Podcast #96 from http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2010/05/episode-

96-how-to-know-if-you-ate-enough-carbohydrates/

Introduction: In this podcast episode: how to know if your carbohydrate

intake is proper, how long should it take for the heart rate to

recover after exercise? Are some fruits better than others?

Eating before a morning workout, how to stop appetite

cravings, cardio before weights or weights before cardio?

Should athletes train their bodies to burn fat? Does getting

stronger make you faster? Do you have to give up a muscular

body to be an Ironman triathlete and is something called

Zone 3 training a bad thing?

Ben: Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield coming at you

with podcast number 96. Wow, we‟re almost to 100. I have to

be completely honest with you, I have no special plans for

the 100th episode but if you have ideas about something

special to do for that 100th episode, let me know. I‟ll probably

end up doing something special anyways. But either way, it‟d

be nice to hear what you guys want for that 100th episode.

Here‟s what I was thinking, I‟m only going to answer

questions that I get from call-in listeners. Just to keep it

interesting. I think that would be pretty cool. But I want to

hear what you think. So, as usual leave a comment in the

Shownotes to this episode number 96 if you have feedback

for me. And really anything that you want to talk about that

you hear in this podcast, go leave it as a comment on the

Shownotes. I actually love to start questions and discussions

and comments and just a second, you could see right there I

fumbled. I‟m having difficulty. Did you hear that? That was

my morning cup of coffee. It‟s about 5:30 a.m. right now

while I‟m recording this podcast. Makes it far more simple

when you record from a home office not to have children

running around and screaming in the background. The only

problem is that was decaf coffee. Because I‟m racing a

triathlon in a few days and I really don‟t want to put too

much caffeine in my body. However, the decaf still gives me

that wonderful placebo effect. Okay. I‟m droning on. Let‟s go

ahead and move on to this week‟s special announcements.

Our featured topic today is going to be Dr. Cohen who you

longtime podcast listeners have grown familiar with as the

expert from Bioletics and he‟s going to be talking about a

really cool new blood sugar and carbohydrate test that they

have called the A1C. So, listen in to this podcast episode later

on after the Q and A if you want to catch that interview. Now

another couple of special announcements. I have actually

just put the finishing touches on a vegan meal plan. And like

most of the meal plans and the training plans that I write all

of that is available over at my Training Peaks store and if you

want to link to that, just head over to podcast number 96

because not only did I just release that vegan meal plan but I

also just put out an “exactly how to train and how to eat for

the last four weeks leading up to Ironman” plan where all

your workouts and your meals get delivered to your email or

to your phone, whichever you‟d prefer. And I also have a few

different marathon training, triathlon training fitness and fat

loss programs over there that you can simply grab and

download to your computer and follow. They send you an

automatic email every time that your workout is coming up,

you can go look at your calendar for the week, get your meals

delivered, things like that. It‟s the same type of software that

I use to dynamically coach the clients that I work with for

endurance training or for sports or for fat loss, but I also

have some pre-packaged more budget-oriented plans that

I‟ve written, and I‟ve just released that vegan one that I think

is quite interesting. So the next special announcement is that

the Summer Body Challenge is underway. We have people

from all over the country who have sent in their photos and

their videos and those are of course completely private. I‟m

the only person who sees those but that is how I am judging

the contest to keep it fair. Each person gets a weekly mailing

for me that gives them their fitness tips, their nutrition tips

and their recipes and then they go from now until August 1st,

and whoever has the best progress by August 1st wins. If you

still want to get into that challenge, technically you‟re no

longer eligible for the $300 and the exercise tools and the

other prizes that come along with that competition but if you

just want the accountability then head over to the link that

I‟ll put in the Shownotes and you can get into the Body

Transformation Club and be a part of the Summer Body

Challenge. Or you can get into the Body Transformation Club

and not be in the Summer Body Challenge, whichever you

want. Now, the next announcement is that the Get Fit Guy

podcast, my new Quick and Dirty Tips podcast to slim down

and shape up has been ranked as one of the top podcasts in

iTunes for the past few weeks. The number one podcast in

the fitness category. If you‟re looking for something that‟s

really very quick that you can listen to, maybe during

breakfast or your drive to work or you want something that‟s

a little bit more basic, you know someone who may not be an

Ironman triathlete or something like that but just needs to

start from square one, it‟s a really good podcast to listen to.

However, I also put some tips in there that get a little bit

more advanced. For example, this next episode coming up is

going to be on spot reducing. How to take a certain area of

your body and target and tone it. So, you‟ll want to check that

out. We‟re going to go ahead and move on to this week‟s Q

and A. As you have probably discovered by listening, I am

struggling this morning with my talking. Oh, just one more

time. There we go. Let‟s get this Listener Q and A done with.

It‟s really good today, by the way.

Now if you have a question for the podcast then you can call

8772099439 and I‟ll put that number in the Shownotes as

well, but that‟s a good way to leave a voice mail message for

me. The other thing you can do is email

ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com or if you‟re international

outside the US and you want to leave a Skype message, just

Skype to Pacific Fit and any of those will work well for

getting a hold of me and asking a question.

Now the first question that we have today is from listener

Mark.

Mark asks: I regularly run with a heart rate monitor. At the end of a

short run, I‟m used to seeing my heart rate quickly drop to

below 120 when I slow to a jog. A couple of times now,

following runs longer than an hour, my heart rate has barely

slowed when I slow down. For example, this past weekend

following an 80 minute run, I walked for at least five minutes

but my heart rate remained in the 140 to 150 range. When I

came to a complete stop, my heart rate actually increased by

10 points over my walking heart rate. It took five to ten

minutes of sitting in the shade before my heart rate dropped

below 120. On this long run, I didn‟t have any water or food

and I may have been starting to bonk as I‟m prone to low

blood sugar. I also was exercising right around and

occasionally above my threshold for the last two miles. Could

any of these factors explain why my heart rate took so long to

return to normal?

Ben answers: For you podcast listeners out there who know what‟s going

on here, jump through your mp3 player or computer and try

to answer Mark‟s question because I know you‟re screaming

at the top of your lungs right now, right? I will go ahead and

just go into a little bit of the idea behind this whole concept

of heart rate recovery, because your body has several liters of

blood flowing through it. Basically that blood has to be

distributed to your entire body and depending on how

efficient your body is at grabbing oxygen from that blood,

your heart is either going to pump slower or pump faster

depending on how efficient you are. Now, if you‟re very

inefficient, you‟re going to have a higher resting heart rate,

you‟re going to have a longer time to recovery and you‟re

going to have typically a higher heart rate while you‟re

exercising as well. Whereas if you‟re efficient, you‟re a

trained athlete then your heart rate is going to be lower. It‟s

going to recover faster just because you‟re better able to grab

that blood as it comes around. Now a few things that could

affect your body‟s ability to be efficient at utilizing that blood

would be one, if you just don‟t have enough blood to go

around and interestingly one of the primary determinants of

adequate blood volume is adequate hydration and if you are

dehydrated you are going to have a higher heart rate during

exercise and a longer time to recovery during your heart rate.

