Firstly, creatine is not a steroid, regardless of what some of the things you may have read online might say. It is actually a combination of amino acids and it is found in foods like beef and fish, as well as being naturally produced within the body.
Before speaking about creatine, it is important to first talk about the basics of energy production in the body.
ATP, or Adenosine Triphosphate, is the body's energy currency, and regardless of where we get our energy from, whether that be carbohydrates, fat, or protein, it must first be used to create ATP, and that ATP is what is used to create the energy, to contract a muscle for example.
There is only a small amount of ATP stored in the body at one time, and it relies on being used and replaced quickly, in order to keep up with the activity being done, so that you can continue to do that activity.
As you may know by now, carbohydrates are the body's predominant source of fuel in high-intensity activities, such as a Gaelic football match, for example. This is because carbohydrates, or rather glucose, the broken down form of carbohydrate, can be stored within the muscle in sufficiently high amounts for this type of activity, as well as having the ability to produce ATP at a relatively fast rate.
However, when we go to either extreme of intensity, such as slower, less intense bouts of activity, or short, extremely intense bouts, carbohydrates aren't always optimal for the job.
The low intensity activity that we go through everyday doesn't need the high energy turnover of carbohydrates, and given that carbohydrate's energy production is less efficient (less of the energy stored as carbohydrate provides ATP), the body tends to skew its energy source a bit more towards fat.
Fat produces more ATP than Carbohydrates, but it also produces it at a slower rate, hence it would be better used for lower-intensity activities, but wouldn't be suitable to higher intensity activities, where fat would be unable to replace used ATP at a high enough rate.
On the other end of the scale, when we look at really short, intense activities, like full-speed sprints, heavy weight-lifting in the gym, and jumping, even carbohydrates can't replace the used ATP quickly enough.
In this case, the body will turn to what's known as the phosphocreatine (or creatine phosphate) system, which creates ATP much more quickly than carbohydrates or fat can, but can only keep producing ATP quickly for a short amount of time.
This kind of reminds me of the old Playstation game, "Need for Speed", where you raced cars and if you needed a quick start or an extra boost to overtake an opponent, you could you the NOZ button and get a short boost, but it only lasted for a few seconds. That's kind of like the phosphocreatine system.
In sporting terms, this is easily seen by going for a maximal-speed sprint, and observing the point where you begin to slow down. Or, if you go for a few repetitive jumps and observe the point where you are no longer able to jump as high as the first few jumps.
The creatine phosphate system produces ATP at a rate that is limited partly by the amount of creatine that is present in the body. Without getting too deep into the weeds, when creatine is either created in the body or consumed through the diet/supplements, it joins to a phosphate, to form creatine phosphate. This phosphate molecule can then be used to replace the phosphate in the broken down ATP, to form more ATP.
Don't worry if I lost you there. All I was really saying was the creatine helps recycle ATP and that allows more ATP (energy) to be produced in these short, intense activities.
Before going on, it is worth noting that these systems don't work independently. They are all operating at once, in differing amounts. For example, even in a marathon event, typically though of as a lower-intensity activity, a combination of fats and carbohydrates will also still be being used, as well as the phosphocreatine system contributing.
Although creatine can be produced in the body and consumed through foods like meat and fish, the amounts that we can get in these ways isn't close to what we can get in supplemental form. Hence, to attain the benefits associated with increased creatine levels in the body, supplementation is recommended.
How Can it Help for GAA?
Creatine has been shown to be beneficial in activities in the 0–10 second range, including sprinting, lifting weights, jumping etc, as well as improving strength and muscle gain.
This is largely down to the benefits with regards to the phosphocreatine system that I mentioned earlier.
There are other potential benefits, however, specifically for the strength and muscle building aspects.
Firstly, creatine helps hydrate muscle cells. This can lead to increased body weight, which, along with the other benefits of creatine, can lead to improvements in strength, but also gives the appearance of muscle being bigger.
Now, it is worth considering that you may not want extra bodyweight, especially if running speed is something you want to maintain. However, the performance benefit of the extra creatine may outweigh the benefits of the slight increase in body weight. This is something that is going to be very much dependant on the individual, their goals, and how they react to creatine supplementation.
It's also worth noting that if you are in a fat-loss phase, the increase in bodyweight associated with creatine supplementation may mask your fat-loss progress, by altering the weight you see on the scales. This isn't to say you shouldn't supplement with creatine when trying to lose weight, but rather that you should be aware of these potential changes.
Despite what some of the media would have you believe, creatine has not been shown to be harmful to health, if taken within the recommended range. It is the most researched sports supplement on the market, and there haven't been any health problems associated with it. However, it is advised that those with pre-existing kidney conditions should perhaps refrain from supplementing with creatine, due to the lack of research done in that area.
The recommended dose for creatine is 3–5g per day. With creatine, the aim is to saturate the cells with it over time, and therefore it is important to be consistently supplementing daily.
There are a lot of different creatine supplements out there, but I recommend using a creatine monohydrate. Whilst there are a lot of other types that claim to be superior, none have really shown to be, and since creatine monohydrate is usually the least expensive, I recommend using that.
From what we've gone through in this article, you may be thinking that you should be taking it before the type of activities that it improves, but it doesn't work in this short-term way, in the way that something like caffeine might do. It takes weeks for creatine to saturate the cells. For that reason, the time of day you take it is largely unimportant, so I usually recommend simply taking it at a time where you'll remember to take it daily, so if you usually have a shake after training, then you can simply mix it in. If you usually take supplements first thing in the morning, then adding in your creatine here could be an easy way to remember to take it.
Do You Need to Load it?
A common question is with regards to whether or not you should load creatine, meaning taking a larger amount than the recommended dose when you start taking it. Whilst this can help saturate the cells more quickly, I usually recommend just taking the standard does from the start, as opposed to loading it. People can sometimes report digestive upset when they take beyond the standard dose. As well as this, if you are going to experience weight-gain in the form of extra water stored in the muscles, this is likely to happen more quickly if you load it, and this may not be ideal. Imagine training one week at 75kg and the next week at 78kg. That's an extra few kgs to carry around, without having adapted to an increased bodyweight over time. Not that people will always see this drastic of a bodyweight increase, but it's an example to illustrate the point.
In summary, creatine is a safe, effective supplement for those who want to improve performance in high-intensity sports such as GAA sports, as well as those who want to gain muscle and strength. Supplementing with 3–5g per day, over the long-term can lead to these results.
Anyone who struggles to lose weight, and has never been in the position of having to eat more food (in order to gain weight) will likely be envious of the person who is.
But if you've ever struggled to eat enough, you'll likely know that it's not as easy as eating anything you want. You obviously want the food you are eating to be of good quality, and you don't want to just over-indulge all the time and gain unnecessary fat.
Not to mention, you can feel that you are force-feeding yourself, eating when you don't feel like eating, all in the name of gaining some muscle and fuelling your performance.
However, there are a few things you can do to make it that bit easier to hit your high food intake targets!
Using an app like Myfitnesspal, you can track your calorie and macronutrient intake, and therefore you can clearly see if you are actually eating as much as you think, and adjust if needed.
This helps you avoid having to reach for quick, less ideal options on the go, as well as allowing you to plan out meals that allow you to hit your intake targets.
Think of apple juice versus and apple. There are roughly the same amount of caloires within a medium glass of apple juice as in 2 apples, yet the apples would fill you up a lot more than the juice.
You can use this knowledge to get more calories in, by including some drinks/smoothies with your meals, and in between meals.
Eating similar foods consistently isn't a bad idea in general, as it tends to improve consistently within a diet, but when we include more flavours in our meals, we tend to eat more, which is useful for those with that goal.
This is partly why you can still eat dessert even when you feel full! You can use this tactic to your advantage by including more flavours in your meals, as well as increasing the variety of meals you eat.
Eating 3000+ kcal from the likes of chicken, rice, and broccoli every day can become difficult even for the most dedicated clean eater. Food can become boring, and fullness can lead to not eating enough. This is why it can be a good idea to include some foods that you can easily eat and enjoy, that also allow you to hit your calorie/macro intake.
Don't take this as a reason to abandon healthy eating habits, but at the same time, don't be afraid to add in some chocolate or pizza every now and then.!
From an evolutionary perspective, hunger is part of the body's process for motivating us to seek out food, ultimately so that we can survive.
In the parts of the world where most people reading this will be, there is an abundance of food, and so, we rarely use hunger as or signal to eat. When, and how much, we eat is usually determined by things like habit, social convention, and convenience.
On the other hand, when we are aiming to lose fat, we will usually be eating slightly less than the body optimally would like, so there is a certain amount of restriction involved, which can lead to hunger.
With that said, there are a few things we can do to try to limit the amount of hunger we feel, which will likely lead to you being more likely to stick to your nutrition plan over the long term.
I've seen this numerous times with clients on the Gaelic Athlete Nutrition Coaching Program, and it almost always ends up with a weekend blow-out, undoing a lot of the progress from during the week, leaving them wondering why they haven't been making progress up to this point.
When I get them eating an amount of food that allows them to make steady, predictable progress, whilst enjoying your food and not starving themselves, then that feeling of needing to eat the house down at the weekend goes away, and they make more progress than ever before!
Try making a plan this evening for what you're going to eat tomorrow. It won't be perfect, but it'll put your mind at ease and you'll be more likely to make better choices. You can then adapt and change it as the days go on.
