review - AnnaTheApple

July 2, 2015September 18, 2020

DNAFit Results and Review

Ooook so this has been a bit delayed…my DNAFit results and review.

**Full Disclosure: I bought DNAFit myself and have not been asked to write a review.**

I first heard about DNAFit in RunnersWorld magazine (possibly an online article, possibly in the magazine, I can’t remember). At first I was like “this is weird” and then “is this legitimate…and safe?” but because it was in RunnersWorld I was instantly intrigued and reassured of it’s legitimacy (I know, I’m a sucker for good marketing!).

I could send off my DNA to be tested and be told a whole host of things about my genes regarding fitness.

I chose the DNAFit Lite.

As someone who has been plagued by injuries in the past, I was curious to know really how weak my body was. Was I predisposed to getting injuries just because that was who I was or was it really all in my head? We all know our own bodies fairly well so I was pretty sure what to expect from the results…but just to have the confirmation, or more in depth information was tantalisingly tempting. As it was my birthday my parents agreed to contribute to the cost and I made up the rest (happy birthday me!).

I didn’t need a VO2 Max potential as I’d already suffered gone through that VO2 test last year and though more information would have been nice on my genotypes and the athlete comparison, I wasn’t willing to pay £30 more for it.

Inside are very helpful and straight forward instructions about how to collect your DNA. It uses a mouth swab which you then send back in a pre-paid secure envelope. It advised swabbing first thing in the morning so I did just that, while feeling like a criminal 😉

It didn’t hurt and was very simple and easy. They emailed me to let me know when they’d received it and then the waiting game began. I was really excited to hear my results, desperately hoping I was actually made of steel and my injuries were all in my head.

Less than 10 days later I received an email telling me my results were in. Wheee!

I won’t lie, when I first looked at my results it was literally a quick scan to see the main points. I was also a little disappointed to find how much of it I really understood and how much I really got from it. Science lessons were a while ago now! Saying that though, after I read it a few more times and asked the company a few questions, my understanding increased and I felt like I got a lot of information.

Power Endurance Profile

I was highly surprised by this result. I really thought it would come back and say I was most suited to endurance activities. I love long distances and find them easier than shorter, sharper activities. It’s nice to know that my body seems attuned to both. I suppose this could make sense as when I put my mind to it I can do well (relatively speaking) at shorter distances, it’s just psychologically more work and less enjoyment.

As well as that overall summary it also goes into detail about different variants of genes. This is where my understanding started to waver. But after sending a query to the DNAFit people they quickly came back and explained it to me:

“The effect is shown by the presence of ‘-‘, ‘*’, ‘**’, “+”, and “++”. When there is just a dash, that means that the version of that gene is not associated with an effect in this particular part of the report. Then the presence of one asterisk’*’ means it has an effect, and two asterisks means that gene variant has a particularly strong effect on the marker in question…and two plus signs = very strong, one plus = strong.” (From DNATFit advisor)

Basically you’re given a list of the variants they examine and then marks them as to how much effect they have on your body. There are different strengths of associations and some variants might not have any effect at all, while some are really strong.

The darker shade of green is the version of that gene that I hold

I also found that I have a better VO2max response to training and lower levels of inflammation after hard training sessions, leading to quicker recovery times.

Recovery Speed

Again I was nicely surprised by this result. I assumed I’d get a slower recovery speed, but medium is good so I’m quite happy with that! I like how it suggested things for me to do to improve on my recovery. Since doing the Simply Supplement review in May I regularly take omega-3 tablets so I feel quite smug about this 😉

From my gene variants it seems I potentially have more free radicals post-exercise because I lack the part of the gene associated with their removal (I almost sound like I know what I’m talking about…). And I apparently experience “higher levels of inflammation after strenuous exercise”.

One of the benefits of getting these results back around the time of my marathon was that it could inform me of the best way to come back to running sensibly. During the week after the marathon when all I wanted to do was run I remembered these results and held myself back. I was sensible with what I ate, I wore compression socks and I was gentle with myself. It was almost like I could validate my rest (and convince myself not to run) because I knew my body needed it.

