Coach Ian – Week in Review:
What I’m looking into:
Levels Health: As many of you know, I’ve been experimenting with a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) to track my blood sugar levels throughout the day, tracking how it changes in response to stress, HIIT training, steady-state cardio, nutrition, fasting, and more. Well, Levels Health (not publicly available yet) has an app that monitors that data and assigns you a “metabolic health score”. It is really interesting to see this kind of data being use for athletic performance and overall health, rather than in response to metabolic dysfunction. With these analytics, what optimal levels of fasted blood sugar and average blood sugar are, and not just “not having diabetes”. This is a cool video that explains more:
What I’m reading
I just finished up two books and started another:
Diabetes Code by Dr Jason Fung: Diabetes Code is a follow up to the book “Obesity Code” where Dr Jason Fung shows that the diabesity epidemic and obesity epidemic are one in the same. In both books, he writes a lot about the role of insulin in weight gain and talks about possible treatments through diet and intermittent fasting as treatments. Something that I plan to write about later is how bad all of the sugar spikes that people in the marathon community typically go through, as they’ve been taught to constantly replenish with nothing but pure sugar (Gu gels, etc.). Even their electrolyte drinks are typically 25g of sugar per scoop. Yikes!
The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehra Baradaran: Given our current times, it’s important to understand what policies and measures have led to the current racial wealth gap. This book doesn’t really give any suggested solutions until the epilogue, so you may walk away with different solutions than the author. But it does a deep dive into why black banks alone haven’t been able to solve the wealth gap, as well as many key policies that magnified the racial wealth gap (discriminatory lending practices, etc.)
Humankind: A Hopeful History: I got this from my work, but I’ll refrain from my opinions until I’m finished.
What I’m grateful for
Between 3/14/20 – 8/1/20, I hadn’t run any distance, opting to just run ~5K/day and focus on my immunity and other projects (like building this site!) At the time, I was nearly peaking for the Big Sur Marathon, but after that was cancelled, it was an easy decision to take it easy.
When the Big SURreal Virtual Challenge was announced, I made the decision to start training again for a marathon in late September. This is a pretty quick turnaround to train for a marathon, but I’m hoping that my experience will allow me to be able to do it.
My first two weeks long runs were 10 miles and 12 miles. Today, I ran an 18 miler (in some nasty heat!) after only intending to run 15. After I finish my runs, I take some time to appreciate the fact that I’m healthy enough to continue my training and just able to do what I do. There’s still a bigger job to do and I always keep the bigger picture outlook and understand that I’m still facing an uphill battle, but these days I always take the time to celebrate the small-steps and the progress I make along the way.
A fun conversation I’ve had recently:
Recently, I’ve been catching up with members of our boxing, running, and fitness community to see what they’re up to! I enjoy highlighting some of the members of our community and bridging different communities – boxing, running, and fitness, so people can see a little bit of what others do. A lot of people in boxing think I’m crazy for running marathons, and a lot of runners think I’m crazy for what I do in boxing. The truth is that I’m just another face in these different communities, and once you dive into any of these sports – it’s really not that crazy at all. So far, I’ve had fun interviewing my mom (Downtown Yoga Shala Owner), coach Sara Koshfam (Dreamland Boxer with international experience), and Alex Rodriguez (Dreamland Boxer turned trail runner). Stay tuned for more!
Something new I’ve tried:
I used to focus on eating a lot of muscle meat (i.e. the lean chicken breast, etc.). I’m eating a lot more organ meats these days, as this is where all of the nutrients are! The beef heart I ordered was from Belcampo, which is a regenerative farm (climate positive farming) that serves organic, grass-finished, pasture raised meats! It’s both good for you and good for the environment!
For more on the carnivore diet, read up on my write-up of Carnivore Code by Paul Saladino here.
What’s new at Dreamland Boxing
Dreamland Boxing Offerings: As you may know, I am currently donating my time to host virtual online boxing classes for the members of our 501c(3) non-profit boxing gym, Dreamland Boxing. As an active member of Dreamland, you will receive the materials and video recaps of each lesson through my website under the “Premium Drills” section. Recently, I decided to set up 12-week training programs for our boxers to train for specific goals. You can read more about that here.
Dreamland Boxing is also hosting outdoor classes and offering private and semi-private lessons. Visit http://www.dreamlandboxing.org or email dreamlandboxing7@gmail.com for more information on how to sign up today!