Quinoa, my new favorite superfood!

I’ve just recently “discovered” a new food love. Seriously, I love it so much, I could have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Breakfast: Quinoa with natural yogurt, mixed berries and a dash of cinnamon. Yum!

Quinoa, pronounced keen-wah, may look like a grain, but is actually the seed of a leafy vegetable that is related to beets, chards and spinach. But the texture and taste of puffed quinoa, creamy with a bit of crunch with a slight nutty flavour, makes it a perfect substitute for breakfast cereal and rice. Apart from the hint of nuttiness, it is bland and thus absorbs spices and flavour rather well. But the best part is its nutrition content. It is packed with amino acids, magnesium and fibre. In terms of protein, quinoa is particularly fantastic for vegetarians such as (moi!) because the protein contains in quinoa is that of all nine essential amino acids! Quinoa has a muscle relaxing effect due to its high level of magnesium. Combined with its high iron and folate content, quinoa makes the perfect post run meal. Finally, the high fibre keeps your digestion and life clean and healthy.

As part of the ‘goosefoot’ seeds family, quinoa is native to the heights of South America. The ancient Inca people, known for their endurance, were among those who had quinoa as their staple, before that custom, along with the cultivation of this “grain” and its quinoa-eating civilization were siped out by the Spaniards. Quinoa was fabled for being a ‘gift from the gods’ bestowed by a mythical bird upon the Incas. Given its nutritional properties, I must this mythical status might well be justified!

I don’t know why more people (read: runners) aren’t eating quinoa, given that it may be the most nutrition packed source of carbs. And I’m not talking about the likes of Scott Jurek. I mean runners I know in person, they are scoffing down white rice & white pasta instead. Ok, to be fair, this was me, too, before I got intrigued by Scott Jurek’s tweet about his favorite ish being quinoa with tmpeh and Indonesian almond sauce. I was previously hesitant of trying out quinoa but at that point decided to give it a go. While the most popular type of quinoa is a transparent yellow color, other varieties feature colors such as orange, pink, red, purple or black. I used white quinoa of the Macro Organics range that I got from my nearest Woolies (and if it’s in Woolies, then it means that it is widely available here in Australia, yay!). Apparently the darker varieties have stronger nutty flavour. And although it may be difficult to find, but I read that the leaves of the quinoa plant are edible, with a taste similar to its green-leafed relatives.

Lunch: Quinoa with oven-grilled tempeh in Balinese spice marinade, a boiled egg and a sprinkle of fried shallots.

So how do I prepare quinoa? Well first you gotta give it a good rinse to get rid of the bitter and soapy tasting saponin that coats quinoa. Most commercially bought quinoa have been rinsed but it doesn’t hurt to rinse it again, in case there are residues. Then I pop it into the rice cooker with one part quinoa to two parts of water. Cooked quinoa is puffed up, fluffy and the individual seeds will have little tails (they remind you like tiny tadpoles!). Since it’s bland, you can actually cook it in broth or milk. I prefer to cook them in water and season them when it’s cooked for savoury dishes or boil them in milk for breakfast porridge. Don’t be deterred by the price of a bag of quinoa: it costs substantially more than rice, but it becomes three times its size when it puffs up, so you’ll get plenty of serving out of a 500g bag! Besides, it fills you up so much, you’ll eat less of it. I have spent a whole eating mostly quinoa for my carbs, and I must say I feel lighter, so much less bloated and cleaner, healthier. It is a perfect substitute for rice and goes really well with Asian dishes. It soaks up the flavour, has the righ creamy and crunchy texture akin to white rice that is cooked just right!

What are you waiting for? Dig into this superfood, runners! More information on quinoa and why it should be a runner’s staple can be found here:

Quinoa (Livestrong.com)

Ten Foods You Should Eat Everyday (Runner’s World)

Have you tried quinoa? What do you think of it?

Thank you, Mish! My 12wbt reflection.

This one a looong overdue post.As some of you may know, I have done two rounds of Michelle Bridges’ 12 weeks body transformation. And that it is really this program that I need to thank for my newfound love (read: obsession!) for running. The 1st round of 2012, which was my second time doing this program, wrapped up about a month ago, and not they are two months away from kicking off the 2nd round of this year. So, for a few weeks now, I have contemplated long and hard as to whether I should take part in the next round. To sign up or not, that is the question!

