Top 10 ‘back to basics’ Go Faster tips to eat well in 2013

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Kate

Have a Healthy, Happy & Energised 2013!

Top 10 ‘back to basics’ Go Faster tips to eat well in 2013

I’d like to propose getting BACK TO BASICS IN 2013. Why do we work out? It’s simple! It’s about getting into the fresh air, getting fit, working out with friends and having a good natter, working out on your own to regroup your thoughts, pushing yourself to go that extra mile or beat your PB. It’s not complicated.

That’s what a athlete’s diet should be as well!

Use these top 10 ‘back to basics’ Go Faster tips to eat well in 2013! They’ll help with weight loss if that’s your goal, although it will require a little patience, but it’s essentially an easy and uncomplicated ‘way of eating’ , both achievable and enjoyable, which will promote both long-term health and better athletic performance.

1. Would you put diesel into a Ferrari? NO!!

Ensure each mouthful is nutritious

If you are active, your body may need extra calories, but this doesn’t mean that you should just grab the nearest sugar-coated custard doughnut! Don’t waste time with ‘empty’ calories – focus on nutrient-dense foods and try your best to keep to unprocessed; that’s fresh, natural ingredients. You’ll find lots of examples and recipes to use them in Go Faster Food. Of course, with our busy lifestyles processed foods are virtually impossible to avoid, so when you do eat them, check the label for hidden saturated fats and salt.

Know what you are eating, read the label and ask yourself ”Do I really want to put this into my body?”.

2. BALANCE AND MODERATION!

Sounds boring, but this is the key to long-term health. Whether training or not, the ideal diet should include a wide variety of foods. Your body needs balance, so don’t cut out one particular food group, such as carbohydrate, protein or fat. Stick to the standard BDA guidelines of around 60% carbohydrate – that’s bread, pasta, cereal, rice AND fruit and vegetables, with a good mix of protein (around 15%) and the rest from fats. As an athlete, you also need to increase your intake of vitamins and minerals.

Don’t forget the maths! The more you move, the more you can eat!

It’s as simple as that. Don’t eat more calories than you can burn. Fad diets such as Atkins, Paleo, Blood Type, Fasting, Dukan promise great things, but are best avoided unless recommended by a medical expert. They are complicated, difficult to sustain and can affect health in the long term.

Regular exercise and sensible, balanced eating will be far more effective in the long term that a diet.

3. Beauty comes from within, thank goodness!

Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t got the ultimate 6-pack, or if you’re not the perfect size 10 with abs to die for…

Being active, fit and healthy is more important than having the perfect figure!

4. It’s not just about the race

Fuelling for endurance sport is not just about carbo-loading before a race; it is equally important to be smart about eating throughout your training schedule. If you don’t train well you won’t race well. Fuel yourself with the right foods during training, you’ll prevent injury and improve both your performance and your recovery times.

For general training, use the recipes, meal plans and advice in Go Faster Food.

For pre-race fuelling advice, meal plans and recipes, get yourself a copy of FuelSmart for Race Day

5. You don’t have to be a millionaire to eat well!

Eating well doesn’t have to break the bank! Good quality, nutrient-dense foods such as fruit, vegetables and wholegrains are easily available at the local supermarket, so don’t worry that you’re not visiting the farmer’s market, speciality health food store or deli every week.

Keep it simple! Avoiding processed wherever possible is the key to good long-term health. Avoid the ‘so-called’ healthy sports drinks and energy bars and make your own instead. You’ll not only be healthier but you’ll save ££££$$$$$. You’ll find easy recipes for these in FuelSmart for Race Day (£3.99)

6. Keep well-hydrated

Keeping well-hydrated throughout the day will make you feel energised and focussed. If you wait until you feel thirsty you’ll be slightly dehydrated already, so keep bottles of water with you, at your desk, in the car, on your bedside table. Take a big bottle of water to work with you and make sure you finish it by the end of the day. Read more about hydration.

