Full Potential

I competed in my first triathlon about three years ago.

I didn’t have a coach, I didn’t understand training at all, and more importantly I didn’t understand the importance of recovery. Now, three years later and after having some experience, as well as success in triathlon, I am just beginning to scrape the surface. I have been following a rigorous training schedule under my coach Chris Thomas for just about one year. In that year, I have had my ups and downs, successes and failures and I have learned a lot.

When I decided to get a coach, I had one thing on my mind, competing in my first 70.3 distance triathlon. The biggest mistake I made was not listening to my coach. He had given me a training schedule that I was supposed to follow. Instead, I would do the training he gave me and then I would do more. I thought I was helping myself, but my body was not ready for it. When he gave me a day off or told me not to race, I did it anyway. He knew something that I didn’t, my body wasn’t getting the recovery it needed. Needless to say, I had a less than disappointing performance in my first 70.3.

Whether you are young or old, it is important to listen to your body. If it is tired, sometimes the best solution is to take a day off. If you are sick, it doesn’t make you a weaker person to step back and rest for a day. In fact, rest and recovery are just as important or potentially even more important than the training itself. If you are constantly training on tired or sore muscles, you will not perform well in training, you will not be able to push your body during your workouts, and you open yourself up to injuries.

I have put together a few pieces of advice to follow for the newbie triathlete:

1) Take things slow.

It is important to build a foundation. A person that is relatively new to triathlon should not be on a program that calls for 15-20 hours of working out each week. Very few people jump into this sport and do extremely well. Mastering the skills involved to be successful takes time. Not weeks or months, but years of training. My coach who has competed for close to 15 years now tells me that he is still learning new things every race he participates in and he is one of the top ranked amateur triathletes in the world. Most people, myself included, are too busy wanting to produce results, that they forget that it takes time. My biggest mistake that I have made in triathlon is trying to push myself too hard too fast. I wanted to win so much, that I often times put my health on the line. I would train when I was sick, race when I was hurt and I wouldn’t take time to recover. This is something that took me a long time to realize, but when I did, I decided that I needed to change my outlook and my approach. Big surprise, when I changed my approach, the results started to show. This brings me to my next point:

2) Listen to your body and treat it well.

When I started listening to my body, I started to perform at a much higher level. When I was sick or needed to take a day off I did. Instead of taking the full day off however, I did something productive for my body. Some of these things included ice baths, slipping on some of my SKINS compression clothing, stretching and making sure I was fueling my body with the best foods to recover. What this did was it allowed me to recover so I could train harder and also come into races with a much higher fitness level. I was able to push my body harder because I gave it the rest and recovery it needed to perform at the highest level.

Recovery

3) Eat well and use recovery tools.

These are probably two of the most important factors for me in my recovery. It is imperative that you refuel your muscles after working out. Some may argue on the specifics, but there is a 30 minute window or so after a workout that is the prime time to restore nutrients to your muscles. My drink of choice after workouts is chocolate milk as it has pretty much everything that you need in a recovery drink (ie. protein, carbs, etc.). Another huge benefit for my recovery has been my use of SKINS compression garments both in training and after working out. Compression products are proven to reduce muscle fatigue, improve circulation and help you recover faster. Beyond post working out, it is also important that you are taking in enough of the right calories daily to replace what you lost during your workouts. That doesn’t mean that you go eat your weight in pizza, but rather that you eat a balanced diet of foods that will not only replenish calories that you have lost but that will also fuel your for future workouts.

The importance of recovery is something that is often overlooked by many triathletes.

If you use some of the advice I gave you and put it in to practice, I can guarantee that you will not only perform better, but you will feel better. Remember, although you may be trying to win a race, beat a personal record, or just trying to finish the race, that there is a reason that you are competing in the first place. I may be wrong, but it is probably because you love the sport. So sit back and think about why you are doing triathlons in the first place. We all do triathlons for different reasons and we all have different goals. Whether you are training to win or just trying to finish your first triathlon, don’t forget to give your body the rest and recovery that it needs.

by Daniel Cassidy   

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Coconut oil is a miracle worker. Plain and simple.  It it nature’s cure-all. A multi-purpose cleaner, if you will, for the human body.

I first started to use coconut oil after reading about all that it remedies in The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies.  Coconut oil is highly regarded in Ayurvedic medicine, an alternative and more natural practice that has been used for thousands of years in India.  It is recommended orally and topically to combat almost anything from dry skin to influenza.  And while some may argue that research on coconut oil is inconclusive regarding its effect on serious illnesses, there is research (and old eastern medicine) which proves that coconut oil has antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties due to the lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid it contains.  Further research shows that because of these properties, when taken orally, it can strengthen the immune system and help ward off conditions such as influenza, measles, hepatitis, herpes, SARS, ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and candidiasis.

