Image: DC Comics. Art by Scott McDaniel, Jonathan Glapion, and Le Beau Underwood. Damn it, we were so close to getting one of Milestone Media’s best characters in. Distance coach Scott Christensen explains the summer training for cross country runners should do throughout the off- season. Although it is important that a cross-country runner include fat in meals such as breakfast, fat should make up no more than 20 percent of. Daily paper. Local, state, and wire news and commentary. Photo galleries, business and obituaries.
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Eat Vegan & Run . I loved Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, and nothing made me happier than mounds of butter and piles of salt slathered and sprinkled on the mashed potatoes my mom made. When it came to vegetables, I had strong and—with the exception of canned corn—uniform feelings.
I hated them. No one would have picked me to be the kid who grew up to expound the benefits of a plant- based diet. We lived at the end of a dead- end street at the edge of the woods, five miles from Proctor, Minnesota, which was another nine miles from Duluth, which was 1. Minneapolis. The kids on the east side of Duluth flew in jets to family vacations. They were the sons and daughters of doctors and lawyers. We called them . Some of us were, anyway. I was skinny and had high blood pressure and scoliosis. I got good grades, and my mom made me wear button- down shirts.
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Coach Frank Pucher provides seven valuable tips for High School Track Athletes on race day. Cross Country Nutrition Answers to questions you might have about fueling for the season By Emily Brown Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 12:00 am. Carleton College is a private institution that was founded in 1866. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,014, its setting is rural, and the campus size is 955. Nutrition for the Adolescent Female Cross Country Runner by Marie Murphy.
I liked sports, but avoided teams in middle school because the thought of getting on a bus with a whole lot of other kids scared me. That was partly because when I was on the school bus, kids called me Pee- wee and pushed and shoved me. One kid spit on me. Others challenged me to fights. I wasn't the boy anyone would have pointed to and said, .
I joined my sophomore year, and by my junior year I was ranked 1. That summer, I was invited to attend the Team Birkie Ski Camp in Wisconsin, for the best high school cross- country skiers in the state. That's where I started my very slow transformation from serious carnivore into vegetarian, then vegan.
At the time, anything more than iceberg lettuce with a few cucumbers and creamy ranch dressing seemed bold if not amazingly sophisticated. I didn't have any choice, so I ate it. And I couldn't believe how good it tasted. Winter of my senior year, I was ranked ninth in the state, and I joined my ski team buddy Ben Deneen and his step- dad, Ben Croft, on a ski trip. They brought coolers and bags full of wholewheat pasta and spinach salads and black- bean chili.
We stopped at the house of a friend named Kurt Wulff, and his mom served us homemade granola made with soy flour, wheat germ, and barley flakes. I asked her for the recipe, and when I got home I made it myself. I wasn't eating granola and salads because I wanted to make a better world (that would come later), or be nice to cows. Even today, if I had to, I'd kill and eat an animal if I needed to survive. I was just noticing that the more I ate .
On the mornings before high school races, I began to eat a big bowl of brown rice I had made the night before. I hid the rice as I ate it because I knew the grief I'd get if anyone saw. But I was still an athlete, and I was still a meat eater, and to tell the truth, I couldn't imagine being the former without the latter. It would take different people to help me see that not only could a plant- based diet sustain me, but it could actually make me a faster, more powerful athlete. One of the people to nudge me on the path to veganism was a girl I met at Mc.
Donald's. I was ordering two Mc. Chicken sandwiches. She wanted a Coke. She rode her bike everywhere, smiled a lot, and wore Birkenstocks.
It was 1. 99. 5 and I was a 2. College of St. Scholastica, studying for a degree in physical therapy. She was an 1. 8- year- old freshman at the University of Minnesota Duluth, almost exclusively a vegetarian. I had stopped skiing and taken up competitive long- distance running.
I'd finished one marathon and placed second in the Minnesota Voyageur, a 5. I spent that spring of 1. I had ever trained before.
