Energy Bits

Firstly, be warned that this post comes from an over tired, nursing student, training for a marathon, coaching and working . I basically exist on homemade shakes, decaf coffee (I quit caffeine 2 years ago - for better or worse?), homemade sourdough bread (from my amazing bread guy & friend Owen) and lots of butter.

With that as a preface, I have spent the last month trying out Energy Bits during my various workouts. I am the worst marathon athlete in training. I don't have time to give my training plan the time it really deserves, but few things make me happier than running. It's the real reason I coach biathlon and do dry-land training and drive my husband crazy with the amount of running shoes I buy. It's my therapy, and for that everyone needs fuel. 

I digress; I spent the last month testing out Energy Bits. They are an awesome company, based out of Boston, and were wonderful enough to offer me a some of samples in exchange for feedback on their product. As someone who has tried every type of gel and block and training supplement, I was overall mostly happy with the Bits. 

I have to say as someone with a background in science I was initially very skeptical over a zero carb option for running energy. Normally I take gels, which consists mainly of easily broken down sugars and caffeine. The downside of gels are the havoc they wreak on my GI system (you try downing 20 to 40mg of caffeine and 25g of carbs every 45 mins!!). Gels are definitely high in energy, but they certainly don't come without side effects. The lack of side effects was my favourite part of Energy Bits! I used them on speed workouts, hill workouts and three distance runs (25+km) and definitely didn't feel any of the exhaustion that comes with improper fueling! I also didn't have any of the typical GI discomfort I frequently get with many gels. After a ton of research in scientific journals (I learned a lot too!) I found that although Spirulina (the only ingredient in Energy Bits) doesn't actually provide energy directly, it allows for energy in your body to be available for use, which is why you don't get the sugar spikes and crashes associated with many sugar based supplements. They also boast being full of protein & tons of other essential nutrients which makes them a great nutritional supplement even if you don't find them effective as a training tool. One thing I found about Energy Bits was that if I was lacking energy it took a long time for them to kick in (so for those long end of the week workouts I definitely needed a carb kick too). I assume this is because my body was on a micro-scale at a nutritional deficit. 

The biggest drawback of Energy Bits was actually swallowing them. I had no problem taking them pre-run and pre-race, but taking them, on the fly, while running at race pace would be a huge challenge for me. I'm someone who is super sensitive to tastes and smells (which is usually heightened when I'm running flat out) and I gagged an awful lot trying to down 30+ tablets during a workout or race. To be completely fair, I also gag when trying to take gels on course as well. Part of the problem with Bits was the amount of water I take during a race, which is quite minimal. I don't normally slow enough to take enough water needed to swallow the equivalent number of Bits required to keep me going. In the case of a race I felt like a gel that would give me later GI discomfort was well worth the time I would save over trying to swallow Bits. At the advice of Catharine Arston, the delightful founder and CEO of Energy Bits, I tried chewing them as well. They taste awful, but it did cut down on the amount of water needed to swallow 30 tabs. 

Overall, my Eval is that I loved the Energy Bits for training, but struggled to use them in a race. I found they provided me with great energy for shorter workouts, but I think to gain full benefit during long training or racing runs I'd need to be taking them more frequently in order to ensure that I maintained a bioavailable energy level. I would hesitate to use them in a race because I don't know how I would actually be able to take the required number of Bits to keep me going, but will certainly continue to use them as one of my sources of energy for training! Maybe I'll try them out on some shorter races this fall, I plan on running a 5-8km trail series, which would probably be the perfect distance to pre-fuel with Bits! 

Finding My Jam - November Project

When I started this blog two and a half years ago, I was in search of developing healthier eating habits, and trying to get back into shape after gaining a bunch of weight during my first degree. I was preparing to have surgery for torn ligaments in my leg, and running 5km made me feel exhausted. The idea of running a marathon to me was laughable. After surgery I decided to try and get serious about running. I didn't have any friends that were into running, so I spent a lot of time trying to motivate myself to go running. I ran my first half marathon 1 year exactly after having leg surgery, and to my delight, finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes. After that race I couldn't walk for about a week, and contemplated if I actually was crazy for undertaking something as crazy as running 21.1km for fun.

