MotoGP – Portuguese GP

This weekend sees the running of the second last round of the 2006 MotoGP season.

These final rounds are looking to be absolute pearlers.
This year has seen the usually unstoppable Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha M1, being challenge for the title.

Personally I cannot see Rossi handing the 2006 title to anyone else,
even though American Nicky Hayden is currently in the lead for the title.

As it stands as I write this post, Valentino is only 12 points behind Hayden,
with a maximum of 50 points up for grabs in the remaining two rounds.
It is a great testament to Valentino and the Yamaha crew led by Aussie Jeremy Burgess, that even though he has had three DNFs he is still in the championship hunt.

This is why I believe Valentino will be champion again.

Valentino has had some good competition this year from Hayden, Melandri, Pedrosa and Aussie Casey Stoner, however they haven’t been able to take a strangle hold on the series.
Sure, Hayden had a huge lead in the first half of the season and has scored points in each round,but Valentino has been able to win or get a podium in the last four races, ensuring the momentum is squarely in his favour. Something Hayden doesn’t necessarily achieve, he has only won 2 races this year as opposed to Valentino’s 4. In fact Melandri and MotoGP stalwart Loris Capirossi have won more races than Hayden in 2006.

Other things in Valentino’s favour are:
• Historically Valentino has won 4 of the last 5 GPs in Portugal
• The fact that if Valentino doesn’t win no one has been consistent in taking first place. Winners have been spread amongst a number of different riders.
  In this race to keep his chances alive he must finish 5th or higher
• His biggest threat Dani Pedrosa has been injured
• Hayden doesn’t have the killer instinct when he rides.
  This is shown by how he doesn’t always challenge for the win, like Pederosa and Stoner, he is happy to sit back and simply score points

I think Valentino’s biggest threat this weekend will come not from Hayden but from either a fit Capirossi or Pedrosa, but I expect him to win. As for Hayden, even with his new clutch (which is part of the reason he says he hasn’t been able to get great starts in the last rounds), he will be fourth or fifth, setting up an exciting final round in Spain.

Stay tuned for my wrap up of the results on 16th October

Cheers

Dave

Living Well – Diet Myths

In last weeks post I highlighted some of the popular Hollywood style diets that and noted that I believe they are flawed.
In essence their main goal is not to help you to lose weight, but to buy the book, video and t-shirt.

I hate the word diet, even though I use it in these posts. It has so much baggage.
I see a diet as an approach to living well. It is one component of a larger picture.
Diet doesn’t mean ‘eat less’ it actually means ‘what you eat’, and it is an important thing to remember.

Unfortunately its true meaning has been lost somewhat in the modern context.

In this weeks post I will attempt to highlight some of the issues I have about the foundations of these diets. Here goes…

• The Zone Diet – Talks about eating foods at certain times of the day to train your metabolism. Well I hate to break it to you, but the body cannot tell if you have eaten a cumquat at 11.31 am on a Tuesday morning!

To ‘live well’ I would suggest eating smaller meals more often (some experts recommend six meals a day – but remember this is not six large Big Mac meals!!). This has a much better effect on the metabolism and has another benefit of lessening your need to ‘snack’ as you are eating through out the day. Beware of falling into the ‘grazing all day’ trap. Plan your meal times and don’t forget to eat a good breakfast.

• The Atkins Diet – My biggest problem with this one is that it started the whole, book, video t-shirt thing. It talks about a low carbohydrate, high protein diet. It goes against the rationale thinking of nutrionalists world wide. Eat pure protein and fats and lose weight.  You cannot eat fruit or leafy vegetable for two weeks to ‘help’ the process (see South beach Diet comments below). This guy must be dreaming. Could you imaging how your cholesterol level would go through the roof on this diet.

For more information about the effects of the Atkins and similar diets go here atkinsdietalert.org. Enough said.

• The South Beach Diet – This is a relative new one from the States, and focuses on the eating the right types of foods. On the surface it all looks good, nice 3 step plan, the inventor ‘didn’t set out to make a diet plan’ (but hey presto he has a book deal, Kraft make special ‘South Beach Diet’ foods etc). But if you look at Phase One – don’t eat the following: No bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. Not even fruit. Is this guy for real no fruit for two weeks? Hasn’t he heard of the good old ‘food pyramid’? I hate it when these guys seem to make their diets complex for complexities sake.
This guy is a Cardiologist which makes it worse.

To ‘live well’ eat a variety foods, and especially don’t stop eating fruit. I always come back to ‘Everything in Moderation’.

• The Soup Diet – Well not much needs to be said here, except of course you will lose weight by eating soup, but I will guarantee as soon as you stop the weight will come back. You mostly lose the weight through the loss of retained water. Did you know the best natural way to get ride of retained water in the body is to drink more water? I suspect this is what this diet does. For some more information on the importance of water go here Water – a vital nutrient

To ‘live well’ a soup meal is a great meal idea, especially in winter when you need warming up. However it should not be breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is no way you can get al your nutritional needs from a tomato soup. A good vegetable and pasta broth might come close, but it is not the only food you should consume. I come back to ‘Everything in Moderation’ and this is a perfect example.

•The Pineapple Diet – Yes I made it up but if someone says, ‘Lose weight by only eating pineapples’ turn and run.

What would I recommend to anyone wanting to start ‘living well’?

Firstly, don’t focus on losing weight, focus on ‘living well’. What you want to do is lose ‘body fat’. It’s not rocket science. Eat a variety of foods. Eat lots of the simple non processed foods, have a salad with you steak or an apple instead of a Mars Bar for example. Moderate your overall kilojoule / calorie intake and exercise more. The more energy you burn, the less likely that unused kilojoules will be stored in the body as fat.

A good program to look at would be ‘Weight Watchers’, they take a holistic approach to ‘living well’. I like the ‘points system’ and most importantly the peer aspect of the programs. (Note – I am in no way associated with Weight Watchers and am just using this as an example)

Next in the series I will dispel some common myths about fat, so don’t forget to come back…

Note: Always seek professional medical advice before embarking on any exercise or diet program