Coconut oil can also be applied on the skin to fight infections and funguses, such as ringworm, athlete’s foot, and diaper rash.  It aids in healing, so is recommended for burns, bruises, cuts and even to protect a new tattoo.  And of course, because we’re talking about an oil here, it’ll leave your skin soft and smooth.  Same goes for your hair, especially those with frizzy manes.  One study showed that coconut oil repaired damaged hair better than sunflower and mineral oils and can improve hair growth.  It’s also great for protecting cuticles and strengthening nails. Oh, and it prevents premature aging, so it is a good idea to slather on coconut oil before and after exposure to sun. Are you catching on to how much I love this stuff yet?

Recent studies have shown that coconut oil can aid in weight loss, as well as digestion.  How in the world can an oil aid in weight loss??  Especially one that is high in saturated fat??  Yes, just one tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil (the least processed form) contains 13 g of saturated fat or 67% of the daily value!  Most saturated fats should be limited in ones diet due their raising of bad cholesterol, which correlates with an increased incidence of heart disease, cancers and type 2 diabetes.  However,  fats in coconut oil are medium-chain trigylcerides, which are indeed classified as saturated fatty acids, but research shows that MCT do not promote heart disease and the coconut oil may on the contrary, protect against it, as well as cancers and diabetes.  I am not a doctor, so I would still recommend anyone with high cholesterol or who is genetically predisposed to any of the aforementioned conditions, to speak with a doctor before ingesting coconut oil.

Here’s how you can use coconut oil on a daily basis:

Coconut oil is soild at room temperature, so it should be melted in a pan on the stove or in a microwave for hair and body (though it usually melts right away once it makes contact with skin) application. Make sure it’s cool though! Massage oil into hair and on scalp and let sit for about 10 minutes.  Ayurveda methods recommend rubbing oil on entire body daily before showering.

Try replacing other cooking oils with coconut oil, especially in stir fry recipes.  It goes very well with vegetables, particularly kale.

Use coconut oil at room temperature in place of butter and cream cheese on bread and bagels.

Post By: Olivia Iwuc 4/23/12

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Like most of the rest of the world I had no idea Ecuador was the world’s largest producer of fine flavor cacao. Then my family and I decided to move to Ecuador and start our chocolate business and a world of fine cacao and chocolate appeared. Strict definitions of fine flavor cacao, versus bulk cacao, don’t really exist. But generally fine flavor cacaos are those of the Trinitario, Criollo, or Ecuador’s Nacional variety. They make up less than 10% of the world’s total cacao production. Ecuador has the privilege of producing over 60% of the world’s total production of fine flavor cacao, which makes it the world´s largest producer of top quality beans. Now that I’m here, I realize what a serendipitous choice it was, and along with a select few, I’m working to help Ecuador’s cacao get the recognition it deserves. My chocolate experience in Ecuador began really as a chocolate experiment. I originally lived in Ecuador in the mid 1990s doing international development work, and knew nothing about chocolate.  I met my wife during that time here. We left after getting married and spent ten years living in the US, Nicaragua, and South Africa. I changed careers in 2001 and went to culinary school and caught the chocolate bug.  When we visited Ecuador every year, we would make chocolates and sell them via word of mouth during our holiday visits and sales were so good we figured there could be a business somewhere in all this. But we were still totally ignorant about Ecuador’s cacao and chocolate industry.

In 2007 we returned to live in Ecuador with two kids in tow, and dedicated ourselves 100% to the chocolate business. While sales were not as good as I expected and we struggled to make ends meet on little income and some savings the first few years, I was fortuitously forced to look elsewhere for opportunity. I met cacao growers, processors, exporters, academics; basically everyone who’s anyone in the cacao and chocolate industry here.

It’s a small chocolate world, but vast in what there is to know and learn about. I’ve managed to carve out a niche for myself as not only the “gringo” in Ecuador who makes chocolate, but as a tour leader for chocolate tours, informal press liaison for travel writers and bloggers looking for information on Ecuador’s chocolate industry, cacao exporter, and supplier of chocolates to some of Quito and Guayaquil’s most exclusive shops, caterers, and hotels. I´m now working closely with several partners to develop a farm-to-confection product line for both the local and US markets. Our goal is to make some of the finest chocolate available and share the story and flavors of Ecuador´s fine cacao with the world.

