Fast Running Blog

Ok now that most of us are in somewhat of an off-season (so to speak). Lets take a look at some diet issues and questions I’ve had. I know Sasha’s old answer is to eat a pure healthy diet… but most people can’t walk that tight of line. I’m going for a bend but not break type of game plan. Also are there some types of supplements that can help athletes like us? Other than a good diet Sasha.
1.   What exactly is processed foods? Name the brands and specific types for use slow people.
2.   What other foods are a no-no! For the most part I stay away from soda pop (maybe like 3 sodas a year on special occasions). Chocolate and chocolate types of treats i.e. Snickers, York peppermint patties, Rocky Road bars, and solid Easter bunnies made of chocolate! I do enjoy on occasion fruity types of candy i.e. sour patch kids, gummy worms, starburst, and mento type candies. These I may eat a package twice a month unless there is a big race and maybe not in that case. I don’t eat much red meat- once a month at most. Not a lot of fatty type things like cheesecake, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, and glazed doughnuts, ect… Burgers and fries are out 95% of the time too. Pizza is an occasional must. What I’m looking for here is for someone with a better grip on this than me to say this is good- this is very bad- and this you can enjoy once in a while. If by chance your worse off than me I’d be glad to share my day-to-day diet with you. Just ask.
3.   What are some good supplements? I’ve taken whey protein, Amino Vital,
CytoCarb (pure carbohydrates), Endurox Excel, Accelorade, Endurox, multi vitamins, glucosimin.
-The endurox, whey protein, Amino Vital, and Accelorade are all post run recovery drinks some more effective than others.
The Cytocarb is a powder that is the purest form of carbohydrates that I take before big workouts and races- also sometimes I mix with a recovery drink for the full effect.
Endurox Excel is a pill supplement that is suppose top help you control you lactic acid better and hence give you better endurance.
The glucosimin I take for my joints just out of a preventative measure, and the multi vitamin is self-explanatory.


Ok this is a good start. I’ll remember the rest of what I’ve been wanting discuss later.

I take only whole food suplement (E7 is the name of what I take) your body doesn't absorb much of those other pill non-whole food suplements.  I take this in the morning mixed in a very low sugar whey protien and a couple of teaspoon of cod liver oil.  Cod liver oil has  high anti-inflamitory properties, it also is great for lubing up your joints, great for the brain, digestive system, hormone production and much much more.  Other omega oils are great to take but men only absorb and use the omega-3's.  Dr. Udo's blend is another one of my favorites.  And believe it or not these oils don't make you gain wieght they actually help you burn the bad fats.  I always cook with olive oil to this has the omegas.

I try really hard to stay away from sugar and white flour, but allow myself something every once in a while.  But I am very disaplined and can only have a little bit and be done.  And if I am going to have something it had to be really good like expensive dark chocolate.  I also believe most people would not be able to eat the way Sasha does, but it is a great out line.  I eat red meat once or twice a week (I love a big juicy steak).  Fish and chicken though most of the time.  Lot of greens and veggie, I don't eat a lot of fruit because it to sweet for me, instead of an apple I will eat a red pepper.  I do eat bananas.

Health and Nutrition is sort of a passion for me, I also love helping people lose wieght.

Processed food are just that anything that has been processed.  Alot of food you find in the grocery store.  Encouraging isn't it.

Wow, I am not sure where to start. Anyone who as read my blog or my comments on other people's blog knows that I am a nutrition FREAK. I devour nutrition literature. So I will start by saying two things that jump out at me.

1. You can significantly clean up your diet if you completely remove high fructose corn syrup (or anything in an ingredients list that reads corn syrup) from your diet. It is in a lot of "treats" that you mentioned. You simply decide never to eat anything with HFCS in it again. You'll have to read ingredients of everything. It is in a lot foods, even catsup. If you want to know more about the evils of corn syrup I will post more. I could write a book... oh wait, I am!

2. Pumpkin pie is not all that bad for you IF you make it yourself. It has all kinds of good nutrients in it, and with a whole wheat crust is a good dessert -- As long as you don't put whip cream all over it (especially Cool Whip - read the ingredients, HFCS). It has pumpkin (read: lots of great nutrients), sugar, evaporated or condensed milk (if condensed milk, then you don't add sugar) and spices which are great for you. It really doesn't have a lot of bad stuff in it.

Josse, if I understand your post correctly, I respectfully disagree when you say men use only omega-3s. For example, Omega-6s are used in cell membranes extensively in every body regardless of gender. Also, they are vital for production of prostoglandins in the body which are important in control of inflammation and regulation of immune function. Typically, the American diet has plenty Omega-6s, but not enough Omega-3s. Maybe you read/heard that American men need more Omega-3 fatty acids.