Injury Risk

This was the one I was most interested about. Injuries plague most runners, but I feel like I’ve had more than my fair share in comparison to others.

No surprises there whatsoever. I did feel somewhat depressed by this result though. But it does make sense that genes have an effect on these things. I’m sure we all know those people who can run stupidly high mileage every week, never stretch, never foam roll and never get injured. I’m sure those are the low injury risk people.

I also apparently have an increased risk of tendinopathy and osteoarthritis and a moderately raised risk of tendon and ligament injuries in sport. And a susceptibility of increased inflammation after a hard workout.

Overall

After understanding the results more, I feel quite happy with my results. It’s very complex obviously, with what genes affect me, the strength of that effect and then the variants within that gene. It does take a bit of careful reading and re-reading!

But what DNAFit also stress is that your genes aren’t everything. They’re the foundations to your house, but how you build to that house and furnish it is up to you. Last year I was stupid with my training. I didn’t do enough strength training for my body and when I got injured I didn’t take the time off to properly recover and then to gradually come back. It was more of a case of “I feel OK now, what race is next?” and jumping back into my training plan that I abandoned just before the injury.

One of the pointers DNAFit advisers me from my results it that I need to “undertake prehabilitative exercises relevant to the sport and consider nutritional support for connective tissue”. Since before Christmas I’ve been doing just this and it’s clearly working. They stress that my injury risk is based only on my genes, but that I can make changes in my environment to reduce this injury risk. Like our biology lessons taught us, genes aren’t everything – it’s a combination of genes and environment. I’m sadly not one of those people who can just run. I’ve got to strengthen and protect my body, and then take the time to rest and recover properly.

Is it worth it? Though DNAFit confirmed many things I already knew about myself, it was nice to get an insight into the details and know a bit more about myself. Would I recommend it? It is expensive and if you’re already well-tuned to your body, I’d say you probably don’t need it. But if you’re like me and want to know a bit more about yourself and help work out what you really need to do for good training (for example, I can’t run six days a week regularly – my body needs more recovery) then go for it. Ideal birthday or Christmas present!

Would this interest you?

Have you ever done a VO2 test or a DNA test like this?

How much recovery do you think your body needs?

June 4, 2015September 18, 2020

Portlebay Popcorn

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a popcorn addict. I pop my own salt and pepper popcorn and have as part of my lunch every day at work. My office initially thought I was bonkers but now they’ve come to accept my weird little obsession.

Along with my more simple popcorn, I love trying the different flavours that have come out as well. There’s definitely been an explosion of popcorn in the past few years. No longer is it just the butter and sugar drenched stuff you buy to pop yourself and eat at home while watching a film or buy jumbo buckets of at the cinema. Recent flavours out there have also fully embraced the salty sweet flavour combo that is in full force at the moment too. It’s a match made in heaven in my eyes!

Portlebay Popcorn do a range of popcorn flavours called Kracklecorn which is “hand popped” in Devon.

Kracklecorn is where they’ve added raw cane sugar as the grains are popping which makes the popcorn more brittle and crunchy. They sent me a fabulous selection of popcorn flavours to test out and review. Honestly, I was blown away by the variety they had!

I’ve previously tried the Crispy Bacon and Maple Syrup flavour and adored it so I knew that flavour would be fine. But Lemon Sherbet? Very Berry? That sounds mental! The three new flavours that Portlebay have released are Very Berry, Cinnamon Swirl and Lemon Sherbet.

The Lemon Sherbet flavour was fairly subtle – don’t expect to get your head blown off. But it did have that tangy lemonness and fizziness you’d expect from the original sweet and it went so well with the popcorn. It tasted delicious!. It was my second favourite flavour (the maple bacon still has my heart).

The Very Berry flavour was equally as subtle and extremely tasty. There were hints of berry-ness without it being overwhelming.

