I watched a great documentary called "American Teacher" on the documentary channel tonight!  It told the story of several teachers and the hardships they faced as they struggled in their careers.  It talked about the issue of not being treated as professionals, not being paid enough to really live, being expected to play the role of teacher, parent, counselor, etc.  It was a very refreshing change from the usual "teachers are to blame for the decline in the public school system" rhetoric that has been so popular lately.  Obviously, all the teachers in the family would enjoy it and it would give them some much needed validation.  More importantly though, it should be seen by those people who look down on the profession and say teachers are already overpaid and under-worked!

Cousin Camp comments

Camp Questions from Sis:

I don’t use this social medium often; hope I don’t screw this up. 

Sorry I missed this year, but being a Deegan, it won’t stop me from having an opinion J.

Regarding dinners – Since they usually take significantly longer to prepare then the other meals, I’m for any way to simplify.

Regarding camp $ charges – I’m for anything that will allow this piece of the weekend requirements to not be a deterrent to whom may or may not show up.

Regarding the role of competition – Every year it is said everyone is in charge of their own fun.  Thus if an individual determines he/she would rather be an observer or do something else, they should be allowed.  The only required participation in my view should be – listen to the hosts, treat the property with care, be in a good mood or at least not a bad/disruptive one, assist in covering camp cost, assist in set up and clean up as needed, and be observant (injury prevention) of the young ones.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Husband, Father, Brother, Uncle, Poppy Tom

Another Great Kid Book!

Thanks to a Terre suggestion, my grandkids are LOVING Jamie Lee Curtis's book called Today I Feel Silly and other Moods That Make My Day.  There's something universal about kids being "allowed" to feel cranky and evil sometimes!  Yet there's also a lot of positives in there as well.
    MamaKate

Hazel's Favorite Books

For those of you who might be looking for some new titles for the little guys, here are Hazel's current favs. 

The Wildest Brother, Pirate Girl and Princess Pigsty by Cornelia Funke
When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic
The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
Hey Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose

I've read these about 100 times, so I would love to know some of your kids favorites too!  

Kudos to Nichole!

Congratulations to Nichole!  Today in Ann Arbor, Kroger gathered thousands and thousands of their employees in the U of M football stadium so they could recognize EIGHT of their most outstanding employees...and our very own Nicher was one of them!!  She even got a gold shirt to wear around all day so that all those other employees could watch her walk by and be awed.  Way to go, girl!
We're not a bit surprised but it is nice to be recognized and rewarded for hard work and incredible smarts!
                                                     -An admiring MamaKate

Congrats to Chloe!!

The point of a college education:
             the ability to entertain oneself constructively,
            to entertain someone else graciously,
            and to entertain a new idea intelligently.

Congratulations, Chloe!  College Graduate!!
Whoo-hoo!!  And in only FOUR years!!

Consciousness Raising 2012

"Miss Representation" is a documentary about women in the media today.  Emily first suggested it and I finally bought it and last night we had an Okemos Screening of it with 8 women, mostly 30-somethings but two of us were over 50.  We all found it enlightening and the discussion following was lively and important.  Gabrielle also saw it and was moved.  For anyone raising a daughter, or working with young women, or interested in being a full participant in this culture of ours--I would highly recommend viewing it.  Since I now own it, I'd be happy to be your lending library.  Gabrielle might have a copy too.  Or I could bring it to camp for 88 minutes of viewing?  The people on the program span a large range in age, accomplishment, interest and focus.
  This is not just for women, however.  I would be very interested in hearing the guy perspective after viewing.

Review of The Night Circus

The Night Circus--Not a big fan.  Nichole loved it, along with Amanda and Z but I was not engaged.  I finished it but it wasn't one of those books that I couldn't wait to get at.
The metaphor on the last few pages was good food for thought though. 
But keep those titles coming...I'm always up to try a new adventure!

Book of incredibly brave women

1st post - not sure what I'm doing.

"Half the Sky" by Nicholas D. Kristof (winner of two Pulitzer Prizes)

not recommended for the weak - tough, heart wrenching, stories.

#3 Due in October

We did not make a formal announcement so in case the news hasn't spread - Matt and I are excited to share that our baby #3 is due October 19th!

August Family Camp Date?

When is Family Camp this summer?  Will it be the weekend of August 4th or 11th?  Thanks!

Shea's Tree

As some of you already know, we're planning on planting a "Shea Tree" up at Camp this August.  My vision is to have a bench under it, with a plaque engraved on it.  Some of his
cremains will be used as fertilizer and we'll have a short ceremony there to honor Shea.

