Running to Think

Drinking is the most important aspect of nutrition. We all know that. I usually do not drink anything that differs from water or tea and coffee. But during the day, especially when I need proper hydration or, while at work, I actually love to have something to sip next to me.
I found an "insanely" natural beverage here in Belgium, almost by accident. It's called Belixir and it is produced locally by Christian and Stephen near Brussels.
These two guys follow traditional processes to make such an amazing drink.
Have a look at their website and read precious info about what it is and how it is produced.

I just tried Belixir in its two flavors, Eucalyptus and Lavender and I confirm that it is such a refreshing drink, due to some extremely healthy ingredients such as lemon and ginger. This last one actually gives that nice spicy flavor that is at times fresh and hot.

However, the most important characteristic of Belixir is the fact that there are no sugars added. Not even those that are supposed to be "sugars without sugar" like stevia or aspartame. Guess what makes Belixir also sweet? Honey, of course!

It has been a while since my last post. A lot happened in my life. I changed job, moving from academia to industry, finished the renovation of my house, found some time to go on holiday, also lost motivation to run long distance for a while.
But I never stopped completely.
There was some kind of innate mechanism in my brain that was forcing me to put some shoes on and run, almost every day.
However, I reduced the weekly mileage from the usual 110 km to barely 70. Still OK to keep up the shape.

I feel that things are getting better now. Motivation is slowly coming back. Even though motivation is not the only one ingredient to achieve a goal, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, today I want to start writing again about my running adventures, and I want to start in an unusual way. That is sharing a recipe of a super tasty and well presented dish I made myself, after Halloween.
Spoiler alert: it made my girl really happy to see such a beautiful dish, even more so with one candle on the table and a glass of good red wine.

The recipe I created literally from scratch is called "Fusilloni with pumpkin, mushrooms and leek". Delicious!

The recipe is, as usual, for two people, as I prefer to have dinner with Caroline.

Ingredients:
300 gr of pumpkin
150 gr of white mushrooms
1 white leek
1 red onion
200 gr fusilloni pasta
salt, persil, black pepper

Procedure
Chop the pumpkin in large pieces and soften in hot water for 10 minutes.
Chop leek, onion and mushrooms and brown off in a pan with one table spoon of olive oil.
Then add the pumpkin and add half a glass of water to keep it wet enough to steam. If it gets dry, keep a lid on.
Boil fusilloni pasta and 2 minutes before they get ready add them to the pan with the pumpkin.
Finish cooking the pasta in the pan.

Serve as in the figure below.



Buon appetito!

As some of you know, I set my next race to May 17, Trail de la Lesse. A 50 km trail run nearby Liege in Belgium. One more time to "feel the hill", pumping lactate around the blood stream. One more time to feel alive.

Who are they?

When two belgian sport fanatics, get a break from their daily crossfit session, something good happens. Here is their vision: without proper nutrition you cannot even get close to your maximal performance. Eating healthy should be a way of living and the way to respect your body. Hence their attempt to engineer sport bars, such that it would be easy to carry and provide the correct amount of carbs, proteins and fat for your workout. Being healthy should be that easy!

What is PRIMAL Nutrition?

The bars that I am talking about are capable of satisfying your body with the primal nutrition needs that are required before and after workout, or just for your own reasons to stay healthy.

They are made 100% of natural ingredients such as the honey, grass-fed whey, dry prunes and dark chocolate. There is science in each of those, namely the Paleo and Zone diet, famous within the world of Crossfit. 

The Paleo Diet consists in eating just like we used to, back in the past... way back in the past. If a caveman could not eat it, why should you?

With this, I mean anything that could be hunted or found in the nature. Sorry, pasta, cereal, and candy are not included. 

The Zone diet is basically about learning how to put together perfectly balanced meals that promote maximum health, wellness, and performance. As a CrossFitter you should look at Zone as how much you eat. When following the zone diet every meal you eat is 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fat. You also eat a certain number of “blocks” based on how much lean body mass (muscle) you have.

Back to the bars, there are two sizes and one flavor. One as a energy bar (± 150 kcal) the other one as a full power bar or meal (±300 kcal).

