Conquer the summer heat

Your body is going to perform differently when it's 60 degrees outside than when it is 90 degrees. Although exercising in hot weather requires extra planning and caution to avoid health risks, it is possible to improve performance, enjoy your training sessions and not feel completely drained when training in the heat.

There's a good chance that you are not making good decisions when training in the heat and as a result, your performance and health is being compromised.

Running without a hydration belt, not planning stops accordingly on the bike, showing up to workouts dehydrated, not fueling properly (or eating enough) and not rehydrating properly after workouts will negatively impact your body's thermoregulatory process.

The human body is remarkable when it comes to exericising heat, so long as you take the necessary steps to acclimate gradually, pace yourself and look for opportunities to minimize dehydration and cool the skin.

Hot Weather Training - Health and Safety Tips

 

Heat. 🔥

The summer presents a vulnerable time for endurance athletes who are training outside in an effort to gain fitness for an upcoming event.

High heat and humidity challenges the limits of the cardio system, central nervous system and skeletal muscle system. Maintaining core body temperature and keeping body fluids in balance are key priorities for your body. Training in a hot environment can put your body under a significant amount of physiological strain, which can negatively impact your health.

By understanding how the heat can impact your health and performance, you can do a better job of keeping yourself healthy this summer.

Troubleshooting race day GI issues

The gut is a very important athletic organ because it is responsible for the delivery of nutrients and fluids during exercise. The gut is highly adaptable and should be trained repeatedly in training - just like the muscles and heart. Unfortunately, many athletes are reluctant (or afraid due to body composition concerns, previous GI complaints and 'they sayers') to take in recommended amounts of carbohydrates, calories, sodium and fluids before and during long workouts. Sadly, this results in underfueling in training and far too common, overfueling on race day.

By practicing your pre-race and race day nutrition many times prior to race day, you can improve absorption of nutrition, improve gut tolerance and learn what works (and doesn't work) to reduce the chance of GI distress and to improve performance.

Although GI distress is common among endurance athletes, race day performance-limiting upper- and lower-gastrointestinal (GI) issues are highly preventable.

Although causes are diverse and symptoms vary, there are ways to reduce your risk so that you can perform to your abilities and not spend unwanted time on the side of the road, in the bushes or in the portable toilet.

The perfect diet - does it exist?

If you are on a quest to change your body composition or boost your health, you may find yourself overwhelmed by all the different dietary approaches. 

Traditionally, the word "diet" describes how you eat. However, over time it has evolved to mean "restriction" or "elimination" - often in attempt to lose weight. 

To help you out, I want you know that the perfect diet doesn't exist. There is no one "best" diet that works for every person around the world. Every human being is different - different genes, lifestyle habits, nutritional needs, emotions, activity regimes.....and so much more. 

While there are several universal nutrition principles that have consistently shown to improve health, reduce risk for disease, maximize longevity and to help with weight maintenance, I'd like to offer a different way of thinking about food. In other words, if you are on a quest to improve your health or change your body composition, there's much more to the diet formula than searching for the pieces of a perfect diet. 

• Your diet should not only keep you alive, but it should help you thrive. 
  
• Consume the highest-quality (nutrient density) of food that you can afford within your budget. Consider it an investment in your health. 
• Your diet should supply your body with a wide variety of nutrients to support all body processes. 
• Your diet should be financially feasible. 
• Your diet is consistently evolving. Work on a good, better, best system. 
• Prioritize food that comes naturally from the Mother Earth. 
• Your diet should be sustainable, flexible and enjoyable. 
• Your diet should have a positive environmental impact. 
• Eat for your activity level. 
• Your diet should leave you satisfied. 
• Your diet should not be socially isolating. 
• Changing your diet won't fix body image issues. 
• Achieving a specific look, number on the scale or size of clothing from your dietary choices will not ensure long-time happiness. 

Diet rules, lists and labels are used to control your eating. They tell you exactly what you should and shouldn’t eat in order to lose weight, improve health or change body composition. The diet rules make you believe that if you follow the “good” food list and avoid the “off-limit” foods, you will achieve certain results. (This doesn’t apply to medical, ethical and religious reasons for avoiding certain foods or food groups).