I knew pumpkin pie was ok... I just hate it so I thought I'd take a stab at it while I could. Thanks for both of your imput. I know the treats that I eat are bad but it's kind of my bend but not break deal. I figure on pack of sour patch kids every couple of weeks isn't going to kill me.
What about things like:
Top Roman
Toast with butter
PB and honey sandwiches
Cold cereal (raisin bran, granola)
yogert
chocolate soy milk (silk)
OJ
Salted almonds

These are some of my bread and butter type foods. I pretty much eat them every day. Is there one that is very bad?

The USATF dinner I went to on Friday had a nutritionist who was an elite runner as the guest speaker. Someone asked about chocolate milk and she said it was one of the best post-race recovery drinks around, as it has lots of carbs and protein.

Another thing you need to stay away from is partially-hydrogenated or hydronenated oils, these are horrible for you.  They are in many thing you would not think like cearals, soft taco shells and much more you really have to read the labels (which can be time cosuming).  The thing with the standard American low-fat diet is that is full of sugar, high frutose corn syurp, and the hydrgenated oils and way to much fast food.  Stay away from these and your health and running will be much better. 

Lulu- your right with men needing all the oils, my understaning though is they need and use the Omega-3 much more.
I think everyone should take all three of them (Omegas 3-6-9).  I don't mind some disagreement.  It is what makes you study things further.

Clyde- my opinion is toast, sandwiches (whole wheat bread), yogurt, milk, oj, and almonds are all great!  I hear all the time how good they are (yogurt=immune sys, almonds=good fats).

I eat cold cereal every day, but not the high sugar (i.e. kid) type.  Top Ramon- probably doesn't hurt once in a while.

Yogurt you have to watch the sugar content, unless you can eat plain.  The only brand I have found that doesn't use sugar as there sweeter is Brown Cow-they use honey and evaporated cane juice.  The only place I have seen this brand is Good Earth and Maceys.

I've never worried about sugar content in yogurt.  My only concern is that I get the 8 oz kind rather than paying the same price for the 6 oz Yoplait.

Clyde, I've been telling you this for a year!

Dave I hear you on the Chocolate milk thing. But soy (silk) chocolate milk can only be even better. Oh it goes down so smooth.
I never really get too worried about sugar in yogert either. In fact I don't really care too much about sugar all together. I eat fruit with a lot in it, drink fruit juice that is mostly sugar, drink gatorade like it's free. I guess my take is that I just burn it off. That brings me to my next question?

What can I eat? Like meals? I'm a little burned out on my day-to-day food. What are some of your staples? I like quick and easy food. I eat top roman every day just because it's fast and filled with carbs. Most of the time it's actually not top roman. It's noodle bowls I buy at Costco. A little better quality and taste, but same basic idea.
Give me some fast, healthy food ideas... A lot of carbs is a good plus. I need energy. 16-20 miles a day makes me hungry, and I'm an already hungry boy. I'm not looking to make a statement with what I eat. Bottom line is I love food and eating it. The more unhealthy the better. But when I'm trying to run with these mad animals on the blog I need something a little better in the tank.
So give me a list...

meals
snacks
drinks
snacks
desserts
snacks
 and whatever else you may have!

Josse- why are you so anti-HFCS?

See my blog today for my compromise diet outline which is definitely not exemplary, but I have lost weight and I think it is a good life long strategy.

For what it is worth, when I ran for BYU I stayed away from soda, until Coach Shane said that we need some recovery carbs right after a workout, and if that means we need to buy a Sprite and chug it, then do it.  He is a world class coach and did not go extreme with diet suggestions.  While I think it is ideal to go on diets without the HFCS and other processed junk, I am taking baby steps and grabbing the yogurt instead of the cookie :)

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is any of a group of corn syrups that have undergone enzymatic processing in order to increase their fructose content and are then mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose) to reach their final form. The typical types of HFCS are: HFCS 90 (most commonly used in baked goods) which is approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose; HFCS 55 (most commonly used in soft drinks) which is approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose; and HFCS 42 (most commonly used in sports drinks) which is approximately 42% fructose and 58% glucose.

As you can see it has undergone processing just like the hydroganated oils that has also been processed it is hard for the body to procees and is extreamly bad for you.  I just feel better if I stay away form these things.  Not to say they sneak there way in once in a while.

Rather than discussing of which foods are good and which are bad for running (the answer to which I believe would vary greatly from person to person), I would like to focus on a different aspect of this. If you know a certain food is bad, or you suspect it could be bad for you, do you have the strength and discipline to go without it for as long as you need to see the results (positive, negative, or neutral)? In other words, do you control your food, or is it the other way around?

I think the strength of a great runner is not so much in the fact that he knows and is using the magic recipe to success. It is more that he will not let trivial matters such as food addiction prevent him from discovering and experiencing the magic.

