Off Season Fuel Efficiency
With the holidays rapidly approaching, you worry about weight gain as you take a break from your normal training routine. You can prevent unnecessary weight gain during the off season by improving your metabolic efficiency during this time.
Metabolic efficiency is the body’s ability to use certain nutrients at certain times. When you increase the intensity of your training, the body uses less fat and more carbohydrate for fuel. This is known as crossover. During the off season maintaining a high carbohydrate diet while training less can lead to detrimental body fat gain. It is important to maintain your weight within 10% during the off season.
While carbs are essential, so are protein and fats. Consuming too much of any of them during the off season can lead to metabolic inefficiencies. Eating a combination of foods and you will retain dietary equilibrium. You can become more metabolic efficient by making some off season dietary changes.
First, your diet should consist of lean protein, with a small amount of healthy fat like Omega-3 fats. Second you should eat large portions of fruits and vegetables and lastly add whole grains to comprise no more that 1/4 of your plate. Focus on food colors, the more vibrant hues you put on your plate, greens, reds, oranges, purple and yellows the better. Eat less browns, whites, beiges, and pale yellow carbs.
Secondly, decrease your normal carb intake. Consider putting away your bars, gels and drinks until after you start your base training. Your body needs a break from high energy, high carb products during this time. This will force your to fill your plate with healthy high protein and fat from whole food sources.
Third, strive to eat healthy proteins and fats 80 to 90% of the time to help decrease off season weight gain. 10 to 20% of time you can take a break and indulge. This helps prevent feelings of failure when you choose poor food choices which are inevitable at this time of the year.
Nutrition requires the same level of focus and attention as training and can take weeks or months to change your behavior. So make healthy choices and be ready to start the new year as a better, more metabolic efficient athlete.
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Boost your endurance with EPO-BOOST™ and you’ll run faster and farther, we guarantee it!
Ch ch ch Chia? Endurance and Chia?
Yum… chia is yummy. No, you do not have to smear Chia on your head and water yourself every day to get the benefits of Chia. Chia seeds are one of the most powerful nutritional superfoods in the world.
Chia has been used by the Indians in the southwest and Mexico as a staple food. It is known as the running food, as it is known to be a high-energy, endurance food. It was believed that ancient Aztec warriors subsisted on Chia seeds during their conquests.
The southwestern Indians would eat as little as a teaspoon full when going on a full day run. Indians running form the Colorado River to the California coast to trade their wares would only bring the Chia seeds for their nourishment.
Chia is a super-hydrater and helps with electrolyte balance. The soluble fiber also know as hydrophilic colloids, massively retains water which keeps you hydrated and helps maintain electrolyte balance.
If you mix a spoonful of Chia in a glass of water and leave it for approximately 30 minutes or so, the seeds and water will become an almost solid gelatin. This gel-forming reaction is due to the soluble fiber in the Chia. Researches have found that this same gel-forming phenomenon takes place in the stomach when food containing these gummy fibers, known as mucilages, are eaten. When the gel is ingested, carbohydrates conversion into sugar slows. Chia seeds provide long lasting energy that brings with it stamina and endurance and at the same time gives you a quick boost of energy.
Chia seed is also known to stabilize blood sugar, improve mental focus, provide protein and essential fatty acids, build lean muscle mass, and many other effects on a persons overall health. Endurance athletes can benefit from adding this little seed to your diet. There are many good Internet sources for the seed and some really good deals if you look around. You may want to add this to your list of endurance supplements along with EpoBoost, an all natural endurance supplement.
You can sprinkle ground or whole chia seeds on cereal, yogurt, or salads; eat a handful of whole seeds as a snack; or grind them up and mix with flour when making muffins or other baked goods. We like to take a two cup container add water , 1/3 chia seeds and stir and in 15 minutes you have chia gel. We just consume a 3 tablespoons a 2-3 times a day. Some people like to add it to juice.
Let us know how you are using Chia and what results you are having?
How Safe is Your Water Bottle?