I tore up ground. I assaulted hills, attacked trails—the more weed- choked the better.
I ran through rain and snow and blistering heat. I ran with purpose.
I wanted to win. I ate with purpose, too—at least, what seemed like purpose then. I began to put Havarti cheese on my sandwiches, instead of summer sausage. I cut down (a bit) on breakfast sausage biscuits. But if I was going to run and win, I needed lots of protein. And everything I had been taught said that when it came to protein, eating animals was the most efficient way to get it.
So I kept shoving down two Mc. Chicken sandwiches and a large order of fries (as well as the occasional Big Mac) at least four times a week.
Plus, I loved to grill. My roommate and I spent many a night on our back porch, feet on the banister, barbecued steaks, brats, or burgers in our mitts, downing a tin of Planters Cheez Balls and a box of malted milk balls in a single sitting. My nickname was the Grill Master. Like it or not, I was still a Minnesota redneck, a hunter and fisherman.
I was still my father's son. When Leah—the blond in Birkenstocks—would show up with organic apples or milk, and I would see the price tag, I'd yell, ! What's in it, gold dust?!
I thought I was eating healthy. I knew I was training like a maniac. And when the day of the Minnesota Voyageur finally arrived in July 1. I shot off the starting line. I swallowed that course. No one was going to beat me.
But somebody did. I finished in second place—again. Somehow, I would have to run faster. But I couldn't train harder. I couldn't run harder.
What was the secret? The next year, the summer of 1.
He had just shuffled back from his physical therapy session and was slowly climbing back into his hospital bed. With each painful step he took, I could see his frustration, feel his anger. It was my senior year at St. Scholastica, and I was working an internship for my degree at a hospital in Ashland, Wisconsin. I was supposed to be helping him, and we both knew I was failing. The old man climbed into bed, and he looked at his lunch tray waiting for him—Salisbury steak drenched in something brown and congealed, lumpy potatoes, iridescent- looking canned peas. His expression said it might as well have been a tray of rocks.
He didn't say anything, but he might as well have been shouting. As an athlete, I was ostensibly dedicated to health, which would lead to optimal performance. As a physical therapist, I was supposed to be helping people with their bodies, but I didn't spend a second focusing on their diet.
Was it a coincidence that sick people were being served starchy, crappy food? If a balanced diet could make you faster, could a bad diet make you sick? The old man wasn't talking, but I could hear the secret he was telling me. What we eat is a matter of life and death.
Food is who we are. I thought a lot about food, and diet, and athletic performance that summer.
I was in a checkout line when I picked up a magazine to pass the time. There was an article about a guy named Dr.
Andrew Weil and one of his books, Spontaneous Healing. He said the human body possesses an enormous capacity to take care of itself as long as one took care of it by feeding it well and not putting toxins in it. I learned that the standard Western diet—for a long time my diet—rich in animal products, refined carbohydrates, and processed food, has been linked to three of the most common causes of death in our country: heart disease, cancer, and stroke. I read that diabetes affects nearly nine percent of Americans, and that type 2 diabetes, once nearly unheard of in children, is on the rise, bringing with it a host of complications, such as kidney failure, blindness, and amputations. I didn't realize it then, but that summer marked the beginning of my lifelong commitment to learning about food, to eating better, and to living more consciously. Cutting out processed foods and refined carbohydrates was not difficult.
Meat and dairy were other matters. I didn't want to consume either—because of stress to my kidneys, potential loss of calcium, possibly increased risk of prostate cancer, stroke, and heart disease, not to mention the chemicals and hormones injected into the country's food supply and the environmental degradation caused by cattle farms—but I was getting more serious about running, wondering if I had what it took to compete on a national level. And I was even more conscious that I still needed fuel to burn. I knew that a plant- based diet meant more fiber, which sped food through the digestive tract, minimizing the impact of toxins. The same diet also meant more vitamins and minerals; more substances like lycopene, lutein, and beta- carotene, which help protect against disease.