My idea is for the plaque to read:       "Just relax."
                                                         Seamus Deegan
                                                                  1987-2012

But I know that you guys often have WAY better ideas.  So please chime in with YOUR
suggestions.  Bridget and Emmet will have the final "say"--for type of tree and the
inscription so please give it some thought and share them.

This past week was yet another example of the great family we are all maintaining.

As you all contributed in some meaningful way, I couldn't help think of that great phrase--

                                       "Work is love made visible."

Thinking of you all and hating that we moved,
       MamaKate

photography: willow call

My big, fat, Greek pita!

First off, yes, I am a nerd and I took pics of my food while cooking. Anyways, last night i made my own tzatziki (Greek cucumber yogurt sauce). I don't know if it's the pregnancy or just that i never, ever make Greek food, but i've been having a taste for Greek/Mediterranean cuisine lately and had an itch to do something about it! I decided on making a grilled chicken pita. I just added some cucumber, dill, lemon, and garlic to Greek yogurt and i had a delish sauce to top the pita. (recipe follows).

After I made the sauce and let it set in the fridge, I grilled up some chicken breasts marinated in lemon, olive oil, and oregano (but not too long or the lemon will cook the chicken!) and got out some traditional Greek fixins. I found some AMAZING kalamata olives at the Jewel that are marinated in Napa Valley wine. mmmmm.

after chopping up some romaine, tomatoes, the olives, and adding crumbled feta, I just warmed up a pita on my stove burner and.....

OPA!! I had my big fat Greek pita!! The nice thing about this is if you grill up a bunch of chicken at a time and just buy the tzatziki instead of making it, you have a really easy (and healthy) lunch all week long.  Here's the recipe for the tzatiki sauce:

2 cups Plain Greek Yogurt

1 cup Cucumber, diced small

1-2 tablespoons Fresh Dill, chopped

1 clove Fresh Garlic, Pressed through a garlic press of minced

1 tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice

3/4 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar (or white vinegar can be used)

1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt

In a small bowl, combine ingredients and stir. Make ahead of time so flavors can marry.

Bon appetit!!!!

     

The Tudors

I know I am probably WAY behind the times on this considering the shows I have been watching on the kindle are from 2009/2010, however, this show is AMAZING!  I believe it first aired on either Showtime or HBO.  It takes you through the reign of Henry VIII and his various wives and children etc.  It is really well written and acted and draws you in right away.  Tbone and I find that we have been watching at least 2 episodes almost every night.  If you haven't ever heard of it or seen it you should definitely check it out!  I'm sure you can find it ON DEMAND, through Netflicks, or even the old-fashioned Blockbuster rental (where they still exist!). 

Emily

Competitive Nutrition Manuscript

Again, don't bother reading further unless you are interested, use or lose!

Ninja-Nutrition: 

Hi guys, Maggie here.  This is a transcript sent to me by a friend involved with Olympic-level coaching.  It’s written by a colleague and clearly written for males, but that’s just my take on it (probably why I like it...heehee)!  It’s a more scientifically-based approach to nutrition stuff and obviously meant for serious training.  However, if you are interested in improving your overall health and nutrition, you can learn incredibly interesting info about the workings of the human body.  We are all obviously smart enough to figure out how to sift through a manuscript and mentally edit/adjust as needed, since clearly, our glory days are behind us!!!  It’s lengthy and took me a few reads to even comprehend the biology of it, but here is an excerpt from the END that might convince you to start reading at all.   If you love it so much and you want to publish it, chances are you will have a lawsuit on your hands because I DO think it’s copyrighted somewhere…just fyi!!! Enjoy J

EXCERPT FROM THE CONCLUSION: “Final thought – if you decide to do this, you will probably catch some heat from folks. They will call you strange, obsessed and possibly crazy. They’ll tell you that there’s no proof this works; they’ll tell you that you’re wasting your time and money; they’ll tell you that all they need is a bag of Doritos and a Coke after game time. And, when they’re 18 and able to eat crap and still play, or retired, broken, and overweight (and the latter is usually the former only 10 years later) they might actually believe that.

But chances are that – like HFCS and trans-fats - they are toxic people, who will almost unconsciously revel in slowing down your progress. Such people can be well-meaning, but this doesn’t make them any less toxic. As the quote at the beginning demonstrates, this is because when you follow these steps, you challenge what they have always known and done. Departing from a common path forces others to consider the possibility that there may be better ways of doing things than how they have always done it (not tough to conclude if you actually study the last 10 years of research but what kind of dork does that?!).

Remember: the definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome. If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.”

