Team Quadzilla

Why Do Beans Make You Fart So Much?

July 10, 2017June 3, 2020 teamquadzilla

Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. The lyrics to the classic childhood song may be silly but, as anyone who’s over-indulged in the bean dip knows, those words can be embarrassingly accurate. However, what’s considered impolite is actually a sign your digestion is on track.

“Beans have soluble fiber, insoluble fiber and amino acids,” says Gretchen George, RD and professor at San Francisco State University. “We need these for healthy balance in our gut and amino acids for protein building.”

We know that beans are so good for you. The real question is: Why do they make you fart so much?

“Flatulence often occurs for two reasons,” explains George. “First, a person is not used to eating fiber.” In this case, George suggests adding it to a diet more regularly and gradually increasing the amount over time.

“Second, the diversity of the microbes in the gut may be low. Eating more probiotics to populate the gut and more prebiotics to feed the microbes in the gut will help.”

Think of these microbes as a microscopic farting factory in the human digestive system. Everyone has naturally occurring microbes in their intestines. When carbohydrates come down the pipe by eating high-fiber foods, like beans (a natural prebiotic), the microbes feed on those carbs and it’s that feeding that creates the gas. The gas then allows our bodies to absorb the nutrients in the food.

To all the people following the latest diet trend to avoid beans (yes, Paleo-people, this means you) you’re missing out on some seriously health-inducing farts.

When you crunch the numbers, beans add up to be about as caloric as lean meat. The difference is that beans are mostly water and fiber, which makes you feel full longer. One cup of pinto beans has 15 grams of fiber (about 62% of your RDA) and 245 calories. The same portion of lean chicken breast has 231 calories and lean tri-tip has a whopping 970 calories, but both provide zero fiber.

“The bulking component of fiber can make a person feel more full and also metabolically have more stability with blood glucose,” says George. “This aides in control of hunger, thus helping with weight loss.”

Losing weight is obviously the goal for many, but that’s only one of the tootin’ benefits of a bean-heavy diet. While good for the waistline, beans may also help in decreasing your chances of serious diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease since being overweight increases the likelihood of developing these diseases. It’s also been proven to lower cholesterol.

Beans are good for you because they make you fart and farting is really good for you. However, does anyone really want to be breaking wind with every step, shimmy and squat? Unless you’re a caveman, the answer is likely no. So there’s a few things you can do about it:

1. COOK THE BEANS YOURSELF

While canned beans are convenient, you have zero control over the amount of gas-producing starch in them. Try buying good-quality dried beans and then soaking and cooking them yourself.

2. CHANGE THE WATER

Ideally, beans need to soak before cooking, preferably overnight, so they can absorb water and soften. By changing the water a couple of times while they soak, you help remove the excess starch. Then simmer them (using another round of clean water) until tender. Most beans won’t need more than 20 minutes to half an hour if they’re well hydrated, so most of the effort is the ‘set it and forget it’ type.

3. ADD GINGER OR ORANGES

Some people think adding a bit of raw ginger or eating oranges before you eat the beans helps, too. We’re not sure about this, but it’s an old wives’ tale so why not try it? In the end, everyone’s gut is different and will have different reactions. So try both and see how it works for you.

Above all, the next time you’re out and about and feel the need to let one go, don’t be shy. Like a burp is a compliment to the chef, your booty is just ripping you a big message of thanks for giving it the good stuff.

Thanks to Amy Machnak and the myfitnesspal blog for this great article. I’m so glad to have a good reason to talk about farts.

Fitness

5 Reasons Your Running Isn’t Improving

July 7, 2017June 4, 2020 teamquadzilla

Just like healthy and sustainable weight loss there’s no secret formula when it comes to running faster or longer. However, there are a handful of simple things you can do to improve your running — and they all add up. Luckily, it’s less complicated than you think.

