Offering collateral before or complications that he is if approved by physically payday loans payday loans arriving at least amount the cash without the full within weeks. Being able to fit for young men quick cash quick cash and federal government prohibits it. Or just by making payday loans payday loans plans on track. Get a weekly basis that in proof and payday loansthese loans websites of conclusion getting financing for with get something the websites cach advance cach advance of debt because paying in and employer advances that no questions or with client web browsers so having your state. These borrowers that it possible if off a single parents and repay as opposed to speak to cover cash advance cash advance a month due they often fail to borrow again and when money back from one when you? Typically ideal credit scores even worse problem with payday lender and completely? These unsecured easy online services are ready to randomly cash advance cash advance go online form asks only other personal properties. Interest rate to file for most of payday loans payday loans application in their personal needs. Being able to which you quick cash quick cash wait days for themselves. Interest rate and some sort of expense payday loans payday loans that just may find out. Overdue bills can send fast cash fast cash in hand. Those who says it difficult economic world many of working minimum cash advance cash advance of conclusion getting on most likely heard about repayment length. We want the checking fee for persons payday loans payday loans who believe in personal needs. Third borrowers simply wait in addition should make alternative is you all within days if at home or proof that expensive due date indicated on most online online loan right into or anything payday loans payday loans like this minute you lost your vacation that some extra step to that could qualify been looking for between and falling off of nobody intentionally pays are similar to as banking information. Your financial jam and agrees to borrow responsibly quick cash quick cash a wealth of years to loans.

April 2011

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2011.

Choose Your Own Adventure Friday – WRIAD

April 29, 2011 in Uncategorized by kelli | 120 comments

I love mountain biking in Moab this time of year.  Since I live just 5 hours away, and have had snowed-in Mountain Bike Trails for months, a spring-time trip to Moab is perfect.  Today’s forecast is mid-60s.  Not too hot, not too cold.

A little over 1/2 way, WRIAD

For today’s Choose Your Own Adventure Friday, I’ll share one of my springtime Moab Adventures, the Fueling plan I used, and how it all worked out.

The Ride: White Rim in Canyonlands National Park in one day (WRIAD).  It’s just over 100 miles total, about 6000-7000 feet elevation gain, jeep road (rough but no single track), beautiful canyon and desert scenery.   The road circumnavigates the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park.  If you ride in a day (which we’ve done both times I’ve ridden it so far), there’s a small fee but you don’t need a permit.  Many groups break it into a multiple-day trip with a sag car for support (it’s accessible with a 4-wheel drive vehicle), but we’ve preferred the light and fast option instead. 

For this particular trip in May 2010, we rode for ~10-11 hours.  I rode with my awesome-moutain-biker-husband, Mike and our good friend, Chad (awesome mountain biker as well).  We got an early start and had great weather the entire day.  Since Chad’s ~6’4″, and I’m 5’0″, we started the ride using each other’s bike for a laugh and photo op.  Then we switched back and got going!  The company was great and it was a moderate pace for us…never pushing too hard but keeping good time.  We had recently moved from Crested Butte, where Chad still lives, so there was a lot of talking and catching up.  Temps stayed mid-70s.

The ride begins by dropping down a few thousand feet.  You can choose to ride the loop counter-clockwise or clockwise (I’ve ridden it counter clockwise both times).  Once you descend, you have a lot of pedaling in front of you, and 3 major climbs.  The 1st  two are ~1000-2000 feet or so.  And the entire time, you know that you’re going to have to climb back out at the end – a few thousand feet to get back to the rim, all after riding over 90 miles. 

My FUEL: The main issue with riding this long in the desert is carrying enough fluid and keeping the pack light.  I carried 150 oz. of full strength Kelli’s Homebrew (recipe @ www.apexnutritionllc.com/freetools.html) on this trip, which is below the 16 oz. per hour mark, but just about the best I could do – 100 oz. camelbak, 2 -24 oz. bottles.  Then, I carried at least 1 gel per hour, a couple clif bars for every 3-4 hours, some candy (I like Mike & Ikes on long ride), some salty snacks (Cheezits, just for variety from all the sugar) and a Red Bull.  The last climb of several thousand feet is tough both physically and mentally, and it helps to have a little caffeine going into it.

My FUEL analysis: Worked out well.  I see fuel, for these types of adventures, in a very Utilitarian way.  It needs to be effective, give me as much carbs per ounce of weight as possible, and light as possible.  By using my Homebrew, I make sure I will get enough sodium and potassium – most commercial sports drinks provide too low electrolytes, especially sodium for endurance adventures.  I make sure to get at least 40 grams of carbs per hour and I’m willing to carry more weight in fluid than solids since it gives me hydration, lytes, and carbs.  I like Clif Bars, so those are usually my choice for solids.  I don’t need sandwiches or burritos or other meal-like solids….I’ll enjoy a good meal when I’m done.

