Home / Archived For September 2014

Sunday, 28 September 2014

Princess Health andRacing: Septh 27th-28th.Princessiccia

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H+P was all over the place this weekend!  Here's how we did:




Congrats to Johana Kariankei on his performance at the highly competitive "Demi-marathon Oasis Rock �n� Roll de Montr�al."  He ran an impressive 1:09:57 for the half, placing 4th place OA out of well over 16 000 athletes!  CLICK for results.  
2014 Laurier Loop

  • In the 10K, Dave Rutherford was at it again with a 4th place OA.  He ran 39-low, and also managed to walk away with another AG win.
  • Nick was in next for the team, coming in 7th OA and also winning his AG.
  • Speedy (Paul) ran a very solid 46 minutes, placing him 2nd in his AG.
  • Vicki was in just after Paul, running sub-47 and winning her AG.  She was also the 5th place female OA!
  • Will also had a solid race despite limited training in recent months!
AHS Fun Run
  • Aaron Mailman was in first for the team with a 7th place OA finish, and placing 1st in his category.
  • Bill had an awesome return to running action.  He finished with a solid 23:36 and placed 8th in a very competitive AG.
  • Dawn also had a solid performance, coming in well under 33 minutes.
  • Ed had a great race, once again breaking 25 and placing 7th in his AG
  • Candice finished in just over 25 minutes and managed 2nd place in her AG!
High School XC
  • Nicole put her hockey fitness to work, and came in 24th place OA, running well under 20 minutes on a technical 4K course.  

Friday, 26 September 2014

Princess Health and Help Advance Diabetes Research. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Help Advance Diabetes Research. Princessiccia

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A University of Virginia researcher named Hannah Menefee contacted me recently to ask for our help.  She and her colleagues are conducting a study on how people with type 2 diabetes use Facebook to manage their health, and how that technology can be leveraged to support effective health communication.

If you have type 2 diabetes, and you'd like to participate in the study, please join their Diabetes Management Study Facebook group.  There, you'll receive more information about the study, you'll receive a short survey, and you may be invited into one of the study phases.

Monday, 22 September 2014

Sunday, 21 September 2014

Princess Health andH+P Canada-Inspired Singlets.Princessiccia

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H+P Canada-inspired singlets are coming!

  • The final design and proof is here (see above)!
  • We are placing our one and ONLY order for the H+P Canada inspired singlets this coming Monday (Sept 22nd).
  • Please let as know if you would like one by 12:00pm on September 22nd.
  • The Canada singlets are EXACTLY the same model as our blue NB singlets (so the fit and feel will be identical).
  • Price: $40/singlet (the design will be printed on white NB singlets via sublimation) 
  • ETA for the singlets will be 2 weeks after we place the order, so you should have them in time for your big fall races!
  • We are excited to see the team representing H+P and Canada with pride on the roads and trails all over Ontario, North America..and even beyond!  #cantwontstop

Princess Health and#SeanVsGill Team Challenge.Princessiccia

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Does everybody remember the epic #MikeVsDave team challenge from the Waterloo 10K Classic?  Well H+P is at it again- and this time the stakes are even higher!

Coach Sean and Coach Gill will be leading their own teams in the Oktoberfest 5K Classic!  Not only will the pride and bragging rights of the two coaches be on the line, but this time the top female 5Kers from the team will be getting in on the action!  Here are the rules:

  • Only the TOP 5 on each team will count in the average time calculation
  • 1 of the top 5 runners who score MUST be a female runner
  • Each team will be selected in an online draft format taking place on Monday October 6th at 9:00pm
  • A coin toss will decide the individual who gets the 1st pick
  • The individual who gets the second pick will also get the 3rd pick.  Then the two captains will alternate picks until their teams are complete.
  • Here is where it gets complicated:  In order to level the playing field, #TeamSean MUST select a female runner within one of his first three picks.  There will be no regulations on #TeamGill.
That's it!  Remember to tune in to our Twitter Account on October 6th at 9pm to see how the teams unfold!  

Friday, 19 September 2014

Princess Health and Food Reward Friday. Princessiccia

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Today's lucky "winner"... waffles!!!


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Thursday, 18 September 2014

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Princess Health andH+P at the 2014 Harvest Half.Princessiccia

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Today, the Waterloo Running Series held the inaugural Harvest Half in support of the Kenyan Kids Foundation!  H+P had a solid contingent in both the half and quarter marathon events.  Here are the full results:



Half Marathon (FULL results):

  • RunnerRob won the event OVERALL with a fantastic new PB of 1:15:08 (Thanks for the great pic Krista Duchene!)
  • Hot on his tail, Brendan Hancock showed that he is quickly coming back into the form he showed last summer.  He ran a solid 1:15:39 to finish second OA.
  • Dave, the ageless wonder, Rutherford came in with a very sold 1:23.  This was good enough for 7th OA, and to dominate the 50-59 AG!
  • Sam Lalonde was in next for the team with a massive PB (by about 8 minutes), running 1:39 and placing 9th in his AG.
  • Nicole Green showed a huge improvement over the last month of training  She managed an outstanding 1:42, and placed 2nd in her AG!
  • Justin Buis ran a MASSIVE PB of 1:46- once again showing that his hard training over the course of the summer is paying dividends.  
  • Derek ran a very solid PB of 1:47 (in a tutu no less) placing 5th in his AG!
  • Tammy ran a solid time of just over 2:00-hours, and also finished 5th in her AG!