The post Jeffrey Stern Talks Ecuador Cacao appeared first on Perfect Fuel Chocolate.

Running is fun.

Running a race is even more fun.

Lately, I’ve been averaging 1 road race a month and my times are getting better and better.  I’ll give all the credit to the Perfect Fuel Chocolate I’ve been eating, but I’ve also been running more, which feels great.  When I think about these organized races there is always an internal conflict.  On one side: Why am I paying money to run? And on the other: It’s invigorating, motivating, and it’s great to run with a community and for a cause.

These are the races that I’ve run in the last 5 months, and ones you might want to put on your calendar for the upcoming year:

The Cruickshank 5K: Named after a great man, Bill Cruickshank, this is an annual Babson College run, and being a Babson Alum, I’m definitely making it a tradition.  It happens mid-October starting and ending on campus but mostly running through some hilly bits of Wellesley.  This was my first race barefoot.  With unknown, and sometimes shocking terrain, I ran it at 25:10:00.

The Hot Chocolate 5K: America’s sweetest race is really crowded.  Expect to have fun, but don’t expect to run your best time.  These are a series of runs happening across the US in Chicago, Denver, Dallas, San Diego, San Francisco, and Hottlanta.  I ran the Chicago event because I’ve got lots of friends in Chicago, and it’s the greatest city in the US.  In fact, I had 3 friends run this event with me. I came in 5134^th place.

The Hangover Classic: This is the best way to ring in the New Year.  The run is on January 1st, in Salisbury Mass.  It is a great run along the beach with good vibes and a dip in the ocean to end it- brrrrrilliant. I ran this race in 22:39:00, shaving off a few minutes from the Cruickshank run.

The Not-Hyannis Half Marathon: This was the first ever of its kind, set up and sponsored by our company. On February 26, we produced a very informal race with about 15 runners, and it rocked! Perfect Fuel Chocolate hopes to spruce it up next year.  The Esplanade, Back Bay, the Fens, and even Bunker Hill, this 13+ mile run was a blast.

Super Sunday 5 Miler: The folks over at RACEMENU are terrific and this is one of the many races they put on.  A race through Cambridge with lots of vendors and a big frigg’n party to end it.  This is a great run to get a team together and wear uniforms and cheer each other on.  Mostly because RACEMENU has great announcers.  I ran the 5 miles with 6:52 splits.  Faster and faster, here I go.

An Ras Mor: Perfect Fuel Chocolate was enjoying the mood at this Cambridge race.  I ran and chatted with a friend during this run and man it was awesome.  Ran it in 20:30 with 6:33 splits.

And let’s not forget the upcoming races: the Boston Barefoot Running Festival April 14, 15 and then the great Boston Marathon on April 16.  I hope everyone gets to take part in these epic events.

All of these races used proceeds from the events to sponsor great causes.  In short, I recommend all runners to take part in races to warm up both your legs and your heart.

Written by: Miles Masci, Director of Chocologistics

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Perfect Fuel Chocolate is proud to kick up dust about next week’s 1st annual Boston Barefoot Running Festival. It seems that barefoot running is our perfect match- promoting an innovative idea with a healthy lifestyle. Next weekend, Boston’s very own barefoot runners will be spending two days with the public, striving to inform, educate, and meet barefoot and minimalist runners.

The Boston Barefoot Running Festival will take place over the course of two days: Saturday, April 14th, and Sunday, April 15th at DCR’s Artesani Park – 1234 Soldiers Field Road, Boston MA 02135. Click here for directions. Join us for Sunday’s big event as we tackle a timed barefoot 5k, along side leaders in the barefoot running movement. Don’t run barefoot (yet)? No problem – all runners are welcome! Festivities don’t stop with a 5k; barefoot running movement guru, Ken Bob Saxton will also lead two clinics for interested participants.

Festival events will commence on Saturday, at DCR’s Artesani Park at 10am. Also to be held Saturday, a Barefoot Funning Symposium at the Boston Public Library Rabb Lecture Hall from 1-4 pm. This event is free and open to the public, and visitors can stop by to hear from such barefoot running luminaries as Ken Bob Saxon, Irene Davis, and Michael Sandler.

As proud sponsors of Boston’s Barefoot Running Festival, Perfect Fuel is enthused about advocating for a heathy and active lifestyle. For more information on our product, visit www.perfectfuelchocolate.com. For more information on the festival, please visit http://bostonbarefootrunningfestival.com. No shoes necessary.

