Prepare for next event-Nutrition

This is as important as how many miles you run/cycle, how many days you work out at the Gym and getting proper sleep.  If you recall, in the previous post, we talked about recovery days. This is when your body is repairing and rebuilding muscle and bone tissue. Since we purposely “overstress” our body to stimulate the rebuilding process, it would waste all that hard work if you do not give it the tools it requires for rebuilding.

So let’s look at some simple guidelines:

1.       Timing- this is perhaps the most important thing to pay attention to with fueling. You should eat within 45min. of finishing a workout to take full advantage of post workout biochemistry. Yes, this will take some planning (remember we train smarter). Make sure to have a meal/shake with a 4:1 carb/protein ratio for optimum repair. Plain chocolate milk is repeatedly shown to be an effective post workout drink. Very affordable and easy to buy.

2.       Breakfast- your body will be amazing low on available stored sugar, unless you have eaten in the last 10hrs. Yes, sleep does use up blood sugar-what do you think your heart, breathing and brain use all that time? A simple glass of juice, spoonful of honey will get you through a quick AM workout and then have a real breakfast. Not eating to “burn fat” is plain stupid! Yes, I said that and will repeat it “plain stupid”.  You will end up breaking down muscle tissue in order to make sugar (yes this sounds weird, but it is true).This is the opposite of what your workouts are trying to accomplish (which is more plain stupid). Plus, if you study biochemistry you will see that you need some type of carbohydrate to burn fat.

3.       Too much protein-most of us, unless you are beefy 200# athlete, can only absorb about 20grams of protein per meal. So buying those mega protein shakes/ protein bars/ triple stack burgers are pure waste of money and calories.  Plus your body breaks the surplus protein down into ammonia by products which are bad for your kidneys. And this process also leaches out Calcium from your system which is very harmful for those athletes at risk for osteoporosis(more plain stupid)

4.       Alcohol- my clients cried when I first posted this last year. Alcohol will interfere with your absorption of nutrients.  Your liver views alcohol as a toxin and will focus on breaking it down, instead of absorbing nutrients. This is prime reason for that “beer belly”, not the calories. So slamming a beer post workout (while tasting great) will interfere with your repair process. So hold off on the beer until after you have eaten and had a chance to digest things.

5.       Carbs- endurance athletes should be friends with carbs (complex carbs are mo better). The diets that espouse high protein/low carbs are not good for you.  Follow science (not Atkins or Paleolithic diets) and talk with a registered dietician or sports nutritionist. If interested in more details please email me and I will be glad to expound on this. Herb@Coachkfitness.net

6.       Real Food- Skip those overhyped supplements and eat real food. If you must buy supplements make sure that you see a certification of testing label on the package.  People are unaware of the amazing lack of  packaging laws for supplements. If all those ads for supplements were true, we would all have a 2hr marathon time and winning each Ironman event we attended.