OK, OK, I know, you’re not a dummy but sometimes you feel like one when the topic of nutrition comes up. You understand the overall concept that nutrition is vital to optimal training and performance. You always eat a big plate of pasta the night before a race. You might even know how many calories you burn over the course of the day and how to manage the ‘value’ of those calories (proteins vs. carbohydrates vs. fats). But, while you have a cursory understanding of nutrition, you don’t necessarily feel 100% confident in the eating choices you make day in and day out. That’s where Nutrition For Dummies comes in!
So, let’s cut to the chase and throw down a “Top 10” list of nutritional do’s and don’ts that we can always use as a guideline to successful fueling (in no particular order).
10. Drink half of your body weight (in oz) of water each day (i.e. you weigh 150 lbs, drink 75 oz of water each day—incremental to the liquid consumed during a workout). Proper hydration is like proper oil levels in your car, fueling and muscle repair demand appropriate hydration levels.
9. Eat every 3 hours—regardless if you feel hungry or not. To keep your metabolism turned ‘on’, you must introduce fuel every 3-4 hrs. Such frequency tells your body that more fuel is coming and there is no need to store (create fat stores) calories.
8. Eat to train, don’t train to eat. The mentality of ‘eating to train’ ensures that you are thinking about how to fuel a training session—how much fuel do I need for a successful session?. Training to eat says, “I’m going to eat this massive bowl of ice cream, then train for two hours to burn it off”.
7. Eat 3-4 blocks of each nutrient source at every meal. It is vital to fuel your body with muscle repair elements (protein), muscle fuel (carbohydrates) and fat (long term energy store, foundation for virtually every cell in your body). If you do not ‘fill’ all 3 of these buckets, you will shortchange your body’s ability to fuel and repair itself. Click over to the Nutrient Sources section for more on meal balance.
6. Have a glass of chocolate milk after every workout! Yes. Chocolate milk. After a workout, your body is craving fuel (carbohydrate) and muscle repair elements (protein). Chocolate milk has the perfect 4:1 carb to protein blend to make sure your body receives the fuel and restorative proteins used for successful recovery.
5. Pig out for one meal every 5 days. Once your body becomes acclimated to fueling with a quality diet, it can become ‘lazy’ in how it processes calories. A high calorie meal (pizza, cheeseburger and fries, fried chicken, etc.) The introduction of a high calorie, high fat meal can shock your body into high gear as it is surprised with a new style of nutrition.
4. Eat more to lose weight. Not more calories, more frequently. When you restrict your calories, your body immediately thinks that food intake is threatened and stores all available fuel into fat. When you increase your frequency, (5-7 meals a day) your body continues to burn calories as the meal frequency is telling your body that fuel plentiful and can continue to be burned.
3. Eat more to work out more. As you tax your body with longer or harder workouts, it is vital to up your caloric intake—especially with complex carbohydrates (potatoes, oatmeal, etc). Your body needs this fuel to continue to produce the efforts you are aiming for. Even if you are trying to lose weight, you should only aim for a 300-500 calorie deficit per day.
2. Don’t punish yourself. Miss a meal? Eat too much at the Memorial Day picnic? Don’t worry about it. Just get right back on track and move on. It takes almost 3500 incremental calories to add a pound of fat, so one would have to work pretty hard to get significantly off track.
1. Have fun! Remember our cheat rule? Got a wedding reception coming up or a night out on the town? Enjoy it! Make sure you plan ahead to enjoy the simple things in life without compromising your nutrition lifestyle. By planning for such events, we can be motivated to reward ourselves with such meals that do not compromise our overall goals.
So that’s it. Short and sweet. Sound good? Then click on over to the TriMax Kitchen and start picking your “fists and palms” of food. Pick a fist of protein, two fists of carbohydrates, flavor with high-quality fat and you’ll be on your way to a cleaner, smarter and more productive nutrition lifestyle.