While there are myriad ways to tweak your running for improvement, most of them fit into five categories: supplementary strength work, running volume, consistency, variation and non-running activities. While there is overlap among each of these categories, it’s best to address all five in some capacity to get the most out of your training.

Here are five common mishaps that can keep you from realizing your running potential:

1. YOU’RE NOT SUPPLEMENTING YOUR RUNNING

Runners are a frequently injured bunch. Some studies show injury rates for runners as high as 60–65% annually. Running consistently is more than half the battle, but to be consistent, you need to prevent injuries by supplementing running with strength and core work.

Running is a demanding and repetitive sport, and it can be hard on your body if you don’t take the time to strengthen the muscles that support you. As you progress and start to get faster, there’s a tendency for your aerobic fitness to outpace your structural fitness. That means you’re heart and lungs may be ready for more work than your strength can handle, which can result in injury.

Since many of us are largely sedentary outside of our workouts, our bodies aren’t always prepared to handle the stress of running. Fortunately, even a small amount of regular strength training improves our structural fitness and allows our bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles to support us and stay healthy while running.

Simple Solution: Perform 5 minutes of active warm up before each run.

2. YOU’RE NOT RUNNING ENOUGH

Runners who tend to get injured the most are the ones who stop and start often, or take frequent weeks or even months off. They are constantly in a cycle of trying to rebuild, which puts them at a greater risk for injury. If there is any magic bullet to running, it’s that running consistently will help you improve.

Simple Solution: Stay consistent with how many days you run each week, even when you’re not training for something specific. It’s all too easy to get off track when you start skipping runs on a regular basis.

3. YOUR TRAINING IS INCONSISTENT

Inconsistency will thwart even the best intentions and can be your worst enemy when it comes to improving your running. Consistency, on the other hand, is your best friend. Running is cumulative over months and years of training, and consistency is what allows you to weave together a sustainable running career.

Inconsistency can crop up in several areas — from mileage and number of runs per week to speed workouts. Sometimes it’s due to an unavoidable overload in other areas of your life, but a lot of the time it’s simply a result of losing focus or motivation, or not following a quality training plan.

Stay consistent by focusing on the little things that motivate you to get out on a regular basis, whether it’s a goal race, fundraising and training for a cause, catching up with a friend or just enjoying the energy that comes from starting your day with a run.

Simple Solution: Find a plan that works for you, and stick with it! A coach will provide the most personalized schedules, but there are plenty of great resources and training plans available to keep you on track.

4. YOU NEED MORE VARIATION

First consistency, now variation? Yes, you need them both. Although this may sound contradictory, the key is knowing when to apply each principle. Here are some areas of running where you want variation:

Types of runs: Easy, moderate and hard running all have their place. If you want to keep improving, you don’t want to run the same pace and distance every day. My marathon training plan incorporated each type in just three focused runs per week.
Running surface: Many of us spend a lot of time on the road, but the constant pounding can be tough on your body. Vary the surface you run on each week, and include trails and softer surfaces. Your feet and legs will thank you.
Shoes: It’s ideal to rotate among 2–3 types of shoes each week. This is yet another way to minimize the repetitive nature of running. You may want to try a lighter, more minimal shoe for speed sessions and a more supportive shoe for longer or recovery runs.

Simple Solution: Make each run have a purpose. When your run is supposed to be easy, don’t be tempted to push hard. And when you have a key workout, give it your all. Avoid constantly staying in that “too-hard-to-be-easy-but-too-easy-to-be-hard” zone that provides minimal benefit.

5. THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IS HOLDING YOU BACK

The life of an elite runner is set up to provide the greatest possibility for improvement and success. They often run twice daily, get 8-plus hours of sleep along with a midday nap, have regular massages and bodywork — and spend hours on core and strength sessions in addition to their running. But that schedule is impossible for 99.9% of us.

