Archive for exercise
Support Peter Bronski and the NFCA
Posted by: | CommentsPeter Bronski is undertaking a mission that many of us can only imagine.
Pete is the author of No Gluten, No Problem, as well as Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking
He is training for the Virgil Crest Ultra Race-which is a 50 mile race with 9000 vertical feet of ascent.
Since I live in Florida, the biggest mountain I see is the bridge that spans the intracoastal. I can’t even begin to imagine what a challenge this race will be for Pete. That’s a heck of a goal, and one that I am excited to watch him achieve.
(Side note-setting goals is something I think is super important. Be on the lookout for upcoming posts on goal setting. I talk about it in my new book 7 Quick Start Tips to Leading a Healthy, Gluten-Free Life (without making yourself nuts in the process) also. Setting achieveable and concrete goals for yourself will help quite a bit in actually making positive change.)
Pete is chronicling his training at his blog. In addition, he has decided to make this race a fundraising effort for the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. I am a big supporter of the NFCA as well. They are providing a great deal of wonderful education and working diligently for awareness. I also was the first to complete their GREAT training for allied health professions.
Pete’s goal is to raise $5000 for the NFCA.
He has created a webpage on First Giving which makes it easy to give your donation. Please join me in donating toward Pete’s goal, and to the NFCA. $5 would be a wonderful donation, and when we all give $5, it will add up quickly.
Please click on over to First Giving now and support Pete and the NFCA.
Then, think about your own goals. Just let the idea of what you would like to achieve marinate in your brain. Then, share them below. Make them concrete, and make them real.
And remember, there is no wrong answer.
Walk, Type, and Burn Calories-Seriously.
Posted by: | CommentsRemember the old “pat your head and rub your belly” trick?
Try it again, now, just for fun. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Now try it, but rub your belly slowly. Don’t think about it too much, just let your hand move. Got easier to pat your head, didn’t it?
I promise you I have a point.
When you are doing something that comes easily, or is second nature, it’s much easier to do something else at the same time.
So file that away for a sec.
Now-think about the amount of time you spend sitting in a day. Sitting in your car, sitting in front of the computer, sitting at work, sitting watching TV. That’s a lot of butt time. Now, the majority of us have been walking for many moons. So it’s an activity that comes as second nature and you don’t really have to think about it.
How great to combine walking with the excessive butt time?
Way back when I started this blog in August, I wrote about the SurfShelf. Of course, no one was reading this then, (except maybe my family) so this may be news
I use the Surfshelf on my treadmill regularly, mostly catching up on my Google Reader (ing.)
Yesterday I opened up the April copy of Fitness magazine and saw a big write up on the TrekDesk. This is a super-deluxe version of the SurfShelf and basically gives you an entire desk space to work with. It’s also more expensive, but given the space differential understandable. (I also found this post on DIY Treadmill Desks which gives a very affordable option if yer handy.)
Here’s the upshot-you can type, talk, surf, do all “generally sitting” tasks with walking about 2 mph, approximately. Depending on your size, this could net you about 50-100 extra calories burned per hour. Over a 8hr day, that’s 400 to 800 calories. That’s significant. Even on the low end, if you changed nothing else, you could lose about a pound every two weeks. While doing other stuff!
Obviously this could be difficult to implement in an office setting. If you work at home, give one of these options a thought. You can even watch Hulu of your shows and keep moving!
If I were in charge, I’d put these in all offices where people are currently in cubicles. Treadmills all around. Imagine the good that could come-better health, improved body composition, potentially lowered health care costs, improved productivity and job satisfaction….
Alas, I am not in charge. Yet. 
If you are interested in buying one of these products and go thru one of the links provided here, I would earn a small percentage which can go toward my blog and podcast costs, and I thank you. If not, please just consider how you can minimize “on yer butt” time. Even if just by a little bit.
************In other news…….
I was a guest poster on Gluten Free is Life this week. Read here about the full extent of my nerdiness.
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution starts this week.
Leave a comment at the probiotics post to be entered to win a free month supply of Align! Entries will close a week from today, 3/31/10.