The Cinnamon Swirl I was initially not sure about. It tasted very “American” if you know what I mean. It smelt quite synthetic. Cinnamon isn’t a huge flavour in the UK (unless it’s Christmas), unlike the US, and it reminded me of the sweet cinnamon things you can easily eat over there but not so much here. After a few bits I decided I did like it. Again, subtle flavours.

The one flavour I wasn’t sure about was the Smoked Cheddar. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t awful but it was just odd. It had a cheesy flavour but was still slightly sweet. I don’t think I’d have this flavour again, but I wouldn’t throw it back at someone if they offered me some!

I won’t go into the nutritional details for all the popcorn but I’ll give you an example.

Cinnamon Swirl (per 25g)

Calories: 111 calories
Protein: 1.3g
Fat: 4g
Of which saturates: 0.3g
Carbohydrate: 16.2g
Of which sugars: 7g
Fibre: 2.7g
Salt: 0.1g

The range of calories per bag for the flavours is around 110-115 calories, so less than a packet of crisps and nice and filling with the fibre. The ingredients lists are also fairly clean without any nasty, strange sounding chemicals. They’re not vegan (they contain lactose) but they are gluten free.

By far Portlebay are the best range of popcorn I’ve had. The crunchiness of the actual popcorn gives a nice eating experience (does that make sense?) and the flavours are really good. Big thumbs up from this popcorn addict! I just cannot buy bigger bags though as I won’t stop eating.

What’s your favourite popcorn flavour?

What do you snack on when you’ve got the munchies?

What’s the weirdest flavour you’ve tried (of anything!)?

***Full Disclosure: I was sent the popcorn for free to review. All opinions are my own honest ones.***

May 22, 2015September 18, 2020

Simply Supplements review

I’ve been working from home the past three days doing an online course in order to acquire more skills for my job and let me tell you, self-motivation is hard-work! Only having a set amount of time to do it though does spark the adrenaline a little, and obviously wanting to pass the exam at the end of it!

Anyway, on to more interesting things.

I was asked if I would review some products from the vitamin supplement online store Simply Supplements. I happily agreed because I don’t take any supplements and with marathon training trucking along I thought I could do with any help I could get!

Their website also has a cool blog which goes into some details about different bits and bobs to do with health, fitness and weight-loss (and marathon training!).

I chose three different supplements to trial:

L-Taurine 600mg

I chose this product because it’s apparently very good endurance and supports the maintenance of muscle.

From the website: “L-Taurine is concentrated in muscle tissues and the central nervous system, and is one of the few amino acids that contain sulphur…Through its high vitamin B6 content, L-Taurine is also believed to improve the body’s transportation and metabolism of protein and iron.”

Thoughts? It sounded great! I also read the reviews from other customers, which were all positive and along similar lines. Obviously I need to take the supplement for longer than the two weeks I’ve been taking it but no ill effects and my marathon training still continues to go well. My long runs have felt strong as well.

Aloe Vera 6000mg

Aloe Vera is supposed to be good for digestion, promoting good bacteria in the gut and maintaining a health pH balance.

Thoughts? I actually don’t have any digestion issues, apart from the occasional bloat from too many apples or too many vegetables (I’m looking at you, sprouts). This wasn’t the reason why I chose this supplement. I’ve heard aloe vera is great for many different things, one of those being inflammation. As a runner doing high mileage (for me!!) I wanted something to help with recovery and reduce injury (though I know a bit of inflammation isn’t bad). Again, so far so good. The tablets are nice and small as well so easy to take.

Omega 3 1000mg Capsules

Omega 3 is great for the brain, heart and eyes. You’d usually find the omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in oily fish, flaxseeds, nuts, etc. and can be a tricky one to get the recommended daily dose if fish and nuts don’t rock your world (though sprouts have a good dose apparently!).

Omega 3 helps normalise blood pressure, cholesterol levels and can help reduce heart disease. And it can help maintain a good brain and good eyes.

