Its all about Patrick Holdford – By Ruth

I would say that I am pretty involved in Dan’s career. I try to make sure that everything goes well for him during training and racing. The biggest thing that I have come to realize is how important diet is. He has three sessions a day, most days. Being fresh out of university and kind of avoiding the real world – I have decided that while I am trying to ‘find myself’ I’ll help Dan out as best I can.

While we have been in the Mandy’s household, we have come across some very interesting books… some that I don’t really want to mention on here… but there is one specific one I got my hands onto and it has seriously been glued there since I picked it up… THE NEW OPTIMUM NUTRITION BIBLE by Patrick Holford. The book is a revolutionary approach to health care that uses and individuals’ unique makeup to determine a personalized nutritional program. It has allowed me to analyze our lifestyle, our eating habits, and healthy complaints which have lead me to kind of head in the right direction to formulate a personal diet and vitamin regimen for Dan and I. His whole drive is to stop people eating from one sugar high to the next…he is all for low glycemic load and low glycemic index foods. Whole foods, organic foods, healthy sugar concentrated free foods. Which leaves you feeling better!

I cook Dan three meals a day, he has been renamed by Gia, as the Human Garbage Disposal. I have always wondered if what I am making him, is healthy enough? Does it give him all the amino acids, minerals, vitamins he needs? It seems to me, being a non-athlete, EVERYTHING is about weight…so being in these athletic circles, you hear of all these different diets and how this one says she is going back to eating berries and sticks coz its what her ancestors did….and that one who is now totally off carbs/starch after 2 pm…or this one who only eat 5 steaks a day and drinks whey protein….so, from my point of view I don’t know what’s good, what’s bad, what’s ugly…

This book has seriously help me get some perspective. Which I am now bursting at the seems to share with every athlete and non athlete. Some things which I have believed MUST be good have been totally annihilated by Patrick’s quality/quantity theory…for example…listen up all your Afrikaaners…this one is for you. MEAT (chicken and beef). It’s a protein. Yes it is sort of good. But you should only have it three times a week. No more. It is full of saturated fat. Believe it or not there are WAY WAY WAY better sources of protein. IE: SOY BEANS, LENTILS, QUINOA. Too much animal protein is BAD BAD BAD. So stick to the Veg protein, it’s a better QUALITY protein. That might mean you need to take a walk to the natural food store and google some healthy new recipes using those ingredients…but do it. Dan and I have been eating this for just about a week and we both feel WAY better. I just want to share some little bits of info with you and then refer you to a SLAMMING product that has it all…so just carry on reading.

So, Patirck also looks at The Ideal Diet, and says on your dinner plate: 65% should be Carbs, 20% should be Fat and 15% Protein. Okay the Fat one is a given to most people: stick to the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in olive oil, nuts and seeds. Omega-6 and Omega-3 oils are essential for the brain, immune system, cardiovascular system and nervous system. One should avoid fried food and food that contains saturated and hydrogenated fat…that’s pretty much a given. But does anyone know how to feed yourself with GOOD fat, essential fat other than using olive oil to cook…my dear friend Patrick has the answer…EVERYBODY should be having a tablespoon of mixed omega-6 and omega-3 rich seeds every day…as least one spoon…what are these specific seeds: flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, hemp seeds and sunflower seeds. What I have now done is made my own muesli…yes mum, I can make it, on my own…bit of oats, all those above mentioned seeds, some raisins and cranberries…try it, its like once you’ve tasted black, you’ll never go back

You need to supplement your diet with a high strength multi vitamin and mineral complex as well as taking digestive enzymes with every meal. Nowdays, we are not getting that much from our food…everyone is always harping on about vitamins…well let me tell you, they bloody useless unless you got them minerals. Coz there are no vits and mins it means we have weaker digestive enzymes…so we need to take digestive enzymes too. SO go get some.

Okay, im not going to carry on, there is just way too much info in this book and I know that I wont do Patrick any justice. Just go and buy yourself a copy. It’s a freaking good book. Full of good healthy info. So you girlfriends/wives can make you go faster or at least feel healthier.

This product, JAMA is what I wanted to tell you about. Dan got it at the end of his race in Temecula. This random dude came up to him and offered him a recovery drink… Dan took it, silly silly, there could have been EPO or something in it… but ANYWAY there wasn’t… THANK GOODNESS… this product is all about this wonderfood – AMARANTH. It is a grain from Peru. Now if you all read Patrick’s book, you’ll find out that this grain, along with Quinoa is bloody amazing. They are both high in protein (good vegetable protein, not bad saturated fat meat). Out of all the grains/vegetables these are the highest source of amino acids, they have the two most important ones in them which all the rest lack… METHIONINE and LYSINE (Now I know Gia thinks that their names sound like types of drugs, no they are not)… so anyway I’m getting side tracked, this JAMA product is made from this Amaranth grain and they sell it in the form of a drink mix, which you can add fruit to and make a delicious smoothie, this can be used as a healthy start to the day or a snack…they sell it in the form of a bar mix, so you MAKE your own bars (which take about 2 mins).

Just want to put this in there… I told you Patrick is against concentrated sugar foods… so these bars you buy, these “HEALTHY BARS” they often have a chocolate or yoghurt layer, which is great while training, but not as a snack, and these ‘make your own’ JAMA bars don’t. AND. They have those seeds which are rich in omega-6 and omega-3 in them…

Dan and I have LOVED the range which was kindly given to us to try. It is super good, super tasty, super healthy. And what I love about it is that all the ingredients come straight out of this Optimum Nutrition Bible of Patrick’s. Its an awesome compliment to our diet needs.