel for sports performance. However, depending on your gender and size, your body can only store approximately 1,400-2,000 calories of sugar in your liver and muscles.

That means that if you train or race for longer than 90-120 minutes, it is likely that you’ll deplete most of your stored sugar and be left low in energy (aka- BONK!). And since we know that your gut can only absorb about 1g of carbohydrate across the gut lining into the blood each minute, that means that you are likely burning more carbohydrates than you can consume. Unless you have 1. done the metabolic training to burn more fat and 2. keep your heart rate low enough that your body utilizes more fat than carbs.

The FASTER study showed that you can train your body to do this with diet. There have been numerous other studies that have since then been published that support the same outcome.

I bring this important fact up because your need for carbs depends greatly on how much fat you are able to burn. If you are metabolically flexible and can easily tap into your own stored body fat, you conserve your stored sugar and don’t require as much exogenous consumption as someone who mostly burns sugar.

Since the bulk of the questions I get from clients around how much carbohydrate to use and at what times are from “fat adapted” athletes, that is what I am addressing here. If you have not done the work to get fat adapted, this model will likely not work for you and you will need to consume more carbohydrates more frequently to keep your energy levels up.

However, if you’ve fat adapted, let’s talk about how and when you should use carbs to fuel your life and performance.

As we discussed above, as your physical training changes, so should your nutrition. In order to keep this relatively simple, I’m going to break down how much and when I advise using carbohydrates per training cycle.

Base Training

In base training, we are typically focused on building the cardio engine, creating injury resilience (which usually means strength training for most endurance athletes) and focusing on metabolic flexibility. I wrote an entire blog with more details on this phase that you can check out HERE. From a nutritional perspective in this phase, this means, from a day-to-day eating perspective, I recommend a low carb, high fat diet.

Everybody is different in exactly how much carbohydrate they should be eating in this phase, but it usually falls somewhere between 50g-150g per day. If you’re training volume is generally low (<3 hours per day) and your intensity is also relatively low, you can and should be on the lower end of carbohydrate consumption with a priority on eating lots of good healthy fats (mostly monounsaturated fats like avocados, olives, nuts and seeds) and majority of your carbs coming from high fiber, low starch whole foods.

This is the perfect time of year to track your blood glucose (refer back to the first blog of the series) and then carb testing (read about that here) as you get ready to approach the start of your season.

During training, you should consume water and electrolytes only. If you have a hard session or have done strength training, add about 30-50g of carbs in your post workout meal. Outside of that, carbs are low.

Build Training

The build phase of training involves an increase in both volume and intensity with a subsequent increase in your energy requirements (i.e., calories!).

If you want to read more details on this phase, check out THIS BLOG post. For this reason, from a nutritional perspective, the primary goal is strategic carb cycling. Using the carbs that you tested well to when you carb tested, here is how I generally recommend adding them into the diet:

For day to day nutrition, remain low carb. For most athletes, the total carbohydrate intake during this time is between 100-150g per day, depending on their activity level.
For high intensity training (which should be 2-3 sessions each week)- add in about 25-30g of carbohydrates during your training session if it is 90 minutes or longer. I typically use liquid calories for this like Skratch Hydration mix. If your hard session is shorter than 90 minutes, consider adding in a small amount of carbs pre-workout (if you stomach can tolerate it), like 1/2 banana, and get around 30-50g of whole food carbs in your post workout meal. My favorite go-to post workout meal is a smoothie with coconut milk blended with 1 scoop Equip Prime Protein and 1/2 cooked sweet potato.
For endurance training- add in about 25-30g of carbohydrates per hour of training that lasts longer than 2+ hours. If your training session is shorter than 2 hours, prioritize water and electrolytes only. Then, in the meal following your endurance session, consider adding in 25-35g of carbohydrate to help with recovery. This is especially important if you have another session less than 24 hours away.

Event Specific Training

In event specific training, we are typically prioritizing event specific efforts. This is usually the phase of training when athletes are doing 2-a-day training sessions and carbohydrates can get up closer to 200g per day for some athletes.

Like in other phases, most athletes find that they recover faster when they consume the bulk of their carbohydrates after their harder session of the day.

Since most athletes are not doing 2 hard sessions per day, this means that you would likely only have 1 higher carbohydrate real food meal per day. I usually recommend prioritizing that meal right after your hard session.

During this entire block of training, you can and should test race specific nutrition for a few of your longer sessions that have race pace work in them. This ensures that your body can tolerate your race day fueling strategy.

Since the body can tolerate up to 60g of carbohydrate per hour, you can and should test how many carbs your gut can tolerate during a long session. I typically recommend picking a few endurance workouts in this block to use as nutrition testing sessions.

Start these sessions fasted (if possible) and start consuming your nutrition within the first 2 hours. Prioritize water and electrolytes until then.

At the 2 hour mark, slow drip in your planned race fuel, which should be mostly carbohydrate with little protein and even less fat and fiber. If your race is longer than 4 hours, you might try eating some whole food carbohydrates like cooked potato, bananas, or whole food bars. If your race is less than 4 hours, try using liquid calories, like Skratch, or whole food gels, like Huma or Spring gels.

The amount of carbohydrates to consume each hour is very specific to you, so testing is critical.

Start with 30g per hour and increase the amount you eat each week. Pay attention to your gut and your energy levels. If you can tolerate 60g of carb per hour without getting any gut discomfort, GREAT!

If not, how many grams can you tolerate before starting to feel discomfort in your belly? If you have trained your body to burn fat and you can maintain your race pace at a relatively low % of your VO2 max, you may not need to consume as much carbohydrate as you think.

Recovery/Off-Season

In your recovery phase or off-season, getting recovered is the priority. That usually means a decrease in both volume and intensity during training. Hopefully, this also means you switch up your sport for something that supports the goals of your specific sport, but AREN’T your specific sport. For example, if you’re an endurance runner or triathlete, you spend your off-season mountain biking or cross country skiing.

From a nutrition perspective, since volume is decreased, carbohydrates can also be reduced in this phase of training. For day-to-day eating, I highly recommend doing a 2 week phase of eating very low carbohydrates. For many, this is usually around 35-65g per day and will result in the production of ketone production.

Once this reset is complete, moving back to a low carb day-to-day diet of anywhere from 50-150g of carbs per day can be done. Most training in this phase is less than 2 hours and water and electrolytes should be prioritized over carbohydrates.

It can not be understated how critical it is for athletes to play around with these recommendations! Every single athlete is so unique in what their body needs. These are merely a recommendation of a jumping off point. But the absolute best thing you can do for yourself is TEST, TEST, TEST!!!

And since my hope is that every single athlete who is reading this is interested in long term health, ensuring that your diet fuels your athletic goals while making sure you are not doing long term damage to your health should be a top priority!

If you’ve gone through the process of becoming fat adapted and are staying focused on what your carb intake is in relation to your activity level, but you’re still experiencing high blood glucose levels, then check back in next week where I dive into WHY you may still be experiencing those issues!

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How to find our which carbs are best for YOUR body.

9/9/2020

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Last week, we started a series on blood glucose and why you should care about it. We talked about how pre-diabetes is NOT just a disease affecting the obese, but can actually affect endurance atheltes at nearly the same rate as non-athletes. We talked about the general physiology, types of sugars, how to read labels and the basics of how to measure your blood glucose levels. If you missed that post, make sure you take a moment to read it, especially if this topic is new to you.

This week, we’re going to dive a little deeper. You heard me say last week that ‘If there is one single thing you can do to discover your own personalized diet and monitor your own health over time, it is to use a blood sugar meter regularly.’ But a common question I get is ‘now that I’ve tested my fasting blood glucose for 7+ days, now what?’

There are 3 different scenarios that can happen once you’ve taken your fasting blood glucose for 7+ days in a row…

1- your average fasting blood glucose is falling between 80-99mg/dL which is IDEAL!
2- your average fasting blood glucose is all over the board. Some days it’s higher than 99mg/dL, some days it’s lower than 80mg/dL and some days it falls right in the middle.
3- your average fasting blood glucose is consistently above 99g/dL.

If scenario 1 is your reality, AWESOME! If you love the diet you are currently following, then I recommend you stick with it and just check your blood glucose levels every 3-6 months to make sure you are staying in a healthy range.

However, if you're eager to find out how your blood sugar responds to different types of carbohydrates, then you can use your blood sugar meter to test that by completing a carbohydrate tolerance test. The instructions for carbohydrate tolerance testing can be found below, but I highly recommend that you read the “Glucose v. Fructose” section before moving onto the carbohydrate tolerance section.

If scenario 2 or 3 is your reality, then I recommend jumping onto a lower carb diet for 30 days.

You can read more about ‘How blood sugar can go WRONG’ from last week's blog. While you transition to a lower carbohydrate diet, you might feel hungrier and experience some symptoms. This is why I recommend eating smaller meals more frequently during the transition. Instead of eating 2-3 balanced meals per day (which is what I recommend when your blood glucose is stable), I would eat 3 smaller, low carb meals and include 2-3 small low carb snacks between them.

Some of my favorite low carb snacks are:

Macadamia nuts
½ avocado
Hard boiled egg
Marinated olives

After 30 days of lower carbohydrate eating, test again.

You might also notice during these 30 days that your urge to snack starts to go away. This is a sign that your blood sugar is starting to stabilize and is a great sign! Follow your hunger signals and transition to eating 2-3 low carb meals per day as you start to experience less hunger.

If your new 7+ day fasting blood glucose tests average between 80-99mg/dL, and you miss having more carbohydrates in your diet, it’s time to complete a carbohydrate tolerance test! But before we jump into exactly how to do that, first let’s briefly talk about carbs and sugar.