I have a very addictive personality and have worked to control it in many aspects of my life - but eating is still one that I struggle with.  (Some might say running is as well - but I don't think so.) So when that cookie is sitting on the counter, it is SO HARD not to go and grab it.  I eat pretty healthy and do a pretty good job, and sometimes I can say no, but not usually.  Some improvements I have made in the past year: whole wheat whenever possible, bread, rice, noodles, tortillas, etc... ; oatmeal for breakfast - often - instead of sugary cereals; rarely a soda, and never caffeinated (the stroke kicked those DP's and Cherry Cokes out pretty quick); and finally more healthy snacks, sandwiches, fruits, blah, blah, blah.

Two points. First, my definition of addition is a negative compulsive behavior. Feeling an urge to run when your legs start feeling undertrained is no more an addiction that feeling an urge to eat a healthy meal when your body starts feeling undernourished. Run is what a healthy body should want to do. That is what healthy little kids do until we kill this by making them sit for prolonged periods of time and feed them foods that slowly erode the drive to move. A squirrel will die in captivity from lack of exercise unless you get it a spinning wheel to run in, or some other way to move. This is not an addiction, this is a healthy life requirement.

Second, do not shoot for better than average. Boston Qualifier is much better than average. Even just finishing a marathon is much better than average. Most of us on the blog are already doing much better than average in a lot of ways, but that is not what we are here for. We want to run our very best. I believe if we plan to  run our very best, we must also plan to eat our very best, not just better than average or be satisfied with a mere "better than I used to".

I think it's impossible to eat totally healthy, because occasionally your going to eat at someone's house that doesn't serve the right nutrition.  Also going out to eat sometimes you don't always eat the best.  What I've been trying to live by is cutting out the fried foods, sweets (which I don't care for anyway), I still drink diet soda which is still a problem.  I try to stick with Smart Start cereal, or Oatmeal for breakfast.  Lunch, Bagel with honey, and a yogurt.  Dinner is where it's hard for me to eat different when you have family, but we try are best to eat good.  I try to eat as much whole grain, fruit as I can.  Sometimes I'll have pancakes for dinner with sugar free syrup.  I also take Apex Performance Multi-vitamins to get the extra I miss.

I think it would be great if those that have healthy recipes for dinner would post them in this discussion.

Kory - I posted on my personal blog last year several links to my favorite healthy recipes:

http://marathongis.com/blog/?p=15

Logan, if you're reading this, the recipe for the Indian Dal that you had at our house in there.

When eating at somebody's house, church party, etc, in the rare event that there are absolutely no healthy choices, I just do not eat. I do not care if somebody gets offended by that. The food is theirs, but the body is mine, and it is not replaceable in this life.

I saw that response coming from about 100 miles away... :-)

Too funny! LOL all night.

I am far from a nutritionist and actually not really sure what made me reply to this thread, most of the important stuff has already been mentioned. (lots of great info!) For the most part balance is where it is at. A good mix of fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains with protein and dairy (especially women!) The nutrition courses I got in nursing school all focused on eating foods as close to their natural state as possible- carrots with their peels on (not the nubby baby carrots) whole grain breads with real grit in them- some of the professed "wheat" aren't much better than white. Whole grains and fiber are actually going to fill you up and keep you full longer than any other food (well, beside fats). Buy whole grain crackers. Nuts are excellent for proteins and oils, mix em with some rice or beans and you can get complete proteins. As for quick healthy foods, just make some stuff ahead of time that you can grab and go. Cut up fresh veggies and have them stored in your fridge ready to eat, keep some whole almonds on hand etc. Boil eggs for some good protein that you can grab. Have your cheese already sliced and put a little on some apples or crackers.  I have also heard that when you shop at the grocery store, try to stick to shopping around the "outside" of the store or away from the aisles where most of the processed foods are shelved. Basically, be creative and try for variety, enjoy all the different foods out there.
If you are really looking for quick and healthy food ideas, Im sure the library or Borders carries books with some excellent ideas- or hey, right here on the blog as paul mentioned.

I'm a little late to be adding to this topic but, hey, I'm new here. One of the most convenient things I do is cook up a week's worth of brown rice on Saturday night. I put it in the refrigerator and then pull out just what I need to make Spanish Rice (add a little browned, lean hamburger or turkey and some stewed tomatoes or salsa), fried rice (add eggs, ham, peas, carrots and onions), rice pudding (add an egg, milk, raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon and a little lemon zest-- cook in the microwave), chicken and rice and anything else I can think of. I use it in soups, all kinds of meat dishes or just as a side with fish and other entrees. It takes 45 mins to cook it on Saturday, but in only a few minutes I can make a healthy meal during the week. I ustadidn't like brown rice. Now it's one of my staples and I really don't like the white stuff anymore. A few other simple meals I like that seem to be good for me: scrambled eggs with broccoli, cheese, ham, eggs and onion; most "homemade" soups, baked potatoes with the "right" toppings and masterpiece chef salads (if you have to eat rabbit food you deserve to put "good stuff" on it-- just make sure it's really good stuff). If you don't want to crash, run every three hours and eat just about that often.