Don’t waste money on expensive sports drinks when you can make your own – see hydration. Use your savings on a £3.99 copy of FuelSmart for Race Day instead!

7. Don’t train on empty

Try to plan your training sessions so that you can eat 1-2 hours before setting off, especially if you are planning an intense or longer workout. You’ll train stronger and feel better. Eat something which is low in fat, easy to digest and high in carbohydrate that will gradually release energy to your muscles; click here for pre-workout recipes….

8. Good recovery is the key to success!

Eat and drink to refuel within the 15 minute magic window to speed recovery

Carbohydrate is stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen. Glycogen levels become depleted after a workout and the quicker they are topped up again, the quicker your recovery will be and the better you will feel for your next session. You also need water and electrolytes to replace fluid loss, and protein to repair your muscle cells. Grab something as soon as you finish your workout like a honey sandwich, a bowl of rice pudding, a slice of toast with scrambled egg, peanut butter or hummus, an energy bar or flapjack, a piece of fruit (melon is good) or a refreshing home-made smoothie made with skimmed milk or yoghurt.

Eat and drink to refuel within the 15 minute magic window to speed recovery. Click here for recovery recipes…

9. Eat well on rest days

Rest days are highly important for recovery as this is the time when your muscles are at their most receptive – it can take up to 20 hours for muscle glycogen stores to be fully replenished and it is often when the hunger starts to kick in with a vengeance.

Make the most of rest days, replenish your depleted energy and feed your muscles by eating well.

10. Don’t be too boring and obsessive about what you eat!

Follow the 80:20 rule

Athletes can often become body conscious and this can sometimes lead to eating disorder. Please don’t get too hung up on your exact food intake; a relaxed attitude to eating will help you stay focussed, feel good, exercise better and enjoy your training without starting to feel that it is a chore. Eating well for around 80% of the time means that you can afford to stray for the remaining 20% without feeling guilty.

Enjoy your food! It’s what makes all this training worthwhile!

The Eggs Factor

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Kate

Every now and then I get a craving to keep hens in the back garden but I’ve always chickened out (excuse the pun, I will now try to refrain from any further egg puns although so eggstremely tempting). Lucky for me, my lovely friend Jane Evans of Birdcombe Court Farm keeps me supplied with delicious freshly-laid beauties.

So as athletes, why should we eat eggs? Well, they are the ultimate convenience food; cheap and packed with nutrition including protein and a heap of essential vitamins, minerals and omega 3 fats. Fantastic to keep us strong, healthy and in prime training form.

It is of course important for athletes to consume enough protein to keep muscles healthy and to repair muscle trauma after long runs. Eggs are perfect for this; a fabulous source of natural high-quality protein, providing 6.3 grams of protein, that’s 13% of our daily requirement in one egg. So much better, and tastier, I feel, than whey powder and such products used to boost protein in commercial recovery shakes and bars. And at only 68 calories per egg, a great way to get protein inside you during training without piling on the pounds.

Eggs not only make a delicious meal or snack on their own but are an essential ingredient in thousands of sweet and savoury recipes. What puzzles me is whoever discovered that they were so versatile? What clever person figured out that if you emulsify egg yolks and oil you get mayonnaise, or if you combine eggs with sugar, fat and flour you get cake mixture…and , the cleverest of all, that if you beat egg white together into a white froth you can make meringues, mouses, soufflees etc etc. Very clever indeed, that person was…

Get yourself a copy of Go Faster Food which is packed with delicious recipes to keep you in good training form:

Or try these for a taster:

Go Faster Recovery Shake Hot Oatcakes with Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Eggs

Butternut Squash Cake

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Kate

Whilst playing around with butternut squash recipes I fell upon the idea of grating it up and making a cake, just like you might do with carrot or courgette. It works! In fact, it works really, really well and what’s even more surprising, my daughter, who will normally extract any trace of butternut squash from her meal, absolutely adores it!