Glucose vs. Fructose

Not all carbohydrates are created equal. The way our body processes 50g of sweet potato is not the same as if eating 50g of high fructose corn syrup. But to keep things simple, let’s just talk about monosaccharides. These are typically known as “simple sugars” and they are the most basic units of carbohydrates. Examples of these are glucose, fructose and galactose.

Glucose and fructose are the two most common types of sugars contained in natural foods. Glucose is found in most of the starchy foods, such as potatoes, rice, breads and pasta. Glucose is the preferred fuel for the cells of our body, including the cells in our brain. Glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream within our small intestines. If the body needs energy immediately, the ingested glucose can be used by the muscles and/or brain right away. If the body does not have an immediate need for glucose, it is stored in the liver or in our skeletal muscles. The liver and the skeletal muscles can only store a limited amount of glucose. Once these stores are full, the liver converts excess glucose into fat and stores it in adipose (fat) tissue.

Fructose is found naturally in fruits and some vegetables. Fructose consumed in large quantities can be toxic to the liver. Excess fructose consumption is known to create fatty liver disease which leads to insulin resistance and obesity. It has been shown that overeating fructose can cause insulin resistance within one week and only eight weeks to become pre-diabetic.
Additionally, fructose does not provide a signal of satiety. If you were to eat 500 calories of a potato, you would feel very full. Drinking 500 calories of soda containing high fructose corn syrup does not create this same feeling of fullness, causing overeating. If we are not feeling the satiety sensation, you can see how easy it is to over eat and potentially create newly formed fat.

I'm not suggesting that fructose is bad. What I am suggesting is that too much of anything is bad. Too much glucose is bad. Even too much water is bad. But how much is too much? In this situation, that depends on your body. And one way to help you discover that is by doing a carbohydrate tolerance test, so let’s jump into that...

Carbohydrate Tolerance Testing

For many people, the amount of carbohydrates and sugars that have been consumed over the course of their lifetime is excessive. The excess consumption of these carbohydrates has led to irregular blood sugar which can lead to lethargy, excess body fat retention, fatigue, poor sleep, and less than optimal health. If after testing, you’ve established that your blood sugar is normal, you can complete a carbohydrate tolerance test to learn what life can be like when you consume healthy forms of carbohydrates in the appropriate amounts for your body. (In other words, what it is like to eat balanced.)

In Robb Wolf’s book, Wired To Eat, he details a process he calls ‘the 7 Day Carb Test.’ Your blood glucose levels rise and fall when you eat a meal containing carbohydrates. How high it rises and how long it stays high depends on: the quality of the carbohydrates; the quantity of carbohydrate; and your own bio-individuality. In order to learn how your own body responds to the quality and quantity of carbohydrate, you should consider a carbohydrate tolerance test.

During this test, you use a blood sugar meter to test your body’s personal tolerance to 50g of effective net carbs to a specific food. The point of completing this type of test is to learn more about how your body can properly handle (or not handle) different types of carbohydrates. It might surprise you that some people can tolerate sugary pastries better than a banana, but it is true. This is bio-individuality at its finest. As Robb says in his book, “finding the ‘right’ carbohydrate(s) for your body allows you to dial in your specific carbohydrate tolerance and therefore keep our hormonal profile in a state that is favorable for fat loss while repairing our metabolism.’

How to test

Choose a test carb to test. (for example: sweet potato, black beans, or rice).
Choose the amount of carbohydrate to test. Aim to consume a reasonable amount of the specific carbohydrate. If you are unsure of a good amount, start with 50g of effective net carbs. Effective net carbs are TOTAL CARBS - FIBER = NET CARBS
Prepare your carbohydrate the night before you choose to test.
First thing the following morning, take your fasting blood sugar. Then, eat your test carb. You will eat no other food at this time. Allowable beverages are black coffee and water. If you do have a beverage make sure to have that same beverage each morning you are testing.
Write down which carbohydrate you are testing and the time you ate it.
Set a timer for 2 hours from the time you take your first bite of carbohydrate. Aim to consume your test carbohydrate within 5- 10 minutes.
Test your blood glucose and record your blood glucose reading at the 2 hour mark.

What you are looking for
The most important things to look for (that would indicate that the carb is not the best carb for your body) are:

symptoms (foggy head, inability to focus, anger, depression, anxiety, shaky, etc)
a large fluctuation in your blood sugar:

At the 2 hour blood glucose reading, your ideal blood glucose should be ~115 mg/dL.

If your blood sugar goes much above 120 mg/dL at the 2 hour mark of the test, this can be a sign that your blood sugar has “spiked” and this is not an ideal carb for you. It would be expected that your blood sugar would then drop rapidly, causing you to feel poorly.

The opposite is also true. If your blood glucose reading at the 2 hour mark is below your fasting reading, this is just another sign of the wrong carb for your body.

Ideally, you want to find a carb that doesn’t make you feel badly, and that brings your blood glucose level up (no higher than ~115 mg/dL), and has a slow decline over the next 4 hours.

GIVE THE CARB TOLERANCE TEST A TRY!

Using a blood glucose monitor is by far the easiest way to get insight on how your body is handling the sugar that you eat. And running a carb tolerance test allows you to get even clearer on what specific carbohydrates work for you (and vice versa).

Next week, we’ll dive even deeper into knowing how to use the carbohydrates that are best for your body at the right times of day so you keep stable energy and not store them as fat!

Stay tuned...

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Hitching a Ride on the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster - Part 1

9/2/2020

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We have all heard that eating too much sugar could eventually result in a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes. However, just because you have not been diagnosed with diabetes, does not mean your body is tolerating the amount of sugar in your diet.

In 2017, Outside Magazine published an article titled Are Endurance Athletes More Susceptible to Diabetes? In it, the author introduced an endurance runner who also happened to be an intern at the University of Canterbury Center for Bioengineering, which was researching the clinical potential of continuous glucose monitors (CGM).

After a hard bonk in her last ultra endurance event, she wondered if she could use a CGM to help her better understand her blood sugar levels during a long run, see when her levels started to drop and prevent the bonk all together by using exogenous glucose (aka- a gel). After some self experimentation and seeing some potential for future research, she soon found herself in a PhD program studying the potential uses of glucose monitoring in athletes.

In 2016 her first initial pilot study on ten runners and cyclists was published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology and the findings were quite a shock.

“Instead of bonk-inducing blood sugar lows, the more common problem in her subjects, who typically averaged at least six hours of training a week, was high blood sugar throughout the day—an outcome that pointed to an elevated risk of Type 2 Diabetes in these seemingly super-fit athletes. ‘I was incredibly surprised to see the results,’ Thomas says. ‘It seemed contrary to almost everything else in the field.’”

Her initial findings were that 3 out of 10 athletes in the study had fasting blood glucose levels that were by the ADA definition, in the pre-diabetes range. Although the current numbers don’t support the claim that endurance athletes are more susceptible to diabetes, there is certainly a very large range of pre-diabetes that many of us sit in.

We Eat a LOT of Sugar

Today, more than 1/3 of Americans over the age of 18 have pre-diabetes. That means that if the initial data from the study mentioned above actually correlates out when a larger study is completed, slightly less than ⅓ of athletes are also pre-diabetic. That’s frightening!

Pre-diabetes is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. If lifestyle and dietary intervention is not done, pre-diabetes can easily develop into Type 2 Diabetes.

One of the most challenging aspects of pre-diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes is they are often accompanied by NO symptoms. Occasionally, people complain of increased thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger, fatigue and irritability. I don’t know about you, but those are things I can feel quite regularly during a block of hard training and easily brush it off as such.

You Don't Have to be Overweight to Develop Diabetes

Many people believe that pre-diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes are diseases that only affect people that are overweight or lack a regular movement routine. Additionally, many athletes and medical professionals believe that if someone workouts all the time and are generally lean, that they cannot become pre-diabetic or Type 2 Diabetic.

Finally, after years of these false beliefs, we are starting to see (even in medical literature) that pre-diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes can affect athletes and sedentary people alike.

Dr. Timothy Noakes, a South African researcher and author of The Lore of Running is an advocate for a blood sugar controlled diet for athletes after years as an endurance runner, he himself developed pre-diabetes.

A similar story exists for Dr. Peter Attia. Cardiologist, founder of the Nutrition Science Initiative and endurance athlete, Dr. Attia discovered in 2009 that he too had developed insulin resistance. Both doctors believe that a diet high in refined carbohydrates is to blame for their (and many other endurance athletes) blood sugar conditions.

For these reasons, the constant conversations I have with my athlete clients regarding energy levels, and my own personal experience with blood sugar regulation, I’m dedicating this month to providing more education on blood glucose.

Of course this education is great for EVERYBODY, but I am particularly interested in helping athletes better understand how to manage their energy levels without developing a disease like Type 2 Diabetes!

This is a HUGE topic and in order to make it digestible, I’ll be dividing it up over the next few weeks. So stay with me as we get started with understanding the basic physiology of blood sugar regulation and why you should be monitoring yours!

Basic Physiology

The body prioritizes blood sugar regulation over other bodily functions to ensure that the brain and other organs have the necessary energy to operate. Our body was designed to use a variety of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat) for energy sources.

Each human body has its own speciﬁc formula for how much of each of these macronutrients it needs to maintain optimal health and wellness. If the specific formula is off, you become susceptible to disease. There are many factors that play a role in your own specific nutrition formula, such as genetics, stress and activity levels.

Carbohydrates are the fastest burning of the 3 macronutrients. When properly digested, all carbohydrates turn into sugar in the body. Once these sugars are absorbed into the bloodstream, a healthy body will release insulin (a hormone) into the blood to help store these sugars away in the liver and muscles.