Why are fruits, vegetables, and protein sources praised as the ultimate health foods?
For you, as a GAA player, if trying to drop some weight, these foods should be a big part of your diet. This will help keep you full and satisfied, whilst keeping the diet interesting and allow you to eat a larger volume of food.
Even if you're trying to increase your calorie intake, you should still aim for adequate intakes of these foods, for their other benefits, including muscle building, recovery, disease-risk reduction etc.
Often, the same symptoms can be seen with underhydration as with hunger (e.g. headache, tiredness, irritability).
So what you perceive as hunger may simply be thirst! If we mistake this signal, we can end up snacking and adding to our daily food intake, when all we may have needed was a glass of water.
Aim to drink enough to have regular clear urinations through the day.
Even if you are trying to increase food intake in an attempt to gain muscle, please don't take this as a reason to sleep less. Studies have also shown the effects of lack of sleep on muscle gain, and the results were not positive. If you want to know more about sleep, check out the article I wrote here: knowyourselfnutrition.com/blog/sleep.
Just because you're getting your nutrition on point doesn't mean you should be feeling hungry all the time, and implementing some of these 'hacks' may help you reduce the prevalence of hunger, and therefore allow you to enjoy your food, and stay on track with your nutrition.
When talking about hydration, it's useful to think in terms of fluid balance, meaning the difference between the fluid that is going out of your body vs. the fluid that you are taking in.
Even the fittest of bodies is surprisingly inefficient in terms of its energy use, and a huge amount of energy is wasted as heat, especially during intense exercise. It's critical that we dissipate (or get rid of) this heat, in order to maintain normal body temperature, or else body temperature would rise extremely quickly, affecting vital biological processes.
When we sweat, the sweat evaporates, and carries the heat energy away from the body, into the air (imagine the steam evaporating from a pot of rice, where the heat energy is being taken away from the rice into the air), helping to maintain the body temperature at a safe level. i.e. sweating cools us down.
As athletes, we can sweat out litres of water during training sessions and matches, and the amount will depend on various factors, including your physical attributes, activity intensity, length of the activity, and environmental heat and humidity.
Urination is one of the body's mechanisms for getting rid of waste products, controlling blood volume and controlling amount of electrolytes in the body. These are all tightly regulated, and don't need a huge amount of conscious effort on your part, apart from the few recommendations I'll give later around altering fluid consumption.
The amount of fluid that you lose through urination is largely dependant on the amount you drink. As well as being affected by other aspects like electrolyte levels and how much you are sweating.
Fluids are also lost through breathing (the air we breathe out is high in water vapour), and excretion. These aren't as relevant to this article, so I won't go into depth on them.
The fluid we take in can be in the form of water and other beverages, as well as some foods, like fruits and vegetables, which tend to have quite high water content.
Consuming sufficient fluids is crucial for athletes, in order to match the fluids being lost through sweat and urination, or we risk seeing the negative effects outlined below.
There was a study done that assessed two groups of athletes in the same running session. One group consumed water during the session and the other didn't.
The results showed that heart rate was significantly higher throughout the session in those who didn't consume water, insinuating that the same exercise session was more strenuous when under-hydrated.
The proposed reason for this is that as you lose fluid, your volume of blood decreases, meaning the blood is more concentrated and thicker, and therefore the heart has to work harder to pump it around the body, as it aims to circulate nutrients and remove waste products.
As mentioned earlier, sweat helps regulate body temperature by dissipating heat from the body i.e. it cools us down.
When we're dehydrated, we sweat less, and therefore the body will either increase in temperature to the point of causing harm, or you will be forced to reduce intensity due to the discomfort of overheating. Either case will result in performance being diminished!
Electrolytes are electrically charged particles, which are involved in carrying electrical impulses around the body, and are involved in the nervous system and contracting muscles, both of which are extremely important for athletes. They are also involved maintaining hydration levels in and out of the body's cells.
The main electrolytes include sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, calcium, phosphate, magnesium and others, all with their own functions.
We lose some of these through sweat, and if we don't replace them and they get too low, we can see issues with muscle cramping, fatigue, and ultimately a downturn in athletic performance, or worse than that, health risks.
There have been cases, mainly during long-duration events, where people have had serious health issues, and even died after drinking too much water during the event.
Although they were following wise advice in replacing the water they were losing through sweat, they weren't also replacing the electrolytes lost through sweat, resulting in the sodium content of the blood becoming diluted, which leads to complications with cell swelling.
This isn't a likely concern for GAA players, as athletes in general typically find it difficult to consume a lot of water during training and matches, but I use this example to show that there is a limit to how much you should be drinking, so taking multiple litres of water in directly before a match or at half-time, for example, isn't going to be a good idea, and sipping on water throughout is a better idea.
I also use it to point out that when you are drinking a lot of water, for example during an intense championship match in the summer heat, it's probably a good idea to add some electrolytes to your water, either in the form of a pinch of salt, or an electrolyte supplement, in order to replace the electrolytes lost through sweat.
All of this might have you feeling overwhelmed as to what you need to do with this information.
The good news is, the body is extremely good at regulating all of this. If you drink too much, your body will excrete more. If you consume too much salt, your body can usually adjust, and so on.
The main thing we have to do is to avoid the extremes.
With that said, performance usually goes down at about 2% water loss, and thirst usually starts between 1-2%, meaning that if you turn up to a training session or match feeling thirsty, you are already selling yourself short, as it is usually difficult to drink enough during the session or match, to match the amount you are losing through sweat and exhalation, resulting in further dehydration and further performance detriment.
The amount you should drink will depend on a lot of factors, but generally about 1L per 25kg bodyweight (3L for a 75kg athelte) will be a good starting point, along with seasoning your food and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, in order to ensure adequate electrolyte intake. Urine colour should also be monitored, ensuring regular, clear urinations throughout the day.
During matches and training sessions, a good starting point is to simply consume fluids at natural breaks in the game, aiming for 1-2 mouthfuls every 10-15 minutes, with slightly more during half-time.
This drink should generally be made up of water, with some electrolytes, and perhaps some carbohydrates (no more than 7% concentration) which can help with the gut's absorption of the fluid, as well as allowing you to gain the performance benefits associated with carbohydrate supplementation. This tends to be exactly the composition of most sports drink, and now you know why!
After tough training sessions and matches, it's important to start the rehydration process soon, which should involve sipping on either water or the pre-mentioned drink in the hours following the session.
There's a spike in car crashes on the last weekend of March every year.
Because time "springs forward" by an hour, and we all lose and hour of sleep.
That's how important sleep is.
In 2014, the U.S. Centre for Disease Control declared insufficient sleep as a public epidemic.
So with the general population suffering from not getting sleep enough, you can imagine how athletes, who may need even more sleep, can be affected.
"It's Fine, I Can Get Through it"
The problem with lack of sleep isn't just that you feel more tired all day (although you'd think that would be enough to get us to sleep more), it's that it affects your performance, fat-loss, muscle gain and general health.
Studies have been done to investigate the differences in the performance outcomes in people who got different amounts of sleep, and people who got less sleep experienced greater perceived exertion (training/workouts felt harder), lower time to exhaustion (they ran out of steam more quickly), and slower reaction times. As you can imagine, none of this is great for GAA players, where these things are crucial!
Sleep deprivation not only makes us hungrier, but also makes high-calorie, hyper-palatable food, (typically referred to as "junk food") more attractive to us. More specifically, brain scans show the reward centres light up more in response to junk food, when someone is sleep deprived. So whilst sleep doesn't directly affect fat-loss, it can definitely affect your food choices, which obviously has a major effect on fat-loss.
There was a study that compared two groups over a series of weeks: one that slept 5.5 hours per night, and one that slept 8.5 hours per night. Over the course of the study, the first group experienced 55% more fat-gain, and 60% more muscle loss, despite both groups eating the same amount of calories.
Muscle gain is dependant on putting a stimulus on the muscle, and then allowing it to recover. If we skimp on sleep, we reduce both the stimulus and recovery sides of the equation, and majorly sell ourselves short in terms of muscle gain.
Lack of sleep can also have a huge effect on health. In addition to the aspects already mentioned, also affected are things like memory, inflammation, testosterone levels, growth hormone levels, and immune system function.
Getting sick keeps you out of training, which means less time practicing your skills, getting fitter and staking a claim for your place on the team.
Studies suggest that the required amount of sleep varies a lot between individuals but 7-9 hours is about right for most people.
Take a 2-week testing period (like a holiday, for example), where you go to sleep at the same time every night, without setting an alarm. You'll probably sleep a lot in the first few nights, as you catch up on the sleep debt you've built up, but in the second week, you should start to wake up at about the same time each day. The amount of time that you sleep waking up naturally is likely to be the amount of sleep that is optimal for you.
It's not just about the amount of sleep you get. It's also about the quality of that sleep. There are a few proven ways of improving the quality of your sleep.
1) Sleep in a Cave.
Screens like the T.V., laptops and your mobile phone emit a type of light referred to as blue light. The brain recognises this in a similar way to the sun, and since the body's sleep-clock (or more technically, circadian rhythm) is partially controlled by exposure to sunlight, the systems that would otherwise be telling your brain it's time to sleep, won't do so, and you may struggle to fall asleep or your quality of sleep may suffer.
Having a cut-off time one hour before bed can help reduce this issue.
Why do some of us a pre-match routine? At least in part, it's because we know that that routine puts our body and mind into the right state to undertake the task at hand. So, we know that routines can affect our mental state. The same is true when it comes to sleep.