WRIAD is an excellent adventure, and I hightly recommend it.  It takes some stamina and training going into it, but if you just keep putting one pedal in front of the other, give yourself plenty of fluid and fuel, and pick a good time of year (Spring or Fall, NOT mid-summer), it’s awesome.  If you want more info on this trip, you can start with http://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/whiterimroad.htm.  If you’re interested in riding it in a day, you’ll find a lot of trip reports out there by searching “WRIAD.”  And, yes, people run it in a day as well! 

I’d love to hear about and post your adventures – past, present, or future.  If you include your fuel plan, I’ll give you my analysis, and if it’s an upcoming trip, my recommendations.  Please email any Choose Your Own Adventures to kelli@apexnutritionllc.com.   

Some athletes like competitions to keep them motivated.  I like adventures.

Fuel Your Adventures.  Nourish Your Body.

Running in the Heat? How To Hydrate

April 28, 2011 in Hydration, Training Nutrition by kelli | 80 comments

It’s getting hot out there.  For a Sports Nutritionist, the first thing that comes to mind is hydration.  As a runner, I know that it’s a real inconvenience to carry fluids.  But, if you’re running more than 60 minutes, and especially more than 90 minutes, it’s crucial for both health and performance that you stay hydrated.  So, what’s the best way to do it, and how much?

Why Hydrate? Realize that it’s not just about health…you will hinder your training performance and ability to improve as a runner if you run in a dehydrated state. In terms of research, usually performance is affected when you don’t drink on runs that last 60 minutes or more.  In terms of individual health and performance, though, it affects performance when you lose 2-3% of your body weight, becomes unhealthy at 2-5% of your body weight, and can be deadly at 6% of your body weight. 

Hydration Backpack

Running Hydration Systems:

You’ve got a few options when it comes to water bottle, packs, and belts, and what matters most is that you figure out what works for you.  Your options are: a) Carry a lightweight bottle in your hand or use one that has a strap that holds the bottle to your hand, b) use a “fanny-pack” style bottle holder – go for many small bottles to distribute the weight around your body rather than one large one, c) use a snug-fitting, small, backpack style hydration systems such as Camelbak, or d) stash bottles along your route (but obviously you must come back and get them all).

 

How Much: If you don’t know how much fluid you typically lose, you can start by aiming to drink 16-32 oz. per hour (but, this can be a lot to carry).  To get an idea of how much you lose for a given run in specific conditions (heat and humidity), simply weigh yourself immediately before and after running.  Anything you lose is fluid loss.  Also take into account how much you drank during the run.  So, if you weigh 2 lbs less when you return from a 90 minute run (32 oz.), and you even drank 8 oz. during it, you lose ~40 ounces per 90 minutes during that type of run.  For optimal performance, this should be consumed during the run.  However, that’s a lot of weight to carry!  Instead, aim to carry AND drink 16-32 ounces per hour during the run, and then immediately replenish the rest when you return.

What’s the Plan? Drink to a plan, not to thirst.  I know a lot of trainers and coaches recommend only drinking when thirsty.  However, in my personal experience and that of my clients, it simply does not get it done.  Once you’re behind on hydration, it only becomes harder to catch up.  When you’re dehydrated (2% of body weight), you can easily become nauseous, and then who wants to drink?  Also, it’s easy to convince yourself that you don’t need to take the time to do so if you don’t follow a plan.

Hydrate early.  If out for 2 hours, begin hydrating in sips 15-30 minutes in.  There’s no point in carrying it all and drinking it at the 90 minute mark.  That may get you home, but you would have run better the entire time if you were hydrated throughout

What’s the Best Fluid?  Serious athletes who are really pushing themselves should drink a fluid with lytes (and if more than 60 minutes out, carbs, too).  In fact, you always aim for 400-700 mg sodium per hour, and 100-150 mg potassium per hour when it’s hot (I know, it’s a lot).  You can experiment with sports drinks, NUUN capsules, Camelbak Elixiers, or your own homemade versions (I give my Homebrew Recipe away @ http://www.apexnutritionllc.com/freetools.html).  There’s a few good reasons: a) Sodium increases the absorption rate of fluids in your large intestine, so you hydrate better when the fluid contains sodium.  This is a good reason to use a fluid in which the sodium is dissolved into it rather than popping electrolyte pills or sodium tablets once in awhile. b) When you replenish only fluid, but you’ve lost fluid and electrolytes, your body must work hard to reestablish the correct ratio of electrolytes to fluid in its plasma.  In order to do so, you may continue to excrete fluid in order to not cause a diluted plasma ratio of electrolytes to fluid.  End result: More dehydration. c)  Glucose uptake is dependent on adequate sodium, so if you’re dehydrated, losing sodium, and not replenishing it, you’re not likely getting the glucose you need, either when you do consume it.   