Fast forward to August 2013. I was still trying very hard to keep running, but school was busy, work was busy and I still hadn't found any friends that were into running. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep myself motivated for another winter of running alone. Almost as if on cue I found the perfect solution; November Project (NP). The idea behind NP is simple. Two guys from Boston struggled to stay motivated to keep active over the winter, decided to form an exercise support group and force one another to exercise (you can read the full story here). The beautiful part was that a Canadian Tribe had just been formed, thanks to the recent trade of Andrew Ference (who had been involved with the Boston tribe) from the Boston Bruins to the Edmonton Oilers. So one Friday morning, I got up at 5am, laced up my Asics and stepped way outside my comfort zone and jogged solo over to my very first November Project Canada workout.

At the time I had no idea that I would find so much more than just some people to help keep me active through the winter. Over the last 11 months I've developed amazing running habits, found pleasure in pushing myself running hundreds of sets of stairs, and also become part of an amazing community. November Project is more than the #FreeFitness it touts on Twitter it is a group of like minded people who are crazy and funny and wonderful. It takes that to wake yourself up and be at a workout by 6am three days a week.

If I had never found the courage to lace up my runners and trudge (solo!!) over to run hills with a bunch of people I had never met I really don't know where I would be right now. I certainly never would have trained for or run my first marathon, I definitely would not have signed up for a second marathon and I absolutely would not have Boston Marathon firmly tacked on my bucket list. I also would not have amazing friends to share sweaty hugs with, or to eat oversized bowls of ice cream with (we just went running after all!).

Over the past year that I've spent with November Project Canada I've had the opportunity to meet amazing people, find wonderful training partners, taste the most delicious bread and continue to work on overhauling my lifestyle. My husband thinks I'm a bit crazy, but at the same time says he impressed that some random running thing I heard about on Twitter could change me from a stay-up-late-night-owl-kind-of-person to a wake-up-early-basically-every-morning-to-workout-kind-of-person. I have to say, I'm a bit surprised myself! The first few weeks were definitely a struggle, but a November Project Lifestyle has become my new lifestyle, one which I am incredibly thankful for! 

Eating for Fitness: Key Nutrition & Recovery Smoothie

I recently ran my first marathon, and training for that taught me an awful lot about food and eating! I originally started this blog as a way to share recipes I was using when trying to get back into shape and lose some weight. In the almost two years since I launched my blog my priorities have definitely changed! I was hoping to get in good enough shape to have a decent 5k time, and here I am a year and a half later running what my husband calls crazy-person distances.

One thing I had to begin to adapt to when running longer distances was actually eating a lot more food. Initially I continued tracking my daily intakes, just to make sure I still wasn't over eating, but the more I ran the more I realized I still needed to track what I was eating, but for a completely different reason. I found I wasn't eating enough food on days where I put in 2 or more workouts, or was out running for 3 to 4 hours.

Any time you're exercising nutrition is incredibly important, especially when you're pushing your body to extremes such as with running a marathon or training for one. I often found when I would get home from a really long run I had very little appetite, despite the fact that I know I've burned upwards of 2000 calories. It becomes a bit of a battle with myself, the logic part of the brain saying "EAT!!!" and the other part wanting nothing to do with it. What I've found to be helpful is having a recovery smoothie. This way I can help replenish electrolytes, and fluids as well as get in some calories quickly. It almost like tricking yourself into eating.

There are a ton of commercial "recovery drinks" available, many are full of artificial sugar, artificial colours, flavours and ingredients no one can pronounce. Why not go natural and fill your body with natural replenishers instead? It might take a bit more prep work, but in the end its worth it in my mind!

A few things to consider about your post-workout replenishing:

1) You need salt (aka electrolytes)! So many health conscious people avoid salt and try to do low sodium products (I know I'm one of them!) but this is one time not to skip. Salt doesn't just mean table salt (sodium), but other essential minerals like potassium, calcium and magnesium. All of these electrolytes work together in your body and are all lost through sweat.

• bananas
• kiwi
• cherries
• beans

2) You need sugar! Maybe skip the refined white sugar, but there are plenty of ways to get good sugars in! Fruit is high in natural unrefined sugars, like fructose, which is easy for your body to absorb and gives your body relatively quick energy. Sugar is stored in our muscles as glycogen, but when exercise is lengthy or strenuous, our bodies use up our glycogen stores. Eating some sugars (the healthy kind!) right after a workout helps our bodies to replenish these stores so our muscles don't fatigue as much and so we're ready to go for next time!