(Fun but gross fact: a common causes of excessive ear wax is a deficiency in omega 3 fatty acids)

Thoughts? If I could eat oily fish (or all fish in general really) on a daily basis I would, but fish is expensive. It’s also harder to put into everyday recipes. I’m a huge fan of taking these supplements because now I’m no longer feeling guilty that I don’t eat a huge amount of fish (or nuts – I like pistachio nuts, but most nuts are a bit of a problem for me as I can’t stop at a small handful!)

I like that fish oils are from clean ocean waters and are subject to stringent environmental measures that protect the surrounding eco-system. However the product isn’t vegetarian as it contains gelatine. The tablet is also quite big but it’s easier to take because it’s smooth and shiny, if that makes sense??

Tablet sizes

Simply Supplements is a great online store as it just has so many different things. I had trouble deciding what to go for and judging by the reviews, there are a lot of happy customers.

What supplements do you take (if any)?

What pill do you think they should invent? I think they make a “keep on running” pill which stops all injuries from happening . Or a “I never need to wash my hair again” pill…but I’m sensing I’m edging away from reality now 😉

Are you able to take large tablets? My dad can take tablets without water. This is amazing.

May 14, 2015September 18, 2020

Yoga, food and a buff review

The day after the Hackney Half Marathon my legs felt surprisingly OK. I had a strong sense of tiredness and runger which followed me through the day but it was no different really than how I’ve felt any Monday morning after doing a long run on the Sunday.

This is good news! I still took Monday off as a complete rest day though. Let’s not risk anything. I gave Alfie a lovely walk in our local field in the morning before work and in the evening too.

It’s lovely to see him racing around while I can just walk around the field and listen to the radio (I feel old because I now listen to BBC5 Live in the morning – I like keeping up to date with the news and opinions). There’re always the regular dog walkers which is nice as well.

That evening I had a really tasty Hello Fresh meal of quinoa, lentils, feta and chorizo. It did take a while to make (about 30 mins) and created a lot of washing up but the results were fantastic.

Basically it involved cooking the quinoa separately in vegetable stock while frying onions, chorizo and diced peppers and tomatoes. Add pre-cooked lentils (from a tin) and the quinoa with chopped coriander and crumbled feta. Done! It’s the prep that’s the laborious part really.

The next morning I got up at 5am for my usual strength training at the gym. All, except the press-ups, I use weights for these moves:

Squats
Romanian deadlifts
Cross body chop with dumbbell
Walking lunges
Single leg deadlifts
Single leg squats
Hot salsa
Russian twists
Press-ups

I go twice a week now and it’s far more manageable (my second session is more plyometric-based – box jumps, lunge jumps, etc.). I still think it’s important I keep maintaining my strength. To be honest I find it so hard to motivate myself to go (it’s not running is it!) but the fear of injury gets me up in the morning. And strength I’ve found is like most things, you have to consistently do otherwise you’ll lose it.

Tuesday evening I went for an easy run with the running club. I haven’t been to training in ages and it felt good to be back. Though I’m still cautious about it as I want to stick to my (vague) training plan. Otherwise I know I’d happily run silly miles at a silly pace if I went every week and I need to be sensible. After the marathon I’ll be back regularly!

I ran with Mike and Mark and a few others who didn’t want to do the planned hill session that the other guys were doing (hills were not going to happen for me!) and it was lovely. We chatted the whole time and just took things slow – though probably not as slow as we should have but my HR was low and the effort was easy so I was happy. In the end we got 5.5 miles in and I barely felt out of breath.

My running club have started running-focused yoga and Pilates sessions so a few weeks ago I booked myself in for a yoga session after the run as I thought after Hackney it would be ideal. I quickly changed into leggings and got my mat and was good to go. I’ve done yoga before so it was very familiar to me and I felt (for once!) one of the most experience yogis in the room as the majority were all beginners.