1/4 Marathon (FULL results):
  • Nick Burt had a very solid race, running just over 40 minutes and placing 2nd OA!
  • Holger was in next for the team with an outstanding time of 43 minutes, winning his AG and placing 5th OA.
  • Paul had a very solid finish with a time of 49 minutes.  This was good enough for 8th OA!
  • Ed and Candy Shrigley did exactly what they wanted to do: break 1 hour and finish together.  They ended up with a time of 58:11, nice work!
  • Will finished with a great time of just over 1 hour, and finished 3rd in his category! 

Monday, 8 September 2014

Princess Health and Thoughts on the McDougall Advanced Study Weekend. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Thoughts on the McDougall Advanced Study Weekend. Princessiccia

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For those of you who aren't familiar with him, Dr. John McDougall is a doctor and diet/health advocate who recommends a very low fat, high starch, whole food vegan diet to control weight and avoid chronic disease. He's been at it for a long time, and he's a major figure in the "plant-based diet" community (i.e., a diet including little or no animal foods).

Dr. McDougall invited me to participate in his 3-day Advanced Study Weekend retreat in Santa Rosa, CA. My job was to give my talk on insulin and obesity, and participate in a panel discussion/debate with Dr. McDougall in which we sorted through issues related to low-carb, Paleo, and the health implications of eating animal foods. I was glad to receive the invitation, because I don't see myself as a diet partisan, and I believe that my evidence-based information is applicable to a variety of diet styles. I saw the Weekend as an opportunity to extend my thoughts to a new community, challenge myself, and maybe even learn a thing or two. It was particularly interesting to compare and contrast the Advanced Study Weekend with the Ancestral Health Symposium, which is more Paleo- and low-carb-friendly.

General Observations

The attendees were a lot older than AHS attendees. I estimate that most of them were in their 60s, although there were some young people in attendance.

I don't place too much emphasis on peoples' personal appearance at conferences like this. You don't know what a person's background, genetics, or personal struggles may be, you don't know how closely they adhere to the program, and you don't know to what degree a group of people might be self-selected for particular traits*. But I will note that Dr. McDougall, his family, and many of the other starch-based/plant-based diet advocates tended to be extremely lean with low fat and muscle mass. They also tended to have a healthy and energetic appearance and demeanor. As I would expect, decades of exceptionally high starch intake hasn't made them obese or obviously ill.

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Friday, 5 September 2014

Thursday, 4 September 2014

Princess Health and What about the Other Weight Loss Diet Study??. Princessiccia

Princess Health and What about the Other Weight Loss Diet Study??. Princessiccia

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The same day the low-fat vs low-carb study by Bazzano and colleagues was published, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a meta-analysis that compared the effectiveness of "named diet programs". Many people have interpreted this study as demonstrating that low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets are both effective for weight loss, and that we simply need to pick a diet and stick with it, but that's not really what the study showed. Let's take a closer look.

Johnston and colleagues sifted through PubMed for studies that evaluated "named diet programs", such as Ornish, Atkins, LEARN, Weight Watchers, etc (1). In addition, the methods state that they included any study as low-carbohydrate that recommended less than 40% of calories from carbohydrate, was funded by the Atkins foundation, or was "Atkins-like". These criteria weren't extended to the low-fat diet: only studies of name-brand low-fat diets like the Ornish diet were included, while the meta-analysis excluded low-fat diet studies whose guidelines were based on recommendations from government and academic sources, even though the latter group represents the majority of the evidence we have for low-fat diets. The inclusion criteria were therefore extremely asymmetrical in how they represented low-carb and low-fat diets. This fact explains the unusual findings of the paper.

The abstract immediately activated my skeptic alarm, because it states that at the one-year mark, low-carbohydrate diets and low-fat diets both led to a sustained weight loss of about 16 pounds (7.3 kg). Based on my understanding of the weight loss literature, that number seems far too high for the low-fat diet, and also too high for the low-carbohydrate diet.

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Wednesday, 3 September 2014

Monday, 1 September 2014

Princess Health and Low-carbohydrate vs. Low-fat diets for Weight Loss: New Evidence. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Low-carbohydrate vs. Low-fat diets for Weight Loss: New Evidence. Princessiccia

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A new high-profile study compared the weight loss and cardiovascular effects of a low-carbohydrate diet vs. a low-fat diet. Although many studies have done this before, this one is novel enough to add to our current understanding of diet and health. Unlike most other studies of this nature, diet adherence was fairly good, and carbohydrate restriction produced greater weight loss and cardiovascular risk factor improvements than fat restriction at the one-year mark. Yet like previous studies, neither diet produced very impressive results.

The Study

Lydia A. Bazzano and colleagues at Tulane University randomly assigned 148 obese men and women without cardiovascular disease into two groups (1):
  1. Received instructions to eat less than 40 grams of carbohydrate per day, plus one low-carbohydrate meal replacement per day. No specific advice to alter calorie intake. Met regularly with dietitians to explain the dietary changes and maintain motivation.
  2. Received instructions to eat less than 30 percent of calories from fat, less than 7 percent of calories as saturated fat, and 55 percent of calories from carbohydrate, plus one low-fat meal replacement per day. No specific advice to alter calorie intake. This is based on NCEP guidelines, which are actually designed for cardiovascular risk reduction and not weight loss. Met regularly with dietitians to explain the dietary changes and maintain motivation.
Participants were followed up for one year, with data reported for 3 month, 6 month, and 12 month timepoints. This study actually measured body fat percentage, but unfortunately did so using bioelectrical impedance (like on some bathroom scales), which is essentially meaningless in this context.

Results

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