The verdict

I chose the medium bars as a snack between breakfast and lunch. This kept me away from snacking around and gave me the energy I needed. I chose the larger bars as my lunch, even thought I have to admit that I needed some time to get used to it in substitution of my regular pasta or salad.

No worries, though. Getting used to it, is easier than you think.

The taste is really good, for those who have a sweet tooth. I could feel the difference with industrial bars which are usually smaller and contain less nutritional values.

The packaging, is simple, as healthy food should be. The fact that you can always see the bar from the package is reassuring. For those following the Zone diet, it is possible to read how many blocks of each nutrient (carbs, protein, fat) are there in the bar.

Overall it is a sport bar that can be used by everyone.

The large bar costs 5 euro while the medium one costs 3 euro.

Want to get some? Order PRIMAL Nutrition at their website

I wish those gentlemen lots of success, believing that passion for healthy food leads to great and tasty things.

Caroline

It has been a while, I know. We've been quite detached from the mainstream, from the blog, email, news, twitter... Even away from people. But we did it for a good cause.
We are familiar with awkward mixes with our training schedules, food and beverage.
Mixing our skills, however, has gone even further, providing us with fresh ideas that only needed to be realised.

When a man loves a woman, says a famous song, can't keep his mind on nothing else.
That is so true and it also applies to us. When an engineer, who is used to run the long distance meets a sport addict and nutrition expert, who is used to coach people and spend hours at the gym, the mix is even more powerful and awkward. And amazing!!

Dear friends, it's with extreme pleasure that I hereby introduce you our sister website iamsofit.com. I know you will think that it's just another website.
Nothing more wrong than that.

iamsofit.com is a project we are finalising, to provide sport and nutrition in a new flavor, with new tools, concepts, strategies and schedules. All of this in a personalised way!
Are you familiar of those gyms in which you get the same plan of your overweight cousin who barely knows what a kettlebell is? Forget about it.

Don't let me say more.

Get a free subscription and stay in touch. It is free!

Click iamsofit.com/subscribe to get news from us very soon.

Just the time to warm up the engine and get a test drive.
Then we are ready to run.
Fast.

Stay fit!

Hi folks,
I hope you enjoyed the holidays with your dear ones, moments to cherish fully. I wish you the best for the years that come. May this year be filled with love, family, health and ofcourse physical activity!

I spent my holiday abroad. Francesco and I planned to go to his hometown Molfetta, in Southern Italy. I got in contact with his culture, his family, their habits, and their food. Food so delicious that I literally lost my character and determination to say no, once in a while. Do you want to know how this ended up? With a weight gain, of course.



A brief analysis of the aforementioned gain is reported below.

1. Eating more - caloric intake counting is math. No magics. 
2. Eating different types of food, more fried stuff, more cheese, pizza, pasta, etc.
3. Skipping breakfast due to the fact that I had enough from the day before - which basically slows down one's metabolism
4. Drink some more alcohol than I usually do (or well, don't)
5. No gym at my disposal to burn some calories 

I address these 5 points as responsible of my weight gain. Of course, my determination to change my condition as soon as possible is back. Here is my plan for the next two weeks.
Feel free to adopt my strategy to improve your condition after holiday.

1. Drink a lot of cold water
2. Eat 5 times a day (every 2 -3 hours), of course in smaller amounts
3. Eat carbs only for breakfast and lunch
4. Prepare healthy juices and smoothies with no added sugar
5. Eat more proteins
6. Avoid snacks such as chocolate, candies, ice cream, cookies and the like
7. Hit the gym 4-5 times a week to perform some interval as cardio and weight lifting in order to sculpt the body

This will help us to find the normal weight again. A bit more motivation and dedication are needed especially at the beginning. Don't give up because it will worth! Just be patient for next 14 days.

In addition, here is a delicious, light and easy-to-make recipe that can contribute to your weight loss.

 Time to make: 5 min preparation + 12 min boiling the wheat = 17 min

 Ingredients:

1. Roquette
2. 100g Roquefort cheese
3. 75g of wheat (type Ebly)
4. 1/2 green apple
5. 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6. salt/pepper

Hi friends,
today I want you to introduce a fantastic sport to you. It's called CrossFit. Crossfit has been founded by Greg Glassman and Lauren Jenai back in 2000. It is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes, worldwide. Promoted as both a physical exercise philosophy and a competitive fitness sport, CrossFit workouts incorporate elements from high-intensity interval training, olympic weightlifting, plyometrics, powerlifting, gymnastics, calisthenics, strongman and other exercises.