Low blood sugar wouldn‟t necessarily cause the heart rate

issues, but low glycogen levels – being glycogen depleted

would affect efficiency and for any given effort would

actually increase your heart rate and increase the time to

recovery. Now there are actually calculations out there and

research out that that shows that more than a 50 beat per

minute reduction in your heart rate after a one minute

period will reduce your risk of a heart attack or is indicatory

of a reduced risk of heart attack. Less than a 30 beat per

minute reduction after one minute is a predictor of a heart

attack. What you need to understand though is that most of

those studies were done after a very short exercise period –

typically three to five minutes long. Not a long hydration

depleting, blood sugar depleting, glycogen depleting run like

the one you went on. And the fact that in your shorter runs,

you‟re not experiencing this. Your longer runs show that you

are experiencing this point to the fact that with you, it‟s

probably less of an issue of a cardiovascular problem –

although I‟m not a doctor and you could go get that checked

out if you wanted to – as much as an issue of not drinking

enough or eating enough and having that affect your heart

rate. It comes back to showing the importance of taking care

of your body from a hydration and a nutrition perspective

during exercise and doing your whole depletion at a different

time. We‟ll get into that in a little bit more detail in another

question today‟s podcast. But ultimately what it comes down

to is you need to be drinking more – preferably at last 10 to

15 ounces an hour while you‟re exercising and making sure

that you keep your blood sugar up and your glycogen levels

up by having a gel every 30 minutes or so while you‟re out

there on that run, Mark. So, hope that answers your question.

And the next question is from listener Patrick.

Patrick asks: In keeping with your holistic fueling plan, I‟ve gotten pretty

used to keeping nuts and fruit on hand to snack on after

shorter workouts. Or for just afternoon hunger pangs. In the

beginning, I stuck mainly to Granny Smith apples but now

that summer has hit, I‟m eating more of the sweeter melons

like cantaloupe and watermelon. How do sweeter fruits stack

up nutritionally with the more conservative choices like

grapefruit, pineapple and blueberries? Is there a significant

difference from a recovery or general health perspective or

am I splitting hairs?

Ben answers: You know what this question boils down to for those of you

who aren‟t really familiar with the differences between fruits,

is that some fruits have a low glycemic index meaning that

the sugar in those fruits is not released quite as quickly and

some fruits have a high glycemic index. I‟m not going to get

scientific and say exactly how the sugar is actually

metabolized but suffice it to say that some fruits are fast

releasing and some are slower release. For example, berries

are very low on the glycemic index. Cherries are very low on

the glycemic index. Apples and pears and grapefruit, and if

you use any of the nutrition plans that I write you‟ll know

that those are typically the fruits that I encourage you to eat

because as you move up the index from apricots and peaches

up to figs, up to dates and finally to a lot of the citrusy,

melony fruits – the melons, the mangoes, the papayas, the

pineapples – fruits get sweeter and sweeter. Now the issue

here though is that fruit is very low in calories. Meaning that

it is a low glycemic load. And the glycemic index is an

indicator not only of the rate at which the sugar is released

but also the actual number of calories in a serving, and

because the calories in fruit are very low – you take

something like watermelon and it‟s basically mostly water –

it has a low glyemic load. As a matter of fact the glycemic

load of a serving of watermelon is lower than the glycemic

load of apples. And so, what this boils down to is that to a

certain extent you are splitting hairs especially if you‟re an

active individual. Now the people that I really recommend

focus on lower glycemic index foods most of the time are

people who are pre-diabetic, who struggle with blood sugar

issues. Again I‟m not medically managing their diabetes, I‟m

making suggestions on the foods that are going to be less

likely to cause the blood sugar levels to go on a roller coaster

ride and the people that would want to pay attention to the

glycemic index of fruits would be those types of individuals.

If you‟re active, you have nothing to worry about. I mean you

could eat ten pears a day and you‟d probably be just fine as

long as you didn‟t have a pre-diabetic or a diabetic condition.

So, in your case Patrick, as a triathlete because you‟ve

written into the show before and I know that you are an

Ironman triathlete, you would probably be splitting hairs

with this. But for someone who is very concerned about

getting every little advantage that they can get, someone who

is very concerned about stabilizing blood sugar, that‟s when

you would want to choose as your primary fruits – the

berries, the cherries, the apples, the pears and the grapefruit

and maybe not do so much of the melons, the citrus, the

papaya, etc. but like I said, very, very small issue. There are

much bigger fish to fry if you‟re trying to eat healthy, but

good question. Now the next question comes from listener

Anonymous. Beautiful name.

Anonymous asks: Living in Virginia, it gets pretty hot in the summer. I like to

run in the morning as soon as possible to avoid the heat and

humidity. What do you think would be a good thing to eat so

that I can run, but not be starving during the run. I usually

eat half a power bar to take the edge off. My runs are usually

an hour long. I am part of a Master‟s swim group that meets

at 6am. I really don‟t want to get up and eat at 4:30 just so

food will sit well in my stomach. Any suggestions?

Ben answers: Sure, I have a quick answer to this one. We just got off the

topic of fruit. This is a great time to get back on it. But just a

little bit of fruit just to spike the blood sugar slightly is fine.

Because when you wake up in the morning, your body

primarily has burned through its liver‟s carbohydrate stores.

Your muscle carbohydrate stores are still full, ready to

rumble and a lot of times just a little bit of fruit to spike the

blood sugar is great. As a matter of fact, for primarily an

aerobic workout, as long as it‟s under an hour, you‟re fine

with not really eating anything at all. So long as you have a

little bit of breakfast afterwards to replenish the nutrients

that you‟ve gone through while you‟re working out. So, if you

don‟t like the fiber, the solidness of the food, then you can

also use a sports gel or a little bit of sports drink but even

something as small as 50 to 100 calories right before you

head out is just fine. And a lot of times you‟ll be a little bit

groggy for the first 10 to 20 minutes of that workout and as

soon as your body really starts to efficiently tap into that

muscle glycogen and bring your blood sugars up, you‟re good

to go. So I have had people complain about that before when

I‟ve told them to go out and do their morning workout

without eating and once they get 15 or 20 minutes in, they

say wow that actually didn‟t feel too bad. So, good question.