NINJA NUTRITION 10 RULES:

1. Eat every 2-3 hours, regardless of hunger levels

2. Get lean protein at every meal

3. Eat healthy fats every day. Avoid all hydrogenated (trans) fats and fried foods…all the time.

4. Pre-, during, and post-training/game nutrition is actually one big meal, and it is the most important meal of the day

5. Go to bed, but not without protein. This includes sleep at night, as well as naps during the day (naps are to be encouraged).

6. Eat vegetables at every opportunity.

7. Drink water all the time. Drink green tea some of the time. Drink anything with high fructose corn syrup NONE of the time.

8. Eat these foods at least 3 times per week:

• Lean red meat

• Salmon

• Omega 3 eggs

• Low fat plain yogurt

• Protein supplements

• Spinach

• Tomatoes

• Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage)

• Mixed berries

• Oranges

• Mixed beans

• Whole oats

• Mixed nuts

• Avocadoes

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Green tea

• Liquid exercise drinks for pre and post-training/game nutrition (should have carbs and protein)

 

9. Use supplements intelligently, not as a crutch or to make up for inattention to diet.

10. Food is a drug, and sports nutrition is a performance enhancing drug. Therefore, accept that being professional about competition means being professional about nutrition. Folks who eat to beat and focus on what they do to their insides are usually pleasantly surprised by what they see happening on the outside.

COMPETITIVE SPORTS

Don’t eat to keep up with your competitors, eat to beat them.

 “Never forget, somewhere in China a little girl is warming up with your max.”

–        Jim Conroy, Olympic lifting coach

 

Okay, so ask 100 athletes to define “sports nutrition” and you’ll get a laundry list of commandments: thou shalt not eat fried foods and candy bars, thou shalt eat fruits and veggies, thou shalt drink water and Gatorade, thou shalt maybe consider a protein powder. Some of them will be right, some will be wrong, and some will be very, very wrong. But all 100 will have some opinion.

Now ask them to define the mechanisms by which these commandments actually make a difference to them. That gets a little tougher. Now you’re down to maybe 50 who will give you a reasonable argument for why thou shalt not eat fried foods or thou shalt hydrate religiously or thou shalt consume Gummy Bears after training.

Now ask those 50 to describe how the sports nutrition actually gives them an edge – how it improves their performance beyond that of their competitors. Chances are you’ll be down to 10 – generously – who might have an idea. They’ll tell you how “sports nutrition,” like Gatorade, can enhance their performance…IF their competitors don’t also drink it.

Finally, ask those 10 what elite competitors might do that’s different from them. Now you’ve got maybe one athlete who can give you an opinion – and that’s probably wrong.

As athletes, we are – or at least we should be - inherently competitive. Thus, our nutrition should be geared to hand us a competitive edge over other teams, whether that’s having fewer colds, not as many injuries, or recovering faster from workouts and being sharper on the day than our competition.

If your nutrition doesn’t do this, then don’t call it sports nutrition.

“Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.” - Bertrand Russell

The premise of competitive sports nutrition is that the brain is the most important organ in deciding who wins and who loses in sport. I won’t go into more detail here, but suffice it to say that the 3 ½ pounds of jelly-packed cells that evolved over 4 million years to end up between our ears – what we call the brain – is the master and commander of the rest of the body. It cares about itself, first and foremost, and it has its priorities, which are basically: survive. If the brain is not being optimized, then it will sabotage other systems of the body, including muscles. Muscles, by the way, which have not changed very much since they first evolved to move bodies…tells you something, doesn’t it? Thus, CSN is about making the brain work optimally, which will then translate into the rest of the body performing to its competitive best. Following are 10 tips explaining the best ways to do this.

 

"It's never too late to be who you might have been."

-           George Eliot

1. Eat every 2-3 hours, regardless of hunger.

a. How it feeds the brain: the most basic parts of the brain evolved to organize the internal world of the body relative to the external world. Along with temperature, moisture, and light, nutrition is one of the basic messages the brain receives from the world. The presence of nutrients in the blood stream – and the resulting flux of different hormones, like insulin, ghrelin, leptin, glucagons, etc. – tells the brain one of two things: things are good and we have plenty of food and resources, or things aren’t great, feeding is inconsistent, resources are crap, and you might be facing a period of starvation. Three squares a day doesn’t do it. The “up and down” of different hormones, along with blood sugar, scares the brain, since it requires up to 200 grams of glucose per day. Eating inconsistently tells the brain to conserve energy by slowing down, not exercising, feeling tired, etc., rather than expend it on things like building muscle or replacing muscle fuel (glycogen). Remember, the brain’s priority is survival. So give it the all clear signal of routine feedings on a consistent basis. Yes, that means 6 meals a day.

b. How that optimizes your competitive edge: sending the brain clear signals means the brain, in turn, will signal the body through hormones and other messengers that it can go ahead and start building muscle, replacing muscle fuel, and recovering from exercise. In other words, the good times are here so go ahead and use some of those nutrients to improve VO2 max – we can spare the nutrients because the brain is secure and happy.

