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Sport & adventure

 

Running the Highlands – a sports nutrition seminar for runners

This organisation offers training weekends with guided runs and a programme of seminars and workshops. I put together a sports nutrition seminar which was backed up with illustrative catering by the chefs at the training location.

“Chris’s style, approach and passion are very much what we are trying to aspire to. The evaluation results and subsequent emails have been very positive. Your presentation was really well received: everyone bar three people rated your talk 10/10 (the other three marked it 9/10, 11/10 and 12/10) which can’t be bad!”
Neil Stewart, Director, Running the Highlands

And here’s a follow-up from Neil, one year on:

“Subsequent to your talks:

  1. We now avoid products with artificial sweeteners. This has meant that we no longer consider quite a few of the sports drinks on the market. We very often make our own – using your recipe – and have not noticed any deterioration in performance (and it is cheaper!).
  2. We stick to butter only now – we never use low fat spreads (which used to be commonplace in our fridge).
  3. We try as much as possible to eat natural foodstuffs and we try to avoid processed foods at all costs (not always succeeding but we definitely feel the better for it). I am sure as a result we have suffered fewer colds etc.).
  4. Lastly, but probably most importantly, we probably enjoy eating more now than ever. We understand more about what we are putting in our bodies and so feel more in control of what we eat. The more natural food products seem to taste better and we feel healthier.”

Neil Stewart, Director, Running the Highlands

“I thoroughly enjoyed Chris’s presentation and found it very interesting. I certainly have a number of new things to try over the coming year.”
L.L., recreational runner, keen to improve his 10K performance.

Rebecca Stephens Expedition – an eating plan to conquer Everest

In 1993 I was the expedition nutritionist for the team that included Rebecca Stephens – the first British woman to conquer Everest. This involved six months of meticulous planning and procurement of all the food necessary for the team to prepare and climb the world’s highest mountain. I even researched the food that Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tensing had carried with them some 40 years previously. Rebecca and the team included some of those choices in their rations.

 

 

Glenrothes Hillwalking club – nutrition for hillwalkers

GHC have an active programme of weekend walks, but once a month they like to get together in the evening and sit down on comfy seats and listen to a speaker. They have had slide presentations from travel experts and a podiatrist who gave a talk on foot care. My presentation was, so they tell me, more popular as I focused on nutrition for hillwalkers. The talk included a discussion of what food to take for a day in the hills to provide sustained energy, and what to eat during the week to prepare, help with the recovery process and avoid injury.

 

Pen Hadow – food for the North Pole

Pen is passionate about pushing his own boundaries and reaching his full potential. He proved this by completing two historic challenges: he is the only British person to walk to the North and South Poles, unsupported and without re-supply. I was part of Pen’s consultancy and support team when he needed advice about food and rations to take with him on his unsupported walk to the North Pole in 2003. He needed enough food for around 30 days. And it had to be the right type of food to fuel his body, to suit his metabolism and the sub-zero temperatures, and his cooking facilities.

He achieved his goal and you can read the story of his challenge in his book Solo.