Supplements for the Gluten Free Athlete-Glutamine Edition
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a shocker-I have a fitness background. In the fitness world, there is something that is affectionately referred to as “bro-science.”
Interestingly enough, there is actually a definition for “bro-science” at urbandictionary.com. “Broscience is the predominant brand of reasoning in bodybuilding circles where the anecdotal reports of jacked dudes are considered more credible than scientific research.”
There has been much debate surrounding glutamine in the weight training world. It was touted as a recovery booster/fat mobilizer/muscle sparing/ all that and a bag o’ chips for many moons, and turns out that the research doesn’t support that position.
( Gleeson M, Dosing and efficacy of glutamine supplementation in human exercise and sport training J Nutr. 2008 Oct;138(10):2045S-2049S among others.)
photo credit www.willsunphoto.com
There are many good bros and female bros (bras?) out there fighting the good fight and protecting the world against the proliferation of bro-science. A few are Alan Aragon, Lyle McDonald, Leigh Peele, and Cassandra Forsythe, as well as my buddy JC Deen. There are many others of course-but these are a few I reference regularly and have in my Google Reader.
Ok, so what does this have to do with celiac disease, living gluten free, or glutamine supplementation?
Although glutamine may have limited benefit from a sports performance/physique enhancement perspective, it may be much more useful for gut health.
First of all, what is glutamine? Glutamine is an amino acid. It is considered conditionally essential (meaning there may be times when the body cannot produce enough, and it must be ingested through the diet.) The gut tissue has been found to absorb up to 65-76% of ingested glutamine. Also, glutamine is used for fuel by the cells in your body that fight disease and infection. When plasma glutamine levels are lowered, this can contribute to suppresion of the immune system. In short, glutamine helps reduce inflammation, improve immunity, promote repair, and assist in production of other important factors in the gut.
I have to note that in looking through the scientific research, I have found studies that support these statements, and other studies where no significant difference has been shown. As always, this is a case of buyer beware-educate yourself, discuss it with your doctor or health care practitioner, and make an informed decision. It will not hurt you, but it may not help either. There has been quite a bit of supporting evidence that it is beneficial for gut health.
Some of you may be thinking-”But glutamine is an amino acid found in gliadin-and a reaction to gliadin is what is examined when gluten intolerance is being tested.” Dr. Stephen Wangen in his book “Healthier Without Wheat: A New Understanding of Wheat Allergies, Celiac Disease, and Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance.
Note: Glutamine can be found in two forms, and this is particulary important to note if you have celiac disease or gluten intolerance. There is L-glutamine, which is the free form amino acid, and glutamine peptides. Glutamine peptides are often sourced from wheat, and can cause a reaction in those with sensitivity. Avoid glutamine peptides, and if you choose to supplement look for L-glutamine.
Dr. Wangen states that due to the fact that the small intestine uses glutamine as a primary energy source, providing extra L-glutamine can assist in speeding the healing of the digestive tract. He recommends a dose of 3 grams (3,000 mg) split into 3 doses throughout the day.
Shari Lieberman also discussed L-glutamine supplementation in her book “The Gluten Connection: How Gluten Sensitivity May Be Sabotaging Your Health–And What You Can Do to Take Control Now
There also have been studies of non-celiac endurance athletes which have shown protective immune system qualities when the training load is high. (L. Castell, The effects of oral glutamine supplementation on athletes after prolonged, exhaustive exercise. Nutrition Volume 13, Issues 7-8, July-August 1997, Pages 738-742 )
So what does this mean to the celiac or gluten intolerant athlete?
It means that supplementing with L-glutamine may be a worthwhile expense. If you are training hard, your immune system and gut can use all the help it can get with recovery. It can help with antioxidant control of free radicals produced in exercise. By maximizing your gut health, you are maximizing absorption and therefore fuel.
What’s your opinion? Have you taken L-glutamine? Leave your feedback in the comments!
For more sensible information on setting up a healthy gluten free nutrition plan, click here or submit your info below this post.
Share your thoughts!