                         

2. Get amino acids at every meal (aka lean protein).

a. How it feeds the brain: some nutritionists will tell you that a calorie is a calorie, regardless of whether it comes as fat, carbohydrate or protein. In the old manner of measuring “heat given off” – this is what a calorie measures - that’s true. But recent evidence is demonstrating that nutrients are also signals to the body and brain, and that they have distinct effects of their own. Amino acids are an example. High doses of leucine, a single amino acid, appear to stimulate protein synthesis (muscle building) in cells more than other nutrients. It’s very weird and research is just beginning, but what is clear is that a steady stream of amino acids helps to steady blood sugar levels, can help the brain feel at ease and, more, help signal the body to go ahead and make proteins out of the amino acids. That means more muscle, quicker recovery and increased strength.

b. How that optimizes your competitive edge: don’t take amino acid supplements unless you know what you’re doing, and don’t overdo the protein – you don’t need 300 grams/day. But you do need to eat lean protein with every meal – meat, protein shakes, cottage cheese, milk – and let the body make what it needs. The steady presence of amino acids will translate into constant resources that the body will use to enhance recovery from exercise and stress, so it will be willing to go harder and faster the next time. The best way to sabotage your competitive edge is to ask the body to compete under extreme stress and not give it resources to answer.

 

"The future belongs to those who prepare for it today."

3. Eat healthy fats every day – 3 grams of fish oil, 2 tbsp of flax seed oil, 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, handful of almonds and other nuts. Avoid ALL hydrogenated (trans) fats – period.

a. How it feeds the brain: The brain evolved in part to coordinate movement. Species that do not move do not have brains; species with larger brains have the most sophisticated movements. In humans, directly or indirectly, the brain coordinates movement by using fats, and it will only do that as well as the tools that you give it. In some cases, fats are made into hormones and substances that communicate with distant cells in the body, telling them to operate efficiently (or not). In other cases, fats make up the insulation around brain cells that help them to communicate with each other. Feed the brain crap, like trans fats, and the brain will work at a reduced efficiency. Give it good fat, and it will improve. And the evidence is increasingly hard to ignore: “good” fats promote better brains than others – and a very lengthy body of literature is starting to prove it, so much that the British are even considering making fatty acid supplements mandatory for school kids.

b. How that optimizes your competitive edge: The right fats will translate into anabolic hormones, which help enhance performance, as well as a beefed up immune system and increased injury repair. Omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish oil) in particular have anti-inflammatory properties, while over the long term they help make up the membranes around neurons in the brain – resulting in improved reaction times, enhanced motivation, and better working memory. These are the tools of a competitive edge – but won’t happen overnight. It takes weeks to months for healthy fats to be incorporated into your body and brain, so start now. The difference in a year will be remarkable, especially compared to competitors who don’t do this.

 

“We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves.

There must be contests, and you must win.”

- Edward Gibbon

 4. Treat pre-, during and post-workout nutrition as the most important meals of the day, because that’s when the brain is most vulnerable. Have carbohydrate/protein drinks before, during, and immediately after exercise.

a. How it feeds the brain: Exercise is good for everyone, right? Right. But it can be better for some than for others. While conditioning has a host of beneficial effects on performance, the reality is that the brain has evolved with a list of priorities – survival, first. When you place stress on your body, the brain gets nervous because you are taking it out of its comfort zone. Do everything you can to tell the brain that not only will it survive but that it can actually afford to let the body use precious nutrients to recover. Taking in carbs and protein in an easily digestible form before and after working out, while sipping a diluted carb/protein drink during exercise, has begun to show fairly remarkable effects in this regard.

b. How that optimizes your competitive edge: Studies show that if given the proper resources, the body will respond to conditioning by burning even more fat, increasing glycogen stores, building more muscle, and generally allowing the body to be “better than well.” If you don’t give the body these things, you will still see progress from conditioning, of course, but no more progress than anyone else. There’s not much advantage to that, unless you only want to be as good as everyone else.