Extremes and absolutes are never healthy. Strict and restrictive eating can run and ruin your life, health and emotional well-being. Often times, it can create disordered eating patterns.

If you don’t diet, you can never cheat, break, mess up, feel guilty, fall off the wagon or have a bad day of eating.

Your eating choices belong to you. If you choose to reduce, minimize or avoid certain foods for ethical, medical, religious, health or personal reasons, your diet should remain simple, flexible, varied and nourishing. 

Your personalized style of eating is constantly evolving. 

Keep it practical, enjoyable and sustainable. 

It’s not a fad, it doesn’t require meticulous calculations, there are no strict rules, and it should never cause guilt, stress or worry.

Nutrition staples and food hacks for triathletes

A big thank you to Haley, LiveFiesty and IronWomen for having me on as part of their video interview "mini series". If you missed the videos, here is episode one and two for you to enjoy. And be sure to check out their website (and social media) for more inspiring, motivating and educational information.

Nutrition Staples for triathletes


Food Hacks for Triathletes

Nutrition staples for quarentined athletes

I recently had the honor of chatting with Haley at Live Fiesty and I provided some helpful tips for endurance athletes who may be grocery shopping under restricted conditions or with low frequency during quarantine. Here's the video to enjoy - thank you again Live Fiesty, Haley and IronWomen for the opportunity to chat!

Here are my typical kitchen staples (not limited to just the following):

Pantry 

• Herbs, spices, oil, baking "stuff" 
• Tomatoes (diced, whole, pureed, tomato sauce)
• Beans (garbanzo, kidney, black beans, navy, chickpeas, chili beans) and lentils - canned and dry.
• Variety of whole grains and rice (farro, quinoa, wild rice, basmati)
• Potatoes
• Soups. While you can make your own soup with the above ingredients, having a few cans ready to go for convenience. Semi-homemade – can of soup + fresh or frozen veggies.
• Canned fish (tuna, salmon, sardines)
• Canned fruits and vegetables (low sodium/sugar)
• Fortified cereal
• Pretzels
• Peanut butter
• Dried fruit
• Nuts/seeds
• Syrup, honey
• Shredded coconut
• Flax seeds, chia seeds
• Shelf-stable milk
• Pretzels, chips (ex. pita chips)
• Chocolate
• Bread - fresh

Fresh/Refrigerator/Freezer

• Eggs (2 dozen)
• Dairy - cow and soy milk, yogurt, cheese, butter,
• Meat (for Karel) - deli and raw (typically kept in freezer)
• Waffles
• Fruits and veggies (fresh and frozen)

Before you change your diet, consider these tips

Changing your eating habits may help improve your overall health, fitness/performance, improve your body composition and reduce risk for disease. Despite these benefits, many people struggle to maintain dietary changes in the long-term. To ensure that your dietary changes are practical, beneficial and health promoting, consider the following tips before you make an extreme lifestyle change with a new style of eating.

1. What's your motivation/reason for change? - If you are wanting to eliminate or add certain foods to the diet, give yourself a really good reason to do so. "Because it's trendy" or "because I need to lose weight" can be motivating but remind yourself that for any diet to be successful, long term nutrition compliance is key. 

2. Don't go all in - I caution you not to wake up one morning and start living with a dietary title (unless it's for medical/health reasons). Like anything in life, dietary changes take time. Make small tweaks and adjustments and for anything you eliminate, find a nutritious alternative so you don't end up with a nutrient deficiency. Making gradual changes and continually assessing how you feel is key.

3. Create a positive relationship with food - To start, there are no bad foods. Unless for medical/health/ethical reasons, your diet does not need an off-limit food list. Consider the "food talk" that you think to yourself in your own head or what you hear around you. When changing the diet, it's important to keep a healthy relationship with food. This means there are no cheat foods, bad foods, and unhealthy foods. Avoid categorizing food in a black and white way.

