Sources of B12 (hope you’re not vegan)

Tell someone you’re a vegetarian (or vegan) and the first thing they will say is, “That’s nice, but where do you get your protein from?”  Yeah… that’s the main question among carnivores.

Forks Over Knives and this article explain the simple truth that as long as you are eating enough calories on a whole foods, plant based diet, then you are getting enough protein.  Period.

The real question they should be asking you (and you should be asking yourself) is, “Where do you get your B12 from?”.  The reason is that B12 (for the most part) can only be found in… that’s right, animal products.  Whomp whomp! 

But let’s rewind a little bit…  After being an on-again / off-again vegetarian for the past few years, in November I made the commitment to go full vegan.  I immediately dropped what little excess weight I had, my nasal congestion cleared, and overall I just felt… better.  That was nine months ago and things were going great, so I thought.

Then in May when I was approaching my next full marathon I started to noticed some things.  Things I didn’t like.  Things that freaked me out!

The first symptom was fatigue.  It wasn’t a “I can’t get out of bed in the morning” type fatigue, but my runs began to feel very taxing.  In fairness, I was at the tail end of an 18 week marathon training program and was running 50+ miles per week.  I shook it off and thought it was normal for the training.

Second, my hair started to fall out!  Not in huge chunks or anything, or even enough for people to notice, but enough for me to be concerned.  I’ll be honest, this one upset me.

Then on race day (it didn’t go well, don’t ask) at around Mile 22 both of my arms began to radiate numbness and tingle.  It almost felt like they were being electrocuted.  And even weirder, I could feel my heartbeat pulsing though my arms.  Not cool.

Obviously these seemed like legitimate symptoms so I did some research and B12 deficiency seemed like the culprit.  This article in particular provided a lot of useful information.  It also freaked me out even more.  Upon reading that prolonged B12 deficiency can cause permanent neurological symptoms (yikes!), I scheduled a doctor appointment / blood test.

Guess what the blood test revealed.  You guessed it!  A B12 deficiency!  In the U.S. doctors suggest treating all patients that are symptomatic and have B12 levels less than 450 pg/mL.  In Japan and Europe, the lower limit for B12 is between 500-550 pg/mL (the level associated with psychological and behavioral manifestations such as cognitive decline, dementia and memory loss).  My level was 170 pm/mL. 

So the doctor’s plan was for me to get monthly B12 injections for three months.  This was to get my levels up to an “acceptable level” and then I could maintain that level with a B12 supplement.  My doctor suggested under the tongue drops like these.  Apparently these are more readily absorbed than pills.

I also researched how vegans can boost B12 levels though diet alone.  They aren’t many options out there, but the one thing that kept coming up was nutritional yeast.  Nutritional yeast is basically flakes that you can sprinkle on salads, soups, etc… to boost the B12 content of your meal.  Scott Jurek even has a “Buttery” Omega Popcorn recipe in his new book Eat and Run that uses nutritional yeast and its quite delicious!

I haven’t had another blood test yet (I’ll keep you all updated), but I have had three injections and been taking the drops everyday for a month.  I have to say, I feel much better!  My energy is back and my hair isn’t falling out anymore!  Also my arms don’t feel like they have lightening running through them! 

As a vegetarian (for me anyways) it was very easy to get enough B12.  I would eat dairy often to compensate for not eating meat.  Whole wheat pizza, burritos, mac and cheese, eggs, milk… it all tastes so good!  Once you go vegan though, all that stuff goes bye bye.  That’s where I got into trouble.

Be careful out there and keep an eye on your B12 intake! 

Forks Over Knives

So this isn’t going to be a “running” specific post (sorry), but I feel it’s important enough to share.  Even if only one person adopts some of the ideas here, then it’s totally worth it to me.

The movie Forks Over Knives has been around for a couple of years and has a huge cult following.  No joke, it’s the type movie that will change your life and how you think about “health”.

I was lucky enough to spot this dvd at a local Best Buy.  I love documentaries and it looked interesting so I bought it.  That was over six months ago and I haven’t eaten a single piece of meat since.

Yeah… it’s that convincing.

I want to be clear though.  This isn’t a gross “look at how cows are slaughtered” type of movie.  The film simply tells the stories of people with serious health problems and how medical doctors have helped reverse / eliminate them through diet alone.

In an age where most people are looking for a “quick fix”, medication and surgery are the first line of defense for almost any ailment.  This movie challenges that mindset and shows that through a plant based, whole foods diet you can basically cure (yes cure) most medical conditions.

Please have a quick look at the trailer:

Interesting enough, right?  Aren’t you compelled (even just a little) to find out more?  If so, please buy it on Amazon, stream it on Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, whatever.  Just watch it!  And if you enjoy it, I also highly recommend Food, Inc..

Look, I’m not telling everyone to go out and become a fully fledged vegetarian (or vegan), but maybe you’d be willing to start with Meatless Mondays?

What’s the point of all this running if we fill our bodies with garbage at the dinner table? 

Scott Racer Rocker

Well look what just arrived in the mail today! 

Our past guest, Joseph Gray, was kind enough to hook me up with a pair Scott Race Rockers.  These are the same shoes he used to win his 4th national championship!

Joseph ran 50K (31.07 miles) in these at a blistering 5:41 pace for the win!  So maybe these will speed me up a bit!

This is just a simple unboxing and a full review will be coming, but here are my initial thoughts:

• Man these things are light!
• The construction of the shoe is excellent.
• The color scheme is “dope”.
• The treads on the bottom look like they would help a lot.

Thanks again to Joseph Gray and his sponsor, Scott Sports!

That’s all for now until the formal review, so enjoy the pictures!

As many of you know, I have two GPS watches in my rotation: the Garmin Forerunner 610 and the Nike+ SportWatch GPS.  Both watches have their pros and cons…

The Garmin 610 is my “go to” watch and is with me on every run.  I even have the foot pod so I can use it on the treadmill.  It is fast to acquire satellites and is extremely accurate with distance.

The Nike+ SportWatch GPS is “cool” and “slick”, but it just hasn’t proved to be as reliable as my Garmins.  So recently I haven’t been wearing this watch much.  That being said, the Nike+ website / online community is awesome!  Nike does cool things like Nike+ Active, Challenges, Trophies, Goals, Coaching, etc…

I was wearing both watches for a while, but I felt silly and didn’t want to look like The Modern Marathoner.  So lately I’ve been running with only my Garmin, but I felt bad that all those miles weren’t being counted towards my Nike+ Account.  After all… I’m a Nike+ Black Level user with 4,982 miles at the moment! 

Basically, I love the Garmin watch and also love the Nike+ online community.  Well now I can have the best of both worlds.  While wearing only one watch!

I give you Tcx2NikePlus!  This cool little tool lets you convert your Garmin runs and uploads them right to your Nike+ account!  Technically… you can use the entire Nike+ website without owning any Nike+ gear.  Awesome!

Thanks to Lorn from Lorn Pearson Trains… for the tip!