 

 “The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

- Vince Lombardi

 5. Go to bed, but not without protein.

a. How it feeds the brain: Sleep should be considered a part of “nutrition.” About half an hour after you doze off, your pituitary gland releases a pulse of growth hormone that rockets around your body, telling everything to start repairing itself from the wear and tear of the day. However, if you don’t have amino acids available, the brain won’t prioritize physical recovery, so much as worrying about itself and vital organs (and muscle, remember, is NOT a vital organ as far as the brain is concerned). Take 20-30 grams of a slow digesting protein, like cottage cheese, chicken breast, skim milk or a protein shake, before heading to bed. That tells the brain that it’s time to get to work…

b. How that optimizes your competitive edge: …which tells your body to get to work. The protein will prevent the body from “catabolizing” (or breaking down) your hard earned muscle for energy and will flood your blood stream with amino acids, using the GH to turn the amino acids into enhanced physical recovery. It’s just too bad you’ll be asleep and miss the “ka-ching” sound that your body will make as it detects large numbers of aminos.

 

“People who say that something is impossible

should not get in the way of people who are doing it.”

 

6. Eat vegetables at every opportunity.

a. How it feeds the brain: We can put a man on the moon, we can thread cameras through people’s veins, and we can grow human ears on mice. Seriously. But we don’t fully understand what it is about vegetables that make them so good for us. In some cases, we have a suspicion; in others we just know that they seem to work miracles. But the constituents of vegetables work on the brain and body in different and complementary ways. Tell the brain that you’re getting a rich, varied diet and it will let the body know that it’s getting what it needs, so the body is good to go.

b. How that optimizes your competitive edge: This will make sure you get your fiber, your phytosterols, your polyphenols, your resveratrol, your anthocyanins, your proanthocyanins, your isothiocyanates – among others – all of which provide the foundation for optimum performance through different but important mechanisms (such as providing anti-oxidants). Without them, yes, you will live – but so does everyone else. If you want to be like everyone else, you’re in the wrong line of effort.

 

“Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one.”

- Baltasar Gracian

  7. Drink water all the time. Drink green tea some of the time. Drink anything with high fructose corn syrup (soda, Powerade) none of the time.

a. How it feeds the brain: Hydration is situated firmly in the top three priorities of the brain. If it’s dehydrated, the brain’s going to do everything it can to keep you from going beyond the pace of an arthritic pensioner on ice – from shutting down decision-making faculties to shifting blood flow away from the muscles and to the vital organs. So hydrating regularly tells the brain that you’re taking care of it, and the neurons work faster, the hypothalamus senses a decent body temperature, and the brain gives the body a big thumbs up.

b. How that optimizes your competitive edge: Cells work best when hydrated in general (this is partly how creatine enhances performance – it sucks water into muscle cells). But for an added edge, green tea is showing some pretty remarkable qualities as well – from enhanced endurance to anti-cancer to fat-burning properties (I have the studies to show that), the polyphenols in green tea can’t be beat. So have 2-3 cups a day, in between water.

c. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the equivalent of giving your body an internal sunburn. No matter what industry-funded research and “meta-analyses” are invented to complicate the issue. It leaches calcium from your bones, it causes inflammation, and it increases fat storage. In 30 years, after HFCS and trans-fats have been banned because of the mounting evidence that they are the equivalent of drinking Potomac river water, we’ll look at this stuff the way we look at our parents’ 1960s fashion or believing that Lance Bass was straight. What the f*&k were we thinking?!

 

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

- George Washington Carver

8. Eat these foods at least three (and ideally five) times a week:

a. These foods are good for brain and body. If you want to know specifically how, ask me and I’ll get you the literature. But these are the foods that give you the spectrum of what your brain (and thus your body) needs to be better than the competition – because I guarantee you that most competitors are not eating this comprehensively. Attached is a list that will help you check off the foods as you eat them, taken from John Berardi, who is a very highly regarded sports nutritionist – he gets his clients to eat in order to be better than their competition.  

• Lean red meat

• Salmon

• Omega-3 eggs

• Low fat plain yogurt

• Protein supplements

• Spinach

• Tomatoes

• Cruciferous Vegetables (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage)

• Mixed Berries

• Oranges

• Mixed Beans

• Whole Oats

• Mixed Nuts

• Avocados

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• Fish Oil

• Flax Seeds or Flax seed oil

• Canned pumpkin (no sugar added)

• Green Tea

• Liquid Exercise Drinks (carb/protein)

• A vegetable/fruit concentrate supplement – these are supplements that are composed of freeze-dried fruits and veggies that help round out the required nutrients that are increasingly hard to find in the nutritional desert called Modern America.

 “Do today what others won’t, so you can do tomorrow what others can’t.”

