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!