Tag: 5

Contributed by James Mscisz

Throughout my time of working out, running, dieting, and fitness I’ve found nutrition to be the most interesting and controversial. I always see new posts of thoughts and ideas on it. I even research numerous things on healthy foods, supplements, etc. from time to time.

I recently stumbled across this diet/lifestyle while looking through the website of Durianrider, a popular Youtube blogger who promotes a high carb vegan lifestyle. The book I found was 80/10/10 by Douglas N. Graham. I looked into reviews and checked out some videos of the author online. I could kind of figure out how the diet worked and what one would need to do to follow it but I bought it anyways for more detailed information and to use as a reference guide.

80/10/10 stands for percentages of your total daily calories while following this High Carb Raw Vegan lifestyle. 80% minimum for carbs, 10% maximum for fats, and 10% maximum for protein. How is this achieved in a healthy manner? Eating fruit of course. MASSIVE quantities of fruit.  To follow this diet you must consume fruit throughout the day and tender leafy greens (lettuces) for dinner (also some seeds and nuts are optional). Now first off this is highly extreme and a lot different than most people are accustomed to. It’s definitely something that most people aren’t brave enough to try or just don’t have the will power. Although it can be transitioned to over a period of time adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet. I can’t go into incredible detail about the diet itself because it would practically be a book so I’m going to get right into my own experience with it and my review.

So, back to where I started.. I found out some interesting information in the book and online and decided to give it a try for a day or weekend. Well, it ended up turning into ongoing as I’m still doing it. I gained so much energy from it, my insides have felt a lot lighter, my meals don’t take forever to digest, and there’s no crash either. I’ve even lost a little extra fat I didn’t really need without any calorie restriction whatsoever. I actually over-consumed calories and still dropped the fat. The hardest part of this diet is getting in the calories. Most fruit has actually very low in calories so to get a meals worth of calories you have to consume a large volume as opposed to smaller calorie dense meals most of us are used to.  I could easily see people failing in this aspect, I had trouble in the first day or so. I quickly found bananas and dates to be the main staples of the diet. Both bananas and dates are high in calories. Dates tend to be sweeter and a lot smaller than bananas making them a bit easier to boost calories as well. A lot of times I mix it up with different vegetables, rice, corn pasta, etc. so it doesn’t get too monotonous.

I have been following this lifestyle although having some cheat days hear and there and am not strictly following it, strictly would be all raw all the time, some of the vegetables I eat are frozen or need to be cooked to eat which are not typical foods on the diet. What about protein and fats? Of course we need these macro nutrients in our diet and we certainly get them in this lifestyle. Fruits and vegetables contain fats and proteins. When consumed in high volumes, they add up to necessary amounts needed. I do both strength and endurance work, a lot more endurance work and haven’t seen either my strength or endurance decline. They have actually improved a lot more and post workout recovery has been faster and the soreness less nagging. I feel that the diet/lifestyle has actually allowed my body to adapt faster to my workouts and perform at its peak. During races I feel a lot lighter and faster. Compared to how hard I worked in the past and the small incremental results I was getting, I was blown away by how dramatically this improved my health and performance. I really want to encourage people to at least experiment or try this if they’re serious about improving race performance, health and vitality or even for just health reasons.
Given I went to personal training school in the past and had some basic knowledge of nutrition this totally changed my whole perspective on it. Fruits and vegetables are the most nutrient dense natural foods on the planet. No one can dispute that. It’s the other foods that begin to complicate things. But if you clear you mind and go back to the basics it’s very simple and it makes common sense.

Links:
http://www.foodnsport.com/

http://www.amazon.com/The-80-10-Diet/dp/1893831248

http://www.youtube.com/user/durianriders/videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/Freelea/videos

http://www.30bananasaday.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/516686945053457/

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheFruitarian/videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/FoodnSport/videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/FullyRawKristina

 

Endurance races such as marathons, triathlons, ironmans have been around a while now. With things like Ultra-marathons gaining popularity, as well as adventure racing and obstacle racing, it only makes sense that more and more products hit the market as well. You’ve got this start-up business coming up with their own gels, protein and energy bars, chews or whatever else they think is the “cool” thing to do.

Having been around since 2002, it seems to me Honey Stinger might have been ahead of the curve a little bit. Their product line is refined and not clogged up with unnecessary items. Well, I’m not sure what the deal is with the Waffle’s, but that’ll be for another day when I try them out! They have been around long enough, and know how to do things the right way. Their product is labeled 90-95% organic ingredients, which oddly enough, seems to be straightforward and darned honest to boot. As the name entails, the main ingredient that they have built around is… wait for it…. HONEY! Who’d have guessed right? I love this because it means no other sweeteners or excess sugar was added. The ingredients are all pronounceable, it seems they are preservative free as well. Most of their products are also gluten free.

Now onto what I tasted…

Dark Chocolate Mocha Cherry Protein Bars – These were my favorite out of the three things that I sampled. Not only do they have 10g of whey protein, but they are stacked with 30gs of caffeine!! I devoured one before a run and had one mid way through a shift at work. My job is pretty physical, seeing as I have to lump around an 85lb ladder most of the time, so this bar gave me a definite pep in my step. The flavor was fantastic, nearly amazing is the fact the bar is good for you and gluten free to boot.

Blueberry Buzz Energy Bar – Just cause I liked the Mocha Cherry bars doesn’t mean these were bad, far from it. They had a great flavor, and were a nice filling snack throughout the day. Per the Honey Stinger site “All Honey Stinger energy bars are made with over 30% honey, 20% of the daily recommended allowance of protein, 22 vitamins and minerals, calcium, antioxidants, natural flavors and all the benefits of our energy gel.” The flavor was clean, and did not taste like most “blueberry flavored” bars out there, as these actually had blueberries in them. The yogurt dip on the bottom added a nice touch to an already perfect energy bar.

Cherry Cola Energy Gels – I was sent two sample packs of these, so I used them for to separate runs. I ran 6 miles on Sunday, and 7+ on Monday. Normally, I have never taken anything with me, except water in my hydration pack, but it’s become clear that after 3 miles my body starts screaming for nourishment so these were perfect to try out and see what they did. As usual, right around mile 3 the pissing and moaning began. First it was my calves, “but, but we hurt…” Then it was my hamstrings, “you need to rest, we can’t handle anymore…” I had heard enough! In mid stride I opened my pack, fished around in it with my arm twisted behind my back which must have looked awkward to other runners on the trail, hell it looked and felt awkward to me. I popped about 3-4 of them in my mouth and felt like I was transported back to being a kid. It was very reminiscent of the texture of a gummy bear, but a heck of a lot less sticky. These chews did not stick to my teeth, were not overly sweet and had a pleasant taste to them. About 5-10 minutes later the chatter from my legs was dying down, they were working. Thank you Honey Stinger, my iPod was getting awfully jealous that I wasn’t listening to it, and it was conspiring malicious things against my legs for taking all the attention away!

The gist of this review is, Honey Stinger products are exactly what you have been missing. Good for your taste buds and good for your body. I love the packaging too, listing activities such as climbing, splitting wood, running as the optimal “sports” for these products. Highly recommended, I am a huge Honey Stinger fan!!