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Low Carb High Fats and Running

31 May

I’ve been running since 2001, and even before then I exercised. Exercise and diet have always been very important to me.  For many years I have eaten healthily and run a lot but yet I have always felt that has never been representative in how I look. I even remember when on a business trip – being at the hotel gym with my boss and he said “You’re running pretty fast on that treadmill for someone your size!” I remember wanting to jump off the treadmill and give him a piece of my mind – but I smiled sweetly and carried on running.

Could carbohydrates and sugar be the issue??

I had lots of tests a few months ago and everything appeared normal, but my husband and I were convinced that sugar and carbohydrate might be playing an issue as I seemed to have more issues when eating carbs and also sugar. My husband tested the theory out and went on lower carb eating regime and lost a lot of weight and suggested maybe I could try to see if it helped cutting out most carbs – but as a runner I never contemplated giving up my carbs as – how would I get the energy to run!?!?

Low Carbohydrate High Fat 

Whilst I was contemplating how to really get my weight sorted once and for all we started to read about a Low Carbohydrate High Fat lifestyle – the benefits of it, and also how many many athletes run on it today and have outperformed their high carbohydrate training days.

The facts seem to be pretty much a no brainer in the sense that low fat high carbohydrate diets are not the way to go and since the seventies when the the food pyramid  was changed to incorporate more grains – there has definitely been a correlation between the rise in diabetes, alzheimer’s and high carbohydrate diets.  LCHF diets are now recommended for diabetics, dementia patients and also epilepsy patients*.

I decided I needed help so a few months ago I enlisted the help of a nutritionist who was pro fat adaption and low carb, but I found  they ended up being in disagreement with what I wanted to do so I turned to The Real Meal Revolution which I found out about thanks to our friend Google. Run by Professor Tim Noakes the program (and there is a great book too) is a 5 week program coaching you in how to follow a LCHF lifestyle – with not only recipes and carb counters – but a forum and videos too – so for $56 I snapped it up and am went through the program and lost a good deal of weight as well as feeling great. My daily diet now consists of eating less than 25g of carbs a day. I’m sure for some people that would be shocking and ‘wrong’ but I feel great and am managing to run on that also.

Stepping up the training

running the park run

It wasn’t my usual pace on the Park run but I pushed hard considering I didn’t have many carbs and was still fat adapting.

I lay low on my training for a couple of weeks to get used to it and to fat adapt (get my body used to burning fat rather than glycogen) – I picked things up a week or so ago and I ran a parkrun and a 13.5k trail run with no aching afterwards! I had a cup of coffee and 3 tbsp of cream (I don’t like the recommended bullet proof coffee recipe of coconut oil and butter – makes me gag) before training as my breakfast and managed to push on parkrun and up and down the trails – I was quite amazed.

I’ve met a few people on this journey that run on LCHF and it’s really encouraging to see how well they have done so that’s my post for today. I know that for many people they believe in high carb diets as runners – but this is what I do and it’s working for me 🙂 Anyway watch this space, and if you see the words LCHF pop in my blog posts I am referring to Low Carb High Fat and the way I eat.

Bye for now 🙂

*please note that I am not a doctor or a practitioner in nutrition – this is purely based on experience, opinion and books I have read. Please always consult an expert or medical practitioner before embarking on any new diet or regime. 

Further Reading 

Some great books that my husband and I have read around LCHF and carboydrates – these are NOT affiliate links.

Gary Taubes – Why We Get fat 

Tim Noakes – Real Meal Revolution

David Perlmutter – Grain Brain

William Davis – Wheat Belly 

 

 

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Harvest Box Snack packs – great idea for a healthy post gym snack ! @harvestbox

9 Sep

I’ve been trying to stop eating rubbish in the last week or so as I have been probably eating more than I should now that baby is on the outside not the inside! I bought myself a protein bar thinking that would be better for me and I couldn’t finish it. It’s funny I used to eat a lot of protein bars and powder but since having my baby I can’t seem to stomach them so I have been looking for something a bit more natural and healthy to snack on.

I hadn’t heard of Harvest Box and was recently sent some samples so the timing was perfect. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I find nuts a bit boring to be honest. I cook with them but don’t really enjoy eating them too much as they are a bit bland – but that’s me.

So when I was sent some Harvest Box samples I was in snack heaven as they are nuts along with dried fruits and some even have chocolate in! At a weight of 40g a bag even if you buy the ones with chocolate in it is hardly like having a bar of chocolate so it’s a guilt free snack! My favourite were the Yo Cherry bags which have dried cherries, yogurt balls and hazelnuts in – yum. The We Love nuts bags are nice too and they are just Cashews, Brazil Nuts, Almonds and Peanuts – better for if you don’t want the sugar from the dried fruit. I carried a bag around with me and ate after each gym session – there is just enough in the bag to be a decent snack size.

No sooner had I tried them that I noticed them in Coles so you can buy the snack packs for $2.50 a packet  and there is a good variety to choose from.

harvestbox

So many flavours – these are just a few! My favourite was Yo Cherry – sooo good!

The great thing I discovered about Harvest Box was that they have a whole other side to their nut business – you can order nuts online and it actually works out cheaper that way too according to the prices on their website.

I find nuts quite expensive here in Australia and so I thought this was a really good idea at a really good price – $7.95 – and according to their website you get the first box half price!

Basically you choose 4 portions of mixed nuts, dried fruits and other healthy snacks that float your boat and they are delivered straight to your door free.  What a great idea! I’m thinking of getting some delivered on a weekly basis to help me stop snacking on not so good things!

Anyway I just wanted to share these with you in case you haven’t seen them as it’s a great idea and natural too.