We can’t replicate their schedules, but we can certainly incorporate some of their habits into our own training. Here are several things that may be affecting your ability to improve:

Get enough sleep: This is your body’s prime time for repair and recovery. If you’re training hard, you aren’t going to recover well if you don’t get enough rest. Sometimes I’ll take some Beachbody Performance Recharge before bed to help me sleep and repair my sore muscles. It really helps!
Pay attention to your nutrition: Simply focus on eating more real, whole foods. If you put your energy toward adding more fruits and vegetables into your diet and minimizing sugar and processed foods, you’ll have a fantastic “whole-food” diet. This becomes increasingly important as your mileage builds. You know my go-to resource is 90/10 Nutrition. Learn how to clean up your diet without starving, counting calories or points, or taking some chemical concoction.
Limit life stress: Build a schedule that works with your life. Try to plan your training and races in a way that works with your current schedule and reduces stress. When major life events happen, let running be an outlet rather than an added stress. For me, running can be a “mental health break” as well as a great workout.
Keep up with body maintenance: Maybe you can’t get a massage every week like the elites do, but you can certainly book one on occasion and keep up with self-maintenance, like foam rolling, at home.

Simple Solution: Don’t try to change too many things at once. Make simple, sustainable changes, like getting to bed 15 minutes earlier each week or adding more vegetables to one meal each day. It’s all about Baby Steps!

Don’t let any of these reasons keep you from running your best. If you’re looking to improve, addressing these options is a great place to start.

Special thanks to Jason Fitzgerald and the mapmyrun blog for doing the heavy lifting on this article.

faith, Family

God Wants To Bless You – A LOT!

June 27, 2017June 4, 2020 teamquadzilla

I want to share a story with you. It comes from a devotional book I’ve read several times called The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. This story resonated with me greatly. I hope you will find it meaningful as well.

Mr. Jones Goes To Heaven

What if you found out that God had in mind to send you 23 specific blessings today, but you got only one? What do you suppose the reason would be?

There’s a little fable about a Mr. Jones who dies and goes to heaven. Peter is waiting at the gates to give him a tour. Amid the splendor of golden streets, beautiful mansions, and choirs of angels that Peter shows him, Mr. Jones notices an odd-looking building. He thinks it looks like an enormous warehouse – it has no window and only one door. But when he asks to see inside, Peter hesitates. “You really don’t want to see what’s in there,” he tells the new arrival.

Why would there be any secrets in heaven? Jones wonders. What incredible surprise could be waiting for me in there? When the official tour is over he’s still wondering, so he asks again to see inside the structure.

Finally Peter relents. When the apostle opens the door, Mr. Jones almost knocks him over in his haste to enter. It turns out that the enormous building is filled with row after row of shelves, floor to ceiling, each stacked neatly with white boxes tied in red ribbons.

“These boxes all have names on them,” Mr. Jones muses aloud. Then turning to Peter he asks, “Do I have one?”

“Yes, you do.” Peter tries to guide Mr. Jones back outside. “Frankly,” Peter says, “if I were you…” But Mr. Jones is already dashing toward the “J” aisle to find his box.

Peter follows, shaking his head. He catches up with Mr. Jones just as he is slipping the red ribbon off his box and popping the lid. Looking inside, Jones has a moment of instant recognition, and he lets out a deep sigh like the ones Peter has heard so many times before.

Because there in Mr. Jones’s white box are all the blessings that God wanted to give to him while he was on earth…but Mr. Jones had never asked.

“Ask,” promised Jesus, “and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). “You do not have because you do not ask,” said James (James 4:2). Even though there is no limit to God’s goodness, if you didn’t ask Him for a blessing yesterday, you didn’t get all that you were supposed to have.

That’s the catch – if you don’t ask for His blessing, you forfeit those that come to you only when you ask. In the same way that a father is honored to have a child beg for his blessing, your Father is delighted to respond generously when His blessing is what you covet most.

