BICYCLE TIME IS HERE – HOW’S YOUR ENERGY?

Check those tires, dust off the frame and wheels, grease where needed and you’re ready to ride the trails and roads this spring — almost.  What’s in your pack beside plenty of water, a tire patch kit, portable air pump, bandaids and sunscreen?  If you’re looking for the right energy foods, here are a few ideas for you to consider.

First of all, eating 5 to 6 meals a day, your nutrition program should make your body healthy enough to accomplish recovery and tissue repair speedily and efficiently. Ideally, everyone should be in that kind of condition. Second, it’s important for you to maintain lean muscle mass without adding body fat, and do this while maintaining a high strength-to-weight ratio. Eating 5 to 6 small meals means taking in the right amount and correct ratio of carbohydrates, protein and fats for your body and drinking plenty of water.

What’s a meal? Hold out your palms, face up with your pinky fingers touching. If you filled both hands about 2″ high with a combination of foods – that would constitute a meal for the average person. In hard and fast competition, you may need more. Third, a meal can vary according to each individual; your size, rate of metabolism, whether you are competing in a mountain bike marathon, road race or just riding for pleasure.

A snack, or 2 of the 5 or 6 meals is about 1/2 to one handful. Eating mostly low glycemic index* foods will keep your metabolism going and your energy on a more even keel.  Eat a “different breakfast” (see my blog “A New Idea for Eating Well”)  combining carbs and protein for long term energy.

For most of us, myself included, it’s the pleasure and exercise of rolling along on a sunny day watching the scenery change as I pump the pedals.  Besides downing all the water I can while riding, I usually stop and munch a meal somewhere along the way.

While resting in a sunny spot, my favorite energy foods are raw and roasted nuts, fresh and dried fruit and usually a wrap with humus and/or avocado and tomatoes sprinkled with cayenne, garlic and salt. The tomatoes add moisture, as well as flavor to the wrap, which is easy to pack and eat al fresco. The nuts and fruit are munchable any time, even while riding a flat spurt.  Cayenne and garlic are good for circulation and your heart.

Speaking of spurts, muscles rely on 3 major sources or systems to supply the energy they need: The immediate, for short-term, explosive strength output, the glycolitic, for medium-term energy for repeated near-maximum exertion and the oxidative, for long term endurance.

If you’re competing, your intake of high quality protein begins before you ride or in your pre-workout time.  It should be about 20 – 25% of your meal for effective recovery and adequate repair of damaged muscle tissue. About 20% of your meal would be fats for the average competitor.  High-quality COMPLEX carbohydrates should be about 55 – 60% in pre-season and for competition.

Remember, this varies with each person and their activity level. An overload of carbs and calories adds weight and inches we do not want.

Consuming Low glycemic index foods about 2 or 3 hours before workouts and competitions will help sustain the blood-sugar level. These include butter beans, green beans, black-eyed peas apples, yogurt, tomato soup, kidney beans, lentils, soybeans, almonds, peanuts.

Moderate glycemic index foods include whole grain bread, brown rice, muesli, bananas, raisins, buckwheat, spaghetti, sweet corn, biscuits, yams, oatmeal, potatoes, peas, oranges and fresh whole orange juice.  Eat these about 3-4 hours before competition.

If you’re like most of us, riding to enjoy the scenery, take along your favorite munchy foods and plenty of water.  Supplement your food intake at breakfast time with a combination of nutrients, multivitamins, multiminerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids. Go for it and enjoy your ride.

For more details about the glycemic index and lifestyle menus, please feel free to email me at:  ricki@mchealthymatters.com Please include “Glycemic Index” in your subject line.

What a concept!        START DIGESTION RIGHT – CHEW YOUR FOOD     (adopted from Dr Mercola’s website)

In today’s crazy time crunch world, we often neglect to savor the simple pleasures of life. For example, nothing matches the satisfaction of sharing a leisurely, healthy meal with family, friends and loved ones*.

Besides the obvious enjoyment of sharing meals with friends & family, there are  powerful physiological reasons to take your time and thoroughly chew your food .

To begin, chewing mashes your food into small pieces and partially liquefies it, making it easier to digest.

Secondly, when food is in your mouth, it stimulates your saliva production. Saliva contains its own digestive enzymes, so the longer you chew, the more time these enzymes have to get to work while your food is still in your mouth. This makes it easier on your stomach and small intestine.

Physiologically, there’s  a third reason to chew your food thoroughly.  The chewing process stimulates a reflex that primes your pancreas and other digestive organs to do their jobs. It’s a brilliantly designed part of the automatic communication system that keeps your body’s organs working in harmony. Don’t mess it up by skipping the important first step — chew thoroughly!

If you’re a gum chewer, as some people on diets chew gum rather than eating food… here’s another important change you can make to save your digestive tract lots of stress:

Chewing gum interferes with the coordinated digestive tract reflexes described above.

“Every time you put a stick of gum in your mouth and start to chomp, your brain thinks you’re eating food. So it sends signals to your stomach, pancreas, and other digestive organs to get them ready to digest that food.

Your pancreas is fooled into manufacturing a batch of the digestive enzymes your brain thinks you’ll need.