A good sleep routine will put our body and mind into the right state to fall asleep and get into a deep sleep.
Again, this will vary for each person, but generally, it should involve things that progressively relax you. Some suggestions would be foam rolling, easy stretching/movement, reading a book, drinking caffeine-free tea, writing, chatting to someone, having a bath etc.
Caffeine can take about 5 hours for half of it to leave your system, meaning that it could affect your sleep for even longer than that. For that reason, I'd recommend restricting coffee or other caffeine products after mid-day, in order to optimise sleep. Nicotine is another stimulant that should be avoided in the evening.
Alcohol can also have an adverse effect on sleep. Of course, it can initially make you fall asleep more quickly but as time goes on, during sleep it tends to act like a stimulant and hamper your ability to get into a deep sleep.
It's been said recently, that sleep is the best sports supplement available (and it's free!). Hopefully you can now see why that's the case!
In my own experience working with GAA players, it sometimes seems that carb-loading is touted as the be-all and end-all when it comes to performance nutrition. On the other hand, most players have never really tried it, beyond maybe having some pasta the night before a match.
And although it clearly isn't the only thing we should be worried about, it is worth delving into what it is, and where it should or shouldn't fall into your nutrition plan.
When you're making those blistering runs back and forth up the pitch, or doing tackling grids in training, the body needs to create energy quickly to keep up with those demands. It also needs to be able to do that for a sustained period of time.
The optimal fuel source for this job is glycogen.
When we eat carbohydrates, they are broken down into glucose, which is circulated around the body, and ultimately stored as glycogen in the muscles.
This glycogen is then available for use during intense activities, like those we see in GAA training and matches.
The more glycogen we have available in the muscles when it comes to match-day, the more fuel we have for the match, and hopefully, the better our performance will be, or at least we won't be limited by our fuel availability.
Carb-loading (or carbo-loading or carbohydrate-loading) is a term used to describe a strategy used to increase the amount of glycogen stored within the muscles for a sporting event, by increasing carbohydrate intake in the days leading up to that event.
The original method proposed involved a few days of very low-carbohydrate intake (with a lot of training to deplete stores), followed by a few days of extremely high carbohydrate intake (and no training).
As you can imagine, however, this was logistically quite hard. On match-week, all you want to do is focus on getting to match-day, but here, you're looking at 7 days of changing your diet, with each of those 7 days being different from your usually intake, and with the presupposition that you have complete control over your training load.
Sure, if you thought there was no other option and that it was going to help a lot, you'd probably do it, but fortunately, researchers compared an approach of simply increasing carbohydrate intake in the 2-3 days leading up to the event, and found that this was probably just as effective as the approach of going from very low-carb to very high-carb days.
Does it Work for GAA?
The research I just mentioned was done mostly on endurance athletes, who obviously have different demands than GAA sports. The former involves staying at a relatively steady pace for a long time, whereas the latter involves mostly short, intermittent bursts followed by short recovery periods.
With that said, both of these significantly deplete glycogen stores, particularly at higher intensities.
For that reason, maximising glycogen stores is likely to be beneficial for GAA sports, and anecdotally, a lot of the clients I've worked with have noticed the benefits when implementing a carb-loading approach.
At a very basic level, given that glycogen is the predominant fuel source in high-intensity training and competition will be improved by having sufficient stores to pull from.
With that said, it's probably not as necessary for a GAA athelte as it would be for a long-distance runner, since it's unlikely that a GAA athlete is going to completely deplete their carbohydrate stores during a match, but having high glycogen availability can improve athletic performance, and it's better to have the stores there for when they're needed, also because it tends to be a much better fuel source that fats or muscle protein.
As previously mentioned, my recommendation would simply be to increase carbohydrate intake in the 2-3 days leading up to match-day.
For some, this may simply be a case of adding in a large portion of carbohydrates to each meal, or adding in a couple of extra high-carb meals/snacks.
For those who want to bring in a bit more accuracy, or already tend to track their food intake, I'd recommend consuming 7-9 grams of carbohydrate per kg bodyweight (560-720g for an 80kg player). For those who are new to tracking their food, this can be tracked through the Myfitnesspal free phone app.
On a practical level, the usual sources of carbohydrates (potatoes, rice, pasta, oats etc.) will be a good idea. However, I would highly recommend opting for mostly lower-fibre options, as well as bringing in some higher glycemic options (breakfast cereals, sports drinks, sugary sweets, juices) for reasons outlined in the next section, but also because players often find it difficult to get enough carbohydrates in when they are eating very filling sources.
There are a few common problems that tend to come up with carb-loading approaches, and the first thing to mention is that you should practice it beforehand, in the weeks/months leading up to match-day, so that there are no surprises when it comes to doing it for match-day.
Carb-loading shouldn't be used an excuse to eat whatever you want. It shouldn't be used as an excuse to overeat on pizza and pastries the night before a match.
Instead, it should be viewed as a strategic approach to improving performance. Yes, you will be eating more food, but the likelihood is that you will have to make a conscious effort to eat enough and to eat the right types of foods.
When carb-loading, you should increase your carbohydrate intake, but reduce, or at least limit, your fat intake. (note: You should also keep protein to usual levels, for the same reasons as usual.) We want extra carbohydrate stores in the muscle, and adding in extra fat intake isn't necessarily going to help with that, but will provide additional (excessive) calories, on top of the already high levels.
In order to achieve manage this, we want to be looking at carbohydrate-dense sources, like rice, pasta, potatoes, cereals, breads, as opposed to things like pizza, pastries, foods with creamy sauces and deep-fried foods, which do tend to contain carbohydrates, but also contain a lot of fat.
Even having some of the foods usually thought of as poor food choices, like breakfast cereals, sugary sweets, and fruit juices can be used here as easy-to-consume sources of almost completely carbohydrates.
Any major change to the diet is likely to cause gut issues, as the gut tends to adapt to what you feed it, at least to a certain extent. Even if you were to majorly increase fibre intake (fibre is generally seen as a good addition to the diet), the gut would struggle to deal with it, and we may experience digestive issues. In that case, it would be important to gradually increase fibre intake and allow the gut to adjust.
The same can be true for carbohydrate intake. Asker Jeukendrup is a great source if you are interested in getting into the nitty-gritty of this stuff, and perhaps I will do a separate article on the topic, but for now, it is enough to say that it is important to "train the gut" to get used to high carbohydrate intake, if you plan on using a carbohydrate-loading approach.
This can be done by eating a relatively high amount of carbohydrates in general, but also in practicing carbohydrate-loading for training sessions, or less-important matches in the weeks leading up to the game.
Gut issues can also occur as a result to eating too much fat, fibre or protein during the carb-loading process. This is easily done when increasing carbohydrates, as we may feel the need to increase all of our food sources. However, it is important to keep fat, fibre and protein intake under control, and increase carbohydrate alone. It can also be a good idea to opt for fewer of the whole-grain type carbohydrate sources during the carbohydrate-loading period, since these will inevitably have a higher fibre content.
Another, often overlooked, issue is stress, which can result in gut discomfort. This is often unavoidable to some degree, which is why players often prefer to have a lighter meal before a match, increasing the importance of having done most of the fuelling up in the previous days.
In the context of GAA training, this means that we want to be able to train, and after a rest period of usually 24-48 hours, be at the point where we're able to repeat that training session with equal or greater intensity. That is to say, we want to create a stressor on the body, and allow the body to recover and adapt to it.
Over time, this allows our body to handle more work, as it gets stronger and more enduring.
This can be seen in the graph below, where the line moves down with each training session, signalling fatigue, but moves upwards between sessions, signalling recovery and adaptation.
This issue is that when we don't allow for adequate recovery and adaptation, whether that is through inadequate rest, inadequate time between sessions, added life stresses, or poor nutrition, we go into that next training session under-recovered. If this is repeated chronically, over time, it can lead to diminished performance, fatigue and often, injury.
Hopefully that starts to put into context the post-training meal, and it's importance at a time where the body is most fatigued, but also shows that it isn't the only important aspect, since the recovery and adaptation period is much longer than the hour or two after a training session.
If you've ever done a hard training session, you'll already know that the recovery isn't done only in the hours after training, and your sore legs the morning after will let you know that.
As mentioned, the aim with nutrition between sessions is to get back to a state where you could repeat the session with similar or greater intensity.
This is done through allowing for recovery and adaptation, as well as refuelling.
There are a lot of things that we can do to effect this, including sleep/rest, interventions like ice baths, and even different types of recovery sessions, and and I will write articles about these topics, but in this one, I want to specifically talk about nutrition.
The first thing to consider is protein. As you may know, protein is broken down in the body into amino acids, and these amino acids can be seen as the building blocks of muscle tissue (among other things). Given the stress that the body and muscles go under during training, the demands for these amino acids is great after training sessions, particularly if it's been a while since your last protein feeding.
This is, in part, due to the fact that the muscle tissue will have been partially broken down during the training session, which we will want to counter-act, by providing protein and therefore signalling a Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) response, where the body will signal the creation of new muscle.
The body requires around 25g of protein from a good quality source in order for this to happen, and this can be optimally signalled about 4-5 times per day. This is one reason why the thought that "the post-training meal or snack is all that matters for recovery" is false. That is only one opportunity to signal this MPS response, and it is important to continue to signal this in the meals that follow.