• berries
• citrus
• pineapple
• sweet potato/pumpkin
• fruits with pits (apricot, peach, plum, mango)

3) You need protein! Protein is a great way to get in some longer term energy and to help our muscles build. Sore muscles are actually a sign of teeny-tiny micro damage to our muscles (don't worry, this is how they grow!) and they need proteins (and amino acids) to repair themselves. Protein doesn't mean you have to go out and buy whey protein powder or puree a steak, it just means being creative about where you find your sources of protein! Your body also uses minerals like iron to help absorb protein & make muscles grow.

• greens (spinach, kale)
• yogourt & whey (the liquid part on top of yogourt)
• nuts (or almond milk)
• chickpeas

4) You need fluid! Right after a workout your body is probably dehydrated. Very few people actually drink enough fluid during exercise to account for what is lost. But don't dismay, you don't have to stay dehydrated! Sugar & electrolytes will help your body absorb fluid more readily, so make sure your smoothie has some ice or juice or liquid too!

• coconut 
• milk (chocolate, soy, almond)
• whey (from homemade yogourt)

Diet Foods

It's the new year, which makes it the time if year that people are trying their hearts out to keep to their New Years resolutions. I too am working in getting back to healthy (I'm fairly certain I are my own weight in gingerbread cookies over the holidays). I know that over the holidays I didn't run as much as I should have, and I definitely are too much on several occasions and I also had wine way more often than I normally do. 

A super common "trick" that first time dieters, or people who are unfamiliar with nutrition tend to do is eat a lot of "diet food". The 100 calorie snack packs, fat free yogourt, tons if products marked "light". Some of those products are okay, some are terrible. The problem with simply trying to switch to diet food, is that it doesn't really involve changing how you feel about food and health, it's simply a crutch. 

One of the biggest problems with diet food is that despite being sugar free, they actually precipitate our desire for more. Diet foods (like yogourt, granola bars, juices, soda) are full of artificial sweeteners, which actually make us crave sugar more. Artificial sweeteners simply fool our taste buds, not our brains into satisfying a sugar craving. When the body naturally has sugar, dopamine (the reward hormone) gets released from the pleasure centre in the brain. When people stick to diet foods, the body continues to build up a craving for sugars, which makes the craving more intense and makes people more likely to succumb to a larger craving. A happy medium is the have natural sugars (like fresh fruits) in moderation. Top plain yogourt with fresh fruit instead of opting for diet yogourt and you'll be better off! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Years! I hope that this coming year brings health and most of all happiness to everyone! 2013 has been an incredible year for me! I went back to school, started running more seriously, and managed to find time to eat even healthier this year! 2013 was a year about maintaining lifestyle changes and focusing on what was important to me and my family! I'm excited for what 2014 will bring, including a bunch of running races (including my very first FULL marathon), graduating from school and continuing to focus on a healthy, happy me!

New Years often brings a slew of resolutions, many of which people fail to stick with. I found a few studies that said less than 10% of people actually stick with their resolutions! And to be honest, it isn't surprising. Waiting until the new year to put into action plans you've been meaning to get around to is a terrible way to do things. Why not just start the day you decide you want to make a change? I've been trying to convince a few friends of mine to join November Project  (which I'll explain shortly) with me, and they have all said "I'll think about it in the new year, that's when I'm going to focus on losing weight". Well, why not just start today?

The problem with waiting until you make a New Years Resolution is two fold. Firstly, you're putting something off until an arbitrary date, hoping it will bring you more success, and secondly you're wasting valuable time waiting until the next year to begin. What I like to do rather than wait, and create a resolution, is keep an ongoing bucket list

All of that being said, if you made New Years Resolutions this year, stick with them! Be part of that 8% that keeps their goals! See my post from last year about setting SMART Goals to help get you started and keep you on track! Figure out what works for you and what keeps you motivated. A goal should be about yourself, not about others, and not about comparing yourself to others.

One more tidbit...rather than setting a New Years Resolution, consider a 2014 "Bucket List". I usually keep one each year, and add to it when I find a new goal I want to achieve. I find this to be a more fluid way of keeping track of my goals!

Lets see what an amazing year 2014 can be!