I’ve written multiple posts about how fantastic this program is. And I am going to bore you with it again, haha! Regardless of what your fitness goals are, whether it is to lose weight, tone up or push the boundaries of your strength or endurance, or both, this program does the thinking for you in terms of meal planning, workout planning, tracking. You are plugged into a community of likeminded people bursting with enthusiasm, and best of all, you have the guidance of Michelle Bridges through videos, direct responses to your queries by her and her team. I swear, even if she was addressing the masses, Mish has a way to get into your head. It’s as if she’s speaking directly to you! Being part of 12wbt essentially means having Mish as your personal trainer.

As much as I loved being part of the program, there are a few things that made me reconsider my plan to join 12wbt for another round:

• GOAL WEIGHT: This is how it started. I wanted to get rid of the last 8-10 kgs of my baby weight. After two rounds, I can say that I have pretty much reached my goal weight; In fact, I am lost an extra 5 kgs on top of that so I am at my slimmest (and treading dangerously close to the lower thresh hold of a healthy BMI). Needless to say, I don’t need more weight loss. But have I introduced permanent changes to my lifestyle to help me maintain this weight? And help me tone up (and get rid of my flabby mummy tummy)? And help me reach my running goals?

• NEW LIFESTYLE: The essence of the 12wbt program is to help you introduce a healthy and fit lifestyle so the positive changes you achieve in your weight, look and fitness level are here to stay. Well, for me, the answer to the question above a resounding yes. I am confident that I have adopted a healthy lifestyle, both in terms of my diet and fitness. The program opened my eyes to the importance of calorie tracking and proper meal planning. And to the fact that clean and lean eating makes up 80% of your effort (who would’ve thought?)! But I also have a lot to thank my obsession for running for. I am eating healthier because I want to run better and faster. I watch my nutritional intake because I want to build my endurance and have enough energy for next day’s run. And I am fit because I run.

• SUPPORT: I have now surrounded myself with people who support me in my effort to reach my fitness and running goals. Many of them I have met through 12wbt (in fact, I will continue to be part of the fantastic local 12wbt group, the Capital Punishment Canberra crew). My 75 member strong mums group is another fantastic source of support. We have formed a “spin off” group comprising those who wants to support each other in their weight loss and fitness efforts. However, I derive much of my support for running from Twitter, Dailymile and a Jakarta-based virtual running group, Indorunners. It’s simply amazing how much support strangers are able to give to each other in less than 140 characters.

After being on the fence for weeks, I have today made up my mind that I won’t be joining another round and see if I can prevail without the guidance and support from 12wbt. I feel that I need to test put my new lifestyle and resolve to the test and see if I can “survive” without Mish as my personal trainer. I also intend to put the funds to other use (such as buying winter gear! Temperature is dropping fast and today on my long run the wind almost killed me). But I will review my progress after skipping this round and see if I need to rejoin for the third round (there are three rounds help each year).

The program gave me so many tools to work with. From healthy vegetarian recipes (yes, vegetarians eat crap, too), workout plans (as well as instructions on how to do each workout properly) to mindset lessons (that I have downloaded in form of an audio podcast and have since repeatedly listened to). I have adopted the habit of tracking; I track everything from food, calories, workouts–I think in a couple year’s time I have enough observations to crunch through STATA possibly for a multiple regression paper (ok, can you tell that I have a love and hate relationship with statistics and econometrics).

But on top of that, there are major mindset lessons from this program that will always stay with me and hopefully keep me on track. Mish has repeatedly mentioned this in her video messages/podcasts, and I have burnt them to memory (including her voice and facial expression when doing so! She terrifies and inspires me at the same time, how is that even possible?). I thought it would be neat to put what are, in my opinion, the top three 12wbt mindset lessons in a digital art collage. This is a way of me thanking Mish and 12wbt and hopefully this would also help me commit to them.

Thank you, Michelle Bridges. Thank you, 12wbt team.

Have you done 12wbt? What were the top lessons you gained from the program?

Running up that hill: My love & hate relationship with Hill Repeats

If I only could / I’d make a deal with God / and get Him to swap our places / be running up that road / be running up that hill….

That chorus of Kate Bush’ epic song “Running up that Hill” pretty much illustrates my feelings towards hill repeats. The Hal Higdon half marathon plan I’m following asks for hill repeats on every other Tuesday. Hate em all you want, Higdon says hills repeats are an important legs strengthening workout, so they gotta be done.

Why do I dread hill repeats so much? Well, it’s actually a love and hate relationship. On one hand, hill repeats are an effective fitness booster. Working your way up the incline requires far more effort at the same pace compared to running on a flat surface. At a high intensity, this workout pushes your body to your maximum level of oxygen uptake or VO2 max, thereby a consistent repetition of this workout is likely to help you improve your body’s ability to take up oxygen.