The liver and muscles have limited storage for these sugars. If the consumption of carbohydrate (or sugar) is higher than our body’s storage in the liver and muscles, the body will convert the excess sugar into fat and store it in fat cells, in which we have an unlimited storage.

Since carbohydrates burn faster than fat and protein, a diet that is high in carbohydrates will require frequent consumption of carbohydrate to keep energy levels up. If this cycle of frequent consumption of carbohydrates is repeated day after day, month after month, year after year, the body can become less effective at producing and/or using insulin to store away digested carbohydrates.

Once this process begins, we see levels of sugar in the blood begin to rise. This is the very early stages of Type 2 Diabetes (pre-diabetes) and typically there are little to no symptoms associated with the early stages of pre-diabetes and the rise in blood sugar levels.

For athletes, we obtain most of our energy from sugar (either exogenously from the foods we eat during training or endogenously from our stored sugar in the muscles and liver). We can obtain some energy from fat, but this can be a slow conversion and is a system that needs to be trained.

The major benefit to undergoing this adaptation process is that it is well known the body can only absorb so much energy per hour. Most endurance athletes are burning much more than they can comfortably consume in the gut and will inevitably hit the notorious “wall” and bonk at some point.

If you train your body to be able to obtain energy from your own stored body fat in a more efficient way, you can conserve your limited glucose supply for later in your training or race or when you really need it.

If you’ve never gone through the process of training your body to burn more fat for energy, it’s something to consider. I have a 6 week program specifically for this called the Keto Reset and you can learn more about it by clicking HERE.

How Blood Sugar SHOULD Work

When you wake up in the morning after a 12 hour fast, your blood sugar should be at a healthy level, around 85 mg/dL.

After consuming a well-balanced meal, the body digests the macronutrients from your meal and they are absorbed into your bloodstream. This causes a healthy rise in blood sugar over the next 2 hours (to around 115 mg/dL) and a signal to the body to release the hormone insulin from the pancreas.

Insulin’s job is to remove any excess sugar from the blood and store it in the liver and/or muscles for later use.

After a few hours without a meal, the blood sugar levels begin to drop back toward the fasting levels (85 mg/dL) and the brain sends a signal to the pancreas to release the hormone glucagon.

Glucagon's job is to release stored glucose from the liver back into the bloodstream to be used as energy until the next meal is consumed.

NORMAL BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS should be between 80-99mg/dL fasting and should range between 85-115 mg/dL throughout the day.

How Blood Sugar Can GO WRONG

When you wake up in the morning after an 8-12 hour fast, your blood sugar should be at a healthy level, around 85 mg/dL. However, if the hormones that regulate blood sugar overnight cannot function properly, it is not uncommon to see blood sugar levels drop below 79 mg/dL. This often causes people to crave carbs, sweets and/or caffeine.

If a standard American breakfast of cereal, sweetened yogurt, oatmeal, pancakes with syrup, fruit juice, sweetened coffee creamers, etc are consumed, the body digests the macronutrients from your higher sugar/carb meal, absorbs into your bloodstream quickly, and causes a rapid rise in blood sugar levels.

In a standard American breakfast, it is not uncommon to see upwards of 30g of sugar in that single meal. Take for example a yogurt parfait. A single serving of Chobani black cherry flavored greek yogurt has 17g of carbohydrate (which includes 15g of sugar). Top that with 1/2 cup of organic Love Crunch granola, and you've added an additional 40g of carbohydrate (which includes 12g of sugar). That's a 400 calorie breakfast that includes 57g of carbohydrates and 27g of sugar!!!! WHOA!

Your hormones are fighting to keep approximately 5g (that's 1 tsp) of sugar in your blood stream at any given time. That means that your "healthy" greek yogurt parfait just created a crisis in your body because you now have over 5x the amount of sugar in your blood stream. This causes the body to rapidly release the hormone insulin from the pancreas in response to the high levels of sugars in the blood.

As mentioned earlier, it is insulin’s job is to remove any excess sugar from the blood and store it in the liver and/or muscles for later use. However, we only have a limited amount of storage in our body for sugar. So that excess sugar that doesn't have a place for storage, guess what happens to it?

It turns into FAT.

Because lucky for us, we have an unlimited storage for fat. But that fat topic is for another day...let's get back to what's happening to your blood sugar...

So that rapid spike in blood sugar, creates a rapid release of insulin, which rapidly drops your blood sugar and easily creates a another low blood sugar situation. This creates more cravings for carbs, sweets and caffeine, and the vicious cycle starts over again a few hours after your breakfast.

If this cycle isn't addressed with more balanced meals (less carbs and more protein and/or fat), the body will eventually become less capable of creating the amount of insulin need to drop your blood sugar levels into the normal range. This is what is known as insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance creates higher than normal levels of blood sugar throughout the day. If using a blood sugar meter, you will see levels ranging between 100-199 mg/dL regularly. If this condition is not reversed with lifestyle and dietary interventions, your blood sugar levels will continue to rise.

Once a persons fasting blood glucose level goes above 200 mg/dL, they will typically be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Fasting PRE-DIABETIC SUGAR LEVELS are between 100-199 mg/dL.
Fasting DIABETIC SUGAR LEVELS are above 200 mg/dL.

Complications from Blood Sugar Dysregulation

Blood sugar dysregulation disrupts all aspects of human physiology, including:

energy
the integrity of the tissues of every organ and blood vessel
hormonal balance
brain health

People can begin to experience anxiety, agitation, depression, fatigue or high levels of stress when blood sugar is out of normal ranges (either too high or too low). This is because the hormones regulating fuel distribution affect your mood.

Diabetic nerve damage (neuropathy) can also occur and affects approximately 60-70 percent of patients with diabetes. The longer a person has diabetes and the greater the degree of severity, the greater the risk of neuropathy. Neuropathy affects the nerves in the lower extremities first: the feet, hands and also the arms. Symptoms include tingling, numbness, burning and pain. The constant pain of diabetic neuropathy can be debilitating and worse for some people at night.

Heart attacks are a known complication of diabetes. When the blood vessels supplying the heart are damaged, the body responds by depositing plaques of fatty material, known as cholesterol, within the inner walls of the blood vessels. As the body works to repair the damage, the blood vessels narrow and harden with this plaque. The blood is not able to supply oxygen through the narrowed vessels, resulting in the death of part of the heart muscle. 68% of diabetics aged sixty-five or older will die of heart disease, and a further 16% will die of stroke.

Identifying Sugar

When many people think of sugar, they think of foods like cookies, cakes or cereal.

Yet sugar is hidden in over 80% of other foods like catsup, relish, mayonnaise, crackers, bread, canned fruit and even low-fat yogurt!

Food manufactures have different names for sugar, making it very confusing for people to identify sugar as an ingredient.

Some of the other names listed for sugar are: dextrose, barley malt, disaccharides, fruit juice concentrate, lactose, malt and sucrose, to name a few.

Types of sweeteners (from best to worst…):

NATURAL SUGARS such as unrefined raw honey, raw cane sugar, and fruit, that when unprocessed, maintain some nutrient value to the body.
NATURAL SWEETENERS such as stevia. Usually an herb. It tastes sweet but is not sugar. The more they are processed, the less healthy they are.
REFINED SUGARS such as white cane sugar, processed honey, agave and corn syrup. Natural in origin, but the refining process generally makes them unhealthy.
SUGAR ALCOHOLS such as xylitol, erythritol, sorbitol and mannitol. Real food but highly processed. These sugar alcohols are incompletely structured and are likely to cause digestive upset.
ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS such as splenda and aspartame. These are man made chemicals that are made to taste sweet. Artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, Nutrisweet and Equal, which carry no caloric value, have been shown to increase your risk of a metabolic syndrome by more than 34%. Additionally, there is a 43% increase of a vascular event (such as stroke and heart attacks) in those that consume artificial sweeteners regularly.

Since athletes need to consume carbohydrates to fuel longer workouts, finding the right sugars in the right balance is key! Stay with me as we explore exactly how to do this over the next few weeks.

Reading Labels

The American Diabetic Association recommends a daily sugar consumption below 20g for women, 36g for men, and less than 12g for children. The average American consumes 71.14g of sugar every day, well over the recommended amount. One of the simplest ways to reduce the intake of added sugar is by learning to read food labels.

Look for foods with 5g of sugar or less per serving!

Keep in mind that:

As of July 2018, added sugars are listed separately on food labels in America, but not in all countries.
Naturally occurring sugars from whole foods are not considered added sugars.
Lactose is the naturally occurring sugar from dairy. The amount of sugar from dairy can vary from product to product. Generally speaking, there is approximately 5g of sugar per 100g of dairy with no added sweeteners.

Check the ingredient list for any added sugars!

There are currently 61 different names for added sugar in the US, which makes them challenging to identify.

The main things to keep in mind are:

Words ending in “-ose” are added sugars.
Words ending in “-tol” are added sugars.
Words such as “syrup,” “juice,” “concentrate,” and “crystals” are sugars.

Just because the label lists “zero” sugar, does not mean that there are no added sugars in the ingredients. You must check both!

Monitoring Your Blood Sugar

One of the best ways to prevent (or reverse) pre-diabetes or Type 2 Diabetes and discover exactly how your speciﬁc body tolerates different types of carbohydrates/sugars (the type, load and frequency) is to monitor your own blood sugar levels.

This can be easily done with an at home blood glucose monitor. These monitors are sold over the counter at many drug stores and range from $20-$50. If there is one single thing you can do to discover your own personalized diet and monitor your own health over time, it is to use a blood sugar meter regularly.