The next question is from listener Olivia.

Olivia asks: I just finished my first half Ironman. Now that it‟s over I

think I would like to focus on losing the weight I gained

during training. I‟m 5‟8 and weighed 152 pounds before

training, but now I‟m pushing 159 pounds. What are the

chances that this weight gain is muscle? If it‟s not muscle, I

want to lose the weight but I‟m having a really tough time

eating less now that I‟m not training as much. Do you have

any advice for how to taper calories and change the eating

habits I started during training? I‟m still hungry.

Ben answers: Olivia, I see this happen all the time with Ironman athletes

who get done training for an Ironman or a half Ironman.

And they‟re so used to being able to eat anything they want

and tons of calories that as soon as they stop and lay off that

intense exercise protocol, they balloon and any weight that

they put on during that training – unless they‟re doing a

significant amount of weightlifting – which it doesn‟t look

like you were, then it‟s a pretty slim chance that any weight

gain experience during that training was muscle. And it‟s

usually cortisol related, stress hormone related water

retention. And a lot of times that‟s a bigger issue for people

who are eating a ton of food, typically inflammatory foods,

high amounts of carbohydrates, doing a lot of slow aerobic

training versus the people who are eating more of the protein,

the healthier foods, the non-gluten based foods and engaging

in a lot more of the interval based intense training. Those

people usually do a lot better with not putting on weight and

fat during the Ironman or the half Ironman style of

endurance training. So that being said, you‟re at a point now

where you need to satiate your appetite and get your body

able to be satisfied with less or lower caloric intake. A few of

the ways that you can do that is you can make sure that you

increase the fiber content of most of the foods that you eat

and choose fiber dense foods. Do a lot of beans and legumes.

You‟ll want to do things like quinoa, amaranth, millet, sweet

potatoes and yams are fiber dense. Although they‟re not so

fiber dense that you can‟t have them before a workout. Do a

lot of vegetables, salads, leafy greens. Anything or most of

those will kind of expand in the stomach. A lot of fruit that

has the skins on it – apples are good, peppers are good,

strawberries, berries – typically any of these types of things

would be much better choices than lower fiber foods. For

example, breads that are not whole grain, cookies, biscuits.

You‟ll want to avoid juices, sports drinks, bars, things like

that. Things that aren‟t so dense. So focus on that. Focus on

increasing the protein content because protein is very

satiating. That‟s why protein diets sometimes tend to work.

It‟s not because protein does something magical. It‟s just that

it makes you less likely to eat a lot and so if you include a soy,

a whey, a rice or hemp protein that would be good. That

Living Green Super Fuel is really good. That‟s one that‟s over

on the www.pacficfit.net Web site, and that‟s got both the

high fiber and high protein. We interviewed the guy that

designed that on the show sometime back and that‟s

something that‟s really good that I‟ll actually tell a lot of my

clients to include as a meal replacement that satiates the

appetite for a long period of time. It‟s called Living Greens

Super Fuel. Any of those types of things can also be

replicated in your blender like a VitaMix, taking a bunch of

vegetables, fruit juices – cranberry juice usually works quite

well – and blending all that together. I know a little earlier I

told you not to drink juice but if you‟re using the juice as

something to mix a ton of fiber with, then it‟s not an issue. So

go with the high fiber. Add proteins into your diet. You could

also go with nuts as well. I talked about the beans and

legumes already. If you struggle with gas while you‟re

consuming high amounts of those, soak them. I actually just

shot a video for the Rock Star Triathlete Academy on how to

make your own homemade hummus and I walked people

through the process of doing that, and one of the things that

I point out in that video was the importance if you‟re doing

this at home to soak the garbanzo beans or the chickpeas

overnight in water. That improves digestibility and then

you‟ll also want to rinse them after you boil them, which

again will improve the digestibility and give you a little less

gas. The other thing you can do is as you boil them, drop a

little bit of seaweed in there. Drop a little bit of Nori in there

and that also will reduce the amount of gas that they produce

after they‟ve been consumed. Just a little bit of pre-digestion

going on so your stomach doesn‟t have to do it. So the higher

fiber, the higher protein and then include some blood sugar

stabilizing type of compounds. Chromium is good, vanadium

is good. Both of those are in the Thermal Factor that‟s over at

Pacific Fit. I‟ll just put a link to Pacific Fit in the Shownotes.

Cinnamon is also really good. You can work in anywhere

from two to four teaspoons of cinnamon into your daily diet,

that also helps stabilize the blood sugar, satiate the appetite.

This is all stuff that I talk about in the book 100 Ways to

Boost Your Metabolism. So I‟ll put a link to that as well. Now,

the higher protein, the higher fiber – I didn‟t mean to make

that sound like a commercial but the Thermal Factor, the

100 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism and Living Greens are

also really good as well. So I‟ll link out to that stuff and that

should help you out.

Now, the next question comes from listener Eric.

Eric asks: I‟m a big proponent of weight training. I really believe you

are too, and I like your strong triathlete training guide. My

question is that most of the days I lift, I don‟t have time to

split my endurance training and my weightlifting so on an

average day I might do a hard 45 minute lift, an intense 60

minute spin class and then a five to seven mile run with

some intervals thrown in. I know I have depleted a lot of my

glycogen stores during the lift, and so this always makes

cycling and running a lot harder. But knowing the times and

paces I want to hit, I‟m able to maintain the same outcomes

as the days I didn‟t lift. So if this is the case, is it better, worse

or indifferent that I lift before all the training and on days

like this, should I be eating something during or after the

workout?

Ben answers: There have been studies done on the whole weight before

cardio, cardio before weights issue and what it boils down to

is that if your focus is strength and power, then what you

want to do is not glycogen deplete and fatigue your body

prior to weightlifting. And in a case like that you would want

to do your weightlifting and then your cardio. If your goal is

endurance training which it appears that yours is if you‟re

talking about triathlon, probably your primary competitive

goal is endurance training then you would actually want to

flip that and do your high quality cardio prior to your

strength training. Now, the issue with doing the strength

training prior to the cardio is not only that you‟re going to

deplete your carbohydrate stores before you go do your

cardio, but you do muscle damage and so you‟re exercising

damaged muscles that are in need of recovery after you

strength train. If you‟re able to rearrange your workout to do

cardio before strength, that would be ideal. So what you

would do is you would have your pre-workout meal two

hours prior or have a little snack before you head to the gym.