Why you should give CrossFit a chance?

I did several sports in my life such as dancing and tennis, running and fitness. With CrossFit I could find all I am familiar with: group mentality, competition, cardio, strength. Moreover, I can do it where ever and whenever I want. The fun part of CrossFit is that all workouts are short and very intensive. You can find the Workout Of the Day, WOD, on the official website. You can also find videos, explanations of movements, articles, competitions and much  much more. 
I got in touch with it several months ago. The fitness I work at recently started a training room, called the box, in the jargon of CrossFit. It took me one workout to be part of it. 
I basically loved it! As a Crossfit fan, I have assisted to a competition in Nivelles (Walloon Brabant) organised by the Belgium fitness league. It was quite inspiring and motivating.

Here is a video which summarised the WOD. Don't get discouraged. These girls are athletes and practice hours and hours per week. 

Let me give you one tip: never load too much weight at first. But try to do every movement with the correct technique. Only when you feel you master it, don't hesitate to push it up. 

World champions CrossFit 2014 

With the hope to inspire you I feel like throwing yet another observations: it is not a guy-only sport. Girls can kick asses too, believe me!
Maybe i see you around for a WOD ;)

Love,
Caroline

Hi my measuring freaks,
if there is anyone who does not like to measure her or his own progress, please raise your hand. Thing is that you get a boost when you have the feeling to be close to your target. And that, my friends, can happen only if you can measure it.

The easiest  and most well know method is measuring your weight with a scale. The cheap ones that you find in supermarkets are in my opinion not very accurate. Once you get a decent one there is a way to define your ideal weight by measuring your height and use the formula for BMI (body mass index) = weight / height². A healthy BMI should be in the range 18-25 but of course this number should be taken with care because it doesn't take into account body composition. Namely, a fat person can have the same BMI than a body builder.

Below you can find a BMI chart, provided you would like to know if you are in the green zone:

Table 1: BMI chart

More accurate scales for medical usage such as those that you can find in pharmacies like wellnescentra and fitnesscentra can do a great job. One brand I suggest is Tanita.
It uses BIA (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis) technology, which sends a safe, low-level electrical signal from footplate and hand electrodes through the body. BIA is quickly calculated and it is also non-invasive. This is considered one of the most reliable ways to measure body composition, even clinically comparable to DEXA (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) and hydrostatic (underwater) weighing. These methods usually return your weight, fat percentage, fat mass, fat free mass, total body water, muscle mass, bone mass to provide a very complete profile of your body. 

Those scales are also quite expensive, one more reason to keep reading.
If you can have access to one of those scales in your city or gym, fine. Otherwise you can use other cheaper techniques which go under the term of kinathropometry.

Kinanthropometry is an emerging scientific specialization concerned with the application of measurement to appraise human size, shape, proportion, composition, maturation and gross function. It is a basic discipline for problem-solving in matters related to growth, exercise, performance and of course nutrition.


The measuring tools you need are:
1) a scale
2) a calibre (to measure skinfolds)
3) a measuring tape

Figure 2: Calibre

Figure 3: Skinfolds to measure

You got all, now what? What should you measure, where, how and what formula should you use?

Let's get busy.

Biometry

They are a lot of things you can measure such as height, weight, the circumference of the upper arm, waist, hip, calf, thigh and some other stuff but those are not really important. The skinfolds can be measured with a calibre.
In Figure 3 you can see the correct places that you should measure. Measure each twice or more to make sure you did it well, then take the average of those measurements.

Body Density (BD)

The measures at hand will allow you to calculate your fat percentage. There are 3 different formulae to do that. I will explain the two ones that I consider as the most accurate. These formulae adapt quite well according to your age, gender and the amount of skinfolds you measured.