To test, always start with your FASTING blood sugar in the morning before you do anything like eat, drink, or brush your teeth. Follow the instructions included with your specific kit to get an accurate test result.

Healthy fasting blood sugar readings should be around 85mg/dL. Consistent fasted readings below 80mg/dL may indicate hypoglycemia, and consistent fasted readings above 99mg/dL may indicate pre-diabetes. Keep in mind that there are other factors that can affect your blood sugar, such as sleep and stress (more on this coming up!)

The most important part of blood sugar testing is to be consistent. Timing is everything. It is highly advised that you set an alarm to make sure you stay consistent with testing for 7 days. This will allow you to start seeing a pattern. It is important to note that there is a degree of error with all blood sugar meters.

The goal is not to become ﬁxated on each and every number, but to see all the numbers together and the pattern they create. To get the most out of testing, you should also be keeping a food and lifestyle journal and be noting things that affect your blood sugar, like: sleep, stress, exercise, macronutrients, and hormone cycles.

Coming Up Next

Understanding blood sugar and learning how to balance it takes a bit of time. That is why, rather than inundating you with information, I have decided to dedicate the entire month of September to teaching you the ins and outs of blood sugar and how balancing it can be crucial to your athletic performance and overall health.

Coming up next, we continue to talk about blood sugar, with a stronger focus on how to find a better balance between carbs, fats and proteins so you can fuel your workouts appropriately and not put yourself at risk for developing disease.

If you have any questions about blood sugar, you can email me! And, if you’re ready to take the next step by becoming a fat burning machine rather than an exhausted sugar burner, then sign up for the Keto RESET Program waitlist! This 6 week course is dedicated to teaching you how to transition your body so that it can efficiently burn fat for fuel allowing you to experience vitality and great health.

REFERENCES:

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Nerve damage (diabetic neuropathies) 2013 Nov. Available from: http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/Diabetes/diabetic-neuropathies-nerve-damage-diabetes/Pages/diabetic-neuropathies-nerve-damage.aspx Accessed 2017 Jun 6.
American Heart Association. Cardiovascular disease & diabetes. 2015 Aug. Available from: http//www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/Diabetes/WhyDiabetesMatters/Cardiovascular-Disease-Diabetes_UCM_313865_Article.jsp/#.WZYRWK3MXE4 Accessed 2017 Jun6.
Lutsey PL, Steffen LM, Stevens J Dietary intake and the development of the metabolic syndrome: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. Circulation. 2008 Feb 12; 117(6): 754-61.
2016, March. 2015-2016 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Eighth Edition. Cut down on added sugars.

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The Best Way to Stay on Your Nutrition Game in the Off-Season

8/26/2020

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There is something I’ve noticed about many endurance athletes over the years (which includes me), we either don’t take an off season (or at least not a very long one) or we completely forget about health and fitness and let ourselves go for a few months.

I’ve done both. And what I’ve personally learned is I don’t like the way I feel either way.

The first year or two I got into triathlon, I completely stopped training (for the most part) and just ate whatever I wanted for about 3 months after my last race. Pretty much the entire holiday season I justified eating mostly crappy food and not really doing too much activity.

I justified to myself that after 9 months of training, I deserve a break from all of it. But after a 3 month hiatus from training and a very lackadaisical approach to my eating, I wondered why in the heck I ever thought that was a good idea when I:

1. Had to get back into a bathing suit, and
2. Tried to actually do a swim workout. Holy moly you can lose some serious fitness in 3 months!

So then I switched up my approach. I’ll put a late race on the calendar so I keep training into the holiday season, then make sure I have an early event next year so I get right back after training ASAP.

I flipped my justification to ‘why the heck would I want to lose all that fitness I built up last season!?!’ It wasn’t until mid season that I realized just how burnt out I was and how much I needed a break!

Years later, I finally learned that there is actually a middle ground.

I’ve spent the last 3 weeks talking about how to use your off-season wisely so you feel rested going into your next race season, but also strong and fit...like you haven’t started back over from the very beginning!

We’ve discussed strength training, optimizing sleep, and managing stress...all things that can be improved on in the off-season. But there is something else that is SOOOOOO critical to ensuring a successful off-season (and therefore, a successful next race season) and that is nutrition.

Just like your heart and muscles can be trained, so can your metabolism.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could consume less race food and still have stable energy levels? You can. How nice would it be if you could eat healthy meals that are quick to prepare and not feel like you're starving or deprived all the time? It’s possible.

And that whole bonk thing that happens to athletes at the end of a long training day or towards the end of your event. Wouldn’t life be great if that didn’t happen anymore.

Well….you can actually train your body to prevent it. This week, we’re going to talk about why you want to optimize your nutrition in your OFF-SEASON and how to do it.

Fat Adaptation

I’m sure by now you’ve heard all about getting fat adapted.

If not, to put it simply, when your body is “fat adapted” that means it is efficient at utilizing fat for energy (rather than just relying on carbohydrates for energy!).

If you’ve heard of fat adaptation before, maybe you think it’s a hype, or maybe not. Here is where I stand on the subject...you never know if it will work for you until you try it.

Maybe you follow the traditional recommendations for endurance athletes and eat a high carbohydrate diet and feel amazing. You carb load with pasta and bread the night before your long workout and have a great session the following day.

Your annual blood tests are all great, you sleep great, you have high levels of energy that are stable throughout the day and you have a body composition you LOVE. Good for you!

My advice for you is: don’t change anything. Clearly what you are doing is working for you.

However, if you are not in love with your body composition, your energy levels fluctuate throughout the day, you bonk easily during longer workouts especially if you don’t consume enough sugary race food, you feel like it takes you forever to recover from workouts and your sleep could certainly use a little help...it’s time to consider doing something different.

My advice to you is: get fat adapted.

Fat adaptation is the process of changing your diet so your body can access energy from both sugar/carbs and fat, instead of just sugar/carbs. The diet consists of eating low amounts of carbohydrates, moderate amounts of proteins, and higher amounts of healthy fats. This process of turning yourself from a sugar burner to a fat burner can take about 6-8 weeks for endurance athletes to really feel a difference in their training.

For this reason, I highly recommend you consider this process in your off-season.

The longer you give yourself to get fat-adapted, the more benefits you’ll see when you get back to training and racing.

Just like your muscles have memory, so does your metabolism!

So the longer you eat a low carb, high fat (LCHF) diet, the better and better you’ll feel. So instead of following the ‘take 3 months off’ approach and then trying to slam home this process 6-8 weeks before your first event next year, here is what I’d recommend:

Take 2 weeks off of structured training and structured nutrition after your final event of the year (or in the case of COVID, the 2 weeks after the cancelation of your final event). This doesn’t mean you should sit on the couch and eat bon bons for 2 weeks. It means you should be active in ways that feel really good for your body and eat mostly healthy whole foods without doing any calorie counting, weighing or measuring. Just eat.
After 2 weeks of unstructured movement and eating, complete a 2 week supported liver detox. My 2 favorite liver detox kits are Biotics Research NutriClear Plus and Designs for Health Pure Paleo Cleanse. There are 3 reasons I’m a big fan of this:
1. It supports the liver to clear out excess toxins that are often burdening the body during the training year. I personally spend an ungodly amount of time in a chlorinated pool which is NOT good for you! If you apply loads of sunscreen to protect yourself from sun damage, consume processed foods during training or for regular meals and/or rely on caffeine to help you get going in the mornings or alcohol to help you relax at night, you should consider this too.
2. The protocol I use gives the digestive system a break from consuming so many calories. It does this by providing the supporting nutrients in the form of 2 shakes per day. This allows you to consume 1-2 healthy whole food meals + the 2 shakes and still feel nourished and satisfied.
3. It prepares you for the process of fat adaptation by decreasing your caloric intake without you feeling hungry all the time. One of the best ways to help your body start burning more fat is to eat less often. So instead of 3 meals and 2 snacks throughout the day (which many of us do with a pre and post workout snack/meal plus our regular meals), you would consume 2 shakes and 1 or 2 meals. If you follow these recommendations you will be helping your body transition to burning more endogenous fat as energy.

After the Detox

After the 2 week liver detox, slowly change your diet to be lower in carbs, moderate in protein and higher in fat. What exactly does that mean?

There are 3 ways I recommend this:

3-2-1
You can simply prepare 2-3 meals per day that include 3 cups of non-starchy vegetables, 2 tablespoons of healthy fat, and 1 serving (palm sized amount) of healthy protein.

Macro Tracking
You can open a free online food tracker (like MyFitnessPal) and set up the account to be 70% fat, 20% protein and 10% carbs. You may not settle on these exact macro ratios in the end, but I find that the majority of endurance athletes get the benefits of fat adaption when following these ratios for 6-8 weeks.

Ketone Testing
You can purchase any whole food keto book of your choice, follow the recommended recipes in the book and test your blood ketones to ensure your body is burning fat. Some of my favorite books are: The Ketogenic Bible by Jacob Wilson, The Keto Paleo Kitchen by Vivica Menegaz and The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance by Jeff Volek and Stephen Phinney.

Once you have changed your diet, ideally, you’d follow this style of whole food LCHF eating for 4-6 weeks. This allows your body to transition from prioritizing sugar as the main source of energy to being capable of tapping into your over 30,000 calories of stored body fat for energy.

What Happens After

I get it. If you’re not someone who already eats a lower carb diet, the idea of doing this may be intimidating. That is why I created The Keto RESET Program, a 6-module course that walks you through the entire process so that you can become fat adapted and experience more energy, better sleep, less cravings, and your desired body composition!

