GUEST POST :: Paleo Diet 101

Author: Eric Wood
The Label Says Paleo

After the 1.1. Run, I was talking to a friend who told me that she’s going gluten-free this year. This Ironman athlete made an intriguing find during her 2009 season: she planned gluten-free meals in the weeks leading up to her races, and she performed and felt better than she ever had before. Through the season, she killed her age groups, and is looking at making a more permanent diet change. While her training is of course key to her success, her diet is more important, as we only perform as well as the fuel with which we race. Why did the move to gluten-free work? Read on…

There’s been a ton of press lately around a “new” kind of diet. The Caveman Diet, Paleo Diet, Primal Diet – they’re all used to describe similar diets, yet none of them are particularly new. Instead, these diets take an evolutionary perspective, and look back in time to see what we ate before modern agriculture came around. The theory is simple: genetically-speaking, modern-day humans are not much different from pre-agricultural humans, and since agriculture really hasn’t been around too long, we should eat like we’re genetically built to.

Researchers around the world have found the following: in modern-day hunter-gatherer societies, people are healthy. There is very little evidence of obesity, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disorders, or any of the several other health issues plaguing industrialized societies. These societies eat meat, the entire animal (seriously, just about the whole thing); vegetables as they can find; berries are a treat; nuts and seeds are around. What’s missing from this list? Any kind of processed food: bread, protein bars, bagels, oats, refined sugars. In other words, they eat what man has always eaten, before the advent of grains and processed foods.

What about science and medicine, you say? This flies in the face of the Food Pyramid, of almost everything we’re taught, and certainly contradicts the endurance athlete’s carb-loading traditions. Look no further than your waistline to see what’s going on.

Extra fat around the waistline, the kind that you just can’t seem to get rid of, is a sign of insulin resistance. Processed carbs and sugars, particularly those found in gluten-bearing foods like breads, are known to spike your insulin levels, leading to systemic inflammation and resultant chronic disease. For those of you not only looking out for your health, but also your figure: wild fluctuation in insulin levels leads to the storage of excess energy as fat (the culprit of those extra inches around your waistline.

Want to look better, perform better, and feel better? Regulate your insulin levels by eliminating processed foods and focusing on high-quality foods that we were meant to eat: meat, vegetables, some fruit, nuts and seeds. Try it for a month. Replace the missing carbs with high-quality vegetables and fats. The first two or three weeks may be tough, but your body will adjust, leaving you with more energy, a slimmer waistline, and better biological markers like the following: reduced inflammation (recover from your workouts faster!), improved cholesterol readings (healthier hearts!), reduced body fat (look good in those cycling kits!), and improve the immune system (no swine flu for you!).


Interested in knowing more? There are a ton of books, resources around the Internet, and people here in Austin are living the Paleo lifestyle daily. For more information and pointers to resources, check out Austin-based blog The Label Says Paleo at http://thelabelsayspaleo.com.

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Note from RLE: This is the first of a series of guest blog posts we'll be doing covering some different nutritional approaches for athletes. Here's some more info and a little disclaimer from RLE.

Carbohydrates: Athlete Fuel

As we continue through marathon season it is important to think about fueling with carbohydrates. What we eat can have a significant impact on our weekly speed sessions, long runs, races and just about every aspect of training. Many athletes have a basic understanding of carbohydrate fueling during a race but, daily nutrition is also an important part of reaching the goals that you set for yourself this season.

No matter what you have heard about “good” and “bad” carbohydrates, low carb diets and glycemic indexes you cannot escape the fact that our bodies run on carbohydrates. Glucose (the most basic carbohydrate) is the only thing that fuels the brain. If it is not available from the diet the body starts to make it from other substances like proteins…this is not a good thing.

We store a limited amount of carbohydrate in the muscles and liver. This is called glycogen. If you have ever “carb loaded” before a race you are essentially making sure that your glycogen stores are at capacity. This storage carbohydrate is not what we want to use to fuel a track session on a Wednesday evening. You should save this for mile 23 on race day when you start to close in on the finish line; then, you may tap into that muscle glycogen and pick it up!

Carbohydrates are broken down in to two categories, simple and complex. We have heard that simple carbohydrates are bad for us and complex carbohydrates are good for us. This is not the case, both forms of carbohydrates are important for the body. They are just important for different reasons and should be used at different times during your daily training, nutrition and racing.

