SGBC Topic 4, Week 2: Exercise and Hydration

Good evening!

I apologize for going AWOL on you today, but you see I was stuck in the kitchen all day baking up some Glo Bar sampler packs! Wow, do you guys ever love your sampler packs! :) You have kept me busy as a bee in there.

I started my day off by shipping about 10 orders out! I am loving my new business discount with Canada Post. I now save 8% when I do shipping orders online! That will result in huge savings for my customers, so I am so happy about that.

After dropping off all of my boxes (and telling the ladies at the post office about my business!), I was off to do a huge bakery food order. I am kicking myself for not taking a picture, because I bought a CAR LOAD of food for baking! Another good thing happened today when I was purchasing the food products. The lady said, ‘Wow I have never seen such a big bag of flax!’ and when I was buying hemp seeds, ‘You know this bag is going to be like $40, right?’ lol. I explained to her about Glo Bakery. Then she gave me a 10% off discount card that I can use every time I am in the store! :D Whohooo! I am so happy about this. Today alone, I saved about $14!!! I should have told them months ago! lol.

Then once home, I did a huge kitchen scrub down and got everything ready to make my orders. I figured out how many bars I had to make and what flavours. I made over 200 bars again today! My poor lil arm is so sore from stirring sticky oats.

Then it was packaging time. And let me tell you. I need to figure out a way to do my packaging differently because this method takes so long! It basically doubles my time. I am going to look into ordering bar packages that are pre-printed for starters. Printing labels and sticking them on wastes a lot of time and money. I also want to buy a bag sealer, so I can just hot stamp the end of the bag to seal it, instead of using curling ribbon- which is not quick either! :)

But, this is all part of starting up the bakery…I get to test out what works and what doesn’t. I also am going to make my glo bars into actual ‘bar sized’ bars. Up until now I have been making squares, but I am either going to completely switch to bars or offer both options. The squares are better for portion control, but it basically doubles my packaging. Lots of things for me to think about and sort out over the next while! :)

Here are some pictures…

Whew!!! I hope you all love these as much as I do! :)

After about 8 hours in the kitchen, I needed to get out. I took no breaks all day (bad, bad baker!!), so I hit the road for an awesome, stress-relieving run!

The run:

• Distance: 6 miles
• Duration: 53 minutes
• Avg heart rate: 158 bpm
• Max heart rate: 171 bpm
• Avg pace: 8:54 min/mile

Today I focused on my speed again and also increasing my distance a bit. My 10-miler race is creeping up on me VERY fast (13 days!!!) so I need to start increasing my mileage. I was really happy with today’s run. It was very windy, but I still kept my speed up.

After this post, I am going to do exercise 11 for the Summer Glow Boot Camp!

For the record, yesterday I took off formal exercise and Eric and I just went on a nice relaxing walk around 9pm. It was a really nice night out. :) I also did some advanced side planks with twist and some other core moves and called it a day!

For the Summer Glow Boot Camp today we have a wonderful guest post from Stacy from Deliciously Healthy Everyday! Stacy is going to talk about exercise and hydration today.

A Word on Hydration

Before I became a trainer I hardly gave any thought to exercise hydration. I spent my high school years on the cross country team, and everything I learned about exercise habits originated there. On sprint days, we would grab water between sprints during rest since we were right next the fountains on the track. On the days we would leave campus for our runs, I rarely saw any team members carry water with them for the hour and half long practice ahead. I never really thought about it myself; I just knew that by the time we got back from practice, I was like a fish out of water.

While in the process of becoming certified, I learned a lot more about how to make a workout effective. Hydrating yourself properly before, during and after a workout can be the difference between a fun, high-energy workout and one where you feel like a truck has run you over! It makes a tremendous difference! There will be mornings where I head into the gym feeling crummy and tired. I have learned that, when this happens, I need to force myself to drink half a water bottle within the first 10 minutes of my workout. Almost immediately, my energy soars and I find the motivation I was so badly in need of!

When is water not enough?

Another left-over from my cross country days was the notion that all I needed to use to hydrate was water. I have found that, while water is crucial, sometimes the body needs a bit more of a kick to stay hydrated and energetic. The general rule of thumb that I follow is this: if my workout is under an hour, I generally stick to water. If I am on my second workout of the day or my workout will last longer than an hour, I usually drink something with electrolytes to replace all that I have lost. There are tons of sports drinks out there to choose from, any of which would be a good choice. Because I try to eat a diet that is as natural and unprocessed as possible, many of the Gatorade-type drinks don’t appeal to me. Plus their sugary flavor is impossible for me to choke down while in the middle of intense exercise. I prefer to drink flavored coconut water, which is basically nature’s sports drink.

There are a few brands, but my favorite is Vita Coco brand coconut water with pineapple juice. I am not a fan of plain coconut water, so I enjoy the slightly flavored variety. Another good brand is Zico, which makes mango and passion fruit flavors. Both brands are carried at Whole Foods, and Henry’s Marketplace carries Vita Coco. A good way to make your own favorite flavor is to buy plain coconut water and mix it with a 100% fruit juice of your choice. For more information on coconut water, check out this website: http://www.healthyfellow.com/278/the-truth-about-coconut-water/.

Thanks for the great info Stacy! :)

Stacy is also holding a fun contest on her blog right now for Vita-Coco Juice! yum!!

Well guys, Eric is almost home so I am going to go start dinner! After that I need to do some invoicing and package up my orders to ship out in the morning. Then I have a ton of email catch up to do and some work on Green Monster Movement.

I am hoping my life might return to somewhat normalcy tomorrow!

Tonight’s question:

Do you drink energy drinks or do you just stick to plain H2o?

I have never had energy drinks before, as I have always stuck to water. Then again, I rarely have workouts over 1 hour long. The only question I have is this- I know the rule of thumb is anything under 1 hour you don’t need an energy drink, however what if I do an intense 50 minute workout? Obviously, there are all different kinds of 1 hour workouts. 1 hour walking is a heck of a lot different than 1 hour of spinning or hill running.

If anyone has any input, leave it below! I have been thinking a lot about this lately. :)

Have a lovely evening!!!

See you tomorrow for ‘Eating to fuel workouts: Part 1’!