Marathon Cookies

Last Saturday a few enthusiastic walkers came out to our hill training class early and helped pick up garbage in recognition of Earth Day...which...by the way...is tomorrow, officially!

For those intrepid early risers, I made a batch of marathon cookies. As well as offering the perfect combination of fat, protein, and carbs, they are super yummy. Legend has it that my brother survived a motorcycle trip across Canada because of these cookies.

As per the several requests, here is the recipe. These are the exact ingredients I used.

1/2 cup Spectrum organic canola oil
1 cup Nuts to You organic valenica peanut butter
1 cup creamed borage honey/organic maple syrup (Saturday's batch was honey)
1 tsp Frontier organic vanilla extract


Mix all of these together in a large bowl.

Cream in two organic eggs.

Mix in a separate bowl:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Add above dry ingredients to oil/pb/honey mixture.


Mix together:

3 cups organic regular oats
1 cup organic oat bran
1 cup mixed of millet/sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds/flax/sesame/coconut/tvp
1/2 cup organic redskin peanuts
1 cup chopped President's Choice Dark chocolate

Add everything together. Mix well. Preheat oven to 350. Place spoonfuls on cookie sheets. Bake cookies for 12 minutes. (Place rack well away from elements as these cookies will burn easily)

Enjoy!

If you have another recipe that is yummy and can stand in for breakfast, send it our way.

Testing real food on the long walks

I've been experimenting with food that has not been "designed" for athletes. For many years, I took only Clif Bars with me on walks longer than 90 minutes. Two years ago I discovered Clif Blok Shots and switched to those as I found the energy boost happened faster than with the Clif Bar and with less heaviness in my stomach. This makes sense considering the Bloks likely have a higher glycemic index than the bar.

Then, this past fall for some reason nothing that resembled a "designed" sports supplement was appealing to my taste buds. So, I have been experimenting with substitutes.

Knowing that I need to ingest electrolytes, I have been taking orange juice cut with some water and a touch of salt added. I like it.

Three weeks ago, I researched figs (since I love Barbara's fig with blueberry bars) and discovered that dried figs are high in potassium. So, for my most recent two long training walks of 18k and 20k I have taken two fig bars. I like these too.

If anyone has suggestions, it's always interesting, educational, and fun to know what works for others. Let's spread the experimentation around!

New Year Reading

So how go the resolutions?

For those of you with fitness resolutions, it was a good day. On the streets of my neighbourhood the unseasonably high temperatures allowed skin on legs and arms to be revealed. Runners and walkers could be seen every few hundred metres outside. This is not a typical site in the first week of January. It usually takes the hardy of personality and the well stocked of winter apparel to be out. For myself I enjoyed a brisk walk in the warm air, although I confess that cooler temperatures and a bright sky would have pleased me more.

For those of you that have challenged yourself to dietary resolutions, I have to tell you that I received one of the best Christmas presents ever this year when someone got me a copy of Alice Waters' new book called The Simple Art of Food. Alice Waters is renowned for her commitment to preparing foods for her restaurant, Chez Panisse in Berkeley California, from locally grown, seasonal, and organic foods. Hers is a philosophy of eating and food that likely can do more to help a person lose weight than any 6/8/12-week, carb/protein/fat restriction, eat for your genome/blood-type diet anyone ever invented.

I further treated myself to two excellent books that put perspective on the total craziness and zaniness behind dieting. Both were published in 2007 and both of them I recommend if you are in the mood for making a brain shift about eating. An Apple a Day: the Myths, Misconceptions and Truths about the Foods we Eat is by Dr. Joe Schwarcz, The Director of the Office for Science and Society at McGill University in Montreal. This book is plain good fun for any nerdy information geeks like me who want to get to the bottom of such thorny issues as should I be eating fish for omega 3 fats even when I am told they are also full of mercury, should I eat soy to lower blood cholesterol or avoid it to avoid thyroid problems? The other book is titled Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss - and the Myths and Realities of Dieting. Written by highly respected science writer for the New York Times, Gina Kolata, it’s another good book to help us reconsider our punishing attitude toward food and our bodies.