Resources:
McDonald, Lyle. The Protein Book. Salt Lake City: Lyle McDonald Publishing 2007.
McArdle, Katch and Katch.Sports and Exercise Nutrition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins 2005.
Lieberman, Shari. The Gluten Connection. How Gluten Sensitivity may be Sabotaging your Health-and what you can do to take control now.New York: Rodale 2007
Wangen, Dr. Stephen. Healthier Without Wheat. A New understanding of wheat allergies, celiac disease, and non-celiac gluten intolerance. Seattle: Innate Health Publishing
van Der Hulst et al. “Glutamine and the preservation of gut integrity” The Lancet, Volume 341, Issue 8857, Pages 1363-1365
Burning Calories and You-how do you stack up? Calories DO Count. Part 1
Posted by: | CommentsYou may have heard various and sundry diet and nutrition gurus touting the benefits of a given “diet”-you can eat as much as you want and not gain fat, as long as it is under the full moon, the color red, and you eat standing up. OK, so maybe not that extreme, but the idea that total calories don’t matter if you eat specific foods is around and pervasive. Well, calories do count. There’s no way around the laws of thermodynamics, at least not yet. Quality of food is an important issue as well, don’t get me wrong. But from a strictly energy balance perspective-it’s calories that are king (or queen.) It’s not magic, it’s not difficult, but it does take a bit of attention-at least if you’re interested in improving your health and or the way you look.
We’ll be looking into the idea of energy balance ie:calories in versus calories out. Today we’ll take a look out the calories you expend-energy output. In Part 2 we’ll take a look at calories in, energy intake, and the ways to track that.
Calories out=energy expenditure=all activity, bodily function, energy required for digestion of food, exercise, cleaning the house, everything. Definition of terms that create your total calorie burn:
RMR=resting metabolic rate-the amount of calories you need to exist without any activity-ie:bedrest
TEA-thermic effect of activity-this, obviously, represents the caloric burn of activity, both exercise and non-exercise acitivty.
NEAT=non exercise activity thermogenesis=general activity like walking the dog, playing with the kids, cleaning the house, fidgeting, general moving around that is not “exercise.” This can have a VERY large impact on your daily caloric burn. It’s the difference between sitting on your butt on the computer or watching TV and moving, just doing something, anything.
TEF-thermic effect of food. Basically the energy expended to digest and assimilate food into usable energy.
Lyle McDonald, a very smart guy, has a great article that goes into more depth regarding all of these terms. You can find it here.
The RMR is the component that we don’t control very much. TEF and TEA we can make changes to. There are many calculators out there which can help you determine your energy expenditure. One that seems to be fairly accurate is the Mifflin equation, and you can find the calculator here. To get an idea of how many calories are burned for specific activities, you can use the calculator at Fitness Partner here. Keep in mind these are all estimates, but good starting points.
If you like to get even more specific, you can use the Bodybugg or GoWearFit devices. These are small devices you wear on your arm that measure motion, heat given off, skin response to stress, and temperature. You may have see the contestants on “The Biggest Loser” wearing them. They are cool little toys, and definitely make you more aware of how much you are, (or are not) burning in a given day. They also give you more individualized information than an equation. I think the most useful application of these is that it truly makes you think about moving more and get the burn higher, and you are super aware of when you are just sitting (oh dang, I’m only burning a calorie a minute here.) Leigh Peele has done a comparison of the two devices which you can find here.
I’ve used the Bodybugg on several different occasions, and I am going to share a few of my observations. I hope this helps you see the impact of how moving, and kind of movement, can impact your calorie burn. Oh-any why does this matter? Because if you burn more, your calorie balance is altered. This can positively impact your weight and your health.
So here we go: I am 35 years old, female, and weighed 127. My RMR has been tested at 1500 calories which also was shown by the Bodybugg. Here’s some examples of calories burned.