Do your cardio session, after your cardio session, replenish

your glycogen stores, your carbohydrate stores because that‟s

really what your body taps into while you‟re weightlifting by

eating for example a banana or an apple or an energy bar. Do

your weightlifting and then have your post-workout protein

and carbs based meal. Now, if logistically it‟s impossible for

you to actually do the cardio before the weights, do your

weightlifting and then take in your protein and carb based

meal and because you‟re going to need better digestibility,

the way that I would suggest you do that is just take in for

example a branch chain amino acid source. Roctane is an

example of a gel that has both branch chain amino acids and

carbohydrates. Recoveries is a supplement in pill form that

you could take with again like a banana, an apple, little bit of

carbohydrate. And the protein will help you with basically

the muscle cannibalization or the lack of muscle recovery

that‟s going to occur during the cardio session that you‟re

doing after your strength. So best case scenario is cardio

before weights. Next best case is do the weights, take in a

protein-carb blend and make sure that the protein is easily

digested. Chicken would not fit into that. Branch chain

amino acids in powder or capsule form are usually a really

good choice in that situation and then move on to your

cardio. And then of course have your post-workout meal and

try and get it within 20 minutes especially after a two and a

half or three hour session. I mentioned this before on the

show, but essentially you take your target body weight, you

multiply that by two calories for each pound of your target

body weight and that‟s how many carbohydrates you should

take in. And then protein would be half that. So, if you want

to be at 150 pounds, then you would take in 300 calories of

carb, 150 calories of protein 20 minutes after and then about

an hour later have your post-workout meal.

Omar asks: I have been told that I have a very nice body. This is a result

of a lot of weight training that I‟m used to doing after playing

football in college. I‟m down to 187 pounds but I can‟t seem

to shed more weight and honestly I‟d still like to have a nice

body. Is this something I‟ll have to sacrifice in order to be an

Ironman triathlete? I‟m 6‟3 so it‟s not like I‟m huge although

I do know that I have a large volume compared to most

people my size. When I get your Ironman Triathlon

Dominator program, will I be able to consult with you in

order to maintain both my goals in check?

Ben answers: You know, it is kind of an interesting deal with Ironman

training and the amount of muscle that you need. If you look

at Ironman athletes even at the pro level, they‟re always a

little bit meatier, a little bit muscular than the small, spry

sprint and Olympic distance athletes simply because muscle

does help you a little bit on a long 9, 10, 11, 12 hour day. That

muscle, that strength is something that you need a little bit

more than you need during a shorter 1 or 2 or 2 ½ hour

event. So, the muscle does help you just a little bit in the

Ironman, but yes you do know from looking around at

people that Ironman athletes a lot of times will tend to have

that gaunt marathoner type of look. And you may notice that

even muscular people tend to lose some of their muscle.

When I first started into triathlon, I was at 205, 210 pounds

of muscle hanging right around in there and now I‟m at 175

and most of my weight loss was not fat. It was muscle. Now,

it is possible to still have a lean, cut, muscular look whether

you‟re a guy or a girl if you‟re doing Ironman triathlon. But

the trick is to, as I mentioned earlier, incorporate lots of

intervals, harder intervals in your training. Not do a lot of the

long slow aerobic training, especially unfed long slow aerobic

training. Make sure that you‟re eating a healthy diet. You can

use the Holistic Meal Plan, Omar, that you‟ll get with that

Dominator plan. And then make sure that you follow the

weightlifting in there very closely. There‟s two chances to

weight lift during the week. If you follow all the rules that I

write in there, you go at the intensity that I recommend, then

you‟re going to find that you‟re actually able to maintain a

pretty nice body. And remember that your body fat is

probably going to dip a little bit as you‟re doing your

Ironman training as well which even if you drop a little bit of

muscle is going to make you look more muscular. So the way

to do it is to just not do the long slow aerobic style of

Ironman training with no weightlifting. You can combine

weightlifting, intense intervals, still do your Ironman

training and the way the Dominator plan is written, a lot of

the longer sessions are taking place towards the weekend

with a lot of shorter interval based stuff during the week.

You‟ll be fine. I would like to say that I still had a pretty nice

body when I was doing Ironman. Right now I‟m focusing on

half Ironman, but you know, you can do it. You can still look

pretty good when you‟re doing Ironman. It is possible and

I‟ve seen a lot of other guys and girls who do have nice bodies,

who don‟t look like they‟ve starved myself, who go out and do

Ironman. Now that being said, if you really want to take it to

the next level and podium, you‟re probably going to have to

get pretty gangly and you may not have the gun show that

you‟re looking for.

So the next question is from Alicio.

Alicio asks: I‟m using your Triathlon Dominator package to prep me for

Ironman. I must say for the money it is a steal and extremely

useful program. I‟ve used many plans before but nothing

comes close to what is included in your package. (So, thank

you.) I also love the Web site as it has lots of great

information and secret tips. (That‟s awesome Alicio, thanks.)

My question about the package are regarding your heart rate

zones and workouts in these zones. When I compare your

zones to other programs, they seem a bit higher. Because of

this, it seems that there is a lot of Zone 3 work from which I

understand leads to mediocre racing or injury. Do you have

any thoughts or perspectives as to why or what the intent is

behind training in Zone 3 under your program?

Ben answers: You know, the whole Zone 3 training being bad for you idea I

think initiated from Joe Friel‟s Triathlon Training Bible, and

in that he indicated that Zone 3 training was at a high

enough intensity to deplete your muscle‟s carbohydrate

stores but it wasn‟t at a high enough intensity to give you a

good fitness response. The issue with that is that if you look

at Zone 3 and I‟ve studied this in the lab, most of the Zone 3

calculations put Zone 3 right smack dab at the peak of fat

oxidation, which is the money zone for an Ironman triathlon.

Zone 3 should be the zone that you‟re in during the bike and

really the majority of the run up until about the 20 mile mark.

And so my question is if you‟re going to race in that zone

then why wouldn‟t you be doing some training in that zone?

Versus doing all aerobic training and all interval based

training? Because of that, that‟s why I put that into the

Dominator Program and that‟s what really differentiates it

from a lot of programs that I‟ve seen, is a typical workout for

you like in your base training – rather than doing a four hour

Zone 2 aerobic bike ride, you might do 90 to 100 minutes

smack dab right at Zone 3 at peak fat oxidation. And so,

you‟re literally throwing down a workout that‟s exactly in the

zone that you‟re going to be doing your Ironman training in.