9. Accept that being professional about competition means being willing to prepare meals in advance.

a. How it feeds the brain: What else can I say? To feed your brain, you have to use it. Think ahead so you don’t get caught short-handed and are forced to eat crap. Buy a dozen plastic containers and carry snacks with you. Cook chili by the potful and freeze some. Make sure you have chicken breasts available when you need some lean protein. Hardboil some eggs and carry them to work.

b. How that optimizes your competitive edge: Because then you can follow the other 8 tips above much more easily than the competition.

 

"Progress often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?"

- Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

10. Use supplements intelligently. They can make up for crap diets on occasion, but that just puts you back on even footing with competitors who eat right. Supplements should be about being “better than well” in order to be “better than them.”

a. People will tell you supplements don’t work. Rubbish. What they mean is, some supplements don’t work, and others haven’t yet been “proven” to work. Neither has broccoli. The right supplements do work, and they work according to the principles of competitive sports nutrition – give the brain what it needs, and the body will be enhanced accordingly. Whether that’s increased hydration or power generation through creatine or a more efficient nervous system through caffeine, supplements can take the 90% athlete to 100%. But you have to get to 90% through nutrition first. Note that I consider protein shakes, fish oil capsules and veggie/fruit concentrates not to be “supplements.” In today’s fast food apocalypse, these are vital enough to be considered foods.

b. Supplements are a tough business, and knowing what to take, how much, and when can be confusing and expensive – the science isn’t exact and the incentive to study supplements is pretty small because they are rarely patented. So you pay for a study and then some mom-n-pop fly-by-night supplement company uses that to sell something they’ve cooked up in their bathtub. Thus what we can gather so far from supplemental science and its effectiveness is that the following supplements show pretty demonstrable promise for rugby players (for dosing recommendations, places to buy this, etc. contact me and/or wait for the next publication which will focus on supplements):

                   i. Certified pure micronized creatine monohydrate

 ii. Certified pure Beta-Alanine

iii. Reasonable sports drinks without HFCS, like Gatorade or Accelerade, but only during workouts or in recovery. I realize Gatorade sponsors the All-Americans, so I shouldn’t say this, but I suggest Accelerade because it contains some amino acids that can help with hydration, stave off fatigue, and enhance recovery – take my opinion for what it’s worth

iv. Zinc/Magnesium during periods of stress

v. Certified pure, standardized Tribulus Terrestris/Eurycomia Longifolia extract (herbs that boost natural production of testosterone)

vi. Certified caffeine and vitamin B1 derivatives like sulbutiamine

vii. Certified Branch Chain Amino Acids (Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine) and, in particular, l-leucine

viii. Certified neurotransmitter formula, containing tyrosine, taurine, DMAE and phosphotidylserine/choline

ix. Certified Phosphatidylserine

 

The jury’s still out on some others, like citrulline malate, d-ribose, etc., but many of these are showing significant promise. Two important points - I highlighted certified for a reason: if companies aren’t willing to provide independent lab assays demonstrating their products’ purity, then don’t buy. It’s the least they can give to you, the consumer. Second, think of supplements like sport accessories (e.g. boot stud length, mouth pieces, gloves, pads, etc.) – they are vital, but they need to be tailored for individuals. Don’t dump all of these into you at once, and don’t play without testing each one reasonably to see how YOU do on them. You wouldn’t run into a game with a new pair of shoes that someone else handed you if you hadn’t worn them in practice. Supplements are the same.

“If I were playing third base and my mother were rounding third with the run that was going to beat us, I'd trip her. Oh, I'd pick her up and brush her off and say, ‘Sorry, Mom,’ but nobody beats me.”

-           Leo Durocher

 

Final thought – if you decide to do this, you will probably catch some heat from folks. They will call you strange, obsessed and possibly crazy. They’ll tell you that there’s no proof this works; they’ll tell you that you’re wasting your time and money; they’ll tell you that all they need is a bag of Doritos and a Coke after game time. And, when they’re 18 and able to eat crap and still play, or retired, broken, and overweight (and the latter is usually the former only 10 years later) they might actually believe that.

But chances are that – like HFCS and trans-fats - they are toxic people, who will almost unconsciously revel in slowing down your progress. Such people can be well-meaning, but this doesn’t make them any less toxic. As the quote at the beginning demonstrates, this is because when you follow these steps, you challenge what they have always known and done. Departing from a common path forces others to consider the possibility that there may be better ways of doing things than how they have always done it (not tough to conclude if you actually study the last 10 years of research but what kind of dork does that?!).

Remember: the definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing but expecting a different outcome. If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."

