Introduction
Eating properly is pretty much the single most important recovery tool a person can use. Putting the correct things in the correct amounts into your body will optimize your ability to repair damaged tissues, increase alertness and pretty much just makes you happier with life. I will focus on “what?”, “how much?” and “when?”.
Before I get into the meat of it (haha, pun), here are a few basic guidelines that are fairly universally accepted. First, if your great grand daddy didn’t eat it, neither should you—while there are exceptions, this rule is true for just about everything. The reasoning behind this is that evolution can’t keep up to all of our new food inventions, so our bodies know how to digest foods that have been around for a very long time. This means two things: ancient foods won’t be toxic to your body, but equally importantly, ancient foods will allow for a more complete absorption.
The second rule is one that I think is both delicious and effective: the majority of your meals (breakfast, lunch and dinna) should be made up of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds and lean meats. I will go into more detail later on why. This is sort of another way of saying the first rule if you think about it.
Macronutrients
Macronutrients are the simplest thing to keep track of in your diet. These are your proteins, fats and carbohydrates—I would also rank their importance in that order.
Proteins, as you know, are used to repair our muscles. Protein is the Lego block of our bodies and you should have it with every meal. We don’t really store protein like we store fats and carbs, so the primary reason to eat it so frequently is so that our bodies are able to constantly build and repair tissues. Protein also increases absorption of carbohydrates which is pretty awesome. I guess the final reason protein is useful (which is also the basis for the Atkins diet) is that protein isn’t easily converted to fat, so it makes it easier to keep a nice tight behind.
You should focus your sources of protein on fresh, lean meats. Basically, if it isn’t cooked when you buy it, you should be okay, but the less fat on the cut, the better. Chicken is pretty much the best meat to eat on a regular basis, so make that a staple. After that, turkey and pork are kind of fatty, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say they’re bad, just not as good. Fish has mercury in it, so once a week should be your maximum. The advantage of fish is in the good fat that they have, which is the next topic. You can use protein powder which I don’t have any beef with (another pun hahahaha). Protein powder is a supplement though, so you just need to make sure you keep it that way, rather than using it as a staple. Finally, some people diss eggs, but I think they’re pretty fantastic for daily eating.
Fats do so many friggin’ things its ridiculous. They act as fuel, hormones, structural units and quite a few other things. First, let’s go over what you should avoid. Anything that has been processed is bad for you. Period. Trans fats are the famous one. Basically, throw out your margarine and only buy quality butter. Better yet, just use olive oil which is the god of all oils. There are other good oils, but you have to be careful because cheap oils are usually hydrogenated and hard to metabolize. So the golden rule for your frying pan is only use olive oil because it works for anything from eggs to grilled cheese, and it’s stupid healthy. Olive oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids which just means that there is a double bond between the 3rd and 4th carbons from the end of the carbon chain. Omega-3s reduce inflammation and can be more effective that aspirin or ibuprofen. They also are good for your immune system. I take omega-3 pills because I don’t like fish. You don’t have to have them every day, but they’re useful if you’re in heavier training.
Fats are also a wicked energy source, but the key is to make sure you eat fats that are easily accessible. There are really two sides to metabolizing your fats: conditioning your body to use them and choosing fats that are easily metabolized. One good reason for all of the low intensity training we do is that it teaches our body to use fats instead of going straight to glycogen stores which is a huge part of endurance. The other half of metabolizing your fats is choosing good ones like olive oil, avocados, seeds and nuts. A major reason for this is that these are good sources of unsaturated fats which are liquid in your body rather than solid, so they can be manipulated easily.
So in one sentence, have fats as much as possible (at least once daily), and generously make olive oil your best friend in the kitchen.
Finally, we must look at carbohydrates. Just like the other macronutrients, some carbs are more equal than others. Glycemic index refers to the speed at which our body can break down different types of carbs. It’s to simple/complex carbohydrates as the BMI scale is to measuring body fat percentages (more recent, specific and useful). You want things with a low glycemic index except right before, during and after exercise. Rice, quinoa, oats and other similar foods have the lowest index, pasta, cereal and bread is usually somewhere in the middle and potatoes and energy bars are the highest. Fruits and vegetables can be at both ends of the scale.
