Intermittent fasting

So I heard recently about this idea of intermittent fasting. And it just blew my mind!! Why? Because it's so simple and in line with what I'm trying to achieve.

When you hear a word "fasting" you probably have these images in your head of starving yourself, monks in a temple meditating all days long, anorexic girls etc. Intermittent fasting is nothing like that. 

There are 3 simple rules to follow:
1. You eat 8 hours in a day and let your body rest from eating and digesting for another 16 hours.
2. You eat only natural food (hence clean food).
3. You eat 2-3 meals a day.

Idea behind it? Let me put it in points again:

1. By not eating for quite long time during a day you allow your body to digest all food before you go to sleep. You basically go sleep with an empty stomach. And because your body doesn't need to work on processing food it can rest properly. Effect? You have more energy the next day you get up.
2. As you eat only natural food it is quick to digest and dense in nutrients  which gives you stable levels of energy during a day. Apparently with time you stop craving things that are processed in any way (including bread, pasta, dairy products) and you start craving fruits and veggies.
3. If you stick to the above rules you notice with time that you actually don't need as much food as you could think. We tend to overeat these days. Eating on emotions, bad habits, choosing "comfort foods" over good foods. Very often confusing huger with thirst or cravings. 
4. With time focus shifts from EATING itself to overall care of your well-being. Food has a great impact on how we feel (and so this is why it is so popular topic) but there is also stress management and spiritual growth. Body, mind and spirit - that's what we are. Not only a body. And any form of fasting actually forces you to get your mind off physical aspect of life and seek for something more. (Otherwise you would go just crazy thinking of food all the time).

I'm going to test this on myself. I'm so curious how this will work in practice for a person who works full time and does sports daily. And who has still struggles with some aspects of bulimia (i.e. tendency to obsessive thinking of food).

It's now 4 weeks to Christmas. I will use this time for this test and hopefully I will get a perfect Christmas presents that I can give to myself:
1. more energy
2. leaner body
3. feeling overall great and by that being ready to serve others and help them to achieve their goals.

I'm ready to go.

Clean eating

So what clean eating is all about? 

There are many different definitions you can find in the Internet. Some say it's being vegetarian and not eating sweets. Others say it's about being vegan. Some stand for eating raw. It may be quite confusing so what this really is about?

The fundamental rule of eating clean is to avoid processed food. And that's simply speaking food that is made in factories, where loads of sugar and chemicals are put into it, then it's packed, distributed and sold. The main purpose here is not to provide good, healthy food to people but to make money. It's a business. I can go on forever on how the big food companies are tricking us to think what they offer is good for our bodies. But this is not the main objective of this post. The main thing is to get us to stop for a while and think - what is good for me? Is my food clean?

So coming back to definition itself. When you think of it clean food is what is in the nature. Fruits, veggies, nuts, grains, water. All these controversies about dairy products and fish/ meat are huge subject to discuss. To my understanding of the subject is not WHAT it is as much as HOW it finds its way to our table. Example: if you have your own cow and milk it for your family - that milk is clean in nature. But compare this to milk production the way it's done these days on a massive scale - it's not only disgusting (the process itself) but the end product has not much in common with real milk.

Being vegetarian or vegan is a matter of choice. I wouldn't dare to say it suits everyone. But I will say with all determination: make fruits, veggies, nuts and grain at least 90% of your daily food intake, if you don't want to resign from dairy or fish/meat. Let these be base of your nutrition. And second - get rid of all JUNK FOOD. Meaning all sorts of fast food, sweets, fizzy drinks etc. You know very well what junk food is. Introducing these two rules to your daily life will make a huge positive impact on your health and overall well-being. And once you feel great you can do more, be more productive in your work, training, social life. It affects everything you do.

Try eating clean for a month and see how it changes you. The great chances are you will never go back to stuffing yourself with chocolate or another cheesy hamburger with fries. You have nothing to loose but so much to gain.

Stay strong.

Food addiction is a real thing.

I want to give a few thoughts today on a food addiction topic.

It is a real thing just as drugs addiction, alcoholism, sex addiction or any other for that matter. Our brains are so complicated that humans are able to be addicted to anything. 
Addiction is not when you like something and have it from time to time. It is when the THING becomes your obsession. When you want this to have as often as you can and once you have it, you loose your control over it. For example, I like to have a mojito drink once in a while. Usually not more often than 2-3 times a year and I would have just one drink at a time. I don't need more and surely I wouldn't drink 10 of them to get drunk and pass out.But take an alcoholic. He/she wouldn't stop having just one drink. And they would have it a way more often than 2-3 times a year. They would crave it every day and staying away from it would be a painful struggle.