1) Jackson- Pollock (3 site skinfold formula)

2) Durnin - Womersley (age 20-29)

Fat Percentage

Dear ladies (and gentlemen),
we all know how hard the battle of losing weight is and our attempts to shape the body to what we consider ideal. Big thighs, flappy bellies, hanging arms... all things we don't like and we wish to change by means of exercises specifically designed to destroy that garbage (and us), sometimes in concert with a well-balanced diet. 
To begin with, we claim to target a certain body shape. Bad news is that genetics will dictate the uncontrollable. Good news is that we do have the power to change a few things that might actually contribute to our overall satisfaction. 
Today I want to be more specific and show you different types of bodies that we usually have to deal with. I'm sure you already heard about hourglass shape, apple shape and so on. 


But what you want is probably some technicality. And there you are the categories (somatotypes) into which we are most likely:

Endomorphs – “fat retainers”
Mesomorphs – “athletic”
Ectomorphs – “skinny”




Actually i have some kind of bad news. One thing we cannot do is choosing where we want to loose weight. Detect and target a specific spot to be reduced. Just fiction.
Remember how the layers of an onion are? For most people, fat acts exactly like that. It doesn’t just disappear from a specific place, but rather it comes off layer by layer from the whole body. However, some people have localised areas where fat loss (and of course gain) is more pronounced, and while fat is still shed from all over the body, the loss is proportionately different in different areas. 

What I experienced was a mix of both the conditions. When I am losing weight, that occurs everywhere with more emphasis on thighs and breast. Exactly! My breast!! 
A nightmare for every woman. 
Why does that happen? Well, during the initial stages of weight loss, women tend to lose fat in their breast, which is mainly fat tissue, indeed. Those with the shape of a pear tend to carry excessive body fat in their buttocks, hips and thighs as well. 
So, what can we do to prevent this terrifying situation? 
Not so many people know that the most important thing for those women to do is to keep their cardiovascular (cardio) activity to a minimum. Specifically to a level that reaps health benefits without excessive loss of fat, while emphasising resistance (weight) training in the effort to increase the size of the muscles that lie underneath the breasts.
While it is not guaranteed to keep the fat of the breast, your breast can very well be perked up by strengthening the main muscle group of the chest supporting them. Think of the pectoralis major and minor.
What I personally suggest is phrased in a kind of motto "eating clean, training dirty", especially those area's you don't really like of yourself. Then try to accept the body you have. I know it's not easy but, at the end everyone is unique and beautiful in his/her own way.
My body changed when i started to eat clean.  But let me be honest here: we live only once so have that piece of chocolate staring at you, on the desk, begging you to bite it, once in a while. 
After all, that will cost you 3-4 times/week of cardio and strengthening exercises.



Love,
Caroline

Long story short: everything, just in the right amount

CARBOHYDRATES

Most endurance athletes and coaches know how important it is to maintain the body's carbohydrate (glycogen) stores. They are also aware that, despite the fact that the depletion of glycogen may be delayed to a degree, by consuming carbs during activity, the body's stock capacity can only provide enough energy for about 90 to 180 minutes before fatigue sets in. 
It is when these stores are exhausted that runners 'hit the wall', cyclists 'bonk' and everybody is doomed to slow down. Some even to quit.

It comes without saying that prolonged exercise forces athletes to get the energy they need from additional sources. The basic rule is to load low glycemic index carbs 3 or 4 days before the race (will digest slowly) and high glycemic carbs during the race so that the body can absorb fast and efficiently.
Here is a table that you better remember by heart.

When?	How much?	Why?
3-4 hours before	2-4 g/kg bodyweight  = ± 210g = 840 Kcal	·   Liver glycogen will be filled ·   Blood sugar will be maintained ·   No hunger feeling
1 hour before	1-2 g/kg bodyweight = ± 140g = 560 Kcal	·   Keep the glycogen reserves high
During	0,7 g/kg bodyweight every hour of sport in intervals of 15-20 min = ± 49g =196Kcal/ hour è 50 kcal every 15 min NB: You can go until 70-75 g/hour = 280- 300 kcal / hour è 70- 75 kcal every 15 min	·   Keep blood sugar high ·   Increase carbohydrate oxidation ·   Delaying fatigue
Recovery (until 2 hours after race)	1,1-1,2g/kg bodyweight (preference for high GI) = ± 84 g = 336 kcal	·   Recover the blood sugar value ·   Resynthesis of muscle glycogen ·   Restore muscle tissue

Main sources:  Whole grain, apples, bananas, peaches, asparagus, carrots, rice milk, lentils, just to name a few.