You don’t really need to eat that many carbs to be healthy. They’re basically just energy so directly after sports and meals during heavy training periods are where you would eat most of your carbs. I’m not saying cut them out entirely, but they shouldn’t usually be your dietary focus most of the time.
Micronutrients
Micronutrients are your vitamins and minerals. Your body needs these mostly for all of the reactions that take place.
Since you are focusing on eating a huge amount of fruits and vegetables, you shouldn’t have to worry about most vitamins. Just make sure you get a variety of different colours and all that.
Speaking of colours, anything with pretty colours usually contains antioxidants which are one of those ridiculously healthy things. Basically when your muscles break down (and also from a variety of other things, such as injuries), free radicals are released. These little buggers basically go around and react with random things in your body which causes more damage. Antioxidants eliminate free radicals and speed up things like recovery but also help with cognitive function. Berries, wine, and squash are all examples of good sources of antioxidants.
Iron is important for athletes, especially ladies. It is a key ingredient to blood, and as athletes, we need as much of that as possible. Nuts and seeds are great sources of iron, so supplementation isn’t necessary for normal people.
Caloric Requirements
Unless you’re carb loading, there isn’t much point in eating more than you can burn. As a very general guide line, if you go for around an hour at moderate intensity, you probably have burned 800-1000 calories. So for 170-ish lb guy, that would mean you’re looking at 3500-ish calories in a day which isn’t that hard to get.
Sleep, Stress, Sugar, Fibre, and Water
Get tonnes of sleep. It helps you recover and increases cognitive function. Nuf said.
Stress is toxic; eliminate it. Stress results in the release of cortisol which is a hormone that makes your body try to conserve energy. It makes you put on weight, slows your sex drive, increases your blood pressure and makes you depressed. Fortunately, exercise is a terrific way to reduce your cortisol levels.
High blood sugar is toxic. It binds to blood proteins, rendering them useless. Try to avoid blood sugar spikes.
Fibre keeps you regular and clean, so eat as much as possible. A few hundred years ago we ate as much as 300 times the fibre we eat now, so the sky is pretty much the limit here.
Drink a tonne of water. I’ve heard you should drink your weight in pounds in ounces. So for a 170 lb person, that's 170 ounces or around five or six litres. Also, add around one litre of exercise. The key here is to carry a water bottle or two around and make a point of refilling it. You’ll absorb water better if you drink little bits frequently.
The Simplest Cook Book Ever
Here are a few recipes that I have found a lot of success with. I’ll arrange them by meal.
Breakfast – the most important meal of the day.
Breakfast for an athlete is a complicated meal, because it really depends on when you plan on doing your training. If you do morning training, your breakfast may turn into brunch and then lunch becomes a mid-afternoon meal designed to hold you over until dinner or prepare you for afternoon training.
Oatmeal
This is probably my favourite meal of all time. It is just so versatile. You start with a base of oats (around half to two-thirds of the meal by volume). Load on a variety of nuts, seeds, berries, fresh and dried fruit, honey, peanut butter, protein powder (mixed into the oats), yogurt, or whatever else tickles your pickle. I have a big bin of all of these ingredients, which makes assembly very quick and simple.
Specifically, I use flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, raisins, craisins, goji berries (supposed to be high in antioxidants), bananas, and whatever else is handy.
This meal also works well as cereal. I’m actually fond of uncooked oats mixed in with cereal and milk poured over top.
Eggs
I like to fry up some peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, chicken or anything else in the fridge with olive oil and then break 3-5 eggs overtop of them to make a delicious omelette (cheese too if I remember). Including eating, this usually is a 20 minute project for me. If you have a big day ahead of you, throwing in some toast, oatmeal, cereal or left over pasta from the night before is good idea.
Choose oatmeal if you have a big day ahead of you and choose eggs if you’re recovering from a big day.
Oatmeal is a good way to keep your gas tank full all day, whereas eggs have the protein for building muscle and the omega-3 for reducing your residual inflammation. Eggs are also useful if you’re going to do two training sessions in one day because of their recovery benefits.
Lunch
For me, lunch is often more of a snack, because I like afternoon training and training on a full stomach is bad news bears. Depending on your stomach, you’ll enjoy between 1.5 and 3 hours between big meals and training sessions.