I think butternut squash is a fabulous vegetable and an excellent addition to any training diet. Bell-like in shape, it has a beautifully smooth, creamy-coloured skin which protects its dense, rich golden-yellow flesh. Its texture is deliciously soft; its taste sweet, buttery, nutty. It’s hard to believe that as little as 10 years ago few people in the UK barely knew what a butternut squash was. Now it’s widely available and has gradually become a much-loved and versatile staple in our shopping trolleys.

We may consider this beautiful tangerine-hued vegetable as just another starchy ‘comfort food’, but butternut squash is in fact a powerhouse of nutrients. It’s a complex carbohydrate loaded with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which can reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, boost immunity and help the healthy funtion of the reproductive system. It’s low in fat, and rich in fibre, vitamin C and potassium. It even contains folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1 and a plethora of essential minerals. Weight Watchers endorses butternut squash as one of its ‘zero foods’ because of its low content of calories and saturated fat.

To cook a butternut squash, peel the skin with a good, sharp vegetable peeler. Cut off the stem and then slice in half lengthwise, from stem to end. Scrape out the seeds and the stringy membrane with a spoon. If you’re roasting or baking squash you don’t need to peel.

Butternut Squash Cake

It’s a rare ocassion that this deliciously moist cake gets iced in my house – it’s always wolfed down as soon as it comes out of the oven. That’s fine! It’s packed with goodness. If you do get to the icing stage you’ll find this cake keeps very well for a few days.

You will need a 20cm round cake tin, greased or lined with greaseproof paper

For the cake

125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
zest of 1 orange
2 eggs
200g butternut squash, peeled and grated
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
juice of 1/2 orange
125g self-raising wholemeal flour, sifted
75g raisins or sultanas
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp salt
small handful whole or chopped walnuts to decorate

For the icing

110g full-fat soft cheese
20g unsalted butter, at room temperature
40g icing sugar
squeeze of lemon or lime juice

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3–4.
Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, beating well as you add each one.
Fold in the grated butternut squash, raisins and nuts, and add the orange juice.
Fold in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spice and salt.
Pour into the cake tin and bake for about 45 minutes – you will know the cake is done as the cake comes away from the side of the cake tin and is springy to the touch.
Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
Cream the cheese and butter together. Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Spread the icing generously over the cake.
Decorate with whole or chopped walnuts.

Try my great pre-event dish for carbo-loading too – butternut squash risotto with maple syrup almonds

Cod wrapped in parma ham with lemony basil salsa

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Kate

Just a quick post about the most delicious, healthy and, most importantly, FAST, 10-minute supper we had tonight. An excellent training meal, cod is an really good, tasty and low fat source of protein. I served it with potatoes in their skins, crushed with a little olive oil and fresh spinach with a little nutmeg and crème fraiche:

Serves 4

4 fillets of line-caught cod
8 slices of parma ham
30g basil leaves
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
dessert spoon capers
zest of a lemon plus a little lemon juice

Heat the oven to 200C.
Lay 3 basil leaves onto each cod fillet and season with a little salt and black pepper
Wrap two slices of parma ham around each cod fillet.
Lay the fillets in a baking dish, drizzle with a tbsp olive oil.
Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the cod is just cooked through and the parma ham begins to crisp up.
Meanwhile finely chop a handful of basil and the capers. Put this into a small bowl and mix in the lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice and another tbsp or two of extra virgin olive oil.
Serve the cod fillets with the basil/caper/lemon zest mix drizzled over.

Sticky lemon and honey chicken thighs with basmati & wild rice and rainbow salad

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Kate

Sticky lemon and honey chicken, basmati and wild rice and a crunchy rainbow salad

My son James is finally back from his school trip trekking in Morocco, for which he has saved and saved all year (cleaning out the street’s recycling bins, the darling – the whole street loves him now!). He just got back before the volcanic ash saga hit us here in the UK, thank goodness. James managed to avoid Moroccan belly until his last day and of course brought it home for the family to catch instead. Sickness and its aftermath is not a great start to a pre-marathon build up week unfortunately….I’m positively forcing myself to eat at the moment. I always find that my hunger decreases significantly during the taper before a marathon – it stands to reason really: that the less you run the less hungry you are. But it is important to keep up the eating if you are running on Sunday - follow a good, low fat diet, up the carbs to about 70% and keep protein to about 15-20%. Try to stick to low G.I. carb options too – plenty of fruit and veg, pasta, rice, couscous.