The FDA suggests that polycarbonate plastic bottles are safe, but many scientists disagree. It is safe to say that plastics are not the safest compound that it was once thought to be. Plastics release harmful chemicals when scratched or heated. The most common chemical is Bisphenol A (BPA). The is a long list of health disorders associated with BPA including development and reproductive abnormalities, altered growth rates, early puberty in girls,reduced sperm count, altered functions in reproductive organs in both sexes, altered behaviors, higher rates of cancer, and neurological disorders. Although BPA is only lethal at very high doses, increasing evidence suggests that it can disrupt key body functions at very low doses, and builds up in our bodies over time with each exposure.
Bottled water is harmful to the environment, your health and your wallet. As convenient as they are, they are by far the most durable pollutants on the planet. As they break down into smaller and smaller parts, they get into the food and water systems and effects can be seen in fish and animals ingesting these toxic pollutants. BPA has been shown to leach out into bottled water and individuals refilling their water bottles increase the leaching process and hazard to their body.
The only safe water bottles are made of glass, yet they are inconvenient, breakable and heavy. Aluminum and stainless steel bottles are two other alternatives. There is some concern over the liners in the aluminum bottles and whether they leach BPA into the water. Stainless steel may be an excellent alternative. They are less harmful to the environment, recyclable and do not alter the taste of the water.
So for now the recommendation is stainless steel as the best choice for water bottles in athletes.
How safe is your water bottle? Let us know what you are using? Are you a cyclist? What kind of water system is safe?
Definition of insanity
Have you ever heard that saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”? I believe it was Albert Einstein that said it.
The same goes for your training. If you are doing the same workout routine day in and day out, all you are going to do is peak, and never go any farther. You have to add different workout routines to achieve nicely chiseled physique.
You should have a separate routine for each day that you work out, or even just rotate your routines.
Of course, you have to also consider what type of foods you are consuming. The athlete who fuels his body with twinkies and snickers will never get as far as the athlete who chooses wholesome and natural nutrients to fuel his or her muscles.
Flying through the air.
Shantessa Pama (USA) doing a jam on the uneven bars © 2008 Steve Lange
Have you ever been watching the Olympics or a Gymnastics invitational and see one of the gymnasts take to the uneven bars, and just seem to effortlessly fly through the air? Without notice, they will then catch one of the bars, and fly in the opposite direction. I don’t know about you, but I am simply in awe every single time.
What makes these athletes so different from us average human beings? Are they lighter than air? Do they have springs in their feet? Maybe they have rubberized joints? No, the difference between Olympic gymnasts and the rest of us, is simple determination. They see their goal, which is of course, the gold medal, and that is all they think about for years.
These athletes have to have such incredible endurance, you know they are practicing eating habits that enable endurance nutrition, and when diet alone isn’t enough, they will get endurance support via nutritional supplements. Only the best, all natural products will make the grade for these elite athletes. Rest assured that Epo-Boost is one such product! Made of all natural ingredients, Epo-boost can help you get to where your dreams are taking you, even to that gold medal.
Carbohydrate Use in Marathon Running
There are people out there who like to say that running isn’t a sport. That it can be a part of other sports, but not a sport on its own.
Oh, if they only knew the half of it!
Running, whether it be sprinting, or cross-country marathons is most definitely one of the most difficult non-contact sports in existence. The perseverance and focus that is required tops almost every other game, since the goal is not to defeat another team or person, but really, to defeat yourself. One way to help in your marathon training is to learn to right forms of energy that you need and at the right time.
Something that your body severely requires during marathon running are carbohydrates. Loading up on these little energy boosters definitely gives that extra mile to your endurance and stamina. Your body will take carbohydrates and store them as glycogen, using the heart and liver. It can be quickly broken down by during any high intensity exercise or sport in order to fuel those burning muscles.
With the intake of carbohydrates prior to your run, but not on a heavy stomach, you can avoid the ill-fated hypoglycemia and fatigue. Of course, you should avoid taking in any carbohydrates during the actual marathon, as this will mess with your blood-sugar levels and make you have to stop your running early.
Try to eat those “right” kinds of carbohydrates when training for a marathon, and avoid giving yourself an upset stomach by balancing the protein and vitamin intake as well. Running is certainly a sport, especially in the marathon form, and learning to load up on carbohydrates is only the beginning of the science that is involved!
Visit www.epoboost.com to learn more about how you can improve your endurance, speed and strength. You have nothing to lose with our 90 day money-back guarantee.
Boost your endurance with EPO-BOOST™ and you’ll run faster and farther, we guarantee it!
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