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CAN YOU LOSE 12KG IN 3 MONTHS WITH THE QUARANTINE? YES YOU CAN

Umberto Guaitani is a passionate trail runner who runs a beautiful hotel in Cortina. In 2020 he had a dream: participate in the Lavaredo Ultra Trail, his first 120Km. To achieve its goal, he has decided to combine the personalized training program, TRM Training Plan, with a nutritional plan, TRM Nutrition Ultra Trail Plan, to reach the perfect shape. The LUT has been postponed until next year but Umberto has already achieved an important goal by losing 12Kg during the Coronavirus. We interviewed him to find out more.

Q. When did you discover your passion for Trail Running?

Let’s say that the first step that then led me to become passionate about this discipline was when I moved to Cortina for work and I discovered the LUT. Until then it was a completely unknown sport. The next step was the participation in a race. A friend of mine challenged me: she had decided that by the age of thirty we would have stopped smoking and we would have enrolled in a small 10 km Trail in the Monferrato … from that time I never stopped!

Q. How do you balance training and professional life as an entrepreneur?

On the one hand, I consider myself very lucky to be able to work and live in a magnificent place like Cortina d’Ampezzo, where running outdoors is magnificent, a real privilege. On the other hand, unfortunately, my job (Umberto is a Hotel Manager) does not give me the opportunity to always perfectly plan my training sessions, due to the many unexpected events. I often find myself having to decide what to do at the last minute, especially regarding Sunday’s long runs. But I am very determinate, so when I have something in my mind at 99.9% I carry it out.

Q. Do you have a goal ultra trail you hope to be able to run in 2020 despite the Coronavirus?

It had a goal race the LUT, my first over 100Km, unfortunately canceled for Covid-19. Primarily for my job, I’m not free to make long trips, and secondary for this great World emergency, at the moment the goal race for this year will be the Delicious Trail trying to significantly lower my personal best. Then never say never ….

Q. When and why did you decide to add the Nutritional Plan as a complement to the Training Plan?

I took the decision to add the TRM Nutrition Ultra Trail Plan when I discovered that I had been drawn for the Lavaredo 2020 edition, I wanted to be in the best condition to face it. I decided that with the new year I would undertake a preparation also from the nutritional point of view. However, I didn’t want to do it alone because I had already tried many times and it had never worked. I needed a guideline that would lead me to a concrete and certain goal. So, already having excellent experience with the TRM Coaches from the training point of view, I found the proposed  ……perfect for me.

Q. What results have you achieved since the beginning of the Diet?

The main goal was certainly to lose weight; I had reached 100Kg during the Christmas holidays 2019, just before starting the diet. I am very satisfied with the goal achieved to date with the TRM Nutrition Ultra Trail Plan

Graphic. Weight Loss March U. Guaitani – March 2020

Today I weigh 82 kg and only a few months have passed. However, I have already set another goal with the TRM nutritionists: I would like to go below 80 kg and reach my ideal weight which corresponds to about 76/78 kg.

Q. What are the new foods you didn’t normally eat? The foods new that I have introduced and that are: couscous, quinoa, red turnips and mackerel; in reality not many because I have always eaten everything. But what has changed a lot are the quantities! Now everything I eat is in line with my consumption both when I train and when I am at rest and also cooking methods and seasoning are controlled.

Q. What are the eating habits you have given up on?

I have never had schematic eating habits, so I couldn’t say I made big sacrifices. However, I had to give up everyday aperitif and having dinner outside very often or eating relatively uncontrolled in the hotel where I work.

Q. Are you able to follow the Sports Diet despite the Coronavirus period?

To tell the truth, this moment as far as I’m concerned has only helped me even more to follow the diet. Not being able to go out to for an aperitif, to a restaurant, to a friend’s house for dinner or to celebrate birthdays, it is easier to follow the diet and continue with the set goal …. I am much more afraid of when this period of quarantine will finish!!! HELP!!!

Q. What advice would you give to other athletes who are trying to keep fit during the Lockdown period?

The first advice is to believe a lot in yourself and in the goal you want to achieve. Now that the races have been postponed, the goals “canceled”, in my case the Lut, it is not easy. But we all know that there will surely be another ultra trail, in Summer or Autumn, which will become the new goal and therefore it is useless to throw away all the effort that you have made so far.

In times of crisis, you do not have to stop, look back and see the whole road and the efforts that you have made to get to that point and then ask yourself “is it worth throwing everything away now” ? As in the endurance races, the ultra trails, so also in our life we ​​are called to make a great mental effort. Furthermore, I forgot to tell you, every now and then cheating to diet is accepted… as long as it does not become a habit!

P.S. Umberto Guaitani in this period of quarantine is following a combined training program developed ad hoc (stairs, treadmill, stationary bikes, circuit training) alongside the nutritional plan that will allow him to maintain its body shape in view of going back to normal life.

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Cristina Tasselli

Digital Strategic Marketing Director - certified Innovation Manager - in multinational companies, she is still today the only Italian female athlete to have ran 900 km and 55,000m D+ in the mountains in a single stage race (Transpyrenea 2016, 3rd women overall). She counts numerous Podiums and international Victories on races over 100k. She holds a SNaQ CONI certification as a Trail Running Coach, Athletic Trainer and in Nutrition and Sports Supplementation. Since 2014 she is President and sports executive of innovative technology startups and companies, including Trail Running Movement and Digital Sport 360. She trains elite trail running athletes and she teaches in trail running coach certification courses. She is an author of sports articles on training, nutrition and supplementation in trail running and running, both in Italian and in English and Spanish. She manages relationships and collaborations with Federations and Race Organizers.