I am opening the doors to the program again later this month BUT you can get on the waitlist now by clicking HERE! By joining the waitlist, you’ll be the first to find out when the doors open AND you’ll snag an exclusive discount not offered anywhere else!

JOIN THE KETO RESET PROGRAM WAIT-LIST

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Stress: The Real Reason You're "Not in the Mood"

8/19/2020

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Ok, so last week I talked all about sleep, one of the 4 biological needs of a human. The others being food, water and mating (aka- sex).

This week, we’re talking about stress, which also means we’re talking about sex, because when you are too stressed out, guess what commonly happens...you lose your sex drive.

I hear it ALL THE TIME from athletes. “I’m too tired."

Yes, maybe. But you’re probably also releasing so much cortisol from training, working, balancing family needs, financial obligations and just life in general that your body can’t actually produce enough of the hormones that actually create a sex drive.

This is a problem because it’s one of the biological requirements for human survival! Not having a sex drive should be a big fat sign that something isn’t right. So let’s talk about it…

The Steroid Hormones

The steroid hormones are one classification of hormones that are secreted by the steroid glands: the adrenals, the testes, the ovaries, and the placenta during pregnancy.

Steroid hormones can be grouped into two classes: corticosteroids (typically made in the adrenal cortex) and sex steroids (typically made in the gonads or placenta). Within those two categories, there are five main steroid hormones secreted by these glands:

Androgens including testosterone and androstenedione
Estrogens including estrone, estradiol and estriol
Progestogens including progesterone
Mineralocorticoids including aldosterone
Glucocorticoids including cortisol

Steroid hormones are classified as fat-soluble and can pass through cell membranes, where they bind to their receptor site inside the cell wall (as opposed to water soluble hormones which bind to receptors on the cell wall). Being fat-soluble, it is no surprise that the building block required to create all steroid hormones is also a fat, which is cholesterol.

Approximately 75% of all cholesterol in the body is made within the body (mainly in the liver). The other 25% comes from diet.

When there is a growing demand for higher amounts of the steroid hormones, our liver can respond by producing more cholesterol. If the liver cannot keep up with the demand of cholesterol required to meet the need of all the steroid hormones, the body will be forced to choose which steroid hormones are more important than others.

Typically, this results in a phenomenon known as the “pregnenolone steal”.

Pregnenolone is considered the “master hormone,” and is used as a precursor for the creation of most of the steroid hormones. Cholesterol is used to create pregnenolone.

If enough pregnenolone is produced to meet all the demands of the steroid hormones, that pregnenolone will be used to create cortisol in the liver, estrogen and testosterone in the gonads, and aldosterone in the adrenals to act upon the kidneys.

In this case, hormones are balanced and you feel great! However, all too often, there is dysfunction in the steroid hormone production pathway. Oftentimes this imbalance is created from not enough of the hormones precursor (cholesterol) and/or too high of a demand for hormones (usually chronic cortisol aka high level of stress).

Our body was built to successfully manage acute bouts with stress. However, with the busy pace of our modern world, the stress response is often activated for extended periods.

With chronic stress that is often unmanaged, the cortisol pathway is prioritized and your body pushes all available pregnenolone to be used for cortisol production, since this is considered life or death.

This results in less pregnenolone being available for conversion to the sex hormones and aldosterone for electrolyte balance. The end result? High cholesterol, low/no sex drive and salt cravings!

Cortisol & Adrenaline

In psychological terms, stress is the reaction to something that threatens our physical or mental equilibrium. This means that it can come from a ferocious tiger threatening to eat us, an overdue credit card bill that we don’t have the funds available to pay, or exercise.

Genetically, our body is hard wired to deal with stressors in a way that is meant to protect us from things like predators and angry enemies. Historically, these types of threats were typically quick to come and quick to go.

Between threats, our body could unwind and had time to recover before another threat revealed itself. Today, most of us no longer have to worry about dangerous animals threatening to eat us, or our neighbors busting into our hut with a spear. Today’s threats are much different.

In the book The Adrenal Reset Diet author Alan Christianson says:

“within the last few decades our world has gotten more toxic, a lot noisier, and much faster pace. Our food has more sugar, less fiber, and many more chemicals. We spend less time in sunlight and we sleep less. We take more medications, feel less certain of our financial futures, and have fewer friends.”

Not only are all of these things causing increased stress, but the type of stress has turned from acute to chronic. This type of chronic stress has a completely different effect on our adrenal glands than acute stressors.

The adrenal glands are responsible for the production and output of our main stress hormones: cortisol and adrenaline. Neither of these hormones were intended to be in the system for the long term. These hormones help you survive immediate threats by raising your blood pressure and shunting blood to your working muscles and brain, so you can fight or flee.

In today’s world, where threats are not solved in a single afternoon, these hormones are working overtime to try to protect you. Meanwhile, your blood pressure remains high, your immune system is weakened, your digestive system slows down and does not work properly, your sleep is affected because you are wired (and exhausted), and your ability to learn decreases.

There is plenty of scientific evidence that shows how chronic stress plays a sizable role in mental illness and pathological physical states such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, obesity and immunosuppression. This is mostly due to the inflammatory nature of these two stress hormones.

Endurance Athletes & Stress

Endurance athletes are ESPECIALLY prone to this chronic stress state because many of us have the usual life stressors (financial obligations, family needs, work schedules to follow, etc) and then we tack on 10-15 hours (or sometimes more) per week of exercise.

Exercise is a stressor even though many of us use it as a “stress reliever” from regular life.

Our body doesn’t know if we’re running for fun, or running from a threat. We’re running... and that means we’re releasing hormones to help us do that...cortisol being one of them.

One of cortisol's main jobs is to release stored sugar from our liver into our blood so the muscles have the energy they need to fight or flee. It’s not a bad thing that this happens, it can just create a problem when it happens all the time.

For many athletes, the solution is a really hard pill to swallow. It’s called rest. The body needs down time to “restock” the cortisol reserves so next time you run, it can do its job!

So What Can You Do About It?

Currently, treatment for anxiety and depression involves mostly psychological and pharmacological interventions; however, mind-body interventions are becoming increasingly popular as a means to reduce stress.

A great place to start before jumping to supplements and/or medications is by actually managing your life's stressors. It has been suggested by many anthropologists that most ancient cultures spent equal or more time in the parasympathetic nervous system (“rest and digest”) than the sympathetic nervous system (“fight or flight”).

If you find yourself with a schedule packed with things to do from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed, racing thoughts of finances, to-do lists, life commitments constantly moving through your brain, lots of training days or you don’t have many moments to just sit down and do nothing…you are likely not balanced!

Taking a look at your schedule/life to find things that can be eliminated and/or places to make time for yourself to decompress from the GO!GO!GO! might be exactly what you need to reduce and or eliminate symptoms of imbalanced hormones.

Meditation is one of those activities that should be considered as part of your daily routine. Meditation is known to drive your autonomic nervous system from the sympathetic into the parasympathetic where body healing and repair can happen.

It is well known that the habit of meditation is best when done daily, rather than in large amounts a few times per week or month. In other words, 5 minutes every day is much better than 35 minutes one time per week. There are many books, blogs, podcasts and apps that you can access to help you get started.

Anything in your life that creates a chronic stress response can create an imbalance in the steroid hormone pathway. Many of these stressors are things that have become part of our normal day-to-day and therefore we don’t look at them as a stress anymore. But how does your autonomic nervous system feel about that?

Some of the areas to really explore when trying to reduce the stress load are:

lack of sleep, lack of sleep, lack of sleep!
exposure to toxins (chemicals, molds, etc)
nutrient poor diet (aka- too much processed food)
poor digestion, which creates a lack of nutrient absorption
Not enough physical activity
TOO MUCH physical activity
lack of social face-to-face interaction (hello COVID!)
guilt, grief, depression, anxiety, lack of self-esteem
increased financial obligations
illness
lack of sleep (did I already mention that?!?)

And the list goes on and on. If you lack a sex drive; crave sweets and salt; get dizzy when you stand up quickly; have achy joints or other body aches; have low blood pressure; suffer from mild depression; require stimulants to get moving in the morning or stay awake in the afternoon; or have been told that your cholesterol is high, these areas need to be explored.

Reducing the load on the adrenals and supporting your system with the proper nutrients can help balance your steroid hormones.

Testing

Testing is a tool that can be used to measure the health of your adrenal glands, especially if you feel unsure about your state of stress. Like all testing, it requires the financial ability to test and a knowledgeable practitioner to help you interpret and create a treatment plan with the results.

The gold standard in testing cortisol levels is with a salivary cortisol panel that captures 4 samples per day.

Since a healthy cortisol pattern is highest in the morning (that is what wakes us up) and lowest before bed, seeing cortisol levels throughout the day is important to know how well the adrenals are managing daily stressors.

Typically, you are able to see a cortisol pattern with test results that can result in 1 of 4 diagnosis:

Healthy Adrenal Function

Phase 1: Hyper-Cortisol This is the first sign that the body is not handling the stress load optimally. On test results, you see high levels of cortisol throughout the day. Symptoms are typically: anxiety, low immunity, restlessness and insomnia.

Phase 2: Resistance Response This phase is often called the “wired and tired” phase. Here, additional hormone irregularities are seen (especially with blood sugar, electrolyte imbalances and low sex hormones) which can lead to mood and sleep issues along with frequent energy crashes.

Phase 3: Hypo-Cortisol Often described as exhausted, at this phase people are typically feeling completely wiped out. Simple tasks become difficult, motivation across the board is lacking, and people are often described as being “tuned out.” Symptoms are typically: depression, chronic pain all over the body, low immunity and additional hormone imbalances.

