If you want to make considerable gains with cycling then nutrition should be at the top of your list of things to have a look at especially if you’re training for an event like Centurion.

Something very exciting happened just last week. I was asked to write a nutrition piece for Centurion Cycling and was featured on their website on Xmas Eve!! It's kinda like Xmas came early! 

I just love what I wrote so much I wanted to share it with you by posting it to my own blog in hopes that it reaches you and as many people as possible. You will learn a little more about me and why I do what I do as a nutritionist and a cyclist. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. What were your key takeaways and was there anything you would like explained further or hear more about? 

Yours in health,

Paige 

Written by Paige Royal, RHN and Cycling Coach at Pura Vida Performance

If you want to make considerable gains with cycling then nutrition should be at the top of your list of things to have a look at especially if you’re training for an event like Centurion.

I had no idea that when I was sitting in a café in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala searching for bike races in Ontario that I would be racing and placing in the top 3 of my age category at almost every single Centurion C50 Horseshoe and Blue Mountain I have participated in and I had no idea how important of a role nutrition was going to play in my training and performance.

My cycling experience first started in Whistler in the summer of 2005 when, on a whim, I borrowed a friend’s mountain bike and tested out some of the local trails. From that moment forward, biking became central to my lifestyle. It started with a downhill mountain bike clinic. Yep! For the first year of my cycling career I was hucking myself and my bike down the runs of Whistler mountain! I then dabbled in some XC mountain bike races and soon learned that road riding was a way to become faster especially on the hills. And it turned out that I love riding and racing road bikes! There is something about speed, the wind in my hair and strategizing that makes me feel alive AND riding with guys that I never in a million years thought I could keep up with in the beginning.

In order to better support my new active lifestyle, I started seriously considering what I was fuelling myself with. I decided to meet with a Registered Holistic Nutritionist. Up until this point, I had led a pretty colourful few years, in an unhealthy way. For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with my weight. I tried many different diets and had many ups and downs yo-yo’ing with my weight. At the height of it, I weighed just over 200 pounds. After six months of detoxifying my body with food and swinging the pendulum WAY the other direction I had a light-bulb moment. I knew I wanted to learn more on the subject of nutrition and find a balance.

It was time to take back my life. I first learned how to eat by getting an education in nutrition at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition in Vancouver and I used cycling to help shed the pounds. What I noticed was that when my cycling mileage and intensity was increasing I needed more food to fuel myself and so the investigating and experimenting with sports nutrition began. I learned how to support myself with nutrient dense whole foods, the timing of meals and snacks and what were the most important parts of it all to make considerable gains.

There are few main components however I want to share with you the most important one in my opinion and that is RECOVERY. How you recover after training or racing determines how you will feel the next day or the next on and off the bike for that matter. If you are training on a regular basis this becomes incredibly important.

Here are my top 5 tips to help you recover faster making your next ride easier and helping your muscles feel less sore. Remember it’s all about who can recover the fastest right?

1.     Recovery shake within 30 minutes post-ride/race. This is singlehandedly the easiest most effective way to restore muscle glycogen and speed up recovery. Insulin levels peak between 15-30 minutes post-training. An increase in insulin levels stimulates glucose transport into the muscle cells where it can be stored as glycogen. Taking advantage of this timing with your nutrition prepares you for your next training session. 

Your nutrition intake will depend if your ride was easy, short, long or hard or a combination. If you are at a race and not near a blender within 30 minutes post-race which is usually the case, use a shake. My preference and my recommendation to my clients is to use Vega Recovery Accelerator. It has the perfect ratio of carbohydrates to protein which is 4:1 respectively. If you have a longer ride or have raced, you want to make sure you follow this up with a nutrient dense whole foods meal or snack.

2.     Rehydrate for the next 24 hours. Post-race/ride drink 2 to 3 cups of fluids for every pound lost over the next 24 hours.

This does not have to be water only. In fact it is better to incorporate fluids like coconut water, broth, teas, kombucha or water-based soups. Incorporating these types of fluids is beneficial as they supply vitamins and minerals (electrolytes) that aid in your recovery.

Here is an example. Your weight is 150 pounds before you head out for your ride. You’re out for 1 hour and when you come back your weigh scales say you are 148 pounds. This means you lost 2 pounds so you should aim to drink at least 4 to 6 cups of fluids within the next 24 hours on top of your daily fluid intake.

3.     Eat a nutrient dense whole foods meal within 2 hours post-ride/race focusing on anti-inflammatory foods.

These include good sources of protein (animal or plant-based) which will help repair and rebuild muscle, healthy fats to aid in the absorption of vitamins and help move substances in and out of your cells and complex carbohydrates as they are rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals. Your goal is to incorporate nutrient dense whole foods that have lots of vitamins and minerals. Feel free to use good quality sea salt to replenish sodium that has been lost from your efforts and don’t shy away from carbs. Just make sure they are clean carbohydrates.

4.     Avoid inflammatory foods.

What is inflammation anyway? These days it seems the words inflammation, anti-inflammatory and inflammatory foods are being thrown around quite loosely. Inflammation is a protective response to injury, pain, illness and stress and the response we see is pain, swelling, redness and sometimes that radiating pulse and sense of warmth to the area affected. Now you can imagine what our muscles are like after a ride especially an intense interval session on the bike and what is happening if you are over-training.

However, these are not the only culprits of inflammation within the body. Lack of sleep falls into this fold and it is also caused from eating a diet of highly refined and processed foods, foods we have sensitivities or allergies to and there are even healthy whole foods that are known to cause inflammation as well such as the nightshades.