Now that being said, yeah if you‟re going out and you‟re

always at – Zone 3 feels like about 70, 75% but if you‟re going

out and all your runs are at 70, 75% and all your swims are

just at that mid-distance or mid-intensity pace and all your

bikes are there, then you‟re just training yourself to be kind

of a ho-hum medium paced athlete. But if you combine a few

solid focused Zone 3 sessions – Zone 3 especially key

workouts like a key Zone 3 bike, run and swim and then you

supplement that with easier Zone 2 recovery workouts and

then Zone 4, Zone 5 and Zone 6 high interval based workouts,

that‟s an ideal program. So the idea behind eliminating Zone

3 is that it‟s not intelligent – at least that‟s my perspective of

it as a coach and as a physiologist because you‟re avoiding

the zone that you‟re going to be racing in. Now, for those of

you who really don‟t understand zones, essentially the way

that you get a zone is – and this is the way I do it in the

Dominator plan – you go out and test either with power on

your bike or heart rate on your run or your bike and your

swim is pace-based – and based on that test, you have zones

that are set up according to your heart rate or your speed. So

if you go out and you test and your heart rate is at 175 and

you follow the test instructions, then essentially Zone 1 might

be 130, Zone 2 might be 136 to 140, Zone 3 might be 140 to

150, Zone 4 might be 160 up to 170, Zone 5 would be 175 plus,

Zone 6 would be max, etc. So that‟s the idea behind the zone

training. But good question, Omar. Or I‟m sorry, Alicio.

Omar was the first question. You guys are coming at me with

these unique names. At least for America.

Chuck asks: As a triathlete, would it make me faster overall to get

stronger especially in the disciplines that I need a lot of

muscle recruitment like the bike and the swim? I‟ve been

doing pretty hard lifting sessions three to four times a week

but how can I actually put on muscle while training at half

Ironman distance volume and can this muscle and weight

actually be beneficial in getting me faster, not slowing me

down?

Ben answers: This is kind of interesting because it relates a little bit to

Omar‟s question about maintaining muscle and having a nice

body. The idea is that maintaining the muscle and having a

nice body is not going to make you faster. Getting stronger is

not going to make you faster. There‟s no research to show

that strength training actually makes people run or bike or

swim faster. Now, power training – plyometric training,

doing lighter loads and lifting them very quickly – that can

make you faster. However, doing the strength training – the

benefit of that would be of course as we talked about earlier,

being able to maintain a nice body if that‟s what you want to

do but also being able to strengthen the joints and the

ligaments and support the things that you‟re working in

chronic repetitive motion so that you avoid injury. Whenever

I‟m doing strength training I get injured far less and if I‟m

doing an intelligent strength training program, I barely get

injured at all. Especially in the rotator cuff and the knees –

two areas that a lot of triathletes tend to have problems in.

So the reason for strength training would be for injury

prevention and based on that, there‟s really no need for you

to be going more than two times a week if you‟re doing about

45 to 60 minutes and more than three times a week if you‟re

doing a shorter 20 to 30 minute session and I really wouldn‟t

recommend you be spending a lot more time than that in the

gym unless you have something that really needs focused

work like a rotator cuff issue, a core strength issue and that‟s

a case where I would put an athlete in the gym just a little bit

more to do targeted sessions that focus on that weak spot.

And then as soon as that weak spot catches up, back off that

volume, taper that weight volume so they can focus more on

the swimming, the biking and the running. So ultimately

getting stronger won‟t make you faster but it can help you

reduce your risk of injury.

And we have a question here from Kevin. Kind of a long

question but it‟s our last one before we move on to the

interview with Dr. Cohen.

Kevin asks: I‟m a 47 year old male. Ran my first marathon in the early

80s and over the years have competed in ultras, runs, long

distance swimming and triathlon. I‟m 5‟9 and weigh 150

pounds. Back in the late 70s and 80s, we used to follow a

strict carb load diet prior to an endurance event which

included two days of no carbs followed by three days of carb

overload. In those days, there were no gels and sports drinks.

Water tables in races included water and pop. I primarily

drank water and on occasion watered-down Coke. What did

we know? We ate raisins instead of gels on long runs,

sometimes bananas and even had chocolate in the very long

events. Then along came Dave Allan who believed in -- (I

wonder if you mean Dave Scott. I‟ve never heard of Dave

Allan, but I could be off. Maybe you‟re mixing up Mark Allan

and Dave Scott, but either way…) – then along came Dave

Allan who believed in using body fat for endurance events

with a theory of training at a low heart rate to encourage the

body to use fat as opposed to carbs for fuel. Interestingly, I

recently read in a runner‟s magazine two articles both in the

same magazine. One covered the carb load and the other

dealt with runners that rely on fat for fuel. The no-carb

runner does not train with gels or sports drinks and just uses

water. The thought being that as the run progresses, they get

stronger compared to other runners who rely on

carbohydrates for fuel. What is your opinion on what works

best? Have you ever tried to train your body to use fat as

opposed to carbohydrate as a fuel?

Ben answers: Great question Kevin, kind of opens up a big can of worms.

Should you go out and train with no carbohydrates so that

your body becomes more efficient at burning fat? Well, first

of all let‟s split this into a couple of camps. We have the

people who are trying to lose fat and then we have the people

who are trying to get fast, trying to do endurance exercise.

For the people who are trying to lose fat, what it comes down

to is that laboratory studies have shown that if you don‟t eat

anything during a long primarily aerobic training session,

your body actually tends to slow its metabolism during that

session and also shuts down the post-exercise metabolic rate

resulting in you getting subpar results compared to if you

fueled that long training session and then engaged in your

caloric restriction outside of that session. So from a pure

weight loss perspective, going out and doing long, starved

sessions is not doing you any favors unless that session is no

longer than about 60 minutes. So an easy aerobic session

after an overnight fast is fine. Going out and doing a two or

three hour ultra running type of workout would not be a

good way to go. Now, if you‟re an endurance athlete here‟s

the deal. Research has shown that if you exercise in a

glycogen depleted state, your body can actually get stressed

out to the extent that it has a stronger fitness response

because the workout – essentially you‟re artificially making

that workout harder by exercising in a glycogen depleted

state and assuming that you take care of your body

afterwards and refuel and recover properly, you can have

blood markers that indicate that you‟ve had a better fitness

response to that workout. However, the question is can you

actually push yourself at a fast pace, at a race pace when you

are training in a glycogen depleted state? And the answer to

that is unless you‟re training for an event that is an ultra

event like a very long bike ride – we‟re talking about racing

across America type of distances, 500 miles up around there

or up to the thousands of miles mark – if you‟re training for a

very long run, the 50 mile, 100 mile events – then yeah, it

would be a slow enough pace where it‟s really not going to

matter if you‟re burning carbs or doing the beta oxidation of

the fat as long as you‟re maintain enough sugar to keep you

awake and keep your brain going. However, the practice of

not eating carbohydrates during workouts for athletes who

are wanting to compete in pretty much like Ironman athletes

on down is really not all that smart because you‟re going to

be essentially engaging in fat burning which results in your

body being able to work out or having to work out at a slower

pace. No matter what, when you‟re burning fat you just have

to go slower. The body does not engage in beta oxidation or

fat burning at a rapid enough rate for you to be moving fast.