Supplements

Using exogenous supplements and/or herbs to help your adrenals get additional support can be a helpful tool while you are reducing the chronic load on the adrenal glands (did you hear that...just taking a supplement and changing nothing about your life is not the answer to your excess stress).

It can not be emphasized enough that certain supplements can make your stress pattern worse if they are used incorrectly. If adding supplements to your daily routine to help ease mental stress and support healthy adrenal function is important to you, talk to a knowledgeable practitioner about your symptoms before starting a protocol.

With that said, some of the more common supplements used are:

LICORICE ROOT- For people who do not produce enough cortisol. It has been found to improve energy levels and help regulate cortisol levels.

CURCUMIN- a compound with antioxidant qualities found in turmeric. It has been found to enhance mood and reduce inflammation (especially in the brain). Note: Curcumin extracts are the most potent form of turmeric supplements that will give you the most curcumin compound. Concentrated extracts pack up to 95% curcumin, whereas turmeric in powder form usually contains around 3% curcuminoids.

PHOSPHATIDYLSERINE- a phospholipid found in cells that influence immune function and muscle metabolism. It has been found to help rebalance cortisol levels following exercise.

ASHWAGANDHA- an adaptogenic adrenal supplement. It has been found to improve resistance to stress along with decreasing depression and anxiety.

In Summary

The bottom line is that stressful events are facts of life, and not all stress is a bad thing. Learning ways to help manage the impact that chronic stressful events have on you is a critical piece to finding optimal health, especially if you feel like you cannot change your current situation.

In an athletes off-season, taking more down time can be critical to recovery. Pay attention to the signals your body is giving you as you take more time doing more relaxing activities (like paddleboarding, yoga, walking, etc) can help you learn where your balance point is.

One athlete may be completely fine doing 3-4 interval sessions per week, where another athlete may become completely exhausted doing that. You can learn to identify what triggers a stress response in you and how to take care of yourself physically and emotionally in the face of these stressful situations and the off-season is a perfect time to do that.

We call it recharging the battery and it’s important! So next time your body is screaming for a nap, listen. It’s okay to skip a few training sessions to allow your body to recover from life's chronic stressors. It doesn’t make you lazy...it makes you smart.

You’ll be surprised how much harder you can hit your next training session (or even your entire next season) when you learn how to find a better balance between your life’s stressors and relaxation!

REFERENCES:
1. Lowman, Amy Ancient Stress Response vs Modern Life October 23, 2016.
2. 5 Key Strategies and Best Supplements for Adrenal Support.

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Why Sleep Should Be a Part of Your Training Plan

8/12/2020

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Sleep- one of four biological needs (the others being: eating, drinking and mating). So important to our overall health that the Guinness World Records no longer recognizes this category because long term sleep deprivation has been shown on multiple occasions to pose serious and permanent health risks, both physically and mentally.

Take for example the infamous sleep deprivation experiment in 1959 by New York DJ Peter Tripp. He locked himself in a glass booth located in Time Square and made it 201 hours (8.4 days) before falling asleep (the last 66 hours he required stimulants to remain awake). On day 3, Tripp was found laughing hysterically at nothing, and following that day, he continued to hallucinate, reporting mice and kittens running around the room. By the end of the experiment, Tripp was convinced that he was no longer himself, but an impostor. After the experiment ended, Tripp’s family reported permanent changes to Tripp’s personality, including moodiness and depression.

Sleep has been shown to have a direct impact on overall health, lifespan, productivity, safety and ability to learn. Sleep is one of the top five reasons that patients visit a clinic for care every year and lack of sleep has been associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimers disease, and even cancer. Along with being an integral part of the recovery and adaptive process between bouts of exercise, accumulating evidence suggests that increased sleep duration and improved sleep quality in athletes are associated with improved performance and competitive success.

This week, we’re focused on sleep. Why? Because it’s something that everyone, especially athletes, tend to neglect when we get busy. We think that shortening our sleep by just one hour will help us get more done, and won’t really affect our health and/or performance. But will it? With COVID thrusting many athletes into an early off season, now is the PERFECT time to start working on finding YOUR perfect sleep routine. To convince you why this is so important, we’re going look at the physiology of sleep, but also the consequences of not getting enough quantity and quality sleep, how to get more (and better) sleep, what to do if your life isn’t set up for optimal sleep, and why prioritizing sleep is something you want to do right now to help your performance in the future!

The Science Behind the Circadian Rhythm

In order to optimize our sleep and wake cycle, we must understand our biological clock, also known as our circadian rhythm. Inside of the hypothalamus, deep inside our brain, lies a group of nerves called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). This group of nerves is made up of approximately 20,000 neurons and is responsible for generating neurotransmitters that regulate bodily functions, such as core body temperature, blood pressure, hormonal regulation, digestion, metabolism, brain wave activity, and arguably the most important feature of all, the sleep and wake cycle. The SCN regulates these bodily functions in a timely rhythm, known as our circadian rhythm. Every organism on the planet has been shown to have a circadian rhythm, including plants, bacteria, fungi and mammals. Across all of these organisms, scientists have found that specific genes (although different in each species) are responsible for establishing this biological rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a natural, internal clock that repeats itself in an approximately 24-hour cycle. Although it is established by genes and is internally driven, the circadian rhythm is influenced by the external environment, most specifically by light and temperature. It is thought that the circadian rhythm is established in species as an evolutionary selective advantage. The timely prediction of seasonal weather conditions, food availability, or predator activity is crucial for survival of many species. We most commonly see the circadian rhythm play out in nature among species who have regular migratory, hibernating, and reproductive patterns.

Since our circadian rhythm affects everything from our digestion and appetite, to blood pressure and sleep, a circadian rhythm disruption can have some serious consequences on recovery after exercise and overall health. A study on mice published in 2005 showed the health effects of mutations to a gene that aids in regulating the circadian rhythm in mice, known as Clock. In the study, Clock gene mutant mice were shown to have a greatly altered diurnal feeding rhythm, were excessively hungry, became obese, and developed many metabolic syndromes including hyperlipidemia (an abnormally high amount of fats in the blood) and hyperglycemia without proper insulin production (the hallmark of type 2 diabetes). These results indicate that the circadian Clock gene network plays an important role in mammalian energy balance that involves a number of central and peripheral tissues, and disruption of this network can lead to obesity and the metabolic syndrome in mice.

There are several studies that have looked at how a disrupted circadian rhythm can affect endurance performance, most of which have demonstrated that sleep deprivation inhibits performance. In a small study of 11 male subjects who completed a 30 minute self-paced treadmill test after a normal night sleep and again after 30 hours of sleep deprivation in a randomized order, the subjects distance covered was decreased after sleep deprivation, without differences in thermoregulatory function or oxygen consumption. Several other studies on endurance athletes have found a decrease in time to exhaustion along with an increased rate of perceived effort after just one night of reported poor quality sleep. Preexercise muscle glycogen stores have also been found to be decreased after sleep deprivation, suggesting an alteration in endogenous fuel availability that could translate into impaired performance in endurance sports.

With so much evidence leaning towards optimizing sleep to improve athletic performance and optimized health, there is no reason why learning more about how you can optimize your sleep routine shouldn’t be a focus of your off-season. The off-season is a perfect time to test different activities, methods, foods, workouts, etc to find what works best for your body. N=1 couldn’t be more true in this situation. For one person, eating dinner at 7pm may not affect their sleep whereas another person may not get into deep sleep if they eat after 5pm. Use the quality time you have WITHOUT a race on your calendar to fine tune your sleep routine.

The Sleep Cycle

Our sleep cycle is one of our many circadian rhythms. Our sleep cycles occur in approximately 90 minute cycles and consist of 2 major states: REM and non-REM. REM, standing for rapid eye movement, is the sleep phase where our brain waves are active and resemble similar brain waves as wakefulness. Non-REM, standing for non-rapid eye movement, is the phase of sleep measured by calm brain waves and little to no eye or muscle movements. These 2 states can be further broken down into 4 distinct and measurable phases:

Non-REM Stage 1
Starts at the onset of sleep and lasts for approximately 20 minutes. In stage 1, our heart rate slows down, our temperature begins to drop, and our brain transfers learned muscle memory into permanent memory. Stage 1 of Non-REM sleep is very light sleep and one can be easily woken in this stage.

Non-REM Stage 2
This is the transitional period between light and deep sleep.

Non-REM Stage 3
This stage is considered complete deep sleep. In stage 3, Delta brain waves are produced which help move blood to the muscles to initiate recovery and repair, the parasympathetic nervous system is stimulated which supports immune function, and human growth hormone is produced.

REM Stage 4
Stage 4 is considered REM sleep and the stage in which we dream. In stage 4, the hippocampus (part of the brain) transfers information to the neocortex and our memories are formed.

A full night of sleep is important because the stages are not divided equally throughout the night. In the early hours of sleep, the majority of our sleep is made up of non-REM sleep and very little REM sleep. In the second half of a night's sleep, our cycle shifts to be mostly REM sleep and less non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep is deeper and more restorative than lighter, dream-infused REM sleep. Additionally, the major period of human growth hormone release occurs during the first period of stage 3 non-REM sleep during the night, about an hour after you first fall asleep.

These are just some of the reasons that Dr. Matthew Walker, head of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, and other sleep experts say that sleeping from midnight until 8am is not the same thing as sleeping from 10pm-6am because the shift from non-REM to REM sleep happens at certain times of the night regardless of when you go to bed. If improved memory and tissue growth/repair isn’t enough of a reason to get to bed early, maybe learning more about the consequences of poor sleep will be.