Inflammatory foods that are obvious are things like candy, soft drinks, white sugar, white flour, baked goods, desserts, artificial syrups, fast food, etc. These provide calories and not much else. I like to call them “empty calories” as they provide little or no nutrients whatsoever. We want bang for our buck! Something that might capture your attention even more is that incorporating an anti-inflammatory diet is good for injury prevention.

5.     Supplement with fish oil. Good quality fish oil will help to reduce inflammation and therefore recovery time. I personally use Ascenta’s Nutrasea. I would also recommend Nordic Naturals. It is important to go with high quality fish oils to ensure they are neither rancid nor contaminated.

BONUS TIP - SLEEP. You guessed it! Getting enough sleep is key for optimal performance. For me personally, rides that end later in the evening really throw me. I find it takes some time for me to wind down so I like to get my rides going right after work and end at a reasonable time. This way I also have time to get home, have my recovery drink or snack and stretch! Figure out what works for you and do that. 

Wondering what to do with all of your leftover turkey? Here's an idea!

Mmmmmm....Turkey Veggie Soup. SO yummy it might just knock your wee socks off. ;)

This recipe makes a huge batch. I did that on purpose so I could fill a bunch of 500ml mason jars and freeze them for lunches. Stocking up the freezer! 

This recipe is also anti-inflammatory. That means there are no veggies or other ingredients that will cause inflammation in the body. If you want to know more about what inflammation is you can click here and read my nutrition blog post that was featured on Centurion Cycling's website! 

It's great as it is for a cyclist in their off season however as training increases you will want to add a complex carbohydrate like brown rice or quinoa. These two grains are my "go-to". 

Enjoy! AND if you have any questions or comments or want to tell me how awesome it tasted when you made it, comment below. I'd love to hear from you!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
3 small red onions, chopped
1 thumb size fresh ginger, minced or chopped finely
5 large garlic cloves, minced
6 carrots, medium sized
10 brussels sprouts, small sized
5 stalks celery, chopped
16 cups water
3 chicken bouillon cubes (I used Organic GoBIO)
5 large stalks kale, sliced thinly
1 crown broccoli, chopped medium sized chunks
1 lb turkey, cooked
Salt to taste

Instructions:

1.  In a stainless steel stock pot, add the olive oil on low to medium heat. Then add the chopped red onions and sauté for 10 to 15 minutes. You want the heat low enough so the onions caramelize slowly which adds to the flavour of the soup.  

2.  Add the minced garlic and ginger and sauté for 2 minutes. 

3.  Add carrots, brussels sprouts and celery and sauté for around 5 minutes.

4.  Add 16 cups of water and 3 chicken cubes and bring to a boil. Once it boils lower the heat to low and let simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on the pot. **Note - you can boil the kettle and add the chicken cubes to one of the cups of water to dissolves beforehand. It's not really necessary since this will be on simmer for awhile.

5.  Add kale, broccoli and turkey and continue to simmer for 10 minutes then remove from heat. 

6. Add sea salt to taste. Enjoy!

Mmmmm...I love me some mint don't you? It's so refreshing! And sometimes I crave something chocolatey AND minty. 

Here is a Mint Chocolate Smoothie. I should probably have called this my After Eight Smoothie. Now that's a cool name! My recommendation is to use Vegan Chocolate Shakeology or Vega as your protein powder. 

You can even add a tablespoon of almond butter if you like. 

Enjoy! xo

In the nick of time. My Spanish is being revived! Pura Vida!

Two years ago, I spent three and half months in Central America. This was the time between closing my West Coast BC chapter to move home and start a new chapter here in Ontario. 

On my bucket list at that time was to learn Spanish. 

I will preface my interest in learning Spanish with the fact that part of my heart is in Costa Rica. I fell in love with that country on a backpacking trip with my best friend Jenny in April 2008. I have been back around 4 or 5 times since then with the last time being for a couple months. The first time I was there I told myself "you will be back and you're going to be speaking Spanish with these amazing people." 

SO, four years later there were some big changes in my life. I was finished my schooling and was officially a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and I was moving across the country. I somehow knew deep down that this would one day happen where I would be between careers. I had said to myself 5 years prior when I became a Securities Paralegal, that when this day came I would take time for me to do something I had always wanted. 

That time came and I knew exactly what it was! I did the research on the top places to learn authentic Spanish and aside from Columbia being number one, Guatemala was way up there in the rankings. I took it upon myself to live with a family in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala and attend a Spanish school for four hours a day to learn. I spent six weeks there doing just that until my brain was on Spanish overload. 

After I was finished going to school there, I could definitely speak well enough that the locals understood me and if they spoke slow enough I understood them. It was pretty freakin’ neat to be speaking the language of the country I fell so head over heels with.   

What is even cooler is that I just met a woman in a group I meet with that is married to a man from Ecuador. She is Canadian, speaks Spanish fluently AND is now only speaking and writing to me in Spanish when we see each other and correspond on email. This is a dream come true for me because I had been looking for someone to do this with so I wouldn't lose all I had worked for! And she is rather awesome because she owns a company called Earth Treks where she leads trekking tours in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands! 

I would love nothing more than to be fluent in Spanish. Guess what is going on my next vision board and what I just put out to the big old Universe!!

So, the moral to this story is:

(1) Ask and you shall receive. If there is something you want, put it on out there. You will be amazed at what happens!

(2) It’s never too late to do something you have always wanted to do. Nuff said.

(3) You can do anything you put your mind to. Can I get an amen to that!

#puravida #puravidamavericks #Spanish #education #cycling #nutrition #changeishealthy #costarica