Health Blog Asia (for racers) - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Hello fellow racers 🙂

This blog is intended for those who are relatively healthy and would like some advice on staying healthy throughout the race. An important note is that we have spent the past 6 months in Asia, we will write a follow-up blog after Africa! However, we currently have a blog up about Africa called Confession of a Food Hoarder (check it out!)

Allow us to introduce ourselves 🙂 Our names are Christina Simke and Stephanie Bauer. We are both vegetarians and vegans when we are able. We both enjoy running and have ran half and full marathons! At home, we love to run, do yoga/pilates, cook, dance, among many other activities. We started the race on separate teams, but have been on the same team for the past 3 months.

Eating grilled sweet potatoes and smoothies from street vendors in
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Under $2 total)

First off are packing tips. These are extra things we either packed or bought on the race after regretting not bringing them: multivitamins, iron pills, extra work out clothes: 1 pair of yoga pants, 2 quick dri t-shirts, 1 pair of shorts, 1 quick dri tank top, extra tennis shoes or vibrams. (Some countries it will be culturally appropriate to wear a tank top and shorts to work out in, some countries it will be more appropriate to wear a shirt with sleeves and yoga pants.)

(Go to this website to see the benefits of Vibrams…aside from being small and light to pack!) (http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/faq/barefoot_running_faq.htm)

You don’t need to pack a ton of food, you will find peanut butter in almost all cities, and granola bars and oatmeal.

It is also an awesome idea to either have the DVDs or upload Insanity and P90 to your hard drive for a change-up in your work out or when you can not run (it may not be safe some months.)

Salad and the best Hummus I have ever had
at OR2K in Kathmandu, Nepal

Secondly these are tips on planning ahead while on the race: Always err on the side of caution. Every time you go into the city, GO TO THE GROCERY STORE. Don’t assume the village will have peanut butter or granola bars. It takes effort to seek out a grocery store, but it is possible. Also, seek out good restaurants in a city. EXTRA MONEY IS NEEDED!

EXAMPLES OF GOOD RESTAURANTS:
In Kathmandu, Nepal: Himalayan Java, and OR2K
In Bangkok Thailand: Turtle Bakery and Blue Ocean Sushi
In Chang Mai, Thailand: Juanos Mexican Restaurant
In Pnomh Penh, Cambodia: Daughters of Cambodia, and Naturae.
In Siem Reap, Cambodia: Viva for Mexican, Peace Café, Bohdi Tree Riverside Café has the best fruit pancakes (every health freak has to splurge now and then!).
Most Asian countries also have smoothies or fresh juice at little street stands, it is cheap, fresh and amazing!

From Daughters Cafe in Cambodia <3

Food while on the race: Markets have tons of fruits and veggies. We have avoided eating rice for a long time now (since India month 1), just eat the other sides available, and eat around the meat. My team leader has spoken to our contact at the beginning of the month on our behalf about being vegetarian, and the contacts usually provide something else to eat. Offer to give your contact a night off a week and cook for your team. It is nice for them to have a break, and nice for you to prepare a meal. (Note to treasurers: When you pay the allotted amount of money for food at the end of the month, you can deduct the cost of how many meals your team prepared on your own.)

Next, is working out on the race: As stated earlier, we have only been to Asia thus far and always had a running buddy on our team. It is currently month 6 on the Race, and we have only missed working out 4 days on the entire Race. If you are on a team where no one runs with you, do Insanity. Working out is possible, you just have to motivated enough to make it happen. Steph and I get up early every day (5:30am) and get our work out on! Rooftops are great places to stay out of the way and have some privacy to work out!

The availability of showering (after working out): I have showered twice a day the majority of days on the Race. Mind you, a lot of those were bucket showers, which I have grown very fond of! Scope out the shower situation upon arrival to where you are staying, and make it work!

Here are a few random fun facts!:

You do NOT have to gain weight on the Race. In fact, Steph has lost weight!
If you are on the edge of being healthy or not, this is a good time to become healthy! It is easy to eat smaller portions and tempting food is not as available.
Have other people on your team join you in working out. Our long runs together are filled with intimate conversation, laughter, crying, and much joy!
It’s ok to enjoy yourself. Steph really enjoys lattes, and Christina enjoys a good dessert every now and then. Pumpkin spice brownie from Daughters of Cambodia was a delicious treat! Just don’t make a habit of buying a Snickers bar and eating it every time you see one. Don’t use eating as a means to cope with being away from home for 11 months!
Do not go crazy at meals. YOU WILL BE FED! At first it might feel like you are starving and not getting enough food, so you will start to eat either super fast or large quantities. NOT NECESSARY!
There is no need to eat a crap load of peanut butter! Unless you are a guy trying to gain weight, you don't need that much fat in your diet! That is something Steph cut out of her diet and it help her loose weight.
Something great that fills you up: Oatmeal for breakfast or a healthy snack!

Here are a couple recipes:
-1 half of an apple, generous handful of raisins, 10 almonds bitten in half, 2 spoonfuls of PB, half a handful of granola, 1 large banana sliced, generous amount of oats
-Small amount of oats, 3 small bananas, 1 apple, half a carrott, sprinkle of raisins (yellow and brown), cinnamon and sugar, sprinkle of nuts or chunky peanut butter

Healthy Snacks: Granola, Granola bars, raisins, apples, bananas, oranges (any fruit or veggie), almonds, peanut butter (don't eat it like it's going out of style though!), oatmeal, cliff bars, soy milk, dark chocolate, smoothies, sugar cane juice.