My work outs and Carbs

Me saying that I am enjoying this day is a huge understatement. I love days when I can drink tea with my love, research the web for recipes, bake and cook delicious food and in the end of the day have our best friends (I so love you guys!!) over for an evening of laughter, conversations and a good meal.

This week I have put in many hours working out and instructing classes. My body screams for relaxation and recovery, I am mostly sore in my upper back but my arms are a little jello-like too. I am also tweaking my diet to fit my activity-level. Loading up on carbohydrates and nutrient rich food.

My work outs week 12:
Monday: EFX circut training 50 min. 
Tuesday: Stairmaster 45 min.
                Bodysculpt 50 min.
Wednesday - Stairmaster 30 min.
                      EFX circut training 50 min.
Thursday - Bodysculpt 1 hour
                  Spinning 45 min.
Friday - OFF
Saturday - Spinning race-day 2 hours

 Carbs, carbs, carbs:
A few years ago, during my transitioning time of becoming gluten free, I ate 95% raw and vegan. It was rewarding to focus on what I could eat, rather then what I could not eat. The backside of it was a constant feeling of being hungry. I snacked on carrots and nuts all day long in order to keep that hunger in check. But even with eating vegetables all day long - in the end of the day, a raw and vegan lifestyle did not support my activity level. Working out was hard and gathering motivation for it likewise.
As I started introducing more and more carbohydrates, protein and dairy products into my diet I found that I had more energy. My body felt more at ease because I was not constantly hungry and now I had a ton of energy for daily chores and working out. Over the years I have come to find what foods work for me and the amount that supports my activity level.

Food is obviously essential. The type of food we eat has powerful effects on energy levels, moods, appearance, longevity and how we age. There are foods that are good for us, then there are foods that are good in smaller portions, and there is foods we should stay away from (like overly processed food).
Dietary carbohydrates play a vital role in human nutrition because they provide the primary source of the energy we need to fuel bodily function.

Some carbs are good and some are bad depending on what it does to our blood sugar levels. We can use the glycemic index (GI) to find out just how much our blood sugar increases in the hours after ingesting. The food with the highest glycemic index aka the nastiest food you can eat in terms of turning to sugar the minute you eat it is... drum-roll, white bread! The GI of white bread is set to 100 and all foods are compared to it (GI charts either use white bread as reference point or pure glucose which has a GI of 140.

What we call simple carbs = empty carbs = high GI foods, have been refined and stripped of their supportive nutrients. So white sugar, white bread, pastries and even cereal has no nutritional value. It goes like this: you eat it, your blood sugar spikes, the pancreas works really hard to pump out insulin to get the blood sugar level down, and it works... fast, now you crash, feel fatigue and soon enough hungry again.
Anyway, since our bodies needs energy and fuel, we need carbs, good carbs! Ones that digest slowly and allows us to stay full for a long time, it also supplies us with balanced energy levels throughout our day. On a gluten free diet we often turn to replacement foods (gf bread, pizza, pasta, cookies etc), and the typical main ingredient is corn, white rice and potatoes which unfortunately is not much else but starch and lacking in nutritional value.
Choosing foods wisely is essential to our health in the long run, gluten free or not. Complex carbohydrates from grains are the body’s best source of energy because they are burned in a constant, time-released manner. Some of the carbs that I choose, that leaves me feeling full for a long while and also supplies me with high nutritional value include but are not limited too:

• Quinoa, millet, sorghum, oats, teff, amaranth and buckwheat
• Apples, kiwi, avocados, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, spinach and brussel sprouts
• Berries, nuts and seeds.

 So that was a little bit of allot of things =) I need to get to my cooking and baking now. I wish you all a peaceful day!
 

 -Kathrine-

Resources: The encyclopedia of healing foods, Gluten free for dummies