I knew it meant fewer refined carbohydrates and trans fats, both implicated in heart disease and other ailments. But could a diet like that provide enough protein for someone who wanted to be an elite athlete? I hedged my bets. The percentage of what I ate that came from animals went way down, but I didn't cut it out completely.
And that summer of 1. I won the Voyageur. I didn't run harder. I had been right: I couldn't run harder. But I could eat smarter.
I could live smarter. I knew I could keep going when others stopped. I knew I had good legs and good lungs. I wasn't just a runner now; I was a racer. And I was a mindful eater. But my victory was in a state competition, at 5.
What about the big races, the 1. Everything I read about diet and health told me a meatless diet was healthiest, but I had to figure out a way to get enough protein, to marry my healthy eating with long- distance running. Combining vegetarian protein sources like legumes and grains every meal—until recently an article of faith among vegetarians—seemed too labor intensive. But I learned that our bodies pool the amino acids from the foods that we eat over the course of the day.
I didn't have to sit down and do the math every time I ate. I also learned that even the conservative Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the largest organization of dietary professionals in the world, has stated: . Well- planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. As long as I ate a varied whole- foods diet with adequate caloric intake, I would get enough complete protein.
At least in theory. I spent the next two to three years testing the theory. In the spring of '9. I cut out meat. I won the Voyageur again.
The four- month hell of being turned into a Victoria's Secret angel. The Victoria’s Secret Angels gaze coquettishly from billboards and shop windows, posing in barely- there lingerie with out- of- bed tousled hair. Their thighs don’t meet in the middle, and you’d be hard pressed to find a tighter tummy on an elite athlete. When the company launched its Perfect Body underwear range last year, many women despaired at the unobtainable and, some argued, unhealthy ideal these models represented. More than 1. 6,0.
Not that it made a difference to the VS success story. Last year the US company turned over an astronomical . Half a billion viewers watched its televised runway show in London in December.
I was in good shape to start with: at 5ft 9in I’d always been a dress size eight, with a 2. But my body fat was 2. VS world. Victoria’s Secret requires all its Angels to be 5ft 9in tall and have 2. But that’s just the start of it.
VS creative director Sophia Neophitou- Apostolou claimed: . All your mind, all your everything goes into it.’So are they simply selling a dream? Or can a mere mortal achieve a body worthy of VS scanties? To find out if it is even possible, I agree to follow the exact same diet and exercise plan that the Angels undergo. I am to be advised by personal trainer Dan Roberts and New York nutritionist Dr Charles Passler, both of whom work with the models. You’ll have to judge for yourself from my picture as to whether I really managed it.
As a 2. 9- year- old fitness blogger, I’m no slouch. But nothing could have prepared me for the mental and physical challenge I had in store. On paper, I achieved the Victoria’s Secret body and I’m proud I managed it. I needed to make my glutes .
We need fat to store energy and protect the organs. After about 2. 0 minutes of exercise, the body no longer draws energy from carbohydrates consumed, and it turns instead to fat stores to continue . This energy is also used to power the organs. A healthy, fit woman will have between 2. Athletes will have between 1. Below 1. 3 per cent and you start to experience severe health problems such as confusion, fatigue, hormonal imbalances, organ failure and eventually death. I was in good shape to start with: at 5ft 9in I’d always been a dress size eight, with a 2.
But my body fat was 2. VS world. Dan explains that I need to make my glutes . But I will also need to reduce my body fat – by four whole per cent. And this will mean serious training. The Victoria’s Secret girls have been targeted by campaigners who object to the . I am to be . So I should exercise six or sometimes seven days a week, and on some days do two sessions. Having been a runner all my life, without so much as a peep into the testosterone- dominated weight- room, my first session results in back injury, meaning I need total rest for a week.
BRING ON THE PAINOnce I get back on my feet and into the programme, I spend the first month completely physically and mentally exhausted, require an hour’s more sleep than usual and succumb to several bouts of sniffles, catching three colds. Dan is always there spurring me on, whether it’s in a session, with a text (. As the second month progresses I’m able to work out for longer without feeling tired. By month three, I’m dead- lifting 7.