PROTEINS

Proteins alone do not provide energy unless glycogen and fat are depleted and like fat, they can slow down your metabolism. You will typically get enough protein for race day if you eat high quality proteins, such as whey, egg whites, milk, soy, as part of your daily intake. Small amounts of protein during a race may reduce muscle damage. Recovery, however, requires protein. The recommended ratio is of 3 carbs to 1 protein.

Main sources:  Eggs, meat, fish, chicken, cheese, beans... But you probably don't want to go for meat ;)

FATS

Another good source of energy during exercise is fat. Fat has several advantages over carbohydrates. As a matter of fact, it yields over twice as much energy as carbohydrate (9 kcal v 4 kcal). Add the fact that our body is usually loaded with a good supply of fat and you get a consistent amount of calories and energy. Typically, the body has approximately 50-60.000 kcal of energy stored as fat compared to about 1500 kcal of glycogen. 
One of the effects of endurance training is to make the body a more efficient fat burning machine. Fat is not the enemy, if your body knows how to deal with it.
However, despite the abundant store of this substrate, it is not totally clear where the fat used in exercise comes from. Most fat in the body is stored in the form of triglycerides in adipose tissue. Some fat, known as intramuscular triglyceride, is stored directly within the muscle fibres. It is now believed that the greater utilisation of fat by trained endurance athletes comes from this source. This has a very important implication, because the amount of energy which can be derived from intramuscular triglyceride is thought to amount to only 2000-3000 kcal.

Depletion of the intramuscular triglyceride stores is now thought to limit endurance performance in much the same way as glycogen depletion. It has been shown that the replenishment of glycogen stores alone is not enough to restore maximum work capacity. Therefore, it may be just as important to restore, or strive to spare, the body's intramuscular triglyceride. 

Although fats are vital for physical activity, most individuals have enough body fat stored for energy during prolonged workouts. 
However, increasing the fat intake will only lead to less consumption of carbohydrates impeding glycogen stores (glycogen being the immediate source of fuel for physical activity). Moreover, fats have the tendency to slow down metabolism in general. Consider fats as a reserve tank of fuel, but keep them to a minimum during training and racing (20-30%).

Main sources:  Fatty fish such as salmon, nuts, cheese, avocado, …

Last but not least (and not to forget)

1.    Fibers: prevent gastrointestinal distress, they are difficult to digest, especially during high intensity training. Avoid whole grains and fruits with skin. In general, keep fibers to a minimum, at least on race day.

2.    Maintain proper fluid balance. This is vital for an optimal performance

Have a nice race!

The period in which I don't run due to an injury is usually dedicated to, well... eating. I love eating. More specifically I love to spend time in the kitchen and experiment new recipes or just make those I remember from my mum, when I was living in southern Italy. Today I want to write about one italian recipe that is easy to make, healthy and really delicious. It's called "zucchine ripiene" which literally means "stuffed courgette".
You can stuff courgettes with many things such as rice, meat, tomato sauce, fish etcetera etcetera. Since we are vegetarians here I will stuff them with vegetables of course. This is my attempt to "genetically" modify a courgette and fill it with aubergines :)

So go to the market, the second place I spend more time after the kitchen, and buy yourself some round courgettes. Boil them for 5 minutes just to soften them a bit and chop the top without throwing it away. Then empty them with a tea spoon. Keep the flesh and blend it with some salt and pepper and 1 egg.



In the mean time prepare the aubergine, chop it and pan-fry it with some olive oil, red onion, some mushrooms. Add salt, cumin and pepper.



Here is the flesh of the courgette in the blender with the egg and salt and pepper. Add a slice of toasted bread if it appears too juicy.



Mix the aubergine with the cream obtained from the flesh of the courgettes and mix with a spoon. This will be the new flesh of our "enhanced" courgettes.


Stuff the courgettes with the mix and place them into the oven at 230 C for about 30 minutes. Only in the last 5 minutes add some cheese on top and you can leave the hat on ;)

Bon appétit!