-30 minutes moderate intensity steady state cardio-(treadmill walking on an incline)-200 calories
-Sitting at a computer at work-80 calories per hour
-Taking a 20 minute walk outside during my break at work-100 calories (see the difference between sitting an just walking-this was a casual walk, not a power-exercise walk)
-45 minutes of heavy weight training-220 calories
Calorie burn total for this day, which included 45 minutes of weight training and 30 minutes of cardio for structured exercise, was 2350 calories. A day where I was mostly sedentary, sitting at work all day and then going to get my hair cut and colored in the evening (which was more sitting) I burned 1800 calories. Had I just gone for a short walk I could have bumped that burn by a couple hundred calories WITHOUT GOING TO THE GYM! That’s a huge difference in calorie burn. 550 calories is a big difference day to day. Cleaning the house burns a ton of calories. Which reminds me I really need to clean the floor….
Although the structured exercise had a positive impact on my net calorie burn, it wasn’t the main area. Many people are under the impression that an hour at the gym will counteract all the sitting. Guess what-it doesn’t. Getting up and moving during the day can have much bigger impact than we realize. You don’t HAVE to set aside many hours to dedicate to exercise to get in better shape.
I hope this helps shed some light on how you can burn calories, and the importance of general movement. Please let me know what you think in the comments below, or share if you have used the Bodybugg or GoWearFit! I also go into this a bit more in my nutrition guide, which is free and you can sign up below to receive it.
Now-go forth and burn!
Gluten Free Athlete Profile-Pamela Kropf
Posted by: | Comments
Pamela Kropf trail runner extraordinaire
Pam has a very cool blog, make sure to check her out! Here is her story in her words…
My name is Pamela Kropf and I am a 32 year old wife/mother/athlete living in Sacramento California but was born and raised in northern New Jersey. My number one accomplishment is being a mother to a very active 1.5 year old who is my world. I’ve been an athlete since before high school with soccer, basketball and softball filling my parent’s calendars on week nights and weekends. I have been a runner since college. I became a tri-athlete in my late twenties and more recently a trail runner looking to do her first Ultra. I’ve run over a dozen half marathons, four marathons and have completed in an Ironman. I have also coached women to train for and complete their first ever sprint distance triathlon. I love being active and I love helping other people be active, especially my family.
I was diagnosed sometime in 2003. I had been living in California for almost 3 years and even though all my life I have had “digestion issues” (that is what I called it) I never thought to get tested until one day I realized: A. I had health insurance and B. things were getting worse. I am 5 ft 7 inches tall and I weighed in 115 lbs. In college my roommates thought I was anorexic and staged an intervention. It wasn’t that I was anorexic; it just hurt too much sometimes to eat so I lived on bread because I thought that was helping me. I was skin and bones although my energy levels were never low my iron levels would occasionally dip below the normal level and my liver started to go haywire. I was losing control of my bowels and was prone to fainting at weird times.
I don’t think I know what my specific trigger was other than living away from home at college without any parental guidance. In high school I was not skinny in fact I was quite large and muscular. The summer after my freshman year of
college I did lose weight when I was first started running (after gaining the freshman 15) and it was probably from that
point on where my body continued to be slim but I have had the digestive issues all my life. When arrived in California and
started working full time and supporting myself is when I started noticing more problems with my liver and iron stores. On a side note, my mother passed away from a massive heart attack when I was 17. We will never know if she had celiac or
not but she did lead an unhealthy lifestyle of no exercise, smoking and poor diet. I vowed from her passing that I would lead a healthy lifestyle. Recently my father sent me my baby book and I discovered quite a few shocking things. I was never breastfed. I was given wheat in the form of cereal and formula when I was just a few weeks old and I was continuously given some high allergic and potentially damaging foods before I was one years old. I am strong proponent for breastfeeding and keeping wheat and dairy away from an infant until they reach the age of one especially if there is a family history of problems.
Training regimen:
Now that I am a mom my time for training is limited. Sadly, I have not done any triathlons in few years but my running is
back to a level and pace I am happy with. I follow the Furman Institute FIRST training plan (http://www.furman.edu/FIRST/fmtp.htm) which consists of 3 days of running including a speed workout, tempo run and a long distance run. It works for me and it works for my family. I get my workout days and my husband gets his. Any cross training is done with a jogging stroller or bike carrier. This training routine allowed me to run a marathon 7 months after my daughter was born and while I was still nursing. It is a wonderful training plan for busy people. (Bold is editor emphasis. Holy mackerel that’s awesome!)