I weigh. THE COST Personal trainer and nutritionist - . Others, it’s the heaviest weight I can manage three times before becoming totally fatigued. I am used to enjoying exercise but weight training just hurts. It’s a huge challenge to stay motivated. No wonder they have to pay the Angels so much – last year, Ambrosia’s body earned her a mind- blowing . It can sometimes be sore but it’s effective in soothing my aching limbs, and I don’t think I’d have been able to keep up the intense programme without it.
RUNNING ON EMPTYIn 2. Adriana Lima revealed she’d been on a liquid- only diet for nine days pre- show to help shed her baby weight. There was, justifiably, a mini- uproar that led to Lima having to issue a warning to girls not to follow her example. Although he refuses to discuss her case, Dr Passler does tell me: .
But my eyes pop at the powders, pills and protein supplements Dr Passler sends me, all costing a small fortune. There’s a vitamin and mineral complex, digestive enzymes and BCAA’s (branched- chain amino acids – to ensure my body burns fat not muscle for fuel) and even Sero. Syn, a supplement designed to support . That means chicken, fish or beef with almost every meal. If I can’t face meat, I have the equivalent amount of protein in eggs (three equals about a portion of chicken). Anything with sugar in it is out, including fruit.
For the first month I can eat vegetables. Mostly those . To keep my energy up, I have two tablespoons of oil or butter with every meal. Eating out becomes near impossible and celebratory dinners, birthdays and weddings difficult. I end up constantly leaving food on my plate. THE DIET One serving of oil and butter is one tablespoon, one serving of avocado is a third of an avocado. HEALTHY FATS (two servings per meal)Coconut oil. Avocado Butter or ghee Olive oil One serving of oil and butter is one tablespoon, one serving of avocado is a third of an avocado.
PROTEINBeef Chicken Six egg whites Fish Shellfish VEGNothing that grows below the ground LEGUMESMay add 1/2 cup on occasion at meals. I had to eat 1,3. Chicken has about 2. Greek yogurt. The rest of my calories were made up of fat. Extreme low- carb diets push the body into a state called ketosis, which means that it primarily burns fat for energy.
I’m to train on an empty stomach, apart from black coffee and water mixed with the vitamin and mineral powder. Some research shows this forces the body to burn fat for fuel and spikes hormones that will encourage muscle growth. I struggle to get through a training session without yawning at least a dozen times. My last meal of the day is at 6pm – to prevent laying down calories as fat – and there’s no alcohol. So long social life. I never feel starved, just unfulfilled before bed. I also find I’m not quite so, er, regular due to the lack of fibre in my diet.
MAKING THE CUTAs well as her post- baby liquid diet, Adriana Lima revealed to a newspaper in 2. It’s an old body- builder trick: dehydration contracts the skin, making muscle definition more prominent for a leaner, more sculpted and . Dr Passler is vehemently against this, saying: . My bust has also shrunk, by a whole cup size. My cholesterol levels dropped too, despite all that meat and oil – apparently the result of a very low- carb diet.
The hours and dedication required to be VS catwalk- ready require a military mind and athlete’s performance – impossible to maintain if you have a job and family or want a social life. The VS girls admit they don’t live like that all the time. If they did, it would be called an eating disorder. Doctor Passler warns: . The potential long- term negative effects are nutrient deficiencies and an imbalance of normal gut bacteria.’ He needn’t worry – I’m going back to my normal balanced diet, with lots of veg.
So, on paper, I did what I set out to do – I achieved the Victoria’s Secret body and I’m proud I managed it. But health matters to me more than appearance and I’m happy with the way I look. I’ll probably keep doing weights but I’ll give heavy dead- lifts a miss. And despite the fame and fortune they enjoy, I’m happy to be back in my old routine – and not having to worry about how I look in my underwear.
Follow Poppy’s blog at poppycross.