Consequences of Poor Sleep

There are hundreds of studies that have been completed since the 1950’s to show the systemic consequences of poor sleep on humans (and other animals). Dr. Michael Twery, a sleep expert at NIH, states that “poor sleep affects growth and stress hormones, our immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure and cardiovascular health.”

Here are a few studies, which are reminders that things like blood sugar, weight, and memory are not affected from our diet alone!

Blood Sugar/Insulin Resistance

A study performed at the Leiden University Medical Center took 9 healthy individuals, with healthy blood sugar response, and restricted sleep for one night (subjects were allowed to sleep from 1am to 5am). The result was insulin resistance in multiple metabolic pathways in all subjects.

Data from large published studies, including: Sleep Heart Health Study; Finnish Type 2 Diabetes Study; Quebec Family study; Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; National Health Interview Study; and Isfahan Healthy Heart Program, have all demonstrated that middle-aged to elderly subjects with self-reported short sleep duration are approximately twice as likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and are at higher risk for impaired glucose tolerance.

Weight Gain

A 2004 study took 1,024 volunteers from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study, a population-based longitudinal study of sleep disorders, and looked at morning fasted blood samples for serum leptin and ghrelin (two key opposing hormones in appetite regulation), adiponectin, insulin, glucose, and lipid profile. Results showed that participants with sleep shorter than 8 hours per night had reduced leptin (the satiation hormone) and elevated ghrelin (the hunger hormone) as well as higher BMI.

Immunity

A study published in 2009 took 153 healthy men and women and had them report on sleep duration and sleep efficiency for 14 days. Subsequently, participants were quarantined, administered nasal drops containing a rhinovirus, and monitored for the development of a clinical cold for 6 days. Results showed poorer sleep efficiency and shorter sleep duration in the weeks preceding exposure to a rhinovirus were associated with lower resistance to illness.

Death

A study published by the University of Bristol which examined working men and women looked for the associations between sleep duration, cardiovascular disease risk factors and mortality, while also taking into account the perceived stress of the individuals. The findings: the men and women who reported sleeping fewer than 7 hours in a 24 hour period had greater risk of dying from any cause over a 25 year period than those who reported sleeping 7-8 hours in a 24 hour period.

9 Foundations of Sleep

To optimize your performance, health, productivity, lifespan, safety and ability to learn, not only do you need to get regular sleep, but that sleep needs to be quality sleep.

To ensure the right quantity and quality of sleep, there are some sleep foundations you should follow:

Follow a sleep schedule. Every single night at the same time, you should start a series of actions that should stay the same from night to night. The sun setting can be a good trigger to start this routine in the winter, however, in the summer when days are long, setting a standing alarm can help remind you that it’s time to finish eating, put on your blue light blocking glasses, turn off all screens and start winding down.

Eat a diet that promotes quality sleep at the right times.

Eat a dinner full of melatonin rich foods, such as: tart black cherries, almonds, walnuts, corn, rice and ginger root.
Avoid caffeine, including chocolate after 12pm
Avoid alcohol before bed
Avoid large meals and beverages 2 hours before bedtime

Avoid intense exercise 2-3 hours before bedtime. If your fasted morning blood sugar is higher than ideal, choose 20-30 minutes of a relaxing activity before bed, like gentle walking.

Get your daily dose of natural sunlight for a minimum of 30 minutes per day. If you work in front of a computer all day and wear blue light blocking glasses, make sure you take them off periodically throughout the day and allow your eyeballs to see the natural sunlight. If you can not get out into the natural sun, consider morning exposure to artificial light for at least 1 hour.

Only nap before 3pm.

Schedule time for relaxation for at least 20 minutes before bed. Espom salt baths, foot soaks, reading and meditation are all great options.

Create a bedroom that is most conducive for proper sleep.

Avoid electronics in the bedroom
Create complete darkness
The general suggested temperature for an ideal night's sleep is between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit.
Invest in comfortable and non-toxic clothing, pillow, mattress and linens.

Avoid medications that cause stimulation before bed. Some examples of these medications are hypertension, allergy, and thyroid medications. Consult with your doctor about options for taking these medications at earlier times of day in order to optimize your ability to sleep.

Don’t stay in bed if you haven’t fallen asleep after 30 minutes. Instead, move to another room and do something relaxing, like read a paperback book. Avoid jumping onto your phone to check social media, emails or play games. Once you start to feel tired again, move back into bed.

If you are consistently following the 9 sleep foundations above, and are still experiencing constant fatigue and irritability during the day after getting 7-9 hours of sleep, waking up several times during the night, staying awake for more than an hour without being capable of falling back to sleep, or taking longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, it might be time to seek out a sleep specialist for help.

Helpful Tools for a Good Night's Sleep

There are several tools that can help you assess your quality and quantity of sleep, along with helping you learn more about why it’s so important.

For more info on the topic of sleep, I love Matthew Walkers book, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. He also did a really great podcast with one of my favorite doctors, Dr. Peter Attia which you can find HERE.

If you think you’re getting enough quality sleep, but aren’t quite sure, definitely look into getting an Oura Ring. The Oura Ring is exactly that, a ring that you wear every day and every night that tracks everything from heart rate, body temperature, HRV, sleep cycles and more. Oura interprets these signals while you sleep so you can wake up to the insights you need to take on the day. With the data, you are empowered to understand and define your health on your terms, based on your personalized data. I have personally been using an Oura ring now for over a month and have already been surprised at how small changes to my evening routine have had a profound effect on my deep and REM sleep (and therefore my recovery).

Temperature has a pretty pronounced effect on your sleep cycles. If you share your room and/or household with someone who doesn’t love the bedroom between 60-67F, consider getting a Chili Pad. This pad lives between your mattress and your sheet and can help control the temperature on your side of the bed. You can even set the temperature to increase in the early morning hours to wake you up peacefully. Say goodbye to the BEEP BEEP BEEP alarm. That’s a terrible way to wake up!

In Summary

I get it, we’re all busy. But in a time when training doesn’t have to be our tip top priority, doesn’t it make sense to focus on a few other things that can help make you a healthier human being?

By taking the time now (while you have it), to learn more about what helps you get better sleep (which translates into better performance) you can apply your own best practices when it matters most.

Sure, eating dinner at 5pm may not be your reality year around, but if you find that eating early unlocks more deep and REM sleep, don’t you want to make that a priority during your hard training weeks and leading into your future events?

Now’s the time to start playing and tracking some metrics. If you can’t afford a trackable device like an Oura ring, start a journal.

Change 1 thing for 7 days in a row and see if you notice a difference in how you feel the next day in regards to your energy, recovery, mood and hunger levels. You might be surprised how small changes can have a big impact on your health and performance!

RESOURCES:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-009-1103-9
https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2011/07000/Intermittent_Sprint_Performance_and_Muscle.22.aspx
Mesarwi, Polak, Jun and Polotsky, Sleep disorders and the developments of insulin resistance and obesity. Endocrinology Metab Clin North Am. 2013 Sep; 42(3): 617-634
Taheri S, et al. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index, 2004
Cohen S, et al. Sleep habits and susceptibility to the common cold, 2009
Heslop P, et al. Sleep duration and mortality: the effect of short or long sleep duration on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in working men and women, 2002

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HOW STRENGTH TRAINING CAN HELP YOU AS AN ENDURANCE ATHLETE

8/5/2020

1 Comment

While the goal(s) for many endurance athletes change over the course of their career, for many age groupers who train and compete “for fun,” it usually starts off with a health goal.

“I want to fit into my skinny jeans again.”

“I want to feel stronger.”

“My doctor told me I need to be more active.”

“I want to be able to play with my grandkids when I’m 90+ years old.”

Whatever your initial reason was for starting, most of us continue to participate in our favorite sport because we have fallen in love with the feeling we have doing it, and hopefully, it makes us a healthier, happier version of ourselves!

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, many of us became event driven. My circle of training friends had a running joke for years that you never completed an event without having already signed up for at least one other (usually it was like 3-4 other events). This is completely fine to be motivated by races on the schedule, however, let’s not lose sight of why we do all of this. With most of the races being wiped off the calendar in 2020, it’s a fantastic opportunity to reframe your lens and refocus on why you are an athlete.

There's More to Life Than Training!

I’ve been a nutrition coach to endurance athletes since 2014 and more recently in 2017 expanded my coaching services to start providing training plans as well. It’s been a great combo for my athletes because, let’s face it, reaching your performance goals isn’t just about checking boxes on a training plan.

It involves many other aspects of your life like nutrition, sleep, recovery, strength, mobility, relationships, and so much more.

But the reality is we ALL only have 24 hours in a day. And despite what you may be trying to convince yourself of, we ALL need 7-9 hours of sleep each night. That means that when we get into the thick of training, in order to thrive in one area (our athletic goals), oftentimes other areas are neglected.

In the peak of an ironman training block, I can guarantee you’re giving up time with your non-triathlon friends or family members to get in the long days of training. Hopefully you’re not sacrificing sleep, but some athletes do.

With loads of swimming, biking and running on the schedule, family dinners are often sacrificed for strength training and mobility sessions. This is all fine and dandy for a period of time, but at some point, balance has to be achieved.

Keep focusing on swimming, biking and running and neglecting your strength and mobility (especially as an aging athlete), I can guarantee your risk of injury goes up! Same thing for athletes who only have friends within their training circle. What happens when you get hurt and you can’t join your friends for runs anymore? Your social life disappears? No! We need to have people in our lives who understand, love and support our efforts as endurance athletes, but DO NOT like to play our game.

The Most Common Areas of Neglect

With COVID thrusting us into a year with less or maybe even NO events on the calendar, it is a PERFECT time to focus on some of the areas of our training that we tend to neglect when we are training for events.