Perhaps you think that your name is just another word for pain or trouble (like Jabez), or that the legacy you have been handed from your family circumstances is nothing but a liability. You just don’t feel like a candidate for blessing.

Or perhaps you’re one of those Christians who thinks that once you’re saved, God’s blessings sort of drizzle over your life at a predetermined rate, no matter what you do. No extra effort required.

Or perhaps you have slipped into a ledger-keeping mindset with God. In your blessings account you have a column for deposits and withdrawals. Has God been unusually kind to you lately? Then you think that you shouldn’t expect, much less ask for, Him to credit your account. You might even think He should ignore you for a while, or even debit your account by sending some trouble your way.

This kind of thinking is a sin and a trap! When Moses said to God on Mount Sinai, “Show me Your glory” (Exodus 33:18), he was asking for a more intimate understanding of God. In response, God described Himself as “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth” (34:6).

Incredible! The very nature of God is to have goodness in so much abundance that it overflows into our unworthy lives. If you think about God in any other way than that, I’m asking you to change the way you think. Why not make it a lifelong commitment to ask God every day to bless you – and while He’s at it, bless you a lot?

God’s bounty is limited only by us, not by His resources, power, or willingness to give. We can be blessed if we simply refuse to let any obstacle, person, or opinion loom larger than God’s nature. And God’s nature is to bless.

If you read the Jabez story in this little devotional book, you will learn that God’s kindness is proof that it’s not who you are, or what your parents decided for you, or what you were “fated” to be that counts. What counts is knowing who you want to be and asking for it.

A couple personal notes:

This story does not at all imply that God will give you a Cadillac, a million dollars, a perfect spouse, or freedom from prison for being a serial killer or money launderer. To understand this concept of “asking & receiving” we need to understand something. Yes, we can get what we ask for, when we ask according to God’s will for us. Too often we pray like the people James is writing about in James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

Our job is to be close to God, walking with him and obeying him and loving him and loving others well. What we find is that when we live like this, our requests change. Our desires and needs change miraculously to be more aligned with God’s will for us than our own selfish plans and schemes. Then we see answered prayers everywhere. God will knock the socks off those who are faithful to him. Does that make sense?

I’ve spent most of my life living in a ledger-keeping mindset with God. Trying to be a do-gooder, comparing myself to others, making ridiculous rules for myself that I could never keep, beating myself up when I fail, it’s all very exhausting. And wrong. I’m a work in progress, but I can tell you that the incredible freedom of recognizing how much God loves me has compelled me to change my mind. And I now see his blessing more than ever before.

One more thing. God is God and we are not. God can choose whom to bless and we may not ever understand it. That’s between each person and God. His blessing for you will likely not be the same for me. But this I know: God’s blessing for me is EXACTLY what I need, it is what is best for me (and ultimately better than what I could come up with), and it is meant to serve His purposes. I’m blessed to be his child and part of his glorious plans!

Run/ Ride With Purpose

2017 Hope Water Project 5k Race Report

June 16, 2017June 4, 2020 teamquadzilla

June 3, 2017

I enjoy running. Sounds crazy coming from me though. All my life until about age 35, I loathed running. Then I caught the triathlon bug in 2009 and started running. I found it mentally therapeutic and physically rewarding. Since 2009 I’ve run a lot. Two marathons, two 1/2 Ironman, a 1/2 marathon, too many shorter triathlons to count, several 5k’s, and LOTS of training miles.

Evidently my son has been watching me, because he took up track this spring to compete on his Jr. High team at school. Dad win #1. I’m so proud of Brandon taking on a challenge like that. He’d never done it before, and with only a couple 5k’s under his belt (including the HWP 5k last year), his running experience was pretty limited.

Toward the end of track season Brandon was in pretty good shape since he was running everyday after school. He jumped at the chance to run the same Hope Water Project 5k we ran together last year because we had such a fun experience AND he wanted to crush his race time. Dad win #2. My boy is a competitor like me. He wants to get better. Goal crusher. Always improving.