Nutrition:
My nutritional philosophy has changed over the years. When I was 3 or 4 years old the doctors decided my “digestive issues” was nothing more than lactose intolerance so because of that, I refrain from having dairy. Since my diagnosis of Celiac, I am able to tolerate more dairy but I do mostly lead a dairy free lifestyle. I became a vegetarian at the age of 16. When I was diagnosed with Celiac eating out became a big problem. What could a vegan celiac order? Needless to say, I started to incorporate fish into my diet more and more although I generally only eat fish when dining out. Currently, I have moved into a life style where I have now eliminated any artificial sweeteners from my diet (I was a HUGE Diet Coke addict) and a lot of unnecessary sugars (huge candy addict as well). Since having done this, I feel tremendously better on all fronts. Back in my “skinny days” as I used to call them I could consume anything I wanted and not gain a pound. Those days are long since gone and now I realize I have to be more conscious of what I put into my body.
Favorite Pre and Post Workout Foods:
Because a lot of my trail runs and races are away from home, I tend to bring with me some pre and post race fuel. Pre Run tends to be a banana sliced lengthwise smothered in peanut butter or just recently GlutenFreeda’s Gluten Free Oatmeal (http://www.glutenfreedafoods.com/oatmeal.html). I was overjoyed when I discovered this gluten free oatmeal. I love the Banana Maple with Flax flavor best. My favorite post run recovery lately is Silk Chocolate Milk in the single serve container. A perfect blend of carbs, protein and is easy to digest and travel with.
Favorite Sports Supplements:
Like most athletes I use Gu on occasion and SCaps for long hot runs. I generally just drink water while running. I also love PureFit Bars (http://purefit.com/nutrition-info.html) because they are gluten free AND they don’t melt. So I can chop one up and toss it into a baggy and take it on a long trail run as some additional fuel. I always keep one in my running bag too for a post race snack if needed. I also love Amazing Grass products. They keep my immune system healthy and they too are gluten free (www.amazinggrass.com) and help with recovery.
Upcoming competitions/plans:
My upcoming plans include running the NIKE Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco, the California International Marathon in December and my ultimate goal is to run the Way Too Cool 50K in March 2010. That will be my first ever ultra. I am using the marathon as a way to increase my mileage and therefore I am not racing the marathon as much as I am running it to have fun and increase my mileage for the future ultra. Way Too Cool is a very competitive ultra to get into so I will not know until mid December if I am selected to run it.
Advice for other gluten free athletes:
You can be active and you can live a gluten free life. All it takes is a little bit of preparation, determination and a positive attitude. Being celiac you already know how important food is in your system and how it can cause your body to react. Most athletes are more in tune with their bodies than the average person and most celiac are even more aware of their bodies. Living and training gluten free can only improve your performance.
I struggled with the gluten free diet a lot. I am Italian and for me to give up bread and pasta was a hard thing to comprehend. I would go off and on the diet more times than I can count. I was in denial. My first ever marathon I was on
the diet throughout training and racing. I finished with a time I was proud of and felt great post race. The following year I ran the same marathon but stopped following the diet during my training and during the race. Needles to say, I bonked hard at mile 20. I had also lost about 30 pounds during the training months without realizing it, and post race I could barely walk my entire body shut down. It damaged my body so badly that I could not run for months after that. I had to skip the same marathon the following year because I still was unable to run. That was a big eye opener for me and I should have learned my lesson.
I did realize that I needed the diet when I was competing. My body could not handle it otherwise. But there were times I
would still cheat. Of course I would feel awful but I would deny it was the gluten making me feel that way. Now, I am a
mother and I realize I need to be around for my child for a long as possible. I cannot afford to be sick and not mobile. I
also want to be a good role model for her.
Check out Pam’s Trailmomma blog
Pamela Kropf trail runner extraordinaire