4. Learn to indulge responsibly - When a diet is overly restrictive, energy and nutrient deficient and rigid, you may be worried about how you will eat at parties, events, eating out or traveling. Removing certain foods from the diet because you feel you have a lack of self-control, fear or guilt when eating those foods, is not the answer. Because one of the side effects of a restrictive diet is food preoccupation/obsession, the more you restrict in your diet, the more you will think about food. Within every diet is room for indulging. Learn to indulge mindfully and responsibly. 

5. Cook - At the backbone of every diet plan is an emphasis of real food. And with good reason! If you find yourself gravitating toward processed food as a convenient option in your new diet plan, you have not changed the most important thing in your diet - eating more real food. No matter what diet plan you follow, you must make time and learn to appreciate grocery shopping, meal prepping and cooking.

Training in the heat - nutrition tips

Triathletes and endurance athletes are very susceptible to dehydration and even more so, a heat-related injury at this time of the year. Whereas in the cold/cooler months of the year, athletes can get away with haphazard fueling and hydration strategies and poor pacing, now is the time in the year when a poorly planned fueling/hydration regime and pushing too-hard or too-far will negatively affect workouts, adaptations and health.

Let it be known that training in the heat is incredibly stressful for the body. Seeing that training (in any environment) already creates difficulty for the body to adequately digest and absorb nutrients and fluids, you can imagine why so many athletes experience harmful health issues, GI struggles, extreme fatigue, heat stress, dehydration and so many more issues during the summer months when training for an event.

As an example, exercise increases body temperature. The harder and longer you train, the higher your resting temperature. Your body compensates by moving the extra heat to the skin via the blood - it then dissipates into the air through sweat (so long as humidity levels allow for evaporation). But when you exercise, your blood serves another important role - it carries oxygen and nutrients to the muscles. Blood is shared between the muscles and the skin. The higher your core temperature, the more blood is used for cooling and less for the working muscles. In other words, your body will always sacrifice muscle function for temperature control. This is why an athlete's body will begin to "shut down" when overheating as this state is life threatening.

Every athlete has his/her own threshold for when the body begins to experience a decline in health and performance as a result of heat stress, dehydration and glycogen depletion.

To keep your body functioning well (in training and on a daily basis), it's extremely important to care for your body with proper fueling and hydration strategies before/during/after workouts and to respect the conditions by pacing appropriately.

Don't be the athlete who......

• Does not stay well-hydrated on a daily basis (before/after workouts and during the day)
• Does not bring along fluids/nutrition when running (especially when running off the bike)
• Is not comfortable drinking while running/riding
• Rations fluids to avoid stopping (or does not have enough places to refill bottles)
• Does not have enough hydration bottle cages on the bike (or if they are on, they are not easily accessible)
• Does not use sport nutrition products properly (not enough or too much carbohydrates, fluids and electrolytes)
• Does not use sport nutrition products or does not plan ahead and relyies only on water (or nothing at all)
• Feels it's only a  "short" workout - so you don't need to fuel/drink

There are dozens of excuses and reasons why fluid/electrolyte/calorie needs are not being met during training and racing and not only is it holding you back from training consistently and executing well during workouts, it is also extremely damaging to the body - placing you at risk for injury, sickness, burnout and other serious health complications. Remember - you are not just fueling/hydrating for one workout but for the next series of workouts. If you struggle during one workout, it will affect your future workouts.

Common side-effects of dehydration and heat stress:

• headache
• dizziness
• blurred vision
• loss of focus
• chills
• high heart rate that won't drop even when you reduce the effort or stop
• no appetite post workout
• excessive sleepiness
• extreme weakness
• low blood pressure
• stop sweating
• dry mouth
• dark urine
• dry skin
• no/little urination
• extreme cramping
• bloating/puffiness
• excessive thirst/lost of thirst
• rapid, elevated pulse (despite effort slowing down)
• muscle spasms (during and post workout)

Are you currently experiencing any of the above?
If yes, your current fueling/hydration and pacing strategy is NOT working for you.