Further, Brandon understands that the race is a fundraiser for clean water in Africa which provides HOPE for health, life, and opportunity to learn about Jesus. He knows all about my 2016 Run With Purpose mission to raise money for this worthy cause as I trained for the Detroit Marathon. He wore the HWP wrist band all year to remind him that many people don’t have what we so easily take for granted. Dad win #3. Brandon sees the vision for this initiative and is interested to help. I love that his heart sees the needs of others and takes action – even for a small thing like participating in a 5k.

Since I hadn’t run AT ALL since the marathon last fall, we needed to put in some training to prepare for the race if we were going to beat last year’s time. I’m not gonna lie, the first couple runs were difficult for both of us. He hadn’t run long distance much, so he was frustrated at how hard it was at first. Since we know that any goal worth achieving will be hard, he stuck with it and saw marked improvement in the brief training period before the race. He felt confident to beat last years time by at least 1:30.

RACE DAY

The race venue is a 90 minute drive from home, so we woke at 5:30 a.m. to be on site by 7:30 to collect our race bibs and stretch before the start. The weather was perfect; sunny, light cool breeze, and in the low 60’s at race time. Nearly 800 people raced. With the crowd, music, different food vendors and HWP swag tents, the place was electric. It’s impossible to not get fired up about racing in this environment.

Long story short (too late for that, lol) Brandon ran his heart out and I was at his side the entire time. He did not stop, and even pushed really hard the last 200m to finish in his record time- nearly 3 minutes faster than last year!

Running is hard work. It teaches many life lessons. Brandon is learning how to stretch past the limits his mind puts on him when his body wants to stop. The body will go where the mind takes it. That’s fortitude. That kind of mental toughness will serve him well in life. I’m glad he’s learning that now. Isn’t that what being Dad is all about? Teaching life lessons. Doing things together. Helping others. Dad win.

faith, Family

The Most Important Choice You’ll Ever Make

June 13, 2017June 4, 2020 teamquadzilla

A theme I share often in Quadzilla is the idea of “choosing your hard.” Most people like to put off the hard work today and deal with it later. Procrastination. For physical health, that means we can expect life to be hard later. Everyone knows someone who is in really rough shape, a “victim” of “hard living.” We say, “It’s a shame they didn’t take better care of themselves.”

If we procrastinate about our health, our future self will likely have poor health, be overweight, stiff, over medicated, and spend way too much money and time on doctors and drugs, etc. The wise alternative is to do the hard work of taking care of ourselves today to maintain good health now AND later which reduces risk of the poor health and related pains and expenses that go with it. Follow me?

In the Bible we read about the same idea regarding our spiritual health.

Check this out from Matthew 7:13-14

Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

The narrow, unnatural, unpopular, difficult path leads to life forever with God in Heaven. The wide, easy, natural, popular path many prefer to take today leads to death, destruction, and eternity in Hell separated from God. Everyone faces the choice of which path to take.

Will you choose the easy way today and ignore God, do whatever pleases you for this short life on earth, and spend all eternity suffering the consequence of that choice? Or will you take the narrow and unnatural path today, drawing on the power of Jesus to help you live a different way today (and a very healthy, fulfilling, peaceful, and joy filled way) so you can live in Paradise with God for all eternity where there is no pain, sorrow, or suffering?

I don’t know about you, but to me the choice seems obvious. Do the hard thing now, go against the flow for the short time we have to live this life here on earth and receive God’s blessing now and for all eternity. Don’t wait.

Now is the time to choose Jesus. No one can do it for you. Your good deeds and “I’m better than the next guy” comparison won’t cut it. You must acknowledge with your lips that Jesus is your Lord and Savior and the only one who can save you from your sins. This is the most important choice you will ever make.

Note: If you have questions about the choice I’ve described, I’d LOVE to talk with you about it personally. Just click HERE to start the conversation.