- Sun Tzu

 • For more information, to provide feedback or to ask a question on nutrition/supplements, go to http://hpnutrition.wordpress.com

• For information on combining protein, carbs, and fats into meals, see this free “recipe finder” at Runner’s World: http://www.runnersworld.com/topic/0,7122,s6-242-303-0-0,00.html

 

1 Adapted from: Competitive Sports Nutrition: Do you eat? Or do you Eat to Beat?

MEAL GUIDELINES FOR TRAINING FOR COMPETITIVE SPORTS

Meal Guidelines: these are three tables that help guide your decision-making and focus for each part of the day depending on whether you are training, playing, or recovering/preparing. Blue days are training days; Red days are game days; and White days are either recovery days or preparation days (getting ready for a game the next day). If necessary, you can re-arrange the schedule, but not if it violates the 10 rules.

 

Training Day
Time	Purpose	Focus on	Avoid
Breakfast	Halt muscle loss due to sleep; fuel up and rehydrate; align circadian rhythms to local time	• Whole grains and oatmeal • lean protein like eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese • water/green tea;	Foods that are high in both fat and sugar; fried foods; foods high in salt; not getting enough protein (can lead to blood sugar crash)
Training	Provide energy, maintain hydration, blunt break down of muscle tissue	• A 6% solution with electrolytes, sugars and amino acids • Drinking at every opportunity (even if only a sip)	Powerbars, powergels, or drinks that are above 6% (hard to absorb and can dehydrate)
Post-training (within 15 minutes of end of training)	Restore muscle fuel, provide tools for body to rebuild tissue, re-hydrate	• Water • Recovery shake with carbs/amino acids, like chocolate milk add whey protein to Accelerade/Gatorade	Fat and high salt, which slow absorption of needed nutrients
Lunch	Continue to recover; take advantage of anabolic environment from training stimulus	• Full spectrum of carbs, protein, and good fats • Eat a “rainbow” of vegetables, grains, lean protein, fruits, and good oils/butter • Water/green tea	Not getting enough protein; foods that are high in fat and sugar; fried foods; failing to drink enough water
Training	Provide energy, maintain hydration, blunt break down of muscle tissue	• A 6% solution with electrolytes, sugars and amino acids • Drinking at every opportunity (even if only a sip)	Powerbars, powergels, or drinks that are above 6% (hard to absorb and can dehydrate)
Post-training (within 15 minutes of end of training)	Restore muscle fuel, provide tools for body to rebuild tissue, re-hydrate	• Water • Recovery shake with carbs/amino acids, like chocolate milk or protein in Accelerade/Gatorade	Fat, fried, and high salt, which slow absorption of needed nutrients
Snack (within 90 minutes of end of training)	Keep blood sugar levels steady, take advantage of training stimulus, and avoid over-eating or making poor choices at dinner	• High protein • Complex carbs • Good fats (mayo, butter, oils) • Nuts, sandwiches, smoothies, etc.	Fat, fried, and high salt, which slow absorption of needed nutrients
Dinner	Get body ready to sleep and provide nutrients for recovery; rehydrate; bolster mood	• Full spectrum of carbs, protein, and good fats • Eat a “rainbow” of vegetables, grains, lean protein, fruits, and good oils/butter • Water/green tea	Typical American mistakes at dinner, such as eating too much meat at expense of vegetables/fruits; avoid fried foods and foods high in fat and sugar;
Pre-bed snack	Enhance sleep, provide nutrients for body to assimilate when sleeping to enhance recovery	• Protein • Small number of good carbs • Good fats • Peanut butter, cottage cheese with some nuts, lean meat, protein shake with flax oil	High sugar/carbohydrate foods like pizza, fries, etc.

 