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Boston is gearing up for the 116th Boston Marathon on April 16. That means it’s the time of year when we hope for amazing stories. Last year’s winner Geoffrey Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever (though Boston’s course doesn’t qualify for world record consideration), but not all incredible stories make headlines.

Each year, marathons reveal countless displays of strength, perseverance, and achievement from the top finishers to back-of-the-pack runners, and everyone in between. Some stories are historical landmarks: Kathrine Switzer made waves at her first Boston Marathon in 1967, at the age of 20. After abandoning field hockey to pursue running in college, she became the first woman to officially register and run Boston’s marathon with a race number, 5 years before women were officially allowed to participate. You can read the full story of how she helped female marathoners gain respect as athletes here (reprinted from Gail Waesche Kislevitz’s book The Spirit of the Marathon). She’ll also be in Boston for this year’s race.

Distance running star, and Massachusetts local, Bill Rodgers didn’t have a stellar start with marathons. He attempted his first Boston Marathon in 1973 (at age 25) admittedly “because I had nothing else in my life” and dropped out with 5 miles to go. The next year, however, he won the Philadelphia 

Marathon and then won Boston in 1975, setting an American record and continuing on to an impressive winning career. “Anyone who runs a marathon is on a mission, whether it is to win or to finish… It’s a great thrill, a way to turn your life around,” he says.

But there isn’t a magical formula to becoming an inspirational athlete, not even at a magical age. “You’re never too old,” this pagesays. Profiling not only the oldest marathon runner (age 92) but also the oldest mixed martial arts fighter (70) and English Channel swimmer (also age 70), this story lets us know it’s never too late to set tough goals. Other great stories are easy to find, even beyond the headlines.

Marathonguide.com gathers tales of users’ first marathons. The Boston Athletic Association collects stories from its half-marathon and marathon participants. Forums like YourRun.com let runners share their stories with other runners, and you can always head out to a local race and just listen and observe. Need to brush up on some marathon basics? Check out this neat infographic from CheapSally. (Full disclosure: it’s not perfect. A comment on the original pointed out the date of the Twin Cities marathon is incorrect.) For more marathon stories, tips, and news, keep an eye on Boston.com, Runner’s World, and, of course, the official website of the Boston Marathon.

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Did you know that ginseng is not only a great supplement for promoting health but also an important part of American history? Panax ginseng, the species found in Asia, has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Panax quinquefolius, American ginseng, was similarly used by Native Americans but is less well documented. Records of ginseng’s history in North America began with European settlers. French Jesuit missionary Father Joseph Francois Lafitau is credited with “discovering” ginseng in Canada, after reading another Jesuit missionary’s (Father Pierre Jartoux) 1714 account of the variety he learned about in China. Lafitau assumed that, due to the similar climates and growing conditions of the two places, ginseng may also be found in the New World. He was right, and he located and learned about ginseng with the help of the Mohawk tribe near Montreal.Panax quinquefolius is found throughout eastern Canada and United States. Its abundance in the 1700s and the high demand for it in China led European settlers in North America to develop a thriving ginseng trade. Profits from this trade even helped the U.S. pay off its debts to France for its assistance during the Revolutionary War.

Ginseng was important to the lives of many famous Americans. Thomas Jefferson listed it in his inventory of native plant resources. Daniel Boone traded ginseng in addition to furs, as did John Jacob Astor, America’s first multi-millionaire.

Because it was highly profitable, harvesting wild ginseng continued for many years, and cultivation as a domesticated crop began in the late 1800s. By the 20th century, wild roots became scarce due to over-harvesting. Today, wild American ginseng is protected under CITES, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Most states where ginseng can be found have strict prohibitions and regulations on digging for ginseng, though poaching is a persistent problem because old, wild roots fetch the highest prices.

Cultivated ginseng, however, is still an important crop, and the ginseng capital of the U.S. is Wisconsin. About 200 growers there account for at least 90 percent of cultivated ginseng production in America.

Many people are unaware that ginseng is at the root of both American health and history. But in the fall of 2011, the first American Ginseng Museum opened in San Francisco. It’s hard to tell what the museum is like without having been there, but it does have a great, comprehensive 13-minute video, covering 300 years of ginseng’s history. You can watch it here or on the museum’s web site. What else have you learned about this historical root?