In terms of timing, people often think that they need to get a protein shake in as soon as their foot touches the changing room floor after the session. This is potentially a good thought taken too far. Whilst, as we mentioned, we want to take the opportunity to get some protein in soon after training, waiting 30-60 minutes after finishing the session will likely be no problem, which may be a relief if you've felt the discomfort of trying to eat of drink something immediately after a really tough training session.
And of course, this post-training protein feeding doesn't have to come from a protein shake. Whey is a great source of protein, being quickly digested, quickly absorbed, and convenient, but it is only one option, where your usual sources of protein (chicken, meat, eggs, dairy products etc.) are also sufficient to get the job done.
If you are going to be fully ready to complete the next session to the best of your ability, it is important that you have adequate fuel in the muscles. For the high-intensity training sessions and matches that are usual in GAA, the main energy source is carbohydrates, or more specifically, the stored form of carbohydrate, known as glycogen.
Given that you have likely just used a lot of that glycogen during your training session, it is important to refuel in time for the next session, and that means eating sufficient carbohydrates. Sources include the faster-absorbing sources like sports drinks, sugary sweets and some fruits, as well as the slower absorbing ones that you might have as part of a meal, like potatoes, rice, oats and pasta, and actually, getting some of both in can usually be helpful. The exception might be for someone who is aiming to lose weight, where avoiding the faster-absorbing (and therefore less filling) sources might allow you to bias your intake towards the slower-digesting sources, and therefore remain fuller and more satiated with your food.
The amount that you eat between this training session and the next will be determined by a lot of factors, including your bodyweight, general activity levels and body composition goals. (Read this article on your calculating your macronutrient targets).
However, what we do know if that for optimal performance in the next training session, that refuelling does need to happen at some stage, and it is a good recommendation to start that refuelling process after the training session, especially if you are training or competing again within the next 24 hours, in order to avoid struggling to get enough carbohydrates in in the meals leading up to that session.
In terms of timing, it probably isn't as important as the timing of your protein, but practically, it's probably easiest to have some carbohydrates with your protein feeding.
Water is another thing that will be depleted during a training session, and should be considered in the post-training period. Being adequately hydrated aids with digestion, blood flow, and mineral balance among other things.
Since we lose a lot of water during training sessions through breathing and sweat, it is important to try to maintain hydration during the training session, but also to continue to rehydrate afterwards. This can be through fluids like water, sports drinks, smoothies and milk products.
One metric for assessing hydration is to measure how your bodyweight differs after the session from before, as a result of fluid losses, and aim to get back close to that weight in the hours following the session through sipping on water and/or the other fluids mentioned above.
It means that you have to focus on your overall nutrition, not just one meal after your training session.
It means that if you happen to be in a situation where you can't get a decent meal straight after training, all is not lost, since this is not the only meal that affects your recovery and adaptation to training.
It was 5pm on the day of an under-age league match. 17-year-old me looked through the kitchen cupboards and fridge, trying to put together a pre-match meal. I guess I must have read somewhere, earlier that week, that carbohydrates were the body's preferred energy source, and decided that the more of them I could eat, the more energy I would have for that's night match.
This led to the 'obvious' meal choice of two packets of microwaveable Uncle Ben's basmati rice, with nothing else, except a touch of sweet chilli sauce, for taste.
After chomping through the bulk of the rice, I slumped in the chair, wondering how this feeling of bloated, drowsiness would eventually lead to me performing at the top of my game in 2–3 hours, but still, I trusted that this information I'd probably read was factual and that this feeling would ease off by the time I got to the game. It didn't.
With the rice still lodged in my stomach, and still feeling no surge of energy, I sat in the changing rooms before the match, wondering what I'd done wrong. Needless to say, the game passed me by, and any energy I had was used trying to stop myself from throwing up.
I assume we all have our pre-match meal disaster story, and have tried many different combinations of meal timing and meal content.
I hope that this article can shed some light on what we should be thinking about in relation to nutrition leading up to a match.
If we look at the stages of preparation from a nutritional point of view, we can't overlook the general diet in the weeks and months leading up to the game, so it is worth mentioning that even the most optimal pre-game meal is not going to make as big a difference as addressing the diet in general. Doing so will allow you to have optimised our body composition and created good habits.
Making sure the general diet is on point is crucial. As a general recommendation, I would say, basing each meal around a protein source, adding a good portion of vegetables, some source of healthy fat, and enough carbohydrates to support exercise (usually quite a bit for GAA Athletes), while adjusting overall intake of food based on goals and progress.
It's also important to remember that the "fuelling" period for a match goes beyond that meal you have a few hours before the match. It's important to also start thinking about the days that lead up to the match.
You may have heard that carbohydrates are the main energy source used in high-intensity activities, like a GAA match, for example, and that's correct.
The reason for this is that carbohydrates are relatively quickly converted into fuel, and can therefore support the high energy turnover of the muscles when they are working at high intensity.
For that reason, it is important that you have enough carbohydrate stores in the muscles, when it comes to match day. The stored form of carbohydrates in the muscle is called glycogen.
In order to increase these glycogen stores, we need to eat sufficient amounts of carbohydrate-rich foods, like potatoes, rice, pasta, oats etc. When this is done in the lead up to a sporting event, it is usually called "Carb-loading".
Obviously your match-day food will be affected by a lot of different things, including the time of the match, whether you're eating at home or with the team, and even how nervous you are feeling on the day.
The important thing is to control as much as you can, meaning that you should prepare ahead of time, having bought any food that you need in the days beforehand, having planned out what your meals and snacks are going to be, getting out of bed at the right time etc.
The aim with your game day eating is to top up glycogen stores, achieve adequate hydration, and generally feel energetic going into the match.
Outside of the pre-match meal, your game day meals should generally contain some carbohydrates and protein, with moderate-low amounts of fat and fibre, and no foods that you know you don't digest well, in order to avoid any digestive troubles, and snacks should be mostly carb-based, again, topping up the glycogen stores. Hydration should also be a priority, sipping on water throughout the day, without going majorly over your usual intake.
If you've done everything mentioned above, you're are almost good to go in terms of getting your nutrition right for game-day. The last step is that period of a few hours before the game, right up to the starting whistle.
There are two periods worth thinking about when it comes to pre-match nutrition. The first will be the final set meal before going into the match, and the second will be the period of about an hour before the match.
In the 1–4 hours before the match, the aim is to make sure we are topping off glycogen levels in the body. That means consuming some form of carbohydrate.
However, we don't want to be eating a carbohydrate-only meal (like I did with the big bowl of rice). Having a protein source, such as chicken, for example, and a small amount of fibre in the form of vegetables or fruit, will slow down the rate of breakdown of the carbohydrate, keeping blood sugar more stable.
This protein feeding also has the advantage of amino acids being present during the training, decreasing the amount of protein (muscle tissue) being broken down to be used as fuel.
This effect may be small in the overall context, but another advantage is that this may also help the recovery process post-competition.
In this meal, we may also want to avoid hard-to-break-down foods such as fats and fibre, as we want to avoid the feeling of a full stomach during competition.
The size of the meal will vary greatly for individuals based on how soon before the match the meal is being eaten (obviously smaller the closer to match time), the size of the individual, whether or not they had meals earlier in the day, personal preference, potentially how nervous they are (nerves making it difficult for some people to eat, or even digest their food) and a few other factors.
All of these meals should be seasoned with some salt, as there will be a loss of salts during the match, and these will help with fluid balance and hydration.
Timing-wise, it will be quite different based on your individual situation, but generally, the final set meal should be between 2-4 hours pre-match, allowing adequate time for the food to be digested, but not so far away that you are hungry before or during the match.
If you have your pre-match meal 3-4 hours pre-match, it could be worth snacking on some carb-based snacks in the hour or two leading up to the match. Good examples would be rice cakes, toast, fruit (dried or fresh), and oat bars (be careful of fat content).
In the 0–60 minutes before the match, which may be during or after the warm-up phase, we may want to take advantage of the chance to get some extra glucose into the bloodstream, potentially topping up some glycogen stores and lessening the effects of fatigue.
This can be done through some form of fast-acting carbohydrates, such as jelly sweets, or dextrose, glucose or maltodextrin powder mixed with water, or perhaps an isotonic sports drink or gel, if the budget allows for this.
We should be mindful of how this drink will affect performance in terms of feeling nauseous, as well as creating the need to use the toilet during competition, so some experimentation is required.
In general, a drink containing 300–500g of water, 20–40 grams of fast-acting carbohydrates (sugars), 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and some flavouring, can be advantageous to consume, in the 0–30 minute period before the match (as well as throughout the match and/or at halftime). This is basically the same make up as your usual isotonic sports drink, so if you don't want to put together your own, sipping on a sports drink in the lead up to the match, or having a glucose gel during the warm-up and and and/or at halftime can be a good strategy.
Another potential supplement to consider pre-match is caffeine. I'll direct you to an in-depth article I wrote on the topic here. Essentially, it can be beneficial to consume caffeine in pre-match or pre-training, for an extra cognitive and physiological boost.
It is important to consider timing and dosage. Caffeine generally peaks in the bloodstream about 45 minutes after consumption, so altering intake based on that can be beneficial. As well as that, it is important to consider how caffeine affects sleep. Caffeine can stick around in the bloodstream for over 5 hours, so if consuming caffeine for an evening match or training session, it's important to factor this in, and alter timing and/or dosage, knowing that poor sleep can have a major negative effect on recovery, health, hunger and general well-being.