Despite my lack of hunger, I still managed to make and eat tonight’s supper without too much trouble! I picked up some nice fresh, free range chicken thighs from the farm shop on the way home from work, but you could so this with any cut of chicken really, preferably with skin and bone-in. You don’t really have to follow the recipe too carefully either as I’m sure any combination of the ingredients will produce delicious results…Unfortunately I can’t find the cable to connect my camera to the computer so my nice pics will have to wait….

Serves 4

8 free range chicken thighs, skin on
1 scant tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp mixed Italian herbs
1 tsp ras-el-hanout (if you don’t have this, any tasty spice will do – ground cumin or coriander for instance)
A little chilli sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flat-leaf parsley to serve
400g basmati and wild rice
For the salad – a couple of tomatoes, one orange pepper, 1/2 a cucumber, 2-3 sticks celery dressed with a little extra virgin olive oil and white balsamic vinegar

Preparation

Heat the oven to 190C (fan temp).
Mix together the olive oil, honey, lemon juice, garlic, vinegar, herbs, spices and chilli sauce. Place the chicken thighs in a roasting dish – it is best if they fit in quite tightly – and coat with the honey mixture. Sprinkle with a little salt and some freshly ground black pepper. You might want to fit in the remains of the squeezed lemon halves to add a little flavour – they go nice and caramelised when they are roasted.
Place in the oven and roast for about 25 -30 mins, or until the chicken is cooked and the skins are nicely sticky, golden and caramelised.
Meanwhile cook the rice according to pack instructions – basmati and wild rice normally takes about 25 mins.
While the rice and chicken are cooking, slice the pepper, tomatoes, cucumber and celery as thinly as possible (you could use a mandolin if you are feeling brave), mix together with the dressing and a little salt.
When the chicken is cooked, leave it for a few minutes, decorate with a little flat-leaf parsley, then serve with the rice and the salad. It is best to leave the chicken in the roasting dish so that you can spoon the delicious juices over the rice.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE RUNNING THE VLM ON SUNDAY!!!!

Pappardelle with Prosciutto, Flat-Leaf Parsley, Sweet Red Peppers and Brie de Meaux

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Kate

Pappardelle with Prosciutto, Flat-Leaf Parsley, Sweet Red Peppers and Brie de Meaux

Just a quickie post to jot down a delicious pasta dish I’ve just made for lunch after a joyful 13 miler this morning (I actually sprinted the last mile home, let’s hope the training stays so positive). This pasta took moments to make (and eat), was really fresh-tasting and incredibly healthy, with a good balanced of vitamins and slow-burning carbohydrates, plus a little protein. Brie de Meaux is quite high in saturated fat, so you might want to go easy on this. On the other hand, a little goes a long way and it really does add to the dish.

Serves 2 hungry people or 4 smaller portions:

250 g fresh pappardelle ( I used fresh lasagne sheets which I cut into thick strips)
80g pack of prosciutto cut into thin strips – even better if you can buy some cut freshly at the deli, but I used the pre-packed stuff
25g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
a couple of sweet red pointed peppers, or one large standard red pepper, sliced finely
about 150g good quality brie, like brie de Meaux, sliced into thinnish slices
about 3 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
plenty of freshly-ground black pepper

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to pack instructions (fresh pasta usually only takes a couple of minutes).
Drain the pasta, saving a tablespoon of the cooking water.
Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the saucepan and then throw in the peppers, sauté for a minute and then add the pasta, the tablespoon of cooking water, the parsley and the prosciutto. Stir it all around to combine , add the brie, a little more olive oil, plenty of freshly-ground black pepper and stir to combine again.
Serve immediately, with some grated parmesan and a rocket salad on the side.