 

Post by: Rebecca Dobrzynski 3/14/2012

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We began with freshly opened pods, one of the CCN-51 variety, and another of Nacional. CCN-51 is Ecuador’s hybrid cacao, and Nacional is Ecuador’s native variety,  more of which you can read about here and here. The difference in taste of the  mucilage from the two varieties is absolutely noticeable. CCN-51, while having a delicious pulp, is not nearly as fruity or complex as the Nacional pulp. Nacional has a much fruitier, robust flavor with a more complex profile.

We moved on from there to some chocolate liquors, or pastes, made from fermented beans which have been roasted and ground, but with no sugar added. This is the first step in transforming beans into chocolate after winnowing and roasting have been performed.

One of the guests, the General Manager from Ecuatoriana de Chocolates, as well as Rosita, concurred that proper post-harvest treatment and fermentation are the most important parts of getting a top qualtity chocolate. That is, if we break down in importance the components of chocolate making and rank them, of highest importance would be quality of beans. The quality of beans probably contribute 70% to 80% of flavor. Another 15% to 20% would go to proper roasting, and the final 5% to 10% proper refining and conching.

While I’ve seen chocolate review websites that describe chocolate flavors as varied and wild as “old shoe leather, turpentine, juniper, sweetened condensed milk, roses, old socks, tree bark” and other ridiculous flavors, I don’t think any of these really apply to describing chocolate.

Rosita limited her flavors to those you might find in beans, chocolate liquor, or finished chocolate from real sources of contamination, as well as other flavors to look for. We focussed primarily on identifying off flavors. Some I didn’t know about were jute-as a result of fermenting beans in jute sacks or leaving jute sacks on top of fermenting beans for too long-and I have seen this in the field. Gasoline or fuel flavors-from improperly storing chocolate near fuel sources. Metallic flavors from storing beans in metal containers or fermenting them in a metal container. Finally, we were asked to rate for floral, fruity, astringency, mold, and over-fermentation.

Ideally, the best way to go about training your palate is to learn to recognize off flavors first, and once that part is done, move on to looking for and learning to recognize good flavors.

Post By: Jeffery Stern

If you’d like to read more about Jeffery Stern’s experiences, head on over to his blog where he discusses cacao, living in Ecuador, and working in the industry.

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It’s no secret. I’m shamelessly obsessed with chocolate. And sweet potatoes. And chili. And food… I guess? Right?

Okay.
After receiving the greatest little package in the world from Perfect Fuel Chocolate, I’ve been up to my big, fat, puffy, chocolate-filled cheeks in chocolate this and chocolate that… so much so that I’m getting a bit “chocolated” out.
Ha.
I KNOW. That’s really impossible.

But seriously. I love this chocolate from Perfect Fuel. I’ve been having a ball with it. We’ve gone out dancing. We’ve taken trips to the grocery store. We even went to the gym together. Gasp.
Now, honestly, you all know this blog posts only the healthiest of recipes.
Okay, semi-healthy recipes.
Okay, sometimes I splurge. So sue me. But this chocolate chili recipe really is the healthiest and most darn delicious thing I could have dreamed up. Seriously… yesterday morning I woke up craving a big bowl of… chili for breakfast?

So move aside, Perfect Fuel, and make room for this little bowl of chili, baby. Don’t worry, my dear chocolate, you’re still super important to me… But it’s not just a “you and me thing” anymore. Now, we might have to make a little extra room for a few extra friends on our dates.

Okay, Katie. Please stop talking to your food like it’s your boyfriend.

Did you know that adding chocolate to a chili dish adds a rich and deep flavor? Well, it does indeed. Adding a small amount of this bittersweet dark chocolate makes this chili an absolutely wonderful dish and accentuates the flavor of the beef. Add in some sweet potatoes and cinnamon and you’ve got yourself a nice little party.

Forget what your mother told you. It’s perfectly acceptable to eat chocolate for dinner.

To view this Beef and Sweet Potato Chocolate Chili recipe, head on over to visit Katie at OhShineOn. While you’re there, check out her other recipes (some of them even use Perfect Fuel Chocolate!)

Post by: Katie Salerno

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We already know about many of the benefits of eating cacao/raw chocolate, but what about where it all starts? Here is some basic information on the “food of the gods” before it becomes chocolate.

If you’ve never seen a cacao tree or its fruit, you may be surprised by their appearance. Check it out here!

• Theobroma cacao, the cacao tree, is found in the hot, rainy tropical climates between 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator.
• Cacao trees don’t begin produce the seed-bearing pods until they are around 5 years old.
• Each tree will produce an average of around 30 pods, each containing around 40 seeds (cacao beans), per year.
• Pods may be 6-12 inches long and 3-4 inches wide, and weigh up to a pound when ripe.

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