So, a long unfed session every now and again just to basically

make you stronger as an athlete mentally – that‟s okay. If

you‟re trying to cannibalize lean muscle, shed weight and if

that‟s truly your goal to cannibalize lean muscle, that‟s okay.

I did it a little bit when I was coming down off bodybuilding

and I knew I had to lose some muscle to be a faster triathlete.

And if you are training for an ultra distance event then that‟s

okay. Otherwise I would make sure that you fuel your

training sessions and engage in your caloric restriction

outside of the training session. So I hope that makes sense.

Hopefully that wasn‟t too convoluted a response. But, if you

have follow up questions to any of these topics that I just

covered then leave it as a comment in the Shownotes and we

can generate a discussion around it. Now, the top question of

this week – because I really did think it was an interesting

question and the person who‟s going to win a free month‟s

membership to the Body Transformation Club is Kevin. The

question I just answered, because I thought it was very

interesting. So Kevin, shoot me an email and I‟ll hook you up

with a free month‟s membership to my Body Transformation

Club. You‟ll get a postcard from me every week with fitness

tips, nutrition tips and access to a secret video page where I

shoot videos for you, put up recipes for you and really help

you along your health and fitness journey.

So, we‟re going to move on to this week‟s interview with Dr.

Richard Cohen.

Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield. I‟m here with

Dr. Richard Cohen from Bioletics. And if you‟ve heard

podcast number 53, number 64 or if you‟ve just been to

www.bengreenfieldfitness.com, and done a search for “Dr.

Cohen” or for Bioletics, you are missing out on a ton of

fantastic information on the internal performance factors

that are just as important as things like a new pair of shoes

or decreasing weight on your bike and as many of you know,

I‟ve been using a protocol from Bioletics in my own training,

in my racing and seeing some fantastic results. But I was on

the Bioletics Web site and it‟s actually a fantastic Web site

over at www.bioletics.com and I noticed that they actually

have a new assessment there called glycohemoglobin.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Glycohemoglobin.

Ben: There we go. Glycohemoglobin blood glucose. And at first I

thought that this was just a normal blood glucose

measurement but apparently it‟s not so I wanted to get Dr.

Cohen on to explain to you what it is and why you should

even care about it. So, what is the glycohemoglobin blood

glucose and is there a shorter term that I can use for it so I

don‟t have to say it over and over again?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Well I mean some people call it hemoglobin A1C. And we can

call it A1C.

Ben: A1C, I‟ve actually heard of. So that makes sense.

Dr. Richard Cohen: A1C. So let me tell you what it is, glycohemoglobin is glycated

hemoglobin and by glycated, it‟s almost – the analogy is

when proteins become exposed to sugars they brown. So

you‟ll see browning in bread. It‟s actually the proteins

changing its structure. So what happens in our body is the

sugars – the glucose specifically – in our body binds with

protein and that‟s really not a good thing. In fact, it‟s one of

the components of aging and illness, is the structural

changes in protein. Glucose is damaging and that‟s really the

key component to think about. It is a toxic substance and our

body has a very specific way of trying to keep those levels as

low as possible. But also to provide the necessary energy that

we need to survive. As the sugars in our blood, it actually

binds with hemoglobin. Hemoglobin has proteins in it and

this marker called glycated or glycohemoglobin. Basically in

the most simplistic terms, it gives us a sense of the average

amount of blood sugar that we‟ve had over the past three

months. And that‟s specifically what it tells us, is what our

average blood sugar has been for three months.

Ben: So it‟s not just like a snapshot of your blood glucose levels,

but it basically tells you how good of a job you‟ve been doing

at monitoring your blood glucose levels?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Right, well yeah. Maybe monitoring -- typically if most

people are aware of it, if you‟re in the medical or health field

you‟ll think of diabetes and that‟s what it‟s traditionally been

used for is to sort of get a snapshot of what a diabetic‟s blood

sugar has been over the past three months and if the

percentage of glycated hemoglobin is over 7 to 8%, you say

no either job is not good enough. The blood sugars are high

and like I said before blood sugar is toxic to the body,

especially the higher it goes, the more risk you are at. Where

if you check individual blood sugars, you‟re hitting and

missing and you don‟t know depending on what you ate, did

you exercise afterwards or what‟s someone‟s ability to handle

sugar. So this three month snapshot from the medical

perspective tells us if the sugars are too high. So, why I added

it to the performance. I guess we know we do… we‟ve talked

about the plasma amino acids and we‟ve talked about the

essential fatty acids.

Ben: So, if people want to go back and listen to previous podcasts

they can hear about those.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Right. So we have a way of assessing the body‟s ability but

basically capacity to produce structural proteins from amino

acids and essential fatty acids with regards to the immune

response. I really was looking for a way to determine how

well people are handling blood sugar issues. And what this

tells us and it‟s an interesting way to look at this is like we

said blood sugar of glucose is toxic. Fortunately, a lot of

athletes – and it‟s the one saving grace – when you are

physically active you burn up your glucose stores which is

something called glycogen. So a lot of times athletes can get

away with eating a lot of carbohydrates and not put on

weight. So you tend to think and that‟s sort of where the

whole carbohydrate loading issue has gotten in and people

and athletes using a lot of carbohydrates for energy and then

burning up and saying “Am I really doing the right thing?” I

think even recently you‟ve talked about that in a previous

podcast. We‟re learning that lots of carbohydrates really are

not the ideal energy source for most people. So what I

wanted to see was an ability – let me backtrack – so while we

can burn up the carbohydrates and the glucose with our

physical activity, it is a stress on the body. It‟s a metabolic

stress on the body. It‟s a hormonal stress on the body. And

we do in Bioletics, we do evaluate everyone‟s metabolic fuel

needs. But I wanted a marker to get a sense of where and

how well people are tolerating their carbohydrate load.