If you keep this pattern going month after month, your pancreas gets exhausted from the repeated over-production. Then it won’t be able to produce the digestive enzymes you need when you actually require them.”

In this hurried world, even if you follow these important health habits, your digestive enzymes could still become depleted.   The common results are usually annoying occasional bloating, minor abdominal discomfort, occasional constipation, and more.  This can reduce your enjoyment of good foods and the nutritional benefit of the healthy diet you’re eating.

You may need some extra help with your digestive process.  For many of us, digestive enzyme supplements can assist in digesting and absorbing our food.  Taking a high quality digestive enzyme combination may help make your life and the enjoyment of good food easier.

One recommendation is Multizyme, a proteolytic (protein digesting) enzyme combination, from Standard Process, is a strong aid in breaking down foods.  It contains pancreatin, fig, almond and pineapple and no hydrochloric acid (HCL).

Another is Zypan, a pepsin and HCL combination, aids with indigestion, flatulence, constipation, poor calcium & iron absorption and sudden dietary changes, (such as foreign travel).

For those who like herbals, a super product is DiGest, from Medi-Herb, a full spectrum digestive aid that promotes endogenous HCL, gastric enzymes & bile secretions ( which aid in fat digestion).

ProSynbiotic, by Standard Process is a natural food combination of probiotics and prebiotics that

• support gut flora
• help maintain a healthy gut environment
• support normal bowel regularity and consistency
• improve nutrient digestion/absorption
• support the body’s natural immune response
• contribute to absorption of calcium and magnesium

Use of one or several of these type digestive aids may help move your body into a more balanced state of being able to digest and truly utilize the foods you consume more easily and efficiently.

More to come…In the meantime, please do CHEW your food.  You’ll enjoy life even more and your body will thank you.  For information about the supplements, please feel free to email me.  http://www.mchealthymatters.com/contact

or, Feasting on Flavor

A brief overview of some quick ideas for fun meals

SALADS, EASY HOME MADE DRESSINGS, SOUPS, & MORE:

For foodies like you and me, isn’t food fun!?   It provides energy and all the stuff to keep us going daily, and  it’s also a way to enjoy providing nourishment for myself and others while being social:  Sipping soup with friends and family is a great way to share a meal.

With my family, it’s the “Jewish mom” thing – like everybody’s gotta eat, right!?  Yes, and you better like what’s in front of you ’cause that’s what we’re eating… Sound familiar to anyone?

Long ago and far away from the mountains of Colorado, Long Island was my home for many years and we had lots of good farms out there that provided fresh organic vegetables and fruits and even meats.

I have to admit mom didn’t always serve fresh veggies – as a working mom she relied on some frozen.  Others like salad greens and all the other  ingredients were always fresh- tasted sensational.  Great habit to teach your kids, since their eating habits are established by the time they’re two (2), salads with every dinner and lunch too.

We always had something different in the salad, besides fundamentals like lettuce (various kinds) tomatoes and cucumbers; red onion, artichoke hearts, cranberries, peppers, nuts, and I can keep going.  Use your imagination and taste buds to add new & different goodies to yours.  Make your own fresh dressings with olive, flaxseed or walnut oil, fresh lemon juice, red, white wine or balsamic vinegar and herbs and spices*. (Recipe follows)

Now I’m into soups.  Experiment with wonderful flavorful ways to prepare everything in one bowl…besides pasta and sauce.  Soups have character and are slimming, – you can get creative with veggies, meats, fish, shrimp etc.  Whatever’s fresh and seasonal usually makes for great taste and color and they’re prepared in one pot – easy cleanup too.

Winter veggies are usually earthy (roots & shoots) and combined with beef, bison, chicken, turkey, or seafood, a few flavorful spices, herbs and grains like barley, rice, quinoa, millet, etc., and you have a filling and nutritious meal in one bowl.  Add some fruits, apples, apricots, lemon, lime or mangos and the taste sensations increase!  If you’re gluten intolerant, stick with millet, couscous, quinoa and othr gluten free grains or legumes.

Easy Salad dressing - Vinaigrette with Dijon mustard;    Choose your vinegar, I love red wine vinegar and start with about 1/3 cup.  Add about 1 tsp. each of dried thyme, oregano, parsley, garlic powder and a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper, stir or whisk in about 1/2 cup of olive or walnut oil.  When that’s mixed, add a tsp. of Dijon mustard and whisk until all are blended.  Adjust seasonings and oil to your taste.  Pour over salad and toss.

An easy and simple dressing is Flaxseed oil and Bragg’s Aminos.  Drizzle a little of each over your salad - toss and enjoy.  Get your Omega 3s & crunch all together in a healthy salad.

Hint: Eat your fruits first.  For many people, this will end the after the meal ‘bloats” as the fruit digests faster than other foods and may ferment in your tummy while waiting to get past the other stuff…

OR, wait about an hour before enjoying the mouth watering tastes of pears or apples and Stilton or other strong flavored cheese or fresh fruit and cream (the real thing).  Just a few ideas for some tasty and easy to prepare meals.  Plan ahead and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Have fun creating!