Plenty of carbohydrate and water in the days leading up to the game and on game-day.
Pre-match meal containing some carbs, some protein, little fat and fibre.
Avoid hard-to-digest foods in the pre-match meal.
Eat at a time that allows you to not feel hungry or full during the match.
Consider a pre-match drink containing some quick-digesting sugars, and some salt.
Consider supplementing with caffeine 45-60 mins pre-match for a cognitive and physiological boost.
The mention of fruit and vegetables brings back memories of parents telling us to eat them up if we're going to get dessert.
And if you're like me, that's probably stuck with you, even though you might have let your intake of them fall by the wayside when you began having more control over your own food intake.
Particularly when we know the importance of energy balance and macronutrient intake, it can be very easy to forget about the fundamental importance of vegetables.
But have you ever stopped to ask yourself why fruits and vegetables might actually be important?
Here are some solid reasons for why you might want to start consistently hitting that 5-10 portion per day mark!
Fruits and vegetables are usually high in fibre, and having sufficient fibre intake is important for digestive function. But that isn't limited to your ability your ability to use the toilet.
To digest food is to break it down, so that we can get the nutrients out of it, to be used in the body. We can't get the glucose from complex carbohydrates, or the amino acids from protein, without first breaking them down, for example.
Soluble fibre (from foods like the flesh of apples and pears, berries, oats, beans, nuts, seeds etc.) form a 'gel' with the food, which may slow down the movement of food through the digestive system, allowing your body to absorb the nutrients in that food.
On the other side, Insoluble fibre (from foods like fruit skin, leafy vegetables, broccoli, bread, brown rice etc.) provides the food with bulk, accelerating the body's drive to pass the food through, allowing the removal of the food after we've gotten the nutrients from it.
For these reasons, it's important to get plenty of both types in. Luckily, most fibre-rich foods, even the ones mentioned above contain some of both forms.
Eating a wide range of fruit and veg, (whilst adding in things like whole grains) can go a long way towards optimising your fibre intake. As a side note, fibre intake is also associated with controlling cholesterol, as well as helping reduce the risk of bowel cancer.
As a general recommendation, 10g of fibre per 1000 kcal consumed is a good place to start, meaning that someone consuming 2500 kcal daily would aim to eat 25g of fibre per day.
For many GAA athletes, hunger isn't much of an issue, due to the relatively large calorie intake, but some still struggle with it, particularly when eating less in an effort to lose weight.
Given the fact that most fruits and vegetables are relatively low in calories compared to their volume, including more can mean eating more food volume, without adding a lot of calories, and even reducing calories.
There was a study done where some of the participants ate an apple, 15 minutes before a meal, which resulted in them eating less food (fewer calories) than a group that didn't eat the apple. The apple-eaters actually reduced their caloric intake by more than the calorie amount of the apple. This basically meant that eating the apple before the meal and then eating the meal, led to less overall intake than eating the meal alone! The study also compared apple juice, which didn't reduce the overall intake, indicating that the fibrous element of the apple probably contributed to the fullness.
And you don't even need a study to make this point. If you had a meal of chicken and rice for example, but decided to add a big pile of lettuce and cucumber to the side (basically negligible calories), you probably know without trying it, that it's going to fill you up more.
It's not quite clear whether or not athletes should be recommended to eat more micronutrients than non-athletes.
Some say that the increased demand on the body requires more micronutrition, whilst others say that the usually increased food intake of athletes means that they end up getting more in anyway.
Either way, we can say that athletes probably need at least the same amount as non-athletes. There is also some evidence suggesting that athletes are at a greater risk of being deficient in certain vitamins and minerals, especially when they restrict their diet in terms of energy (calories), or in terms of specific foods like meat and dairy.
Vitamins are essential nutrients that the body usually cannot produce enough of, and which it needs to get from food. These include the fat-soluble vitamins, A,D,E, and K, and the water-soluble B vitamins and vitamin C. They facilitate a huge number of varying roles within the body, including energy production, cellular repair, skin health, improving and immune system function, among many other things.
Minerals are also crucial to maintaining the overall health and functionality of your body. These include things like sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, calcium, iron and zinc, among others. They are also involved in many functions in the body, including fluid balance, transmission of signals to muscles, muscle contractions, maintenance of structures like bone, and hormonal regulation.
It would be much too complicated to start trying to find out how much of each vitamin and mineral we are taking in (although a blood test to find out your levels might be an option), so instead, we should follow recommendations around our consumption of certain foods, primarily fruits and vegetables.
We've all heard of the 5-a-day recommendation, and its a good place to start, but getting up towards an 8-10 per day mark might be a better place to aim for, given that you are likely to be consuming a lot more food than most people anyway given your energy demands, and because there may be more demand for micronutrients, given the extra stress on your body.
Consuming meat 1-2 per week, consuming dairy (where possible), and getting sunlight often (for vitamin D production) can also help ensure adequate micro-nutrition.
A multivitamin can also help, and specific vitamin/mineral supplements can be used to counteract potential deficiencies, but these shouldn't be seen as an alternative to consuming fruits and vegetables.
Given that water makes up over 50% of your body (yep, that's right, you are more water than you are human), and that water is being removed throughout the day via urination, breathing, and sweating, it is crucial that we are replacing it, by consuming sufficient water.
Doing so allows the body to better regulate its temperature (which is crucial during training), digest food, transport nutrients around the body, lubricate joints, improve many other biological processes.
As a GAA Athlete, where you tend to be training often and hard, and therefore tend to sweat more than non-athletes, it can be difficult to meet your hydration requirements through water alone.
Many fruits and vegetables can help out here.
Some fruits and vegetables are even made up of over 90% water, meaning that whatever volume of that fruit you consume is almost equivalent to consuming that volume of water. e.g. if you eat a piece of watermelon the size of a glass, that is almost the equivalent of drinking a glass of water.
Apart from the replacement of fluids, proper hydration also depends on having adequate electrolyte balance. Electrolytes are salts that are often found in foods and drinks, and they include sodium, potassium, calcium, chloride and magnesium. They play a key role in the electrical signalling systems in the body that affect the heart, muscles and nerves, and they also help regulate fluid balance in the body.
At some stage, we've probably all been in the habit of eating bland chicken and rice, or plain porridge, or potatoes and meat.
And we can often narrow our range of food down to a set of 2-3 protein sources, and 2-3 carbohydrate sources.
If you're someone like me who loves food, that just gets boring after a while, and who can blame you for feeling the need to eat pizza and take-away food all weekend if you're eating tasteless, boring food all week?
Including fruits and vegetables opens up a huge range of possibilities within your diet. They're extremely versatile, meaning there is a range of different ways that they can be prepared and cooked, so watery, soggy broccoli isn't your only option here! There are also so many different types of fruit and vegetables, that you're sure to find some that you like. (Check out some recipes on my Instagram for ideas).
You didn't always like coffee or alcohol either, but your tastebuds adapted. In the same way, your tastebuds can adapt to enjoying vegetables over time, if you eat them enough. However, in order to improve your ability to enjoy them, try preparing them in a few different ways (frying, roasting, raw etc) and try adding spices and sauces to them. Given the importance of fruits and vegetables to your overall health and performance, you can't afford not to get them in!
You're an adult, so you can do whatever you want. But is it optimal to forget about the quality of food that you're using to hit your macronutrient targets? Of course not.
The three main macronutrients (Protein, fat, and carbohydrates) make up your daily energy intake (find your how to estimate your calorie requirement as a GAA Athlete here), meaning that by manipulating your macronutrient intake, you are also manipulating your energy intake/caloric intake. Alcohol is technically a fourth macronutrient, but we'll get into that topic in other articles, and not talk much about it here, as it makes up such a small fraction of most people's daily intake.
Whether you regularly track your food or not can depend, in part, on how it fits into your lifestyle and your relationship with food. Some people find it quite constricting and impractical, whereas others find it frees them up, knowing that they can fit in some treats, whilst fuelling their training and achieving their body composition goals.
When we eat protein-rich foods, the protein is broken down into smaller particles, known as amino acids. These amino acids are the building blocks of protein structures such as muscle tissue, but also things like hair and nails.
In order to ensure the building up (or synthesis) of new muscle equals or exceeds the breakdown, it is important to supply the body with sufficient amino acids, by eating enough protein.
As with our muscle protein, our body fat is continuously in flux, with fatty acids continuously being both released to be burned as energy, and being stored. The balance of how much is released and burned vs. how much is stored is ultimately what determines how much body fat is gained overall.
This is almost completely a result of how much energy (calories) you take in vs. how much you have expended/burned (energy balance) over time.
In calculating how much fat you should be aiming to consume, it's important to consume enough to cover these processes, and the other biological processes involving fat. Fat also contributes to the overall enjoyability of the diet, which is important when considering the sustainability of the diet. It's also important to remember that the more fat you consume, the fewer carbohydrates you'll be able to consume whilst staying within your calorie target and given the importance of carbohydrates, you may not want to have to reduce your intake of them.
Given that fat contains 9kcal per gram, we can say that fat will contribute 900 kcal (100 x 9) to our example athlete's the overall diet.
Our original target of 365g does fit in this, but there may be case to increase that towards the higher end of that range, particularly in times of high training load. This may mean that you increase overall caloric intake as a result, or you may decrease fat intake in order to maintain the same caloric intake.
Using the article on calculating your calorie intake for GAA (HERE), you can now go ahead and calculate your own energy and macronutrient requirements to optimise your performance, recovery and body composition for GAA.