Simply carbohydrates are commonly called sugars. They can be single sugars (monosaccharide) like glucose or fructose or double sugars (disaccharide) such as lactose that is found in milk products and sucrose which is table sugar. Simple carbohydrates are easily broken down by your body and can become a good, quick source of fuel when your body needs it most. Products that are predominantly simple carbohydrates are typically used during intense bouts of exertion such as workouts lasting longer than one hour (think gels during long runs and races) or when you need to fuel less than thirty minutes before a shorter workout.

-more simple language…here…no one really wants to know about mono/disacch…

More commonly called starches and fibers, complex carbohydrates are composed of simple carbohydrates attached in long branched chains. These take longer to digest and become available to your body as fuel. The most commonly consumed sources of complex carbohydrates are whole grains. However, complex carbohydrates are also found in fruits and vegetables. Foods rich in this form of carbohydrate are great for post workout recovery, pre-race dinner and everyday nutrition. Whole grains, fruits and vegetables are not only rich in complex carbohydrates they also contain many nutrients that are essential to the daily function of our bodies and that are particularly essential to athletes.

In daily nutrition it is important to load the diet with foods that are rich in complex carbohydrates (whole grains, fruits and vegetables) and use the simple carbohydrates sparingly where they are needed most like during long training sessions. This balance will help your body run most efficiently giving you quick fuel when you need it with whole grains and veggies for recovery and daily fueling. If you keep these ideas in mind as you begin to train longer hours your body is going to thank you on race day; well you are still going to be sore but you at least you will know how to eat for recovery.


Barley Tabouli

1 cup pearled barley
1 cup seeded diced tomato
1 cup diced cucumber
1/3 cup chopped flat leaf (Italian) parsley
¼ cup chopped red onion
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
2 TBS red wine vinegar or lemon juice
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

-cook barley in excess boiling water (like you would cook pasta) for approximately 25 minutes, check for tenderness. Barley should be cooked but still have some resistance on the tooth…not mushy.

-drain barley and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, drain well.

-combine oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a medium mixing bowl and whisk to combine, add barley and toss. Add remaining ingredients and toss to combine. Refrigerate 1 hour, stirring occasionally, so flavors can combine. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Yield: serves ~6 (1 cup serving)
130 calories
3 g fat
104mg sodium
25g Carbohydrates
4g fiber
2g sugar
2g protein


Jess Kolko is a Graduate Student at UT Austin studying Nutrition. She is currently an intern for Nutritionist Meredith Terranova. http://www.eatingandlivinghealthy.com

Make Every Day ‘New Years Day’

It’s that time of year again. The time when we are all drawn to reflect on a year gone by, and resolve to achieve new and higher goals in the year before us. It’s the time when weight rooms and group exercise classes are all a bit more crowded. It’s resolution time!

Alas, most resolutions are abandoned well before February 1. As student of sports and exercise psychology, a big part of my studies are spent learning about obstacles to change, and how to motivate people to overcome these obstacles while embracing a healthier lifestyle. What can we do to keep ourselves and others motivated to reach new fitness goals (or any goals for that matter)?

There are a multitude of “theories” that attempt to explain behavior and how to change it. Some of these theories are very basic and some are overly complex, but there is one concept that they all attempt to address, and understanding this may help us better create change in our own behaviors. Belief in your ability to successfully accomplish a task, termed self-efficacy, is a central theme in all theories of behavior change. Without belief, there can be no vision of success, and without a vision, there can be no achievement. To create change, one must not only see where they are headed, but be able to see themselves having already achieved their goal! I feel very fortunate to have come from a sedentary background because it gives me an understanding that many lifelong athletes may lack. I’ve been the proverbial ‘couch potato’, and experienced the (at times) painful transition to fully adopting an athletic identity. Most New Years Resolutions that revolve around fitness are terminated because of a lack of immediate results. Constant focus on the outcome (usually weight loss) leads to disappointment, and eventually termination. Focus on the daily process, and implement the ideas presented here to greatly increase your chances of reaching your fitness resolutions.

• Know your ‘Why’ – This step is the most important because when it really comes down to it, the motivation must come from within. We can get motivation from our environment, but we have to truly want something in order to go through the work it takes to embrace real change. Why do you want to accomplish this goal? What does it mean to you? Think about it, visualize it, make it part of who you are. Write it down, and tape it to your mirror. Don’t limit yourself by arbitrary goals, such as, “to lose weight” or “to be healthier”. Go deeper… Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to be healthier? Find what really drives your passion, and keep it in front of you along the journey toward your goals.

• Find the joy – Physical activity is not something you do, it’s a part of who you are.
Embrace it, and find joy in it. Love what you do. If you read Chris McDougall’s “Born to Run”, you know that the recurring theme with the Tarahumara is the immense joy they get from running. When you are positive and joyful, you’re entire posture changes for the better, so remember to carry joy in your heart, and into your workouts. This means finidng an activity you like instead of embracing on you hate because you heard it works. Lots of things ‘work’ – find what works for you.

