Is Getting Lean, Fast and Fit Part of Your 2016 Plan?
Following a real, paleo-inspired regime won’t result in someone losing ten pounds in one week, the way some fad diets may promise, but it will create a slow, steady and safe way to peel off those pounds while improving your overall health simultaneously.
You may already feel comfortable with the basics: eat more fresh, in season veggies, up the good fat, balance out your good protein options and cut out those refined, processed carbohydrates.
But what about for those of us who are athletes?
Don’t we need to rely on heavy use of carbohydrate gels, blocks and bars?
Isn’t it the case that we simply need to get the calories in, regardless of where they’re coming from?
No.
Not by a long shot.
Consuming the equivalent of one can of sugar-laced soda drink (39 grams) a day increases the risk of developing diabetes by more than a fifth, according to a large European study[1]…even for athletes.
While you might be thinking that you’re safe because you’re not downing the corn-syrupy colas, you’re no better off sucking back the maltodextrin-based gels and related products, which can affect blood sugar even more dramatically than table sugar[2].
So where does that leave us athletes?
There are two steps:
- Training our bodies to become more efficient at using fat as our main fuel[3].
- Sourcing a superior source of carbohydrate to supplement the fat we’re tapping into from our own bodies.
How do we go about doing this?
I wanted to know the same thing.
For nearly a decade, I’d followed a very healthy eating regime as described above, which I found through trial and error after discovering that years of illness were stemming primarily from eating gluten and soy.
Yet when I was training and racing Ironman, and performing at very high level (7 time qualifier at Ironman World Championships), I was eating something that was the very antithesis of clean, real food: carbohydrate gels.
While I was always candid about what I was eating, it bothered me to no end to feel so hypocritical in what I was doing.
Until one day, about one year ago, I saw an ad for a product called VESPA[4] in an ultra running magazine.
Apparently it was touting being “Nature’s Catalyst for Optimizing Fat Metabolism (OFM)”.
I had to learn more.
I reached out to the company and heard back right away from the president, Peter Defty.
Peter was beyond generous with his time and spend a good couple of months coaching me on its use and by the time my first event of last season rolled around, Ironman Hawaii 70.3, I was ready to attack it.
I’d raced this course and won it several times before…but not in a fasted state and certainly not without my old stand by of a protein smoothie before hand.
Peter and I had practiced my new strategy enough times by then for me to feel secure in the approach including Vespa, Water and a new (to me) product called Tailwind that would supply both a small amount of calories and all the electrolytes I’d need, but still, anytime a new routine is implemented, it feels a little scary!
Well, it worked.
Not only did I win the age group again, I had next to no soreness the next day and the mental focus and clarity I felt during the race which |’d developed in the months leading up to the race were so sharp, I told Peter I felt as though the carbohydrate veil had lifted.
The rest of the season’s performances included another win at Vineman 70.3 and 3rd place AG at Ironman Cozumel.
The OFM protocol including Vespa, both during training as well as day to day living, combined with Tailwind as needed for longer training and racing and my long standing approach, albeit with a higher percentage of calories coming from fat, have collectively resulted in the new approach I plan to keep indefinitely.
Curious to learn more?
For one week only, Vespa, Tailwind and I have put together a drawing with a grand prize totaling over $500 in value which includes:
- A one hour nutritional consultation with me
- A two week supply of VESPA, “Nature’s Catalyst” to tap into your own natural energy stores
- A week’s supply of Tailwind Nutrition to provide the perfect ratio of electrolytes and easy to digest carbohydrates to maintain energy levels and avoid gut bombs
You can always book a consultation review the whole protocol and cater it to meet your individual needs.
Learn how you, too, can become a lean, mean, fat-adapted racing machine!
[1] “Sugary Drinks Can Raise Diabetes Risk by 22 Percent: Study.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 25 Apr. 2013. Web. 03 Jan. 2016
[2] “Is Maltodextrin Bad for Me?” Healthline. Is Maltodextrin Bad for Me?, n.d. Web. 03 Jan. 2016
[3] Volek, Jeff, Stephen D. Phinney, Eric Kossoff, Jacqueline A. Eberstein, and Jimmy Moore. The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable. Lexington, KY: Beyond Obesity, 2011. Print
[4] http://www.vespapower.com