Love it! My Black Capped Chickadees have been very busy today.
We will be reading this as our opening at our North Country 350 meeting this coming Wednesday (1-3-18). Thanks for the inspiration, Laura.
One observation I have made of chickadees is their feeding habits. They will pick out a seed and open it elsewhere while most others like gold finches will occupy the feeder and fight off any other birds their size that approach until they have eaten all that they want. Nuthatches are similar in this.


text:
Spring cleaning in South Ayrshire
Brian Whittle MSP joined Keep Scotland Beautiful, in applauding the efforts of local residents from across Ayrshire who are participating in its annual Spring Clean campaign throughout April and May.
Efforts in South Ayrshire to clear the area of litter have been given a boost by South of Scotland Conservative MSP Brian Whittle.
Mr Whittle joined environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful, in applauding the efforts of local residents from across the region who are participating in its annual Spring Clean campaign, which is taking place across the country throughout April and May.
Keep Scotland Scotland Beautiful is supporting communities to take part and help remove litter from their local area - transforming the places that they live in and improving the areas that they care for.
Throughout April and May, Keep Scotland Beautiful will be working with Ayrshire residents, businesses, schools and community groups to arrange their own Clean Up events to remove rubbish from local streets, parks and public areas.
Mr Whittle said: "Litter is one of the most common concerns constituents raise with me so it's great to see people across the area getting involved in the Spring Clean campaign.
"Dropping litter isn't just inconsiderate, it spoils the look of the area and can harm wildlife. I'm delighted to see people taking pride in their communities and taking action to clean up their area.
"I hope that this year's Spring Clean campaign is a great success."
Derek Robertson, chief executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, commented: "Keep Scotland Beautiful is calling for people across the country to take part in our annual Spring Clean campaign. Every April and May thousands of volunteers take to the streets and remove a significant amount of litter from their local communities.
"We are very proud of everyone's hard work and hope that everyone will take part - helping to make 2019 the most successful Spring Clean campaign to date."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When the only remaining tenant on a lease dies, it raises issues and presents challenges. While a landlord's reaction of how to approach this situation may seem logical, common–sense, reasonable and proper, it may also be illegal and costly.
Florida Statutes 83.59 and 83.67 sets out rules for how the landlord can re-take possession of the unit and how to handle the abandoned property. The good news is that a properly worded lease can help the landlord navigate the challenges due to the death of a tenant.
Landlords need to keep in mind that upon death of a tenant, the Landlord cannot immediately re-take and re-rent the property, dispose of the personal property, or grant access to anyone – even children or the sole heir – even if they can produce a Will. Additionally, powers of attorney are no longer valid.
So what's a landlord to do to protect themselves from this event – which is becoming more common? For starters, make sure you lease contains the language set forth in Florida Statute 83.67.
If your lease contains this above language and (a) The last remaining tenant is deceased and (b) rent remains unpaid, and (c) at least 60 days have elapsed following the date of death, and (d) the landlord has not been notified in writing by relatives, friends, the court etc…of the existence of a probate estate being opened or that a personal representative has been appointed, then after the 60 days have elapsed and you complied with the above steps, the unit is yours to re-take, re-rent and dispose of its contents as you see fit.
In the event a probate estate is being opened, a claim would have to be made in that probate proceeding for anything due under the lease. In that case Landlord should deal directly with the personal representative. The Landlord can also allow access to those that have court authorization through "letters of administration" and can evict or file other necessary motions by suing the estate through serving the personal representative.
While this overview gives the landlord direction on handling the death of a tenant, it is best before taking any action to call your attorney and let the attorney walk you through the process to avoid any costly mistakes.
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What happens when your tree damages your neighbor in some way? Does your property have a tree that has roots encroaching onto your neighbor's property? Perhaps causing damage to the foundation of their house and/or their roof? Are your tree leaves causing the neighbors pet Afghan hound to contract severe allergies? Or are your tree branches creating so much shade that your neighbor can not plant anything? Let's get to the root of these issues to determine who is responsible for the damage caused by your tree.
Regarding tree damages, In 2010, the 4th DCA reasserted that the Gallo view is the predominant view in the country and is followed by Florida courts. The Gallo holding is based upon the common law and Second Restatement of Torts which holds that: [A] possessor of land is not liable to persons outside the land for a nuisance resulting from trees and natural vegetation growing on the land. The adjoining property owner to such a nuisance, however, is privileged to trim back, at the adjoining owner's own expense, any encroaching tree roots or branches and other vegetation which has grown onto his property. The rational behind this well established law is that the courts want the neighbor to provide self help instead of clogging the courts. So if your tree has become a nuisance and your neighbor is now "barking" at you – you can legally tell him to "leaf" you alone.
When it comes to managing your single and multi family residential properties, rest easy – Octazon Management has got you covered. Our full-service property management company can handle everything from maintenance and landscaping, to screening potential residents, marketing, advertising and managing your properties online with our advanced technology that allows us to stay connected and maintain transparency with our clients.


Lake Lochloosa Waterfront Home. Lake Lochloosa is a legendary Florida fishing lake in North Central Florida. Enjoy waterfront living within commuting distance to Gainesville, Ocala and Palatka. Perfect opportunity to live on this historic lake. This 3/2 brick ranch style home is the perfect home for entertaining with two living areas (formal and great room) and kitchen that is located centrally to all parts of the home. Home is offered for sale from the original owner. This home is located in a small community of homes only. Most surrounding homes are valued in the $350-500K range. Easy access to this home off State Road 301. This home is situated on a large lot. Water views directly from the home. The view from your private dock is incredible.


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Deposition Author(s): Birck, C., Damian, L., Marty-Detraves, C., Lougarre, A., Schulze-Briese, C., Koehl, P., Fournier, D., Paquereau, L., Samama, J.P.
Birck, C., Damian, L., Marty-Detraves, C., Lougarre, A., Schulze-Briese, C., Koehl, P., Fournier, D., Paquereau, L., Samama, J.P.
A newly defined family of fungal lectins displays no significant sequence similarity to any protein in the databases. These proteins, made of about 140 amino acid residues, have sequence identities ranging from 38% to 65% and share binding specificity to N-acetyl galactosamine. One member of this family, the lectin XCL from Xerocomus chrysenteron, induces drastic changes in the actin cytoskeleton after sugar binding at the cell surface and internalization, and has potent insecticidal activity. The crystal structure of XCL to 1.4 A resolution reveals the architecture of this new lectin family. The fold of the protein is not related to any of the several lectin folds documented so far. Unexpectedly, the structure similarity is significant with actinoporins, a family of pore-forming toxins. The specific structural features and sequence signatures in each protein family suggest a potential sugar binding site in XCL and a possible evolutionary relationship between these proteins. Finally, the tetrameric assembly of XCL reveals a complex network of protomer-protomer interfaces and generates a large, hydrated cavity of 1000 A3, which may become accessible to larger solutes after a small conformational change of the protein.
Département de Génomique et Biologie Structurales, IGBMC CNRS/INSERM/ULP, 1 rue Laurent Fries, BP 10142, 67404-Illkirch CU Strasbourg, France.


Please note: Saturday office hours are by appointment only, please speak to us prior to Saturday to arrange an appointment time to move in before you arrive to the facility on a Saturday. Thank you!
We provide safe, clean and affordable Standard Storage units, Temperature Controlled storage units, as well as Open Trailer Space. We have competitive rates and will price match, as well as a friendly staff to assist you with all of your storage needs during office hours. We have onsite security and digital video surveillance, as well as INDIVIDUALLY ALARMED UNITS. Not only do we rent general storage units, but if you are looking for a place to store your RV, we have RV Parking available. We also have a MOVING TRUCK free to tenants moving in. (DETAILS in Amenities section. Don't have packing supplies? We can help!
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Way clean, and the customer service is on point. Plus I don't have a huge dent in my pocket from their reasonable prices!!


What job should I take? When should my kids start dating, if ever? Is prom OK for my daughter to attend? How much house can I afford? Let's be honest, living the Christian life is hard. We are constantly faced with decisions that have huge consequences while we desperately seek guidance. Worse, the Bible doesn't make those decisions for us ... or does it?
Such was the case in Christianity in Philippi. They were at the crossroads of life. Geographically they were the crossroads of Europe and Asia along the Via Egnatia traveling from Rome to to the deep East. Economically they were the crossroads of trade, their greatest financial boom after Phillip II of Macedon exploited the nearby gold mines and robbed the region of its natural resources. Socially they were the crossroads of cultures after Mark Antony defeated both Brutus and Cassius and settled many of his veterans in the region. Religiously, they were the crossroads where Christianity was a threat to Roman gods like Jupiter and Mars, the Thracian goddess Bendis, and a host of Egyptian deities like Cybele. Such was the melting pot of Philippi in which this little church began to flourish.
Yet, while the early church could be praised for much, it was this last concern that weighed heavily on the Apostle Paul. The religious crossroads left the Philippian believers attempting to make practical decisions of faith in daily life that could help or hinder them. It wasn't the big decisions that caught the attention for Paul. The church was in fellowship with the gospel (1:5), loving one another (1:9), and helping the global work of ministry (4:10). The albatross of the church would have been the navigation of these daily routines.