• Make it Social – This is part of focusing on the process vs. the outcome. Everything
is more fun with a friend! And believe it or not, research is now showing that we are all more likely to behave in a manner similar to that of our online social networks. If all our friends on Facebook have profile pictures of themselves smiling, we are more likely to post a picture of ourselves smiling. The same goes for lifestyle! Surround yourself, physically and virtually, with healthy-minded, active people that will reinforce the behavior you want to see in yourself.

• Register for races/events early – Hand over the dough, and now you’re committed!
Tell your friends/family about your intentions to do this event. You don’t have to share every detail of your goals, just enough so that they are there as a backup to hold you accountable when you fail to do it for yourself. You’ll be surprised by how motivating this can be.

• Document your progress – You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Use of training logs, frequent field-testing, and even pictures are all great ways to document your journey. If these tools tell you you’re getting closer to your goal, things are moving in the right direction, otherwise it may be time to reassess your training program.

In a nutshell, focus on the process, enjoy what you do, and surround yourself with healthy-minded friends… the outcome will take care of itself.


Tammy Metzger, B.Sc.


Tammy Metzger is a graduate student in Kinesiology at UT Austin, and owner/operator of the newly formed Austin-based endurance coaching company, Tempo Multisport, LLC. More information at www.goteamtempo.com or email tammy@goteamtempo.com

Jessi Stensland: Venturing Off-Road

I would have considered myself an off-road virgin…until this year. For 10 years I’d been racing triathlon on the road with the odd trail running race mixed in. It was about two years ago that I started to get curious about off-road multisport, went to watch a race and then borrowed a mountain bike and did the 2007 XTERRA World Championships in Maui. Still, 2008 passed by, and it wasn’t until January 2009 that I got my own mountain bike, hopped into an extreme trail running race, did a 12-hour MTB race on a 4-person team, and finally did an awesome off-road sprint triathlon in a pristine park just outside of the craziness of Los Angeles, CA, that I was fully hooked, almost immediately to the point of no return (to the road!) More importantly, I’ve been inspired to inspire others to venture with me and enliven their typical multisport experiences.

I raced off-road more than I trained off-road in the beginning. I quickly realized I had to seek out new people and places for these new adventures and in doing so, I ended up finding a whole new world, and I love that I have so many more years to enjoy it!

I continue to be amazed by the endless options I now have to enjoy training, racing and challenge myself as a person and an athlete. Last month I raced an on-road sprint triathlon near the ocean in Carlsbad, CA, the following weekend I was up in the mountains in Big Bear, CA racing an off-road duathlon and after that I did Muddy Buddy Boulder with family on our vacation! Last weekend I did the King of the Rockies mountain bike race in Winterpark, CO and the SkirtChaser 5k in Denver the same evening. Finally, this past Monday I did an 8 mile trail run called, Race to the Top of Mt. Baldy, just outside of Los Angeles, CA, all uphill, with 4000’ of climbing up to the summit at 10000’. The terrain and views were absolutely heavenly and super hard all that the same time. I had no idea what I was in for, and I loved it! I’m having a blast meeting all types of people who love to do what I do and seeing new parts of this beautiful planet we live on.

One key thing that made my transition to off-road so easy and allows me to be so diverse in my activities, is my performance training. Before sport-specfic training like swim, bike, run, I focus on training my body to be athletic, powerful, injury resistant and therefore capable of doing whatever my mind asks it to do. This gives me the confidence in myself and my body to jump into new challenges with two feet and without worry of injury. My key workouts (3-4 times per week for 60-90 minutes) include a joint focus on all the elements the body needs to get the job done. These include mobility, flexibility, stability, strength, elasticity and cardio capacity followed up with sport-specific drills for proper mechanics and movement efficiency. Doing these workouts makes me a better swimmer, cyclist and runner. So with the rest of the time I have, I go out an have a blast in my training any which way I want. It all works together. A body that moves well, is more capable of coordinating movements in new sports, like mountain biking and trail running for example. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t made learning mountain bike skills a piece of cake! I’ve taken quite a few spills, but my body has handled it well and my progress has been fast and fun! The best part is my training on the trails, which tends to include much more climbing, has transferred greatly to my power ON the road. It’s a win-win situation!

You can read more about my experiences, both on and off-road this year, and more of what I’ve learned, and continue to learn, at www.gojessi.com.

If you haven’t gone off-road yet, hope you’ll join me!