Health, nutrition, blood and sport

In this post, I am focusing particularly on very important aspects I have recently learned and changes I have made (or still trying to make) in order to stay healthy, and not just fit. After all, the most important reasons for me doing what I do are to stay healthy for the sake of my kids, teaching them through leading by example, and helping as many people as I can to get healthy and stay healthy. And, as I approach everything in life through a mixture of science, experience and passion, this one is no different.

Nutrition has been a very big part of my life these last couple of years. Any issues related to what to eat, what not to eat, how to obtain certain nutrients, when to do so, etc. have all been of major interest to me. So, starting with looking more into aspartame, which is a sweetener I have been finding over and over again in most of the sports nutrition I have been using, I wasn’t very happy about the fact that I felt as if I wasn’t in control over what went into my body, especially that I wasn’t comfortable with aspartame. I’m sort of a control freak, and I can’t tolerate feeling helpless in this way. So, I started looking into making my own sports nutrition. A few weeks later, a few long and boring Excel sheets, a messy kitchen to tell the story, and poor wife and kids who have been used as lab rats, I can now safely say that I have nailed it! Whatever it is that any sports nutrition item that I was buying before, I can now make it using organic ingredients, it costs me much less, and I know exactly what goes into it. From my drinks, to energy bars, to gels, I believe I’ve got all the bases covered.

A lot of these nutrition items can be easily obtained separately, but I know that not everyone has a passion for the kitchen as I do, so it might not be as easily available in their final forms. What I’m trying to do these days, though, is to figure out a way to make it so! We’ll see what the next few weeks will bring in terms of ideas to make this more accessible to everyone. I’ll let you know, of course!

While looking into nutrition, I have read a lot about the effects of sports on health. While most people believe that the more sport one does the healthier they are, I started to believe that this was not the case the more I did read about it. BUT, before you stop there and say “I won’t do it because it’s unhealthy” I am not talking about going to the gym 5 or 6 times a week as “a lot” or doing 3 or 4 runs a week. What I’m talking about is the ridiculous amount of training that I am doing, and the even more ridiculous amount of training that elite athletes do. My active training these days is around 4-6 hours every day, so I’m sure that most people won’t even be doing half that if they’re doing a lot! So, don’t worry. Just try to do more anyway :)

With this amount of training that I’m doing, I cannot just follow the odd magazine article or depend on experience alone. This is why I am always studying more and more about everything related to sports and health. Knowing that I cannot cover all the bases myself, I also have to seek the expert advice of those with the relevant backgrounds in their fields.

The physiological effects of such long hours of training go much deeper than meets the eye. Starting from how one feels, to how often they become ill, appetite, sleep, libido, concentration, and general wellbeing are all related to how much or how little we train. The training affects how our bodies use or discard nutritients, vitamins and minerals, and all these have to be balanced in order to achieve this optimum health that we all seek some way or another.

A balanced diet is one that can give our bodies the right amount of nutrients that are suitable for our lifestyle, as well as how our bodies react to all the stresses that we put them though. This is why it is a very personal issue that cannot be replicated, and while one set of meals can be suitable for one person, they can be extremely inappropriate for another. But, how do we get to know exactly what our bodies are doing? I wanted to know how I was doing. I wanted to understand what I needed to do in order to make sure that I wasn’t just taking some educated guesses messing around with what could actually end up costing me my own health, or, even worse, someone else’s!

One thing I came across that looked promising was a pro triathlete whose journey I have been following for the last 2 years, who also happened to be a doctor, who said that she was setting up a clinic to focus on this exact issue! I contacted Dr Tamsin Lewis (http://www.sportiedoc.com/) about her new project “CuroSeven” (http://www.curoseven.com/) to try it out. The blog posts and magazine articles of the “Sportie Doc” have been very useful already, so I already knew that she had an idea about what she was talking about...

The way it works is that you go to have blood samples taken. Any doctor can tell you what you’re low on, or how to just make some adjustments using medicine, food or supplements, but the difference here is that the advice I got went way beyond that! As triathletes themselves, the doctors at CuroSeven would tell you how your training might have led to some of the outcomes, and how certain adjustments to training can actually improve your health. For me, as an athlete and coach, this information is invaluable, since it explains a lot of the results I see from the different types of training.

An example of this was my own results. My blood was found to be low or deficient in certain areas, and a big contributing factor seemed to have been the type of training I was doing and how I was doing it. Recommendations as to how certain changes in my training were given and the supplements I was recommended by CuroSeven have all been verified to be compliant with any anti-doping regulations (which I double checked of course as an extra precaution).

With the very useful conversations I have had with the “Sportie Doc”, along with my readings, my coaching of triathletes and my home-made sports nutrition, I believe that my approach to health, training and nutrition has now taken a new turn. I believe that one cannot do just one thing without it affecting everything else in their lives. Feeling grumpy could very well be the result of being tired, which could be the result of a drop in certain nutrients due to the wrong type of training, even when the food intake is seen as “healthy”. By the same token, a lack of concentration or irregular sleep could also be the result of the wrong type of foods being consumed in relation to the type of effort one is doing. Also, if you start a training session with your mind somewhere else, you will not get the results that you wish for out of the session, and it is all just connected.

So, as the new year resolutions just about to come into effect, all I can say to you is that you should never just focus on one area and ignore the others. Your mental and physical wellbeing need the same amount and type of nurturing, and while focusing on just one might lead to the other following through, it is best to do the right thing for both to start with and not take any chances.

I wish you all a very healthy and fantastically happy 2014!