Can't you feel the disconnect in your own life between the theology of Sunday and the practicality of Monday? Are you like so many Christians whose pendulum swings from liberalism in the freedom Christ offers to legalism in your zeal to obey Him? We're not struggling over eternity, whether to go to church, or if we should have a devotional life. It's the daily routines that trip us, giving us grief that we disobeyed Christ or false assumption that He doesn't care what decisions we make in life or lifestyle.
So Paul expresses his prayerful desire for these believers as they navigate the crossroads of life. "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (1:9-11).
This is a life of truth, discernment, purity, character, and worship. Isn't that the kind of life we want to demonstrate as we live out the journey of Christian faith? Such a life is impossible if we settle the big things and leave the daily things to our own whims. This life demands that Christ reigns supreme in every choice, in every attitude, and in every crossroad.
These are Christian crossroads. This is Philippi. This is us.
Join us Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. to navigate Christian crossroads.


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< التاريخ البحري ~ www.thecardinalsclub.com
hongwei28
مرسل: الأربعاء يونيو 12, 2019 6:50 am
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Before a game Stitched Corey Peters Jersey , we often hear NFL coaches talking about "putting the players in a position to make plays."After a game, we typically hear from the winning coach, "We made more plays than they did."..."Before a game, we often hear NFL coaches talking about "putting the players in a position to make plays."After a game, we typically hear from the winning coach, "We made more plays than they did." Then we hear the losing coach say, "We didn't make enough plays."Playmaking is the art of winning football games. Take for example, the Patriots' last two Super Bowl MVPs----RB James White and slot WR Julian Edelman---both were the Patriots' "go-to guys" in those wins. Both moved the chains when the Patriots needed it most.Why then are playmakers consistently moved down the draft boards? A couple of years ago, I was screaming for the Cardinals to take RB Alvin Kamara. Every time I watched his games at Tennessee, I was blown away by how often he jumped off the screen.Dissenters said, "Are you crazy, we already have David Johnson, why would you need Kamara?"For one, it turned out that Johnson was lost for the season in game one Youth Corey Peters Jersey , Hello Kerwynn Williams.The answer is---every team needs multiple playmakers---and the better they are, the better the teams will be.Look at the Patriots---they stockpile RBs and TEs and WRs----And this is what Kliff Kingsbury is going to do---he's going to stockpile playmakers.Let me ask you a question---what player on defense is more valuable---a defensive lineman who makes 3 splash plays a game, or a linebacker or defensive back who is all over the field making tackles, pass breakups and interceptions?This is why I included three defensive playmakers in my top 11. In many ways, they are as important as offensive playmakers.From the game tapes I have watched of the top prospects in the 2019 NFL Draft, here are the top 11 playmakers that have jumped off the screen:1. Kyler Murray, QB, Oklahoma. What I love about Murray is that he has a Kurt Warner like sense of when and where to throw the ball and a Warner-like hunger for trying to score on every possible possession. Combine that with Murray's uncanny success at converting 3rd downs (through superb passing accuracy and elite scrambling ability) with the fact that in the four years (high school and college) that he has been a full-time starter, he has led his team to championships in all 4 of those seasons. In all my years of studying game tapes, I have never seen a college player make as many big plays in one season. Thus, Kyler Murray gets my vote for #1 playmaker.2. Devin White, LB, LSU. To me, he's the top defensive playmaker in this draft. I loved S Jamal Adams coming out of LSU a couple of years ago Stitched Antoine Bethea Jersey , and now to watch Devin White attack the ball with such brilliant vision and speed, it felt like watching the linebacker version of Jamal Adams. I believe White is the most consistent playmaker on defense I have seen since Luke Kuechly. Man, does this kid get after the football.3. Hakeem Butler, WR, Iowa St. He is the closest WR to Larry Fitzgerald in this draft and a can't-miss prospect because of his rare combination of size, catch radius and uncanny RAC ability. You can put him anywhere on the field and he will thrive. Butler blends the size of a TE, with a complete array of WR skills. He is matchup nightmare for DCs and is a flat-out baller. It usually take 2-3 players to tackle him.4. Marquise Brown, WR, Oklahoma. Has to be one of the most slippery, dynamic young WRs I have seen. He is a threat to score from anywhere on the field. He can beat his man deep on the perimeter and then the next play shift into the slot and take a dig pass 25 yards. He has outstanding ball-in-the-air concentration. He takes a licking and keep on ticking, because he loves playing in big games under the big lights. Thus his nickname "Hollywood" is apt.5. Andy Isabella, WR, UMass. I knew he plays fast and saw how play after play he got open at UMass despite being double teamed on virtually every play. But I didn't know he would run a 4.3. Wow. He is an all-purpose WR who has the mentality of a workhorse RB. He not only wants the ball, he commands the ball. And he wants it over and over for double digit receptions and multiple TDs. 6. Josh Allen Youth Antoine Bethea Jersey , LB, Kentucky. Talk about a splash player who jumps off the game film. He, in many ways, is like Mohammed Ali, he "floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee." The kid has a turbo gear---and when he slams it on, he is a heat seeking torpedo. Not only is he quick off the edge, he can use his strong hands and redirect on a dime. Some plays that are away from him he just coasts along, but then the next play he is blowing up the backfield. And at the end of the game, the number of splash plays he makes are consistently in double digits. 7. T.J. Hockenson, TE, Iowa. He is a 6-5, 256 pound pass coverage mismatch who runs a 4.7 40 and 7.02 3 cone. Not only can be bust it up the seams and show off his quick feet in tight spaces, he uses his leverage as well as any college TE I have seen since Rob Gronkowski. Plus, the kid is a pretty darn good blocker. A real gamer.8. Josh Jacobs Stitched Josh Bynes Jersey , RB, Alabama. I like Jacobs in the same way I like Alvin Kamara. He's a highly versatile RB who runs hard between the tackles, has excellent bounce out ability and an array of juke moves in the open field that make tacklers miss. Will give DCs matchup fits in the passing game, as he is a gifted RAC receiver. 9. Byron Murphy, CB, Washington. Whichever team gets their hands on this Arizona native and high school teammate of N'Keal Harry's, is going to get one of the top playmaking CBs in years. Murphy's football IQ, quick feet, balance and strong hands reminds me quite a bit of Aeneas Williams'. He wins matchups on the perimeter and in the slot, which in today's NFL is a highly coveted combination. Plus, he's a tough-nosed tackler when forcing the run. 10. N'Keal Harry, WR, Arizona St. When you look up baller in the dictionary, Harry's picture is right next to it. He aims big and plays big. Plays whistle to whistle as hard as any player in this draft. He's physical and relishes on making splash plays on 50/50 balls. Brings an Anquan Boldin type of fight for every inch attitude. 11. David Montgomery Youth Josh Bynes Jersey , RB, Iowa St. This kid is relentless. He just keeps coming and coming after a defense until he wears them out. He runs hard between the tackles and consistently falls forward on contact. Plus, he's got a brilliant little side step where can make tacklers miss in the hole and in the open field. Montgomery is a skilled receiver who can win from the backfield and from the slot. Furthermore, he's excellent in pass protection. I see him as a lunch pail version of David Johnson.I am sure there are many other playmakers worth noting. Let 'em rip! Give us what you got! The Cardinals signed Robert Alford to be their No. 2 cornerback this week, shortly after he was cut by the Falcons. And in Arizona, serving as the No. 2 cornerback is a big opportunity.That's because the Cardinals' No. 1 cornerback is Patrick Peterson. And quarterbacks avoid Peterson like no other cornerback in the NFL.According to the NFL's Next Gen Stats, Peterson was targeted as the nearest defender on just 50 of his 483 coverage snaps during the 2018 season. That means he was thrown at just 10.4 percent of the time he was in coverage, the lowest rate among all outside cornerbacks in the league.If quarterbacks won't throw at Peterson, they'll be throwing at the cornerback on the other side of the field. Which means it's easy to picture Alford having a big opportunity to pick off a lot of passes. The Cardinals look like a rebuilding team on offense, but with Peterson and Alford as the starting cornerbacks, they have a defense they can win with right now.
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Communities Are Partners, Not Beneficiaries
Social Impact Policy Nov 2, 2015
Advice for getting global health projects off the ground.
Based on insights from
Juliet Sorensen
From corporate social responsibility initiatives to humanitarian aid programs, there is no shortage of campaigns calling for access to better healthcare. Delivering on that goal, however, has always been a daunting challenge, in part because many global health interventions pose a real or imagined threat to longstanding cultural practices.
So what makes a global healthcare initiative successful? How can leaders simultaneously improve healthcare outcomes while respecting local tradition?
For Juliet Sorensen, a clinical associate professor of strategy at the Kellogg School and director of the Northwestern Access to Health Project—a collaboration between the Kellogg School, the Northwestern School of Law, and the Feinberg School of Medicine—success all comes down to people. The best technologies and the smartest processes are only as effective as local support allows them to be.
"Whatever the project objective might be, you simply cannot go it alone," Sorensen says. "You will always need community buy-in, and local partners are crucial for that. They are worth their weight in gold."
"The permanent local liaison is better than the transient American one—they can help you identify community leaders who will truly advocate for the project."
Collaborating to Save Lives
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For an integrated healthcare organization, culture is the key to operational efficiency.
A startup in Kenya captures an underserved market.
The complicated business of growing organizational mission.
Based on her experience leading projects throughout the developing world, Sorensen offers the following advice.