Race Day
Time	Purpose	Focus on	Avoid
Breakfast	Halt muscle loss due to sleep; fuel up and re-hydrate; align circadian rhythms to local time	• Whole grains and oatmeal • lean protein like eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese • water/green tea;	Foods that are high in both fat and sugar; fried foods; foods high in salt; not getting enough protein (can lead to blood sugar crash)
Snack	Provide energy, maintain hydration, enhance focus	• Small portions of carbs/protein • Green tea/water	Fat and high levels of sugar
Pre-game	Fuel and hydration	• Small portions of foods that you are familiar with • Drinking enough liquid to have clear/straw colored piss	Fat and high salt, which slow absorption of needed nutrients; foods you haven’t tried before (like Uruguayan butter);
Warm Up	Fuel and hydration	• A 6% solution with electrolytes, sugars and amino acids • Drinking at every opportunity (even if only a sip)	Passing up opportunities to fuel/hydrate; overly large portions of high sugar foods like gummy bears or Jaffa cakes;
Game	Provide energy, maintain hydration, blunt break down of muscle tissue	• A 6% solution with electrolytes, sugars and amino acids • Drinking at every opportunity (even if only a sip)	Powerbars, powergels, or drinks that are above 6% (hard to absorb and can dehydrate)
Post-Game (within 15 minutes after game)	Restore muscle fuel, provide tools for body to rebuild tissue, re-hydrate	• Water • Recovery shake with carbs/amino acids, like chocolate milk or protein in Accelerade/Gatorade	Fat, fried, and high salt, which slow absorption of needed nutrients. Avoid alcohol.
Snack (within 90 minutes after game)	Keep blood sugar levels steady, take advantage of training stimulus, and avoid over-eating or making poor choices at dinner	• High protein • Complex carbs • Good fats (mayo, butter, oils) • Nuts, sandwiches, smoothies, etc.	Skipping this. This is a VERY important time to eat. Avoid alcohol.
Post-game Meal	Get body ready to sleep/drink beer and provide nutrients for recovery; rehydrate; bolster mood	• Full spectrum of carbs, protein, and good fats • Eat a “rainbow” of vegetables, grains, lean protein, fruits, and good oils/butter • Water/green tea til your piss is clear again	Typical American mistakes at dinner, such as eating too much meat at expense of vegetables/fruits; avoid fried foods and foods high in fat and sugar Avoid alcohol until the end of the meal and you have pissed clear at least once
Pre-bed snack	Enhance sleep, rovide nutrients for body to assimilate when sleeping to enhance recovery	• Protein • Small number of good carbs • Good fats • Peanut butter, cottage cheese with some nuts, lean meat, protein shake with flax oil	Foods high in sugar and fat like pizza, ice-cream, fries, burgers, etc.; fried foods

 

Recovery/Preparation Day
Time	Purpose	Focus on	Avoid
Breakfast	Halt muscle loss due to sleep; fuel up and re-hydrate; align circadian rhythms to local time	• Whole grains and oatmeal • lean protein like eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese • water/green tea;	Foods that are high in both fat and sugar; fried foods; foods high in salt; not getting enough protein (can lead to blood sugar crash)
Snack	Rehydrate, provide amino acids to body to re-build tissue	• Small portions of carbs/protein • Green tea/water	Fat and high levels of sugar, and fried foods (can make inflammation worse)
Recovery session	Fuel and hydration; anti-inflammation	• Gatorade with protein; chocolate milk • Drinking enough liquid to have clear/straw colored piss	Fat and high levels of sugar, and fried foods (can make inflammation worse)
Snack	Hydration, recovery, and anti-inflammation	• High protein • Complex carbs • Good fats (mayo, butter, oils) • Nuts, fruits, sandwiches, smoothies, etc. • Water/green tea	Fat and high levels of sugar, and fried foods (can make inflammation worse). You should be pissing clear by now
Lunch	Provide energy, maintain hydration, blunt break down of muscle tissue	• Full spectrum of carbs, protein, and good fats • Eat a “rainbow” of vegetables, grains, lean protein, fruits, and good oils/butter • Water/green tea	Fat and high levels of sugar, and fried foods (can make inflammation worse)
Snack	Keep blood sugar levels steady, avoid over-eating or making poor choices at dinner	• High protein • Complex carbs • Good fats (mayo, butter, oils) • Nuts, fruits, sandwiches, smoothies, etc. • Water/green tea	Fat and high levels of sugar, and fried foods (can make inflammation worse)
Dinner	Hydration, recovery, and anti-inflammation	• Full spectrum of carbs, protein, and good fats • Eat a “rainbow” of vegetables, grains, lean protein, fruits, and good oils/butter • Water/green tea	Fat and high levels of sugar, and fried foods (can make inflammation worse)
Snack	Get body ready to sleep and provide nutrients for recovery; rehydrate; bolster mood	• High protein • Complex carbs • Good fats (mayo, butter, oils) • Nuts, fruits, sandwiches, smoothies, etc. • Water/green tea	Fat and high levels of sugar, and fried foods (can make inflammation worse)
Pre-bed snack	Enhance sleep, provide nutrients for body to assimilate when sleeping to enhance recovery	• Protein • Small amount of good carbs • Good fats • Peanut butter, cottage cheese with some nuts, lean meat, protein shake with flax oil	Foods high in sugar and fat like pizza, ice-cream, fries, burgers, etc.; fried foods