Same with food. Bulimia is not only about binging and throwing up. It's about this obsessive thinking about foods that you like. And once you allow yourself to have some, you will eat and eat until get sick. It's like ON button goes off in your head and you can't switch it off. Every bulimic has own trigger foods. These are foods that once you have them, you can't stop eating them. And you keep thinking about them. To me personally these are mainly bread/rolls, cheese and some kinds of sweets. Countless times I was on a meeting at work, in a church, driving my car, watching a movie, reading a book, talking over Skype to my family etc. AND thinking about food at the same time. In my mind I was already in a store and picking things that I want to eat in the evening. In days when I forced myself not to eat anything I would go to bed quite early but then I wouldn't have any sleep. Just lying there and thinking, imagining.... sick.

Since 10th May I turned into clean eating. I used all my power I had to focus on 2 things: 1. clean eating 2. a big race coming up. The race was in July. Done it, happy with it - like never before. I said to myself: OK, two weeks of break from running to recover and I also may have some of these foods I haven't had since weeks. Two weeks turned into 8 weeks. I did start to run at one point but it wasn't enjoyable with my bad eating. Now I'm back on track now. Clean foods only. 

But I had to stop and think: What happened?

Food addiction happened. 
I have to confess here that I used to be a smoker. I was smoking a lot before my running years and stopped 8,5 years ago. But it didn't happen straight away. I was on and off this thing. The longest break I had it was 6 months - I got scared as I was diagnosed with a thyroid cancer. I got healed, and soon after I forgot how scared I was. I got back to cigarettes. What happened there?? Addiction. The same thing.

I know what I did to quit smoking for good. I am now applying the same rules for quitting on bad foods. Trigger foods. The only difference is that it is harder. You don't have to smoke to live (actually you shouldn't if you want to live) but you will always have to eat. It's now not a choice whether have it or not, but what I am going to have today.

But I'm back. Stronger - I believe. And maybe some of these thoughts will inspire also you to fight your own addictions.

Stay strong.

Pami

Stay focused

It is easy to lose your focus. And then it takes an extra effort to gain it back. 

Before my 240 km race I was entirely focused on the task ahead of me. Weeks before that I stopped eating any bread, sweets or cheese (these are my trigger foods) and I also stopped destroying my body by any bulimic behaviours. It paid off. I not only did finish the race but placed myself on a podium. This was just amazing! Two weeks after that I went for a local 100-miler. I shouldn't have done that. My body was screaming not to but my ambitions were greater. I should have listened to my body but I didn't. As a result I was running the first 20 km, then jogging next 10 km and then dying for further 70 km, until I decided that 100 km is all I could do that day. I don't have any regrets of pulling out of that race. I couldn't even jog anymore (tired, my blisters re-opened, knee started to hurt) so what was the point?! Only then I realised what I have completed just two weeks before and how this affected me. I needed a rest. And so I decided I will not run for the next two weeks and will also go easy on myself  with eating. For two weeks I only went few times for a walk or to the gym and allowed myself to eat some bread and sweets, and twice even cheese. I am not proud of this, but sort of needed that as well. Maybe not physically but mentally - just to have a BREAK from everything. 

Two weeks have passed and I came back to my running and clean eating routine. I have learned that after next ultra I should take some rest from running but not from my good, clean diet. It took me three days to get back on track and I feel my body is still not fully adjusted to eating fruits, vegs and grains only. 

It was quite easy to lose this focus on what I am eating for the 14 days. First it felt a bit weird to eat a sandwich or nutella, but then it got really easy. The point is there was no real need to suspend my clean eating in the first place. I will never do it again. 

So here are some tips on how to get back on a track. Whatever your goal is and whatever setback you are facing: 

1. Have honest conversation with yourself what are your goals and why you want to achieve these. 
2. Make a new plan for yourself starting from TODAY. 
3. Forget the past mistakes and forgive yourself. You won't be able to focus on the future while still looking back. 

I did these things 3 days ago and I am getting my focus back. To make it easier for myself i signed up for the next race that will be in a few weeks time. Not to compete, I know I will do it just to enjoy some trails, but to keep myself on a track. 

Stay focused. Stay strong. 

Fruits vs energy gels

I never liked the idea of taking energy gels. I didn't listen to all these commercials telling you that you have to take one every 40-50 minutes, or forget running a marathon. I tried once and my stomach suffered a lot. Then somebody told me I need to take these during my training long runs so that my stomach can adjust. I thought about it and I came to a conclusion that if my body doesn't accept this it means it cannot be good for you. Since then I don't eat anything during a marathon. I can easily run few hours without food. I only need to make sure I drink enough (and usually take some isotonic drink half way).

