On Good Friday I met up with my brother at the bottom of the Puketapu hill in Taradale for a training ride. Both of us are keen amateur riders and we are in training for a ride in May from Rotorua to Whakatane which is 90 km with a lot of hills.
I am also riding in the Hawkes Bay ” Girls on Bikes” 65 km Ride on the 11 April. Getting out and doing lots of hill work is our main goal.
The ride we did was 38 km with approximately 20 of them being hills. My brother is carrying some extra kilos and is a bit slower on the hills than I am and I usually leave him far behind. I had a raw soaked muesli for breakfast and it was only about 20 minutes before I started the ride.
What a big mistake that was, I was only a couple of metres a head of him on the first hill and was struggling, this is when I realized that I should have had a green smoothie instead of the muesli.
About 20 minutes later I was heading up the big big hill on Puketitiri Rd and I had finally digested the oats, I got the energy I needed to get up this hill.
This isn’t rocket science but it took me this experience to learn that you don’t eat too soon before exercise and food choice is paramount. Raw oats are great for giving sustained energy but the digestive system needs time to process them for that energy release, where a green smoothie will hit the blood stream in five minutes.
Now if I had a cooked breakfast then I would’ve been in bigger trouble as 84% of nutrition would be lost during the cooking or processing of the food. Raw food is definitely better.
I usually go for my ride very early in the morning and don’t eat before I exercise, so this occasion was different. We headed out at 9 am and I needed to eat before we left.
Although I had a raw breakfast it just wasn’t the best choice before a ride.
As I was climbing up the second even bigger hill on that road I was thinking about how I was going to tell everyone on my blog “how dumb am I” by my choice of breakfast.
I also was thinking about the high I get at the top and feel the adrenaline rush going down the other side. This motivates me to keep going even though you feel that it is never going to end.
I definitely get a natural high from the exertion required to cycle up steep hills. I’m sure that my success at achieving my fitness goals is due to the living foods that I eat and the anti-oxidants that I take.
I’m not a fan of synthetic supplements and I don’t take too many as a rule but the ones I take are always natural and only when I am unable to get what I need in my diet.
On that day I had taken 5 capsules of Lifestream Recovery, in my water bottles I had Concentrated mineral drops and Elite electrolytes. I don’t like sports drinks that contain enormous amounts for sugar and no magnesium for muscle recovery. Just pure electrolytes and minerals are the best way to go.
I don’t normally promote products on my blog but I just have to sing the praise of the Lifestream Recovery. It contains Spirulina, Astaxanthin and Blackcurrant. It is a completely natural product and is fantastic for muscle recovery as well as giving you sustained energy.
With this product you can train day after day and not suffer muscle fatigue.
This was a hard ride and took me 1 hour 50 minutes on Friday which is 5 minutes better than the last time. My brother was ten minutes behind me. Once I got my energy levels back I left him far behind.
I am encouraging my brother to get into more green smoothies to help him loose the extra few kilos, when he gets this off I had better look out he will be powering past me.
Basic Green Smoothie (for one)
1 apple
1 kiwifruit
1 banana
200 ml of water
1 ½ cups of fresh well washed spinach (or any other dark leafy green vegetable)
2 pitted dates (optional)
Peel and chop kiwifruit, banana and apple, place with the rest of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy.
Canadian Oats
¾ cup whole oats (rolled oats have been heat treated)
chopped raw nuts of your choice
raisins and or dried apricots chopped.
sunflower seeds.
½ cup liquid (water, orange or any fresh fruit juice)
The night before take a 3/4 cup of oats and place in a container. Add chopped nuts of your choice, raisins and or dried apricots, and sunflower seeds. Mix together, then add liquid, about half a cup should be enough so that it is moist and the liquid is visible place a lunch plate on top. Then put it in the fridge overnight, eat with yoghurt and fresh fruit or on its own. Single serve.
My name is Raelle Connolly and I’m a Homeopath from Napier, New Zealand. I love to work with people and help them become the person that they want to be. I believe that a healthy body and mind is the key to happiness and that it’s a constant journey.