In my other yoga classes I’ve been to I was always one of the newbies so this was a nice change for the books! It felt blissful after running as well.

But it did mean that it was past 9pm when I got home and I hadn’t had dinner yet – no chance of that before running when I get home at 6pm, have to walk Alfie and be ready to run at 6.45pm. I inhaled my dinner and wasn’t in bed until 11pm. This is a seriously late night for me considering I’m normally asleep by 10pm!! Luckily dinner was already cooked as I had made two portions of the quinoa meal the day before. It was just a case of reheating and shovelling in.

I must say that as good as I felt after yoga and my run on Tuesday night, I woke up Wednesday with really aching glutes and hamstrings. I’m pretty certain this is from my gym session and not the run! But luckily I’d planned another rest day and some foam rolling in the evening. Then intervals in the morning (which were tough I must say!).

On to a little review…I was kindly sent two buffs from the kind people at Kitshack.com. One buff for me and one buff for Alfie, my dog. Alfie felt very chuffed to be included in a review for once 😉

High UV Protection BUFF® (find HERE)

My buff was from the High UV Protection range that they have. It’s interesting because my first thoughts about wearing buffs are that they are just for winter and to keep you warm. But these buffs are more to protect you from the sun, which is fantastic.

It’s made with a wicking fabric which helps suck the moisture away from your skin quickly. It can be worn as a neckerchief, headband, wristband, mask, hair-band, balaclava, scarf, scrunchie, saharaine, pirate cap, beanie or bandana…personally I like the sound of the pirate cap 😉 It’s also treated with Polygiene so will remain fresh as the silver ions prevent the build up of bacteria in the fabric. There are also no seams or hems to irritate your skin. And it has the UV protection obviously.

Thoughts? I love the colour! They have a whole range of different patterns and colours which is great if you like matching things, like me. Initially I was confused what to do with it and how to wear it but it was fun to experiment. The video HERE’s is definitely worth a watch as honestly I wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise and there are so many different ways to wear it – it’s very multi-functional. For example…

Cycling – use over your mouth if it’s cold or there’s lots of pollution, or under your helmet.
Running – use it like a scarf it’s cold or as a sweat band.
Long walks – protects my scalp from burning.

It’s very soft and comfy to wear and I quite like wearing it as a headband to keep my hair out of my eyes. I’d probably wear it more often in the winter for running and more as a headband when walking or going to the gym.

Terrible photo but it was the best angle I could do I’m afraid!

Don’t wear it like this though unless you’re hiding from someone:

Having fun while trying the different ways to wear it

Dog BUFF®

I’m sorry but this just tickled me that Alfie could wear one of these too – how cute. They have a range of coloured patterns and are available in two sizes: standard (which fits most medium to larger breeds) and small (for terriers and smaller dogs like Alfie).

It has a handy Scotchlight reflective strip which offers retro-reflective visibility from a distance of 150 metres and is made from the same stretchy material as the, er, human buffs.

As happy as Alfie was to be part of this review, he’s not very good at staying still for a photo!!

Thoughts? Alfie thought he looked cool in it 😉 I quite like that it has the reflective bit so in dark evenings or mornings he’d be easier to spot – and to be honest the colour makes him easier to spot as well when he’s off his lead. I’m not sure how comfortable he’d be with it over his head though like in the picture below.

All in all I am a fan of the buffs! They look cool, they’re multi-functional and Alfie and me can match 😉

Have you ever worn a buff to run/walk/cycle in?

Do you do yoga or Pilates?

How much effort do you spend on your evening meal?

**Full Disclosure: I was sent the buffs for free to review. All opinions are Alfie’s and my own.**

April 23, 2015September 18, 2020

Two Chicks Review

I haven’t really done a blog post about my recent eats for a while now. Mainly because it used to be exceptionally dull. I’d eat the same rota of meals week in and week out.

