Fat-tastic

Don't be skeered! Fat is our friend. I promise. Mark says so! Without getting too scientific on you (and I am certainly no authority on the matter anyway), healthy (essential) fatty acids are a critical part of any athlete's diet. To simplify things completely, if you include healthy fats in your diet (around 30-40% of your daily caloric intake), your body will ultimately become more efficient at burning fat instead of carbs as fuel when you're doing your longer zone 1/2 workouts (if you're not pounding gels every 5 minutes, that is). Per Joe Friel's blog: "The body uses for fuel whatever it is given the most of. If you eat a diet high in carbohydrate, which at some times in the year is necessary (more on that at another time), it will prefer to use sugar for fuel. If you feed it more fat while reducing carbohydrate it will learn to use fat for fuel. That’s a good thing since it augments your aerobic endurance training." Wouldn't it be glorious if our bodies were constantly burning fat as fuel?


Some additional links to good info on fat if in need of some light reading this evening:
- Ironman.com
- Bodybuilding.com
- Trainingpeaks.com
- Active.com
- wikipedia.com

Here's the thing, see. Your options are kind of limited when it comes to the "right" fats. Here's my list, comment if you feel I've missed a biggie:

1. Avocados (I eat about one a day - they are SERIOUSLY the bomb. They make everything better, period.)
2. Nuts (walnuts and macadamia nuts have the best (lowest) omega 3:6 ratio around...cashews are just aight...almonds are surprisingly one of the worst with hardly any omega 3s to be found - but still a healthy source of fat, just in moderation! Peanuts are NOT nuts - they are legumes, and also have no omega 3s.) My problem with nuts is that you can only have like 3 of them and it's a zillion calories. I put a few on my salads or in my smoothies from time to time.
3. Eggs (look for labels that include increased levels of omega 3)
4. Grass-fed beef (higher omega 3s than grain fed)
5. Olive oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil, walnut oil
6. Salmon - the greatest fish of all time - and other oily fish (sardines, mackerel...check out the canned fish section)

Obviously everyone's dietary needs are different. I tend to try to get 30% of my total calories by way of healthy fats, 40% carbs and 30% protein. Typical American diets are generally higher in fat (but the WRONG kinds of fat - trans-fats/hydrogenated oils, etc), lower in protein and higher in carbs. Typical Americans are also kinda fat...likely due to the type of carbs they're ingesting amongst other things.

Hope this wasn't boring. I find this stuff interesting though, so at least I am entertaining me! Congrats to all the gals who killed it on the gravel today - very sad I wasn't out there. Back still hurts. We'll see how I feel tomorrow for Leonardtown.

Breakfast "Souffle"

This weekend, a crisis was narrowly averted. I awoke Sunday morning to eat breakfast before my am group ride...and there was not a yam to be found in my house. Apparently my yammerific Saturday had depleted all sources. Disaster.

However, I collected myself and considered my carbohydrate options. Here is what I came up with, and it ended up doing the job (and tasted quite delicious!):

2 small bananas
1/4 avocado
Egg whites (3/4 cup)
Frozen wild blueberries

First I mashed up the bananas in a bowl and then added the raw egg whites and frozen blueberries. I stuck it all in the microwave until the egg whites began to fluff up. I stirred it up a few times, stuck it back in the micro until the egg whites were cooked through. I added the avocado to the mix for some added healthy fat. The resulting consistency was super light and airy and a nice combo of protein, carbs and fat. Camera still broken, but don't worry, it doesn't look very pretty anyway. But it tasted good and it did the job to power me through a 2 hour group ride sans yams.

Green Eggs and Ham

Well, not exactly. But a rendition of them, if you will.

A few months ago, I wrote about a tasty little breakfast concoction - Almond Butter and Banana Pancakes (courtesy of Mark's Daily Apple). I haven't been eating much by way of almond butter these days, however, firstly because my stomach doesn't always feel great after eating it but mainly because it is packed with calories (although good they are good calories!). I awoke this morning after a really fun, hard weekend of racing (two open races and a category race - also my first open races AND first double up) craving something other than my normal eggs/spinach/avocado breakfast. And I had bananas on the brain. So here's what I came up with...and it was quite tasty and satisfying!

Green Pancakes & Turkey Bacon

2 eggs
1 small banana
1 oz avocado
handful of spinach

I stuck all of the above ingredients in the blender until smooth. Then, poured onto a medium-heat pan (sprayed with cooking spray) - it made about 8 mini pancakes. Mini GREEN pancakes. Kind of awesome. Some turkey bacon on the side. Only about 300 calories and packed with good fat, protein and carbs. Yum in the tum! My camera is broken, alas, but I will take pics next time around.

Enjoy!