Interesting that both An Apple a Day and Rethinking Thin have the word "myths" in their subtitles! Yes, it may all come back to Alice Waters and the Simple Art of Food. Even Dr. Schwarcz in his book's opening line says "Eating used to be simple". I'll report back after a more thorough reading, but for now if a diet as one of your new year resolutions, consider first power walking over to the bookstore for Alice Water's new book. Savour it for a new approach to eating: one with an emphasis on flavour and on enjoying our food. As much as eating used to be simple, eating used to be enjoyable. Once we know how to enjoy food, it’s so much easier to stop when we’ve passed the point of enjoyment.

If you received any interesting books on walking or eating over the holidays, post here. There’s nothing like a good afternoon of reading after a chilly January training walk!

It's the week before the race

Less than 7 days until I walk the Seattle Marathon. Yesterday's last long training walk was a good omen. The clear sky and crisp temperature on Saturday night meant that all the leaves in Oakville left their branches in one mass exodus. Sixteen kilometres kicking our way through all those new fallen leaves made me feel 10 years old.

I'm looking forward to the race and now that the training is behind me, I am just trying to eat well and rest this week. Sounds easy. In reality there seems to be so much to do to leave the house and office for a few days. Today started out well with a lunch of bean salad and hard boiled eggs. Dinner was a minestrone soup. I'll feel great on race day if I can keep finding these good carbs for fuelling. Because I need to be well hydrated, especially since the flight to Seattle is 5 hours and 22 minutess, I've got a large ginger root on hand to make tea. (Did you know that ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory?)

The temperature in Seattle is hovering in the 5 to 10 degree range until Friday. My washing machine will be humming. Every possible layering item will be cleaned and ready for packing. At the those temperatures, with rain, it will be chilly. Every photo I have seen of the Seattle Marathon shows grey skies. It's a sure thing that right up until the start I'll be wondering if I am wearing the right clothes.

To keep with my intention of being well rested, I'll continue the saga of my pre-race preparations on Thursday.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for sight seeing in Seattle - it's important to have something to think about during the race!

Milk - the weight loss, muscle building connection

Once again milk is in the news. Back in the July 2006 issue of the WoW What's Up Newsletter we mentioned a study that was published in the American College of Sports Medicine Journal identifying milk as an ideal post-workout food for building muscle. Then, in our September 2006 issue we reminded you that milk also provides the brain with a surge of tryptophan which is a building block for serotonin - a feel-good chemical neurotransmitter. We suggested that everyone finish off class with a small cup of hot chocolate.

Today in the Globe and Mail, there is an article that cites a study completed by McMaster University researchers confirming that milk consumed after a strength workout will help people gain more muscle and lose more fat than people who drink a sports drink at the end of a workout.

This particular study did not focus on aerobic exercise but the lead researcher is quoted as saying that other research has pointed to the benefits of milk as a good post-aerobic workout fuel. And, get this, particularly chocolate milk! So, again, why not stay after class for a small hot chocolate?

I love this. Together with the the study that promotes caffeine and exercise together as a way to ward off skin cancer, life as a power walker can't get any better!

We now have scientifically-based, fuelling justification for our post-workout socials. We should all stay after class at the coffee shop to maximize our muscle building. Morning walkers should gather afterward for caffeine. A latte might be the ideal way to combine the benefits of caffeine and milk!! Or, better yet, perhaps we should make that a mocha? In an evening class? Avoid a caffeine overdose, if you want to get a good night's sleep and order the hot chocolate!

If there's any bad news in any of this, it's that I have not seen any studies promoting whipped cream as a topper.

On a personal note, many of you know that I hate to miss a post-workout social opportunity. I have been known to “double fist” it after morning classes with a latte for my hit of caffeine and an herbal tea for hydration. In the evening, I often order a small skim milk hot chocolate and a chamomile tea.

I’d love to hear about your milk, caffeine and chocolate preferences!

I am escaping the heat! There will be no blog postings until next week. Remember in the extreme heat it is not just water you need, it's also electrolytes. Take an energy drink or snack with you on long walks. Keep in mind that in th extreme heat, the air quality is often poor. Pace yourself.

Iron for marathon walkers

For some strange reason not fully understood by researchers, foot strike athletes can be prone to anemia. This means that iron intake is important. This is a reminder to all of you who have been experiencing lots of foot strikes over the past race season to be sure to eat foods loaded with iron. We have been handing out an article to class particpants over the last week, reviewing iron needs in athletes and iron availability in foods. If you are interested in a copy, let me know, and I'll get it to you. If you have ever experienced anemia from your marathon walking, we'd be interested in hearing how you dealt with it.