Since getting Hello Fresh (a delivery box system sending out ingredients and recipes – check out my review if you’re interested) things are a lot more exciting. I’m cooking for just me now (no pity please) so having Hello Fresh every two weeks, which is six meals, works out really nicely for me at the moment. It also means that there are quite a few meals that I just have to microwave as I cooked the entire meal the day before.

I think the biggest benefit is that it encourages me to eat more balanced meals. I have been known to overeat vegetables and go a bit salad crazy…this isn’t always a good thing, especially when marathon training. The below meal is a meal I often have for lunch at the weekend. It’s just a mix of stir-fry veg with cream cheese (such a good easy sauce!) with either fish, chickpeas or some other protein.

I would never normally buy potatoes as I find them quite dull (sweet potatoes are different, I could just eat them plain) but often the Hello Fresh recipes call for mash potatoes, roasted wedges or new potatoes and I’m actually really enjoying them. And even RICE [immediately makes me think of running injuries when capitalised…]. I’m not a rice fan, but when the recipe was jambalaya you can’t do much substitution on that front. I hadn’t swapped the meals in time and I’m not about to waste it!

It was very tasty and very filling. It contained prawns and chorizo and was just heavenly. I’m still not going to leap to Tesco and buy a kilogram of rice but it was a nice change.

Basically I’m eating more carbs. I’m not a fan of low-carb diets or anything like that, I just genuinely prefer to have more meat on my plate than things like bread, potatoes, rice or pasta. But I’m a realist and know I need to fuel appropriately for my mileage! It’s just to me meat (and protein in general) is more tasty and exciting.

And this segues nicely to a new snack I’ve been having lately. The cool people at Two Chicks sent me some of their new snacks to review, called Chirps. You might know Two Chicks from their liquid egg whites (I’ve had this before and really liked the concept of bulking out omelettes or what-have-you with more protein. I’d never forgo the yolk as hello that’s the best part but to beef out an egg meal it’s brilliant – or I guess if you need egg whites for baking).

So what are Chirps then? They’re basically high protein ‘crisps’ made from egg whites (“egg white bites”). They’re low in carbohydrates and fat and come in three flavours: Sour Cream & Onion, Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper and Smokey Jalapeno. Also:

They contain no GMO
Have 15% off your daily protein intake per bag (e.g. one pack contains approx 9g of protein)
Are low in sugar
Contain 50% less fat than standard crisps
Contain 30% less calories than other crisps

My thoughts: Now I’m a big fan of Snack a Jacks (especially the Sour Cream flavoured ones) so I was already liking the sound of these snacks, and I liked that they contained more protein and less sugar so would be more of a filling snack (Snack a Jacks aren’t filling at all, I just like how they taste).

I really, really liked these. I loved the Sour Cream & Onion flavour the most. It was very moreish. What’s also great is there seems to be a lot in a packet as the ‘crisp’ pieces are quite small. There’s LOADS of flavour to them as well. No they don’t taste like crisps or rice snacks, you can tell there’s something different to them, but it’s not unpleasant at all. Just different.

Smokey Jalapeno Chirps – loads of flavour

I’ll warn you though, the Smokey Jalapeno Chirps are quite hot! But for me it was a pleasant heat, but more sensitive palates might want to avoid this flavour.

I mentioned these snacks at work and I got a lot of interest. I gave a few packets out to colleagues so they could try them too and the feedback was very, very positive. They all really enjoyed them and were fascinated by them.

The Chirps not gluten free or suitable for vegans (obviously) and the ingredients list doesn’t look horrific but it’s not as ‘clean’ as it could be. Annoyingly they’re also only sold in selected stores and online at the moment, so I hope they pick up popularity and become more mainstream as they could easily replace my Snack a Jack love. Big thumbs up from me!

Do you enjoy snacking on crisp or rice crackers?

What do you look for in a snack: high protein, low sugar, filling, taste, etc.?

Do you like to vary your meals in the week or do you have a set rota?

***Full Disclaimer: I was sent the Chirps snacks for free to review. All opinions are my own honest ones.***