Because they may feel like they‟re doing fine and they may

even be performing okay. But if we take a snapshot of their

glycohemoglobin and it‟s sitting in the mid fives, to me it‟s a

sense of a metabolic stress on their body. Ideally, so we

talked about diabetics being around 7%, glycated. A healthy

person should really sit under 5 or even 4 ½. In that case we

know their metabolism is really right on. They‟re handling

their insulin, they‟re processing their sugar. They‟re not

dealing with high bursts of sugar on a regular basis. So our

body only – let‟s go back here, what that can mean. In the

perfect world, you might eat a meal and then check your

blood sugar an hour afterwards. It would tell you how well

your body is able to handle that blood sugar load and with

people with cardiovascular issues and problems, in some

ways it‟s a very powerful tool because sugar affects your lipid

levels and it changes them to the more damaging type of

cholesterol and it causes swings in blood sugar and can affect

your mood and energy levels. But obviously that‟s not very

practical and realistic for a generally healthy person. He‟s not

going crazy and monitoring themselves. So what we‟re able

to do is get a sense of on average – is a person overloading

themselves with carbohydrate? Are they able to process the

carbohydrates effectively to use them for energy as well as

storing them for body fat? So, someone is carrying too much

bodyweight, that glycohemoglobin is going to be a tell-tale

sign. If it‟s sitting in the fives, you know you‟re eating too

many carbohydrates for your own body‟s metabolism. Does

that make sense?

Ben: Yeah, absolutely. And do the type of carbohydrates affect the

A1C, for example if I‟m eating more sweet potatoes than

bread, does the gluten content affect things? Does the grain

content affect things?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Yes and no. It‟s really all going to vary and ultimately if

someone has a problem, if their glycohemoglobin is coming

in five or six, especially for (inaudible) person, we then

would need to go back and say you know what? It might be

worth you taking a look at some of your meals that you think

you have nailed, that you think are right for you and then you

might want to check a blood sugar an hour later. Just a

simple little finger stick and that will give you your clue. So

it‟s kind of hard to say. For the most part, glutinous grains

are worse. Processed food, sugars, alcohol is going to give

you the worst response. But some people individually –

sweet potatoes could be a problem. Typically you‟d want to

see a fasting sugar which could vary – I‟m sorry, not a fasting

sugar, pre-meal sugar should sit around 75 or so, 70 even.

But if you eat a meal and you‟re shooting up to 140 whatever

that meal is, even if “it‟s a healthy meal” that load is too

much for your body so it also plays a role of what types of

food and what the quantity of food is. The healthier the more

metabolically balanced, the better your vitamin D is, the

better your central fats are, the thinner you are – or leaner

would be a better word – the leaner you are so your muscles

and the receptors in the muscles are more active and more

sensitive to insulin which drives glucose in to the cells, the

less you‟re going to be at risk. But as you start to get older

and some of these other systems start to down-regulate and

as you have deficiencies in those other critical nutrients we

took a look at, this is something that ultimately could do you

in weight wise and metabolically wise as well.

Ben: So, this would be for people who are not just trying to say,

lose weight, but also people who are concerned about their

metabolic efficiency?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Absolutely. Your ability to process the carbohydrates for

energy and then what that load is on your system, and that‟s

why I put it in there so it really gives us now a way to look at

proteins, fats and carbohydrates. A screen, a snapshot of how

well your body is processing fuel for energy and how well it‟s

utilizing this fuel to create the key factors in your system and

ultimately performance – it‟s going to allow you and it‟s

another cornerstone for me to sort of say to someone hey you

know what, if you‟re still following the old carbohydrate load

or eat carbohydrates as an endurance athlete and your

glycohemoglobin is sitting in these upper fives, low sixes and

you‟re a little bit healthy – it‟s like the proof is in the pudding

there. Even besides if we would do a metabolic fuel

assessment and they‟d come back – someone who really

needs to eat more protein and vegetables – but it‟s been

honed in so many people for so long to eat lots of

carbohydrates as an endurance athlete and I think that‟s

starting to – things are finally starting to fall.

Ben: And the interesting thing about this test is you can kind of

tell if people have been honest too, right?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Oh absolutely. From the diabetic – from the traditional

doctor – you could tell if they‟re cheating. So it gives a

sense… and this is not cheating. It‟s ultimately how your

body is handling it and the lower it is, whatever the fuel that

you‟re taking, the lower it is it says to me that your body is

that much more efficient. It‟s that much more efficient at

processing fuel for energy. I‟m not saying just go eat proteins

and fats and not eat carbohydrates but if you‟re active and

you‟re processing things well and your energy is good, that

should be in the fours. Otherwise, something‟s off

metabolically or you‟re just eating more than your body

needs with regard to carbohydrate load. Or carbohydrate on

a daily basis. So it‟s a nice little reminder and from a health

perspective as I mentioned briefly before, that

glycohemoglobin or the high sugars relate to triglycerides,

they relate to healthier lipoproteins and unhealthier

lipoproteins and so forth, so it is kind of a powerful first

screen on your overall health status as well.

Ben: So walk me through the steps where somebody would

actually – how does it work logistically? Is this blood? Saliva?

Urine?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Yeah, it‟s another blood stick. So, actually we‟re using the

same lab that we‟ve used for the vitamin D. So if I‟m on the

initial assessment, it‟s really just another drop of blood in the

process. If someone‟s done a vitamin D or they‟re not doing

one concurrently, it‟s just two drops of blood.

Ben: Now, if someone „s A1C levels turn out to be high after

they‟re tested, what can they do about it?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Most importantly is take a look at how you‟re fueling yourself.

Most likely they‟re eating too many carbohydrates for their

metabolic needs. So it‟s going to be reducing those specially

major offending substances and then finding out where that

happy balance point is and like I said earlier… concurrently

though trying to see what else is imbalanced, out of balance

so typically essential fatty acids and vitamin D are going to

be a problem for people with carbohydrate intolerance.

Ben: Gotcha. Okay so basically people get this test sent to their

home, it‟s a blood stick test. You test A1C and then you guys

send the results back. How long does it take if I get this test

where I‟m actually getting it, doing the blood stick and then

sending it back to you guys?

Dr. Richard Cohen: One week. So it‟s pretty quick. It‟ll just give you a snapshot of

where you are with how you‟re fueling yourself and then

allow you – ultimately then if someone hasn‟t done it, they

probably want to say hey what are my metabolic nutritional

needs? What‟s my blood type? We‟ve talked about am I

someone who is closer to an Eskimo than an Asian and

obviously the typical American diet is very carbohydrate

laden or like I said if you‟re following a higher carbohydrate

diet because you‟re an endurance athlete, you need to re-

evaluate that. The simple analogy that I always use with my

patients is think about a fire. If you want to start a fire and

you know how the carbohydrates are the newspaper and

paper that you stuff in there. They‟re really hot by they don‟t

last very long. You need some of the carbohydrates though to

get the wood burning and the wood is in essence your fat. Fat

provides two to three… it‟s 9 calories per gram and

carbohydrates are 4, so two and a half times… almost two

and a half times the energy per gram. That‟s actually based

on how your body metabolizes it, it‟s probably even more

than that. So think of carbohydrates as to start that fire but

it‟s really your fat stores that are going to give you the long

lasting energy. So if you‟re someone who‟s existing on low fat,

high carbohydrate it‟s sort of like burning a fire with sticks.