Hill repeats also strengthen your legs: Running uphill and downhill forces your legs to puts muscles to use more powerfully than what you would have running on a flat surface as you are fighting gravity. As a result, tendons and ligaments are strengthened. Science tells us that putting strength in your muscles makes you a better and less injury prone runner. Results in terms of improved muscle power and increased speed should show in as soon as six weeks.

On the other hand, hill repeats are bloody exhausting. Going uphill, tha is. To me, it’s even far more intensive than speedwork on flat surface. I ran out of breath far more easily on hills. And my heart rate goes bananas if I try to push even if it’s only to stick my usual easy run pace. Also the incline is intimidating, therefore it presents a bigger mental challenge. Higdon advises to do hill repeats on 400m hills, so if you are doing it on a steep one, the hill can seem like it goes on forever!

Also hill repeats burn! The harder you go uphill, the more burn you feel in your calvesand thighs. Going downhil isn’t a piece of cake, either. Pounding downhill the wrong way could impose a lot strain on your knees and quadriceps. I run in minimalists shoes, therefore would have to take extra care and pay more attention to my running form when dashing downhill. Well, strike that, I think everyone should be careful when running downhill, it is known to have injured the best of us.

Weighing both sides, I must say the benefits of hill running makes a strong case for including hill repeats in my training (and because Hal Higdon says so!). But what clinched it for me was this: Hill training, combined with other forms of exercises, helps burn fat on your calves! Who doesn’t want to have slim and toned calves? What better incentive to do hill repeats than to fit in those pair of sexy leather boots?

But how should attack the hills? And since I am running in minimalist shoes, what running technique should I be observing to gain maximum benefit out of my training? Here are a few useful tips that I have gathered from various sources and to some extent applied myself:

Running uphill:

• Work by effort, not pace: Stop glancing at your running watch! If you’re a newbie like me you are bound to slow down when running uphill, and that is fine! Measure your effor by Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) rather than pace because every hill is different anyway. So if you want to run hard then run with an effort of 8-9 out of 10, if you want to run easy then scale down your effor accordingly. You got the gist.
• Watch your posture: Avoide leaning forward too much. In fact, be more upright than you would running on a flat terrain as the incline of the hill already decreases the angle between the ground and your body. Why? If you lean forward too much, your feet will create a braking effect instead of pripelling yourself forward. Also, make sure your feet falls underneath the center of gravity and that you don’t overstride.
• Keep cadence high: And of course one way to avoid overstriding is to increase cadence. Run light and turn your legs quickly, this way you mitigate any harmful impact on joints and knees and you run faster. For hill repeats, at least the past couple I’ve run, I have tried to focus on form and cadence instead of going all out on the effort part. Because remembering to flick your heels and keep leg turnover high can be pretty exhausting, too!

Running downhill:

One of the biggest mysteries. I remember when running Stromlo, a few runners in cushioned trail shoes just flew past me and these were people I had overtaken before when going uphill (I was running uphill, whereas they were walking). I remember cringing at the sight of them pounding their heels hard on the trail with stiff legs. I was wearing the NB Minimus and just couldn’t speed up (my biomechanics just won’t let me). The ultimate secret to barefoot downhill running has been elusive to me. Until now.

• Lean into it: This requires confidence. The mantra here is to ‘open up yourself’ and, imstead of leaning back and trigger a breaking motion, you lean slightly forward and embrace the run (or rather, the fall). Gravity will pull you down, so absolutely no push off is required. Yes, you will fly, and that’s exactly the point.
• Land on your midfoot: It is absolutely crucial that you land on your midfoot and not your heel or forefoot. Both heel and forefoot would trigger the breaking effect and out undue stress on your joints. Landing in your midfoot underneath the center of gravity is also a more stable way to go about your run.nif necessary, try descending slightly sideways, to avoid that forefoot strike. I have that tendency and I found this tip to be ver effective for steep downhills!
• Dramatically increase cadence: You would have to go beyond the leg turnover rate of a speed workout and even of running uphill. This is very important considering you want to minimize impact on your joints and knees as much as possible. So bend those knees and lift those legs!

I hope that helps. These tips have certainly made running hill repeats more enjoyable. For my next hill training, I have even planned something more elaborate than just running up the incline next to my school, so stay tuned!

Some fantastic articles on running hills:

• Everything you know about hill training (Runner’s World)
• How to run with proper form and technique (Spark’s People) – look up the section on ‘Running Hills’
• Hill Training for Runners (Rick Morris)

Do you enjoy hill training? What are your personal tips?