But running ultras is a different story. Here it is so important how often you eat and what you take in. I did many races where I didn't care much about nutrition. All I cared about was how do I look on the race day. So 2-3 weeks before the race I used to starve myself to look good. I felt like crap but at least I was 6-8 pounds lighter. When the race started I usually was going quite well for the first half and dying the second one, only trying to survive to the end. I used to go on chocolate bars, rolls with cheese and coke. No wonder I was feeling and performing bad. Few times I didn't finish because my body refused to go any further and then I was peeing blood every few minutes in a burning pain.

This was so stupid.

Since I decided to make a turn in my life and watch what I am actually eating my nutrition during long runs and races consists of fruit pouches, bananas, watermelons, oat bars, water and - if going more than 50 miles - isotonics. Sometimes red bull but only when I have troubles to stay awake overnight. But I try to avoid this as I know this is really bad for your system.

Here I want to share my thoughts on fruit pouches that I found a great and healthy alternative to energy gels. Even my husband, who does triathlons,  gave it a try and he decided to switch to these as well.

Ingredients of an average energy gel: 24,1 g of carbs, of which 16,3 g is sugar. salt 0,39g, protein 0 g, fat 0 g. Total weight: 50g, Calories: 100.

Ingredients of a fruit pouch: 19 g carbs, of which 18g sugars, salt 0,03 g, protein 0,09 g, fat 0g, fibre 1,9 g. Total weight: 100g, Calories: 100.

The difference is in a type of sugar mainly. I don't need to explain that fructose is much more healthy than artificial sugars put into energy gels. And you don't have these sugar highs and lows, once you eat these regularly during race you feel fine all the time. 

The only disadvantage I can see is weight. Fruit pouches are twice heavier. But in long races usually you have points where you can leave your drop bags. So you can plan how many of these you will take with you for each stage of the race. It also depends what else is provided on the check points. If they have bananas, oranges or any other fruits - you can take less of these pouches and mix with the whole fruits.

At the end everybody chooses what works for them. I found these little pouches very energizing, refreshing and handy. If you are looking for some healthy options then give it a try on your next long run.

Enjoy :)

Why bulimia had to go?

This is a difficult post for me to write. I've been bulimic for 22 years and nobody really knew about this. I only told my sister some years ago and my husband but then we never came back to this as I resisted any talk about food and the way I eat.

I will not give you the whole history of why, how and what got me into it in the first place. It's enough to know bulimia knocked the door of my mind when I was 12 and she stayed with me since then, becoming my best friend and my worst enemy. It affected practically all my life. 

People can see me in general as a successful person. Back in Poland I graduated from Economics University as a Master of Accounting and Finance. I learned English, I moved to Ireland where I did another school to have a good job in here. I got a good job and then I was promoted twice. Apart from that I finished quite few respectful ultramarathons. I became one of the leaders in the church I go to. I'm happily married to a wonderful man. All good, right?

But most of these things happened just somehow on the way. It was always like having two lives: the everyday life where I smiled to people and played my roles and my secret bulimia life. And my mind was so often in the second one. For example while sitting in a class room I barely paid attention to what a professor was saying, I was more occupied by what I will eat later on and will I have a chance to get rid of this. Sad but true.

Take the very fact why I started running in the first place. It was to deal with my weight, nothing more. And my races? Always the same pattern: few weeks before the race I would almost starve myself, throwing up every night just to feel lighter on the race day. During race of course I wouldn't have much energy and normally I would be disappointed with my finish time. Few times I had to walk as I was so dehydrated that I was painfully peeing blood every few minutes. And I knew why is that happening. And after the race I wot loose it totally and stuff myself with everything I could think of. So my 7 years of running were not much about running. I was lucky to run in some beautiful places and yet I wasn't really happy. Bulimia could find me everywhere.

So what happened? Why I decided to change my life now? Well, after one of the runs I did in April this year I just looked at my picture from the race and saw that I don't look like a happy runner that just crossed the finish line few minutes ago. I looked like I wanted to say:"ok, now let's go home ". And then I was thinking how tired I am with all this endless battle. And that in few months I will turn 35 and this is really time to decide if I'm going to waste my life like that or I will finally wake up.

I had the same turning point thoughts some years ago when I was quitting smoking. I was just so tired with this. But fighting eating disorder is harder. You don't need to smoke to live but you still need to eat. 

It's a learning process. I am a vegetarian since few years but it doesn't mean I've been eating healthy. So now my focus is on eating clean food, watching my meal times and hydrate my body properly. I try not to step on a scale too often. I know I shouldn't. It's about having a good energy, renewing my mind and the way I think about food and myself, and finally it's about finding a real joy in my run. And to have this better, real life bulimia had to go.