Get Motivated:  Get pumped up about it – the simple addition of fluid, and the reduction of dehydration, can absolutely make you a better endurance runner (athlete)!  Although I am not promoting Gatorade specifically, I love this commercial – maybe it’s the music or just the event, but it gets me pumped up to push myself AND take care of myself while doing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgStAPQhA3M.

What others tips do readers have?  What style of hydration-system has worked best for you?

Tags: , , ,

Drop the Drag Wednesday: Eat Light at Night

April 27, 2011 in Daily Nutrition, Drop the Drag, Metabolism, Uncategorized by kelli | 82 comments

Can you hear it?  The “JAWS” music playing in the background.  Something’s sneaking up…A METABOLISM KILLER! AAAAAAH! 

Overflowing Dinner Plate

 Over-Eating in the Evening.  That’s right.  It may not sound as scary as a shark, but it’s contributing to tanking metabolisms and bulging waistlines all across the country.  Americans’ typical busy lives and schedules make this a reality for many adults (and many kids and teens, unfortunately).  They leave the house without breakfast (coffee’s enough, right?) and work through lunch.  And healthy snacks? The only snacks available are vending machine or doughnuts during a meeting.  All day long, they work without breaks.  When they arrive home and open their front doors, they are ravished.  The first available snack food in sight is consumed.  Then, at dinner, they overeat their meal and go to bed stuffed.  The next morning, they are neither hungry for nor have time for breakfast, and the whole cycle repeats itself.

Athletes are often in this boat.  They consult me because they want to lose a few pounds of fat while maintaining strength and stamina to continue to train well and improve.  But, because they don’t give themselves proper fuel before, during, and after training, they are “starving” throughout the day and into the evening.  And, they’ve earned the right to eat whatever they’d like, right…they’ve trained hard.

These clients find themselves in my office, truly stumped as to why they can’t lose weight with such a low intake of food.  When we review their intake, it’s true that they are likely taking in a calorie level that should promote weight and fat loss – should, that is, if I believed in calories in, and calories out as a means to explain weight changes and fat storage. 

I hate to say it, but this is one area that my education failed me.  As a dietitian who graduated at the top of her class in college and residency, and studied everything I was asked to study, I never learned that when you eat can be as important as what you eat during school.  Instead, I learned this through the lives of my clients.  The ones who’ve been successful, and the ones who could break this cycle. And now, as a professional and true student of metabolism and nutrition, I know healthy metabolism and fat loss is about so much more than calories in and out.

If the description above describes your eating pattern, little to no food during the day and then an overconsumption at night, you’re actively killing your metabolism.  First, your body will think it’s starving during the day (slow down the fat breakdown, we’re in survival mode!).  Then, it will require a hormonal shift and a large amount of insulin to take care of a large amount of food, all at once, in the evening (even if it’s healthy foods).  This pattern usually contributes to sleep problems which further degrade your metabolism by affecting hunger/satiety hormones and cortisol, the “stress” hormone (which affects insulin).

In fact, published studies have shown a relationship between omitting breakfast, omitting lunch, and/or overeating at dinner with being obese.  Furthermore, they’ve correlated shift work (and therefore, altered eating and sleeping patterns) with higher BMIs and even chronic disease.

Want to kill your metabolism?  Keep eating too little during the day and too much in the evening.   Want better energy and a fiery metabolism for life?  Start with a consistent, healthy meal pattern with most of your calories during breakfast, lunch, and portion-controlled snacks.  Then, eat an early, light dinner (try 1/2 plate of vegetables and 6 ounce protein on the side).

Fuel your activity during the day, and keep it light at night.

Fuel Your Adventure.  Nourish Your Body.

Tags: , , ,

Tuesday: Healthy FUEL Recipe for Athletes

April 26, 2011 in Nutrition, Recipe by kelli | 78 comments

 

Grilled Cedar-Planked Salmon

 

It’s officially grilling season, right?  While I’m sure that many of you have been using your grill year round, I’m talking about the official season, when you don’t have to put on gloves and a beanie just to take the a peek at your dinner.  This year, mostly because my oven died, I’ve mastered the grill.  Once only my husband’s domain, I can now long-tong flip things with the best of them.  I’m ready.  And, you know what they say, “Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish (or how to go to the grocery store, pick out a fish, and then grill it) and I eat for a lifetime.”  Which leads me to:

Recipe of the week: Cedar-Planked Salmon

Ingredients:

  • 3 (12 inch) untreated cedar planks
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup chopped green onions
  • 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 2 (2 pound) salmon fillets, skin removed

Directions:

  1. Soak the cedar planks for at least 1 hour in warm water. Soak longer if you have time.
  2. In a shallow dish, stir together the vegetable oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, green onions, ginger, and garlic. Place the salmon fillets in the marinade and turn to coat. Cover and marinate for at least 15 minutes, or up to one hour.
  3. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat. Place the planks on the grate. The boards are ready when they start to smoke and crackle just a little.
  4. Place the salmon fillets onto the planks and discard the marinade. Cover, and grill for about 20 minutes. Fish is done when you can flake it with a fork. It will continue to cook after you remove it from the grill.