Eating right, feeling good

Eating good food has the power to make us feel good. It's as simple as that. If you have taken a WoW Power Walking course, you know we stress balancing the macronutrients - food, water, protein, carbohydrates, and fat - so that we feel good every time we eat. Many diets recommend playing around with the balance of macronutrients - the high protein diet, the low fat diet, the no carb diet. All fail because the body becomes starved for a key macronutrient. These macronutrients play an interesting role in the manufacture of certain chemical neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine in the brain which means their existence or lack thereof, has immediate and dramatic effects on our mood. Yes, we actually do have control over our mood through what we eat.

While I have known this for some time and we have incorporated it into our program to train power walkers, a new book is out now that is entirely based on eating to feel good. It is called The Good Mood Diet by Susan Kleinberg. I heard Ms. Kleiner speak last August at the Can-Fit-Pro conference in Toronto (a leading North American conference for fitness and health professionals) and I highly recommend the book. I am about half way through reading it now. Ms. Kleiner is a leading nutritionist in the U.S and she has published another excellent book I would recommend to anyone called Power Eating.

Within the first few sentences of the book she asks the reader to think about how they feel. This is so elemental and right in alignment with the WoW philosophy of listening to our bodies. I'll be back to this blog with some other thought provoking and palate pleasing ideas based on eating to feel good.

Water: bottling your own

Last Saturday there was an interesting article in Canada's National Newspaper, The Globe and Mail, on drinking water. Well, more specifically on bottled water. Deep in the recesses of my brain I knew I had read somewhere that Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola both bottle municipal tap water and re-sell it, one as Aquafina and the other as Dasani. They get their municipal tap water from Mississauga and Brampton.

I am grateful to the author of this article, for bringing the wet reality more strongly into my consciousness. I don't use bottled water very often because we have a filter at the source of the municipal water entrance to our home. I do enjoy the reduced chlorine taste this filtration process provides. When I am traveling, or I forget to put water in my car cup before I leave the house, I buy bottled water. Often it is Dasani or Aqaufina. Really, I'd be getting the same product if I entered a Tim Horton's or Starbucks and asked for a cup filled with tap water. According to the article, if I just stir the water and let it sit for a bit the chlorine taste will be gone.

As a coach, drinking plenty of water is something I’ve recommend more times than I could ever count. I suggest water when people tell me they hit a low point during the afternoon, or when they experience muscle cramps during a training walk or race. The first line of defense should be to drink some water. Headaches, muscle fatigue, a dry cough and many other symptoms of dehydration are experienced every day by people who have come to accept these feelings of low energy as normal. A single glass of water may be all that is needed to feel good.

Still, whether we need bottled water to feel good is controversial. Several of the plastics from which these bottles, including the polyethylene terephthalate (#1 PET) of single-use popularity, are manufactured leach chemicals into their contents. Essentially, if your water tastes like plastic, you are drinking the chemicals that have gone into making that plastic.

In recent years, sports enthusiasts have taken to using the harder polycarbonate bottle, the most popular brand being Nalgene. (Several of us got really nice versions of this in our race kits for the Ottawa Full Marathon, two years ago!) Now, there is some evidence that the hard #7 polycarbonate plastic in these bottles may leach an artificial estrogen into its contents.

What’s an ethical, environmentally-minded, health-conscious power walking addict to do? Well, general consensus seems to suggest that we do not use single-use bottles again for re-fills. Also, common environmental sense suggests that we try to reduce the number of plastic bottles we buy.

Experts are now recommending the use of polypropylene (#5 PP), which is not known to leach harmful substances, as well as high density polyethylene#2 HDPE and low density polyethylene#4 LDPE for refillable water bottles.

Some people are not waiting for the next bad-news scenario on these plastics and are switching to stainless or glass containers. Glass might be a bit tricky for power walkers and stainless steel can get heavy, so ultimately the decision is yours.

If you are a power walker trying to stay on top of your hydration needs, your long-term health may be worth some thoughtful consideration as to how you are storing your water.

Finally, don’t forget…you can also worry your way sick! Above all: get outside, get power walking!