Difference between previous ultras and the one I did yesterday.

I ran 100 km yesterday and this was my first ultra since I switched to clean eating. So what is the difference? Let's go step by step.

1. I felt great and really happy standing on the start line. 
I ate a big bowl of fruits with some chia seeds 2 hours before the race and drank some water. I felt really energetic. This gave me as much calories as pre-race breakfast I used to have but eating fresh, live food will simply give you more than calories intake, it will boost your mood as well.

In the past I would drink a coffee and then eat some rice cakes with peanut butter and jam or porridge with banana and honey - quite heavy stuff on your stomach, no wonder I had problems quite often with going on sides during a race. And even when I didn't I still felt quite heavy.

2. I didn't eat any processed food during the race but ran it on fruits.
During all 13 hours I ate a few bananas, 8 pouches with mashed organic fruits (the ones you can buy for small children), few pieces of oranges, few slices of watermelon and 1 liter of coconut water. I was amazed how good I felt. Although I didn't make a great time I had no energy us and downs - it stayed constant and I felt quite fresh until the end. (I would probably go faster if not the fact my legs were already tired after a hard long mountain run I did previous Saturday. As this race was not my main focus but rather a training run I didn't care much about the time - I'm just saying that it was not the food but other factors). Even after the race I felt good and others actually made comments on how fresh and full of energy I still am.

Comparing to the past - I used to eat rice cakes again with peanut butter, rolls with cheese and coke. And this never worked well in the long distance. This food made me feel sluggish and quite heavy. It didn't give much energy after all despite of large amount of calories. I remember after each race I just wanted to eat something hot and not sweet. Which brings me to another point.

3. Eating after the race.
When I finished I changed my clothes, talked to guys and finally it was time to go back home. I didn't feel much like I wanted to eat anything but this is normal just after a very long run. I waited a bit and then I had two pieces of vegan bars that I made a day before and a banana. Later my husband wanted to pick an ice-cream for himself so we arrived at a tank station. Shelves were packed with everything you shouldn't eat whether you are vegan or not - chocolate bars, crisps, cookies, fizzy drinks - all this stuff that just give you bunch of bad sugars and nothing more. I grabbed only mango smoothie and drank it later before going to sleep.

On the way back my husband also wanted to step in to one of fast food stores in the well known chain of restaurants that he used to work for. Just to see if there is anybody he knows to have a chat. And there was one girl he knew so we sat down for a few minutes. In the past we would go anyway to have a pizza but now it was for social reasons only. I was shivering as after each long race - when tiredness kicks in your immune system is weakened and it is quite normal you feel cold. I ordered a cup of freshly made soup while they were talking. I realized when looking at the menu that there is nothing apart from this soup that I would potentially eat. All other things were just pure fat or sugar. And I actually felt good about this. This means that went far enough not to crave any fries, veggie burgers or pizza. This cup of soup was enough to warm me up.

4. A day after.
Well, I feel my legs are tired but overall I feel great. I drink as much water as I possible can to flush out of my body all toxins that are created from muscles fatigue. I would actually go for a run if not few blisters that I want to sort first. But surely I will go to a swimming pool this afternoon.
Which is another difference as in the past I was simply dying after long race. Not really wanting to do anything. And very often eating a lot of junk food and sweets to "award" myself. And such food obviously made all the matters worse. I don't crave these anymore. I feel great and want this to stay that way.

And I'm going now to treat myself witch smoothie that I will make from mangoes, bananas, spinach and fresh orange juice.

EAT CLEAN.  IT REALLY WORKS.

Pami.

35 to 35

It is 35 days today to my 35th birthday. Perfect time to set my live to a better course.
Facts:
I am bulimic since 22 years.
I am kind-a-runner for last 7 years.
I am vegetarian since 3 years.

It is time for me to re-think my life and what I want to do. I want to become a strong, free from food addictions, and most importantly - a happy runner.

My running so far is everything but happy. I started as an easy way to loose some weight. Obviously, weight was always an issue. Quite soon I turned into marathons and ultras but never really found happiness in it. As I was still grabbed by my bulimic habits.

The same with being vegetarian. OK, I excluded meat and fish from my diet but still ate a lot of bad stuff, like sweets, fried foods, processed foods etc.

I want to eat clean. For the last month I cut on bread and cheese and I noticed I after few days of feeling that I'm lacking something I actually started to feel great. I ate more and more fruits and veggies. This gives me so much energy - I never expected that.

This is an initial post just to say what it is all about. The coming ones will be about clean eating, free running and living life to the fullest - in harmony of body, mind and spirit.

Peace.