Thanks, idad! You are so right about the metabolism of a 15-yo. He has very strong principles and will not touch anything that goes against them. And he gets so hungry. Is half a gram of protein per pound of body weight a day a good rule of thumb for a growing boy, or is that for a middle-aged adult?
I do buy Wild Planet canned tuna and salmon from Amazon. I made salmon patties 3 times last week. Everyone loves them, but they are made with panko.
Tonight for dinner, I made crab salad from cookinglight:
It’s delicious, I make it frequently and the boys gobble it up. I leave out the nuts, sesame seeds, coconut, chili. It’s also low-carb and high-fiber, you eat a huge pile of mixed raw greens, and low-fat.
This is probably not great for my 15-yo. I made him this smoothie earlier today:
The protein comes from tahini and hemp hearts, and I used some 2% milk. I will have to start counting grams of protein.
The walnut-blue cheese salad sounds wonderful, but my older son has life-threatening allergies to tree nuts. He can eat almonds so I use those a lot.
About the pancakes, my recipe has no sugar and it is made with rolled oats, buttermilk, the almond/buckwheat/flaxseed flour substitute. So it’s gluten free and high-fiber, but I guess not low-carb.
I actually feel sick if I don’t eat some carbs. I’ve tried eggs and spinach for breakfast and I have to add toast.
<p>I make him a smoothie almost every day, and I always add hemp hearts (complete protein), chia seeds, and milk, as well as frozen fruit and a banana. I will start adding almond butter or tahini, and I should use Greek yogurt instead of milk. I picked up some hemp protein powder for these granola bars, that I plan to bake tomorrow:</p>
I would add milk-derived protein powder (whey) in addition to hemp since animal proteins are different in composition from plant proteins which may lack some important nutrients. This is a common problem for vegans. I use this powder:
The half gram of protein (per pound of bodyweight) would be for an older adult. A teen boy should generally be more that that. A 15 year old boy is in a phase where he should be growing and adding muscle with every passing hour. That takes protein. Without meat, I would be inclined to go full-fat milk, dairy, and cheese. Milk whey protein powder shakes would be a definite consideration.
I’m not a big breakfast egg eater. Maybe once a week. I actually don’t eat breakfast. I’ve never been hungry first thing, so I have two meals a day – big lunch, big dinner. I usually have bacon and eggs early on a hiking day.
Speaking of protein powder, this UCAN SuperStarch with Protein seems to be working out really well for my hikes. I’ve been starting with half a packet 30 minutes before I get to the trail, then another half packet every 2 hours after that. Then, the 4th half packet as a “recovery shake” when I get back to the car for the drive home. So a total of two full packets for a four or five hour hike plus 1.5. to 2 hour drive home.
It’s protein, time release corn starch (glucose), salt, potassium, and some artificial sweetener – sucralose in the chocolate, monk fruit extract in the vanilla.
The stuff is pretty drinkable, diluted a little extra (1 packet in 16 ounces of water. I think the vanilla tastes better than the chocolate, but both are OK. No digestion issues, despite the fact that I’m drinking them while exercising fairly hard.
The only catch is that it really has to be mixed in a blender bottle. Then, I pour it into a thermos to keep it a little cool. I’ve got a little mini blender ball in the thermos and give it another good shake before drinking.
It’s been great to skip the Wendy’s or KFC or Mickey D’s fast food and to not be digesting food right before the hike. I usually have breakfast at home two to two and half hours before I start hiking. I couldn’t do that before because I was trying to eat a little closer to the start of the hike.
I skip the apples now. Just the UCAN and some kind of salted nuts. The protein is a good addition. For some reason, I crave a dinner salad after hiking, so hike days can be a little light on protein.
I have been feeling a little less fatigued at the end of hikes, but I really can’t say whether that’s from better fueling or just being in a little better hiking shape.