Establish a community board. "The idea is not to treat communities as beneficiaries of philanthropy." Sorensen says. Instead, the community should be deeply involved in decisions at every stage. And the best way to guarantee involvement is to establish a community advisory board.
"Ideally, it should be a representative cross section of the entire community," Sorensen says.
In Mali, for example—where one of her projects addresses a range of health issues, from water sanitation to health education to HIV/AIDS prevention—the board includes a number of leaders working outside the healthcare profession: the head of the youth center, the leader of a women's organization, and the principal of the elementary school. In the Dominican Republic, where Sorensen runs a project aimed at coordinating healthcare delivery, the board includes at least two pastors. "When you work in devout communities, you have to engage the religious leaders," she says. "They're a key part of the cross section."
Choose a community liaison. As important as it is to engage a cross section of community leaders, it is equally vital to choose liaisons to help with coordination. The liaison's role is to act as a bridge between the project leaders and the advisory board.
"This isn't just practical—it's necessary," Sorensen says. "The permanent local liaison is better than the transient American one—they can help you identify community leaders who will truly advocate for the project."
In Mali, two members of the advisory board were especially dedicated to the cause. One was an advocate for girls' education; the other was the director of a local radio station who had featured programs specifically meant to increase health literacy. "Both of these partners were essential for us—they offered advice, gave us legitimacy, and helped us spread the message," says Sorensen.
Work with a local project manager. In addition to the advisory board and community liaison, a successful healthcare initiative should also appoint a local project manager. "It's very important for outside groups to recognize their limitations," Sorensen says. This is especially true whenever a healthcare initiative's objective poses a challenge to cultural tradition.
Consider the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM). In Mali, it is not easy for an outside group to navigate the power balance of local government, civil society, and the country's network of religious authorities. "The project manager has better access to every relevant stakeholder," says Sorensen. "For this particular project, we needed someone who could speak with the imams and also the people involved in FGM."
Consider the livelihoods you are affecting. Health interventions, for all their virtues, tend to disrupt the status quo, and part of winning local support is managing such disruption wisely. For example, rather than merely stigmatizing those who earned a living practicing FGM, Sorensen's team focused on other contributions they could make to the local economy.
"This is a way of life for some people," Sorensen says, "so we worked closely with [them] to provide them with 'capacity building'—a substitute source of livelihood in exchange for their abandoning their old profession." Within six months, the campaign had a significant impact on health outcomes as well as on the local economy: the cutters had begun raising sheep, selling ice cream, and running small businesses.
Know you will not please everyone. "In any venture, there are always a number of unanticipated twists and turns—especially in the developing world," Sorensen says. That means project leaders need to pay attention to long-term trends and changes in stakeholder motivations.
"There's always going to be someone who's disappointed that the project focused on X instead of Y," she says. "And there are some problems you may not solve. So it's good to be idealistic as long as you're not under any illusions."
Clinical Associate Professor of Strategy
More in Social Impact
How Hateful Rhetoric Can Create a Vicious Cycle of Dehumanization
The Danger of Dehumanizing Others
Do Police Body Cameras Provide an Impartial Version of Events?


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You are here: Home >> Blogs >> Mobile Learning
Mobile Learning and Digital Games in Class
Games and Literature
Category: Mobile Learning
Last Updated on 21. Sep 2014
Published on 21. Sep 2014
The biggest exhibition on games takes place in Cologne, Germany every year. The Gamescom is an unforgettable event for those who can get tickets. One of the most popular games this year was EVOLVE where four players play against one. One is the monster and can only be defeated if the other four players, who are the hunters, work together.
Read more: Games and...
Gamification design
Last Updated on 29. May 2014
Published on 29. May 2014
The target of my latest MOOC on Gamification Design was to find out what type of gamers we were, after seven weeks of hard work and further study in psychological effects of games and other interesting sides of gamification, we learned something about the application of game features to real life experiences in order to enhance life, work and even learning environments. I then came to the conclusion that taking part in the mooc entitles anyone to say that they have been around. It was enlightening to be able to learn and share so much with other people especially non-teachers. It was a true adventure in the world of moocs.
Read more: Gamification...
SL Moocs for Educators
It took me so long to write about this special EVO course because it contains two of the most complicated things to explain ever. Machinevo is a word made of EVO (Electronic Village Online) and
Read more: SL Moocs for...
Ebook Mooc
Last Updated on 23. Mar 2014
Published on 23. Mar 2014
EBooks MOOC 2014 Electronic Village Online offered a course on ebooks at the beginning of the year where many teachers had the opportunity to learn about ebooks, ibooks and all kinds of electronic book writing. The seminar had about 500 people taking part. The great collaborative
Read more: Ebook Mooc
Introduction to Electronic Village Online
Published on 26. Feb 2014
Electronic Village is a platform where teachers from all over the world meet online to learn new ways of teaching English and other languages using technology. There are many communities supporting EVO who keep in touch during the whole year, they work together on different projects. The site is very popular with language teachers, but there are other people working with them too. People at EVO organize many five-week seminars, all take place at the same time every year in January.
Read more: Introduction to...
Writing ebooks in school
Last Updated on 26. Jan 2014
Published on 26. Jan 2014
This time I am writing about an easy way to get children writing in English. First of all you need a nice story in form of a game just like "The wonderful wizard from Oz"
Suggestion for a pre-task: The group could watch the film in their own language first and then play together in small teams.
Read more: Writing ebooks...
Engineering English and Iron Lord
Playing Agatha Christie in Class
Teach Sherlock Holmes
Learn Vocabulary with two games
Interactive English Dictionary and Games
Quest for the Rest Level A1/A2
This was a difficult experiment. I played Quest for the Rest amanita-design.net with a group in which many people had just started learning English for the first time a few moths before, the group's English knowledge was mixed. There were 17 people between 18 and 26.
I started explaining what we were going to do and showed the first picture on the screen in the computer room. Later I handed out a page with four pictures and three questions to each picture in simple present, the lesson took 90 minutes. Students could use their mobiles to look up for words in their dictionary apps.
The homework was writing a postcard to a friend telling him about the activities of the group during their adventure holiday in present progressive and simple present.
The students could chose one of the pictures to write about. Read how it went


Charlie Brock [Launch Tennessee] gave tips on how to find the right business partner to Inc.com. The article was also published on Yahoo! Small Business Advisor.
DWC Construction Co., Inc. [John Arndt] appeared in a Nashville Business Journal article detailing the renovations of the L&C Tower office for Warby Parker.
The Tennessean reported that Charles Bone [Bone McAllester Norton] was included in The Best Lawyers in America 2015.
Casey Zolezzi, a realtor with Village Real Estate Services [Mark Deutschmann], was quoted in a Tennessean article on infill construction and the rise of residents moving to older neighborhoods. Another realtor from the company, David Dorris, spoke with the Nashville Ledger about condo sales at Studio 1 Lofts and Vacation Rental By Owner properties.
Nashville Eater covered the addition of Chicago Chef Rene De Leon to the Strategic Hospitality Team [Ben Goldberg]. The Tennessean featured an interview with Jason Brumm, the company's new director of culinary operations. The Catbird Seat, one of Strategic Hospitality's many establishments, was noted in a Florida Today article for being on Southern Living's 100 Best Restaurants in the South list.
Bristol Development Group [Ashlyn Hines] appeared in a Nashville Post article about the Gulch's Velocity building, an apartment and retail space the company co-developed.
David Waddell's [Waddell and Associates] article in Memphis Daily News and the Nashville Ledger addressed the rise of the S&P 500.
Alex Tolbert [Bernard Health] shared advice on how to manage medical bills in the Tennessean.
The Tennessean announced this weekend's art fundraiser for cancer patients at local event venue Oz [Tim Ozgener].
Inside 3DP reported on NovaCopy's [Darren Metz] recent actions to adopt the latest 3D metal printing technologies.
A York Daily Record article about the farm-to-table concept referenced Nashville's enthusiasm to embrace local cuisine like the farm-fresh fare served at Josephine [Miranda Whitcomb Pontes].
James Fields' [Concept Technology] latest column for the Tennessean gave steps for protecting against cyber breaches.


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The Avalanches reunite for first live performances in 15 years
Australian outfit confirm trio of festival appearances this summer, with more to come
The Avalanches will hit the stage this summer for their first live performances in 15 years.
The Australian outfit has confirmed festival appearances at Primavera Sound in Barcelona; London's Field Day Festival; and Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay, Australia.
It remains to be seen whether The Avalanches will finally release their sophomore album. As of June 2015, they were still at work on their long-awaited follow-up to 2001's Since I Left You. At that time, a representative for Modular Records said, "Album sounds awesome, but there's no dates or anything planned. The official line is 'stay tuned'."
Representatives for Modular Records did not return out request for comment.
The Avalanches 2016 Tour Dates:
06/03-05 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
06/12 – London, UK @ Field Day
07/22-24 – Byron Bay, AU @ Splendour in the Grass
Revisit The Avalanches' videos for "Frontier Psychiatrist" and "Since I Left You".
Splendour in the Grass
The Coathangers share gritty new song "Dumb Baby" — listen
Holy hell, Splendour in the Grass' 2016 lineup is absolutely splendid


Survival of the Hardworking: A Charity Anthology will be available very soon for purchase.
A gripping read and a very important charitable project for our Syrian brothers and sisters so much in need, please do check back soon and order your copy (and copies for friends, why not!).
In the meantime, keep up with news about the anthology and more on Facebook and Twitter.