Sandwich
The sandwich is a fantastic lunch food, but make sure you do it right. Make sure you’re putting fresh veggies and lean meats in it if you’re not training soon after eating. PB and J doesn’t have much nutritional value, so choose that one if you’re going to train 30-60 minutes after eating. I’m also a big fan of the pasta sandwich—it’s exactly what it sounds like. Finally, bear in mind that freshly baked whole grains are the best breads to pick. Bread is a recent invention though, so you won’t absorb it as well as ancient foods like rice.
Dinner
My staple dinner goes like this:
Chop up meat and throw it in a pan with olive oil, garlic and onions. Once the meat is partly cooked, throw in as many different chopped veggies as are in your fridge. I’m a fan of peppers, broccoli, mushrooms and beans, but there are obviously tonnes more options. Sometimes it helps to steam the veggies separately. To do this I just turn the frying pan up to 7 or 8 and then throw in a few table spoons of water with a lid.
Now that that is all cooked, heat up some red sauce and throw everything on some pasta (100 grams should be fine). Cheese optional.
I also like to add a salad or something. Salad is a good way to get a variety of leafy greens which have lots of different vitamins, fibre and sometimes cool things like iron and antioxidants. Choose a variety of leafy greens, not just lettuce, because the weird ones are usually the healthiest. Salad is also a great way to hit up the carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, nuts, seeds, fruit and anything else that doesn’t quite go in pasta.
There are obviously tonnes of other things you can make for dinner, but this is an option that covers just about all of the angles. If your ingredient list looks like the one above, it’s probably also a good choice.
Snacks
I like to get most of my fruit intake between meals. Fruits generally have lots of sugar in them, so I eat fruit before and after exercise. I also am a big fan of what I like to call a power platter. You basically take a big plate and heap it with fruits, vegetables, berries, hard boiled eggs, nuts, seeds and the like. You can get a huge portion of your daily requirements this way and the variety of tastes is always pleasing.
Before and after workouts, your snacks should be more energy focussed, so you’ll be looking for granola bars, sports drinks and bananas.
So there you have it. Follow it as much as you can, and enjoy the benefits.
Sample Days
This section will show how to time your food intake with examples of different training days.
In general, eat more carbs and fats if you are doing LSD and more protein if you are doing strength or intensity.
The LSD AM workout (8:30-11:30):
The night before. Consider adding some extra table salt to your meal to top up your sodium stores. A banana would be good as well for the potassium.
7:00. Wake up. It is important to wake up this early because you need time to digest before this long workout. The first priority at this point is to get food in you as quickly as possible so that by the time the workout begins, your stomach isn’t full anymore. I would choose the Oatmeal breakfast outlined above because it is quick to make and packed with energy to fuel a three hour effort.
It would also be a good idea to throw in some protein with this breakfast for two reasons: (1) protein with every meal helps absorption and (2) your body will be starved for protein after 3 hours on the road, so you might as well start the refuelling process now.
7:00-8:00. Drink. When you wake up in the morning, you are dehydrated. Shoot for around a litre of water in this time frame.
8:00-8:30. Bring an extra water bottle or two to training so that you can top off your tank right before you leave. If you are so inclined, an electrolyte drink would be a good idea here. A snack is also a good idea.
8:30-11:30. Your aim should be to drink 2-3 litres of water, depending on your body size and sweat rate. Sports drinks are a good idea as well (for anything over an hour). While you do not need this much liquid to make it through the session, your recovery time will be significantly reduced this way. I rarely carry this much liquid with me, instead, just knock on some random door and ask for some H2O. It is also a good idea to eat during the workout. Different people are capable of different amounts, and it is possible to train your body to eat more during workouts, but for the novice, one or two granola bars per hour is a good place to start.
11:30-12:00. EAT AND DRINK. This time is the single most important part of your recovery. Your first priority is to hydrate and take in some simple sugars. In general, 1-3 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight is a good place to start. A bagel has around 50 grams and granola bars have 30-40 grams. Your body has the greatest potential for absorption during this period, so take advantage of it.
11:45-12:15. Protein. Your body has been taking a pounding and your muscles are ripped and torn. Eat a portion of protein. You could prepare a drink with 1 or 2 scoops of protein powder or you could bring your favourite meats from home. The advantage to powder is that it is easy to prepare, drink and digest.
12:00 onwards. This is really when the workout is over. Your nutritional focus switches from energy to nutrients. Hit up the fruits and vegetables.
No comments:
Post a Comment