<p>On protein recommendations, in his book Protein Power, Dr. Michael Eades recommends the following:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Note that this is grams per pound of LEAN body mass. Your weight minus your body fat. So, if someone weighed 150 pounds and was 20% body fat, they would have 120 pounds of lean body mass. Makes sense. Eating protein is to feed muscle.These recommendations look pretty reasonable to me. Actually, his recommendations across the board in this book are useful.</p>
<p>His approach is to figure out how much protein to eat every day. Then, add the allotted net carbs (after subtracting fiber) concentrating on leafy and non-starchy veggies. From the title of the book, you can surmise this will be pretty low, but his target audience is middle aged folk with metabolic syndrome/insulin resistance issues and weight to lose. Then, add healthy fats to round out the diet. his contention is that eating fat is typically self-limiting, although he does have a caveat about the need to watch it with snack nuts.</p>
<p>He recommends starting at 30 grams of net carbs per day or 55 net grams, depending on how desperately/urgently you need to address weight or health issues. He outlines a process of increasing that in 10 gram increments to as high as 100 net grams per day for permanent maintenance.</p>
<p>My only exercise report apart from container gardening is that on my hill trail I was surprised to find a pace companion: an eastern box turtle.</p>
<p>He too was surprised.</p>
<p>One of us made it back down the hill. I expect to see him tomorrow roughly ten feet further…provided he overcomes the trauma of sharing the trail with me and comes out of his shell.</p>
<p>It was amazing! I ran the entire way (ok I walked the 2nd aid station to get a cup Gatorade). I am so proud lol! My goal was to run a 1:10 10k and my net time was 1:08:34. 11:23 miles. My previous best time in training was 1:16. I will definitely do this race again. I was 39/71 in my age group, right where I wanted to be. Smack dap in the middle, not bad for a first timer. :)</p>
<p>The weather could not have been better. Traverse City, Michigan out did itself, it has been such an awful winter and spring. Our foliage is way behind this year, the trees were blooming, the sky and water were blue. Perfect Northern Michigan weather. Actually it was a little too warm for the marathoners, I think it was around 45 at the start and close to 70 at the finish. If anyone is looking for a destination race, The Bayshore Marathon is a great one. Flat, fast and runs along the bay. The scenery is beautiful. </p>
<p>A couple of notes, I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt, my SIL who ran the half had arm warmers those would have been nice but I was fine without. I was dressed perfectly, so many of the 10k’ers way over dressed. Too many people in jackets and capris. I only had my Garmin with me, so many people looked like pack mules. I didn’t bring my phone, it doesn’t fit in the pocket of my groovy run shorts (even though they told me it did). That’s the only thing I kinda wished I had brought so I could take pictures but it was so nice to run unencumbered. </p>
<p>Lastly, I want to thank everyone here. I seriously say I could not have done this without your support! MOWC your tip about the Galloway method was invaluable. It was my ah ha moment. It gave my the confidence to be able to run this distance. </p>
<p>Congratulations deb!!! That’s a great time too! I’m so glad you loved it. I have this for running with my iphone:
<a href=“http://flipbelt.com/”>http://flipbelt.com/</a> It’s really comfortable, and you don’t feel it at all. I only bring my phone when I do long long runs, just in case.</p>
<p>deb- Congratulations! What a great start for you and you liked it! You did great- really. It sounds like you executed it all perfectly right down to you outfit.</p>
<p>My daughter (and I) REALLY want to run Bayshore Marathon. We love Traverse City and I know it is a quality race. She went to boarding school there (Interlochen) her last two years of high school so we were up there quite a bit. I never raced there, though. </p>
<p>Deb, I’m SO happy for you. Wow, look what you accomplished - especially the last month! I’ll second that area for a race - would be magnificent! That’s a great time and you must have felt bursting with pride at the finish line!!!</p>
<p>Can you share what brand/style are your favorite running shorts?? </p>
<p>They are fairly short, but the cut is extremely flattering and the front split is very comfortable. I get lots of compliments on them. They are not cheap…</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I am bursting with joy lol! </p>
<p>I’ve decided that running shorts (and sports bras) are the running clothing item I do not want to scrimp on. Those brooks look really nice. I really like the lululemon groovy run shorts. A little longer, and a zip pocket in the back (a must for me). They are holding up pretty good too. I’ve found that my workout clothes take a beating so paying a bit more for quality is worth it. </p>
<p>Blankmind, I almost bought one of those flip belts but wasn’t sure, glad to hear a positive review. I think I’ll pick one up when I get to the running store next. </p>
<p>Another good belt is the Spi-belt. I’ve used it before. <a href=“SPIbelt, The Original Running Belt”>SPIbelt, The Original Running Belt; Brooks shorts have 2 snap pockets on the butt and those same sorts of slots on the waistband that the Lulu shorts have. I like the Lulu Speed shorts. I often wear the dresses and skirts, too, of course (probably more than shorts for actual races).</p>
<p>Thank you for the information on whey powder, BB. I checked out that product and it looks good. 25 grams of protein at one time would be great. From what I can tell, their scoop (25 g protein) is about 3 T. 3T of hemp seeds is 10 g protein, but I’m not sure I could put as much as 3T in a smoothie. I usually use about 1T of hemp hearts and 1 T of chia seeds. The whey powder is apparently much less noticeable than the seeds. I’ve added it to my next Amazon subscribe-and-save delivery.</p>
<p>The superstarch sounds interesting, idad. I’m not sure DS needs it, but maybe I do! </p>
<p>Race report!! I ran my 5k today, my time was ok, not my best but not my worst either. I will say that I was regretting the cupcake & ice cream I had for dinner last night. </p>
<p>But more importantly today, I had the privilege to run beside a whole lot of marines. This race is run every year in honor of the Marines 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, also known as Dark Horse, which is stationed at nearby Camp Pendelton. Dark Horse is the regiment that in 2010, suffered the greatest losses of any Marine battalion in Afghanistan (25 dead, 200 wounded). NPR did a story on them in 2011. The race grand marshall was a marine who lost both legs during that deployment. There was a tent set up with pictures of the 25 marines who were killed. It’s hard to look at all those young smiling faces. </p>
<p>After I got home I found out that the LA Police Emerald Society Pipes & Drums was going to be performing there. I’m really sorry I missed that; I have a strange love of pipe & drum bands.</p>
<p>kmcmom: That’s hilarious. The turtle would probably pass me!</p>
<p>NYMOM: The SuperStarch (or any sports energy drink) is probably only necessary for workouts last a couple of hours or more. For home use after normal workouts, a regular protein shake would probably be fine. I was intrigued to try it because sometimes I’m hiking for four or five hours. I really don’t want the sugar-based energy drinks/bars as I try to keep my sugar consumption to a bare minimum. This stuff seemed like just the ticket.</p>