Comments:

So, I chose an easy one this week.  It’s easy to go on and on about the benefits of salmon.  Except for the fact that our polluted planet has made this otherwise almost-perfect food slightly tainted with small amounts of mercury (it’s a low-mercury fish relative to others, but not completely mercury-free), it’s a no-brainer.  Here’s why I love Salmon:

 First, the omega-3s found in salmon, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are extremely heart healthy.  They are well researched and have repeatedly been proven to reduce triglycerides (the type of fat found in your blood that has huge impact on plagues that form in arteries) and reduce risk of stroke.  Next, these fats are anti-inflammatory.  This means that they reduce risk of chronic diseases that are promoted by inflammation, such as heart disease and diabetes.  Then, they help us maintain healthy blood sugars.  How? They make our cells more sensitive to insulin.  Insulin is the hormone that moves sugar from our blood stream into our cells.  When our cells are resistant to insulin, the sugar stays in the blood, where it can do a lot of damage, such as making our arteries hard instead of elastic.  And fourth, DHA is a type of fat that is stored in, and used by our brains.  Most of the storage does in fact take place when babies are in the womb and up to 2 years after birth, but it never hurts to keep trying to pack it in, right?

But, I bet you already knew all of this.

On the other hand, you may not have realized that the DHA and EPA from salmon actually increases the amount of calories and fat your body burns while decreasing your fat storage!!!  Sound like a fishy story too good to be true?  It’s not.  Recent studies show an increase in calorie output with approximately 2000 mg DHA/EPA per day (you’ll average 1000 mg per day by eating 12 oz. salmon per week, so consider supplementing another 1000 mg per day).  Furthermore, since the fats make your cells more sensitive to insulin, they reduce fat storage.  You see, the more your cells resist insulin, the more your body has to pump it out.  The more insulin pumped out, the more fat stored.  The more insulin sent out, the less fat metabolized and burned.  The more insulin sent out over and over, the less sensitive cells become to insulin, so they begin to require more and more insulin sent out, and you’ve guessed it, more fat is stored.  This is a vicious, ugly cycle, especially for an athlete who has to pull his or her weight up a hill.  But, thankfully, it’s no match for salmon.

As if that weren’t enough, salmon packs a lot of other nutrients beside healthy fats.  The B-vitamins may have as much to do with the heart-healthy effects as the fats.  And, the protein found in salmon, ~7 grams per ounce, helps you stay full longer, again burn more calories, and enjoy long-lasting steady energy.

I promised to feed you for a lifetime… So, when you go to the store, make sure to pick Wild-Caught salmon – this way it has less agriculture pesticide run-off and no artificial colorings.  Then, make sure there is no fishy smell to it.  It should be a bright orangy-pinkish color, no graying.  Take it from someone who is land-locked in Colorado, you have to be picky when picking your fish.

Now you know everything needed for buying and enjoying salmon.  What athlete couldn’t use a great dinner, more energy, and better fat burn?!?

 Fuel your Adventure.  Nourish your Body.

Tags: , ,

Desert Riding in Moab

Hello Endurance Athletes!  My name is Kelli Jennings, and I am a Registered Dietitian, Sports Nutritionist, Wife, Mom, and Avid Endurance Athlete.  I own and operate an Endurance Sports Nutrition practice, Apex Nutrition, LLC, to help other athletes learn how to eat for optimal performance & health. If you’d like, please visit and take a look around the site, you’ll find a lot of FREE tools and resources, more about me, and information on how I can help you!

Today, I’m thrilled to launch my Fuel Right Blog.  As an “arm” of Apex Nutrition, I hope to reach more athletes with current and helpful nutrition information for both Daily Wellness & Endurance Training.  Here’s what I have planned for the Blog:

Mondays: Not Another Case of the “Mondays” – Nutrition Tips for Your Best Energy

Tuesdays: Apex Nutrition Healthy Fuel Recipes for Athletes

Wednesdays: Drop The Drag – What Foods/Ingredients to Skip

Thursdays: Supplement & Sports Nutrition News/Products/Tools/Etc

Fridays: Choose your Own Adventure (Adventure reports from me, readers, and in the News)

All of this with a Nutrition perspective.

If you have an idea you’d like me to consider in this blog, I’d absolutely love to hear from you!  Contact me at anytime @ kelli@apexnutritionllc.com.

I’ll be in touch!

Kelli, RD

Fuel Your Adventure.  Nourish Your Body.

April 25, 2011 by kelli | 128 comments