You got to keep feeding that fire to keep the energy going

where ideally your body should utilize its fat stores and have

a little bit of carbohydrate to get the process going. It‟s funny,

ironically, a couple of weeks ago I was in Marin, we were in

Headlands and there was an ultra marathon there and I ran

into (Udo Erasmus) down there. We had a great, great chat.

Ben: For those people listening in and don‟t know who Udo

Erasmus is, he‟s the guy that‟s the inventor of the Omega 369

Oil, right? And author of Good Fats, Bad Fats.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Correct. A pioneer in the field of fatty acid metabolism and

health. They‟ve gotten to the point using their 369 oil, having

athletes use that – actually carbohydrate deplete a little bit

and using the 369 oils to fuel themselves and this is not for

everyone. Depending on… we talked a little bit about

individual needs but the majority actually find that much

more beneficial because they‟re sort of like throwing a thick

log onto a fire as opposed to using the sticks. So something I

wouldn‟t recommend you going out and trying right away

but it‟s just fuel for thought and the fact that maybe we‟ve

missed the boat a little bit on how to fuel ourselves. So that‟s

the easiest way to think about fats and carbohydrates. Fats

really are our primary fuel, much more effective. So if you‟re

someone who – and one way to just get a sense for yourself is

if you find yourself hungry frequently all through the day and

sort of nibbling on carbohydrates and snacks – your body is

not efficiently using fuel. So, not even the person who gets

low blood sugar type symptoms and they have to eat all the

time, but if you can‟t make it five, six hours without needing

something, your body is not as efficient as it needs to be.

Ben: Interesting. Now as far as the glycohemoglobin A1C test,

people should basically at this point thinking of that as kind

of like the next – not the next best thing but really the next

wave in terms of science as far as measuring the effectiveness

of your body and metabolizing blood glucose and also the

levels of blood sugar fluctuation. That‟s kind of what it boils

down to.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Right, this is an old marker. It‟s been around a while. It‟s just

now available by finger stick but it‟s a way – and what we‟re

trying to do is take some of these markers which are used for

disease and sort of turn them around so we‟re using them for

health. How do they tell us how we can fine-tune our body?

Because we‟re not just trying to avoid disease. We‟re trying to

understand how we can perform and live at our best. If

you‟re interested in your health, it‟s using these simple

markers as guideposts to determine what you need to do. It‟s

not the latest book. It‟s not the latest story. You use your

body as feedback. So just as we were talking for some person,

a particular meal may be just fine but for the other person

it‟s not. And it‟s going to affect their blood sugar. It‟s going to

affect their metabolism and unless you have some way of

monitoring it with the focus on optimal health so the sense is

if you came in with a glycohemoglobin of 5 ½ to your doctor

– someone came in to me when I was in more medically

oriented practice – Great, you‟re doing fine. But with a sort

of different set of glasses on, if we‟re really trying to finely

tune our body to perform, you‟re not doing fine. You could be

doing a lot better and those small tweaks make all the world

of difference in your body utilizing energy and it‟s just that

little bit of difference with vitamin D or essential fats or your

metabolism of sugar which can make all the difference in

your performance. I‟m trying to get that across to people how

powerful small little changes – and for some people dramatic

changes with these key factors – can be for their health and

performance and so if you‟re not recovering well, your

performance is not improving with training, look into your

body. It‟s really straightforward. It‟s just a different way. It‟s

something new. We haven‟t looked at performance with our

body and I think you‟ve seen a difference. I have yet to see

one person not feel better.

Ben: Yeah. I completely agree. I got a lot of my athletes doing very

well with the protocol from Bioletics and I want to thank you

Dr. Cohen for giving your time to come on the show and

explain that new A1C test and I hope that people – especially

people that are concerned about blood sugar management

and about performance – are going to look into that. So,

until next time… oh go ahead.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Yeah. I guess the point is it‟s something we‟ve spoken about.

If you‟ve looked at the Bioletics, there are ways… just take a

step at a time. It‟s not overwhelming to yourself. It‟s just to

understand individual key factors whether it‟s a vitamin D or

whether it‟s your blood sugar. Take one step at a time and

that‟s going to be your greatest advantage.

Ben: Fantastic. This is Ben Greenfield and Dr. Cohen, thanks for

coming on Dr. Cohen.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Appreciate it Ben.

Ben: Alright, bye.

Now for those of you who really enjoyed that interview with

Dr. Cohen and want to hear more from him, we‟re actually

going to have Dr. Cohen on for a live Q and A over at the

Rock Star Triathlete Academy and he‟s going to be giving all

the attendees to the Q and A a coupon for a $20 discount off

their new performance health profile as well as a brand new

booklet that he‟s completed on internal performance factors

for athletes. So if you‟re a triathlete and you really want to

get some one on one with Dr. Cohen and ask him some

questions, engage in discussion with him, then make sure

that you get into the Rock Star Triathlete Academy before

June 9th which is when that interview is going to be. It‟s

going to be on Wednesday June 9th. So check that out. Now,

in addition, anything that I talked about today you can access

in the Shownotes to podcast episode 96 including a link to

the new Get Fit Guy podcast, a link to the Body

Transformation Club and the Summer Body Challenge and a

link to those Training Peaks meal plans and training plans

that I talked to you about including the vegan meal plan.

That would be perfect for someone who is wanting to try out

a vegan diet and see what it‟s actually like. It‟s about 12

weeks of vegan style eating. Now if you like this podcast,

please do me a quick favor. Go to iTunes. Do a search for Ben

Greenfield and leave the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show a

ranking in iTunes. That really helps the show out. You can

also leave a comment if you like. So until next time this is

Ben Greenfield finally waking up. I think that decaf coffee is

hitting my system and I will be back with another podcast for

you next week from www.bengreenfieldfitness.com. Have a

great week.

For personal nutrition, fitness or triathlon consulting, supplements, books or DVD’s

from Ben Greenfield, please visit Pacific Elite Fitness at

http://www.pacificfit.net