 

 

 

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Awesome granola recipe

3 Mar

I’ve been going a bit stir crazy as I have not been able to train at my normal level lately and then to top it all I had a minor procedure last week so haven’t been able to do anything bar walking – hoping to get back to training next week.

Image

This is half the recipe that I used as I din’t have enough baking trays so just halved it. I didn’t have cranberries so just used a few raisins

In the mean time I got up yesterday and looked out of the window and it was pouring down with rain – perfect time to bake – I decided to make some granola. Found a great recipe online on All Recipes.com which I thought I would share as it turned out really well. I’ll be be using it to go on top of my fruit and yogurt that I have for breakfast in the morning drizzled with a tiny bit of honey. I’m having to hide it from my husband though as he likes things like that on their own with milk and it will go down in no time!

This would also make a great pre race/training meal to try out. Got any other granola recipes or variations? do let me know as I get bored of the same thing quickly for breakfast!

Have a great weekend!

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Product Review – unbelievably delicious @bodyscience cookies and cream protein balls

27 Nov

For those of you following my blog for a while you’ll know I like my protein balls 🙂 The last ones I reviewed were yummy but my friend recently introduced me to the Body Science Hydroxyburn lo carb balls – the cookies and cream flavour and they are soooo good. She was hooked on them as their flavour of choice and I have to say I am a convert. I now carry a bag around with me wherever I go and when I get the munchies and need chocolate I have one of those instead.
cookies and crEAM lo carb balls bodyscience They aren’t in the traditional Body Science Body for Women range as I don’t think they are quite as slimline calorie wise  but for me – a lot of the protein bars out there taste so artificial I gag when I try to eat them so I’d rather carry something around that tastes reasonable and the calorie level is still lower than chocolate and other snacks and ultimately stops me from snacking on naughty food all the time

The snacks come in a 70g bag and they are described as fat burners and lipotropics (Lipotropics according to Wiki – Lipotropic compounds are those that help catalyse the breakdown of fat during metabolism in the body.), vitamin and mineral booster and great taste (I can agree with that!).

The serving size is one bag but there is no way I could eat one bag in one go, nor would I recommend it especially if you are looking to keep your calorie intake down – but for the whole bag there are:

  • 1130 kilojoules
  • 25g protein
  • 9.4g fat 193g sodium

You can see more details on the product page on the website. The range also has a chocolate honeycomb flavour – I haven’t tried them but it’s an option for any chocolate lovers out there!

Enjoy!

 

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Product review: Slim Secrets Low Carb Fit Balls @slimsecretssnax

16 Oct

It’s product review time again 🙂

Mint Fit Balls This time I decided to try the new Slim Secrets Low Carb Fit Balls.

I had previously tried one of their berry flavoured products a long time and wasn’t too keen on it – but I guess it comes down to the flavour and we all like different things, and I previously tried a bar – these were balls so quite different consistency wise.

I had the Choc Mint Chip flavour to try and I have to say they are delicious! It was almost as good as eating real chocolate and portion wise you get about 5 so that was a good number for me to munch on throughout the day.

The balls are low sugar, wheat free and they also contain chia which according to The Chia co is a superfood and the highest plant based source of omega 3.

For the number crunchers out there a 50g serving of balls contains:

741kj (177 calories)

16.0g protein

5.8g fat

1.9g carbohydrate

I’ve seen the Slim Secrets range in Coles, Woolworths and IGA so if you want to try them you can get them at any major supermarket by the looks of it.

So I’d definitely eat these again and would describe them as light and refreshing and good to eat on the go rather than chocolate.

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Cookbook Review : LivWise by Olivia Newton John

23 Jun

I love cooking from scratch and cooking healthy food. I like the idea of knowing what’s in what i am eating so I have a big range of cookbooks. A lot of them I have only used once but a good number have become my staples in the kitchen.

Livwise I recently got the LivWise cookbook which was produced by Olivia Newton in collaboration with some of her recipes and some of her chefs recipes at the Gaia Resort that she owns. I have always ummmmed and ahhhhed at celebrity cookbooks as a lot of them just use a ghost writer and put their name to the book, but I know she leads a very healthy life and is a strong believer in you are what you eat.

The other thing I liked was that all of her royalties from the sale of the book go to her Cancer foundation which she set up after having had breast cancer.

The recipes I have to say are amazing. I’ve cooked a number of them now and have loved every single one of them. Some of the ingredients are not on the cheap end of the scale in terms of buying things like Agar Agar and Agave Syrup but I’ve loved every minute of finding out about new foods that I didn’t know existed and enjoying eating food that is good for me and tastes great.

It took a while to get used to the desserts not being that sweet but I am getting used to it all now and thoroughly recommend the book if you like good food but want to eat healthily.

The book has a good range of food to cook and covers breakfasts, shakes, smoothies and juices, starters and snacks, salads and dressings, mains and dessert. The only thing I found and it was my mistake was not reading the recipe all the way through and realising I was meant to marinate something for 3 hours or for overnight but that’s me being absent minded. There are some quick recipes in the book too.

Happy cooking! and have a great weekend!

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Run walk run walk smile on the treadmill

12 Jun

Today was my first day back at the gym since being ill for two weeks and then going back and hurting my back and off again for another week or so.

I was so excited to be able to train and jumped on the treadmill. I was a bit worried about how my fitness level and now jelly belly (I’ve taken advantage of it being cold and being ill and eaten rather too well!) would go but I was pleasantly surprised as it wasn’t too hard.

I didn’t run as fast as I would normally and I ran walked ran walked to get myself back into it. I looked in the mirror and found myself smiling out of sheer enjoyment at being back in the gym. The last few weeks have been very frustrating but I am so glad I didn’t train as I feel much better now 🙂

Now to get rid of that jelly belly! Bring it on!

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