The most common areas of neglect I have seen over the years with endurance athletes are:

Strength and mobility
Sleep
Stress-management
Nutrition

This month, I’m giving my tips on how to use this time to be productive to improve your health and wellness and avoid taking massive steps backwards!

You do these sports because you want to be healthier, right?! Throwing in the towel because your events have all been canceled is most definitely NOT my advice. Sure, take some time off if you haven’t done that already but then use this time to optimize your health and athleticism so you can come back in 2021 (or whenever we’re getting back to racing) a better version of yourself.

Honestly, do you really want to start all over again?

Strength & Mobility

This week, I’m focusing on strength and mobility. Why? Because it is the biggest weakness I see with endurance athletes.

Majority of our resiliency is terrible. It seems like every time I hear about someone taking a training break due to an injury, it’s from some regular daily life event, like lifting a grand kid, or trying to get up off the floor, or my favorite from last week was driving a boat.

Seriously people...we are supposed to be “fit.” And if you want your fitness to apply beyond the moments in your life where you are doing your specific sport, you have to be strong and mobile!

During the season, most of us are afraid of taking what limited time we have for training away from our specific sport and using it for strength training. But with no specific race on the calendar, now is the perfect time to focus on strength and mobility.

Areas like the core, glutes and hamstrings (the posterior chain), lower back, and upper body seem to be “weak spots” for most endurance athletes. By replacing 3-4 workouts each week with a strength training session, athletes can see a significant improvement in power and resiliency when they get back to pre-season training next season.

Easy Workouts You Can Do at Home

I recommend making time for 4 workouts per week. With each workout, the focus is pull, push, deadlift and squat.

To make things easier for you, here are 4 workouts (1 in each category) that you can try:

PUSH

Dumbbell Bench Press 4x10 with 90 seconds rest between sets
Superset: Dumbbell Lateral Raises 3x12 - Tricep Dips- Max Effort (no more than 15)*
Core

Rest 2 minutes between supersets
*If 15 is easy, add weight to your lap or put on a weight vest to make it more challenging.

PULL

Single Arm Dumbbell Bent Over Rows on a Bench 4x10 with 90 seconds rest between sets
Superset: Dumbbell Bent Over Reverse Fly 3x15 - Max Effort Pulls Ups (no more than 15)*
Core

Rest 2 minutes between supersets
*If 15 is easy, add weight by putting on a weight vest or adding weight around your waist with a weight belt.

DEADLIFT

Single Leg Dumbbell/Kettlebell Deadlift- 4x8 each leg with 90 seconds rest between sets
Superset: Weighted Glute Bridge Ups- 3x15 - Weighted Toe Raises- 3x15 - Banded Lateral Monster Walks- 3x20 each direction
Core

Rest 2 minutes between supersets

SQUAT

Dumbbell Front Squat- 4x8 with 90 seconds rest between sets
Superset: Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Walking Lunges- 3x10 each leg- Squat Jumps- 3x10
Core

Rest 2 minutes between superset

You Don't Have to Do This Alone!

I get that doing these movements for most endurance athletes can be awkward at first. And the fear of getting hurt picking up weights definitely exists (it’s the thing I hear the most from athletes when I ask why they don’t do strength training).

So if any of these movements make you uncomfortable or you’d prefer to have someone with training in strength training watch you do it, then you should find a professional to help you!

So many personal trainers have been forced to become creative during this unusual time when many gyms are closed. I have distance clients who are using the strength training programs that I personally have created for them and hired personal trainers in their home town to meet them at an outdoor park and walk them through it.

There are also tons of personal trainers and coaches (including myself) who have their clients video themselves doing a movement and send it to them for critique. Honestly, you don’t have to be face to face with a trainer or coach to get help with strength training. So no more excuses. Start picking up heavy shit and become a better athlete!

Obviously as a coach I’m a huge believer in following a structured program (both for endurance training, strength training, AND nutrition). It is the best way to optimize health and your future performance.

Don't Look Back on 2020 and Wish You Did Something Differently

If you don’t have a structured program and you are floundering around without an event on the calendar, reach out to me for a free discovery call so we can see if working together is right for you.

If it’s not, I can still help point you in the right direction so you feel like you used your “off time” in 2020 wisely and don’t look back at this time in 2021 and wish you had done something different.

“I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance.” -Unknown

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Meal Planning Tips​

Batch Cooking for a Sugar Detox​

Easy Recipes to Meal Plan for your Sugar Detox​

Balanced vs Imbalanced Blood Sugar​

Sugar Goes By Many Names​

Making Breakfast Sugar Free​

Coming Up Next​

Holiday Survival Tips​

In Summary​

THE LEAD UP...

RACE DAY

THE SWIM

THE BIKE

THE RUN

THE FINISH

MY CGM DATA FROM THE RACE

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS & FUN PICS

Tip #1 - Get off the roads and onto the trail​

Tip #2 - Take your watch off and run for the fun of it!​

Tip #3 - Join a trail running group or sign up for a trail race in the early spring​

Tip #4 - Run to the Music.​

In Summary​

​THE PROS AND CONS

​TRACKING ISN’T ALWAYS THE BEST IDEA

​GETTING STARTED WITH TRACKING YOUR FOOD

MACRONUTRIENT RATIOS​

​IIFYM: NOT ALWAYS THE BEST IDEA

DAILY GOALS VS. TRAINING/RACE GOALS​

WHAT DO I DO IF TRACKING IS TOO MUCH FOR ME?​

​IN SUMMARY

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE TRULY HYDRATED

THE SALTY REALITY FOR ENDURANCE ATHLETES

MEETING YOUR SODIUM NEED

A HOMEMADE ELECTROLYTE RECIPE TO TRY

MY PERSONAL ELECTROLYTE PLAN

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

ORDER PREMADE KETO MEALS​

FOLLOW A MEAL PLAN

FOLLOW THE 3-2-1 RULE

IN SUMMARY

Race Report

Pre-Race

Travel

Race Day!

The Swim

The Bike

The Run

Nutrition

Final Race Thoughts...

Post Race R&R!

FRIDAY, APRIL 30(1 day out from race day)

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2021Race Day!

THE SWIM1.2 miles in Sand Hallow Reservoir

THE BIKE56 miles with 3.162' of elevation gain

THE RUN13.1 miles with 1,267' of elevation gain

FINAL TIME- 05:50.3829th out of 115 athletes in the 40-44 age group185th out of 704 females

Post Race...

What do all of the labels really mean?​

Let’s compare​

The Environmental Argument​

How to Find Grass-fed, Pastured Meat​

Some final thoughts...​

image from chiliPAD

Turkey​

Stuffing​

Mashed Potatoes​

Gravy​

Cranberries​

Vegetable Side Dishes​

Dessert​

LIFESTYLE​

Supplements​

Whole Foods​

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. -Peter Drucker

GENERAL BLOOD MARKERS

BLOOD SUGAR

BODY COMPOSITION

SLEEP

STRESS

PHYSICAL FITNESS

Meal Planning Tips

Batch Cooking for a Sugar Detox

Easy Recipes to Meal Plan for your Sugar Detox

Balanced vs Imbalanced Blood Sugar

Sugar Goes By Many Names

Making Breakfast Sugar Free

Coming Up Next

Holiday Survival Tips

In Summary

Tip #1 - Get off the roads and onto the trail

Tip #2 - Take your watch off and run for the fun of it!

Tip #3 - Join a trail running group
or sign up for a trail race in the early spring

Tip #4 - Run to the Music.

In Summary

THE PROS AND CONS

TRACKING ISN’T ALWAYS THE BEST IDEA

GETTING STARTED WITH TRACKING YOUR FOOD

MACRONUTRIENT RATIOS

IIFYM: NOT ALWAYS THE BEST IDEA

DAILY GOALS VS. TRAINING/RACE GOALS

WHAT DO I DO IF TRACKING IS TOO MUCH FOR ME?

IN SUMMARY

ORDER PREMADE KETO MEALS

FRIDAY, APRIL 30
(1 day out from race day)

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2021
Race Day!

THE SWIM
1.2 miles in Sand Hallow Reservoir

THE BIKE
56 miles with 3.162' of elevation gain

THE RUN
13.1 miles with 1,267' of elevation gain

FINAL TIME- 05:50.38
29th out of 115 athletes in the 40-44 age group
185th out of 704 females

What do all of the labels really mean?

Let’s compare

The Environmental Argument

How to Find Grass-fed, Pastured Meat

Some final thoughts...

Turkey

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Cranberries

Vegetable Side Dishes

Dessert

LIFESTYLE

Supplements

Whole Foods

Using Non-Caloric Sweeteners

Stress

Sleep

In Summary

We Eat a LOT of Sugar

You Don't Have to be Overweight to Develop Diabetes

Basic Physiology

How Blood Sugar SHOULD Work

How Blood Sugar Can GO WRONG

Complications from Blood Sugar Dysregulation

Identifying Sugar

Reading Labels

Monitoring Your Blood Sugar

Coming Up Next

Fat Adaptation

The longer you give yourself to get fat-adapted, the more benefits you’ll see when you get back to training and racing.

After the Detox

What Happens After

The Steroid Hormones

Cortisol & Adrenaline

Endurance Athletes & Stress

So What Can You Do About It?

Testing

Supplements

The Science Behind the Circadian Rhythm

The Sleep Cycle

Consequences of Poor Sleep

9 Foundations of Sleep

Helpful Tools for a Good Night's Sleep

In Summary

There's More to Life Than Training!

The Most Common Areas of Neglect

Strength & Mobility