Every human body is different so you must pay very close attention to your body signs/symptoms/signals when it comes to training and racing in endurance events. If you do not make the effort to keep yourself in good with proper fueling and hydration (and pacing), you will be forced to spend a lot of time getting your body healthy again before you start even thinking about training again.

To help you out, here are a few very simple tips to help you adapt during hot-weather workouts

• Sip frequently in small amounts, don't gulp fluids. Gulping (especially from a straw) causes you to swallow air, which can cause bloating and belching. This also may disturb the function of the stomach and slows down absorption.
  
• Be sure to have a sport drink with you for all workouts lasting more than one-hour - this should contain a mixture of electrolytes, carbohydrates and fluids in an appropriate concentration to digest well and to be efficiently absorbed. I suggest a hypo or isotonic solution with ~20-25g carbohydrates per every ~12-16 ounces and at least 250mg of sodium to optimize gastric emptying.
  
• Aim for 24-32 ounces of fluid on the bike per hour and at least 10-12 ounce fluid for every 30 minutes while running (this should be in a sport drink - not plain water in the heat!).
  
• Aim to sip your bottle on the bike every 10-15 minutes (you need at least 3-4 gulps to ensure that you are getting in around 3-4 ounces of fluid) and 1-2 sips every 5-8 minutes while running. Frequent drinking on a schedule will not only help to delay fatigue and prevent dehydration but will prevent overdrinking on fluids (particularly ice cold water), which often causes a sloshy stomach.
  
• While keeping your insides hydrated is critical, consider ways to keep your body cool on the outside. Suggestions include exercising early morning or in the evening and avoiding workouts in the heat of the day (10-5pm). Choosing indoor workouts over outdoor when health may be compromised (extreme heat). Using water/ice to cool yourself while exercising. Wear a cooling towel/cooling sleeves. Use a visor over a hat. Choose shady areas over direct sunlight. Wear sunscreen to prevent burning. Wear protective clothing.
  
• Always plan ahead with your bottle refill stops. Be sure to STOP before you really need to stop so you are never rationing your fluids or going without.
  
• Be sure you are setting yourself up for good hydration actions. Cages/hydration systems on the bike should be accessible and easy to use in ALL conditions (ex. bumpy roads, rain, technical courses, rain, etc.). Your run courses in training should allow you to refill bottles that you bring with you OR set up bottles on your course. Everything you do in training should be practice for race day.
  
• Wear a hydration belt/pack so you can drink what you drink, when you want to drink it. There are many types on the market - find one that works for you and never run outside without it.
  
• Do not wait for thirst to kick in during endurance workouts/racing to start drinking. Start drinking/fueling early. An athlete who waits to drink until he/she is thirsty is already behind on fluid requirements and many times, this will cause an athlete to drink an excessive amount of water. This may cause hyponatremia (very serious health condition) or may cause a sloshy stomach/bloating/stomach cramping. When you fall behind on your fluids, you will likely drink too much at once to play catch up (often a hypertonic/concentrated amount from guzzling a lot of drinks at aid stations or stops at gas stations in training).
  
• Make your fueling/hydration strategy during workouts as simple as possible. You should not be using several different methods of consuming electrolytes, calories/carbohydrates/sugars and fluids. But ok to use 2-3 different products/flavors to help with taste bud fatigue. Also, DO NOT overconcentrate your flasks/bottles.
  
• Pace yourself and be OK with slower paces that will elicit a higher RPE. Even mild dehydration can negatively affect performance and can cause drowsiness, irritability, loss of concentration and headaches - none of which are performance enhancing or healthy. When dehydration worsen, serious issues occur which affect the heart, brain, muscles and organs (ex. kidneys).
  
• If you overwork your body, it is not possible to overfuel/hydrate the body to meet your training/racing demands.
  
• Be respectful of your body in the heat. If you are feeling any changes with your body that concern you, first slow down. Don't be a hero and push through - stop! Remind yourself that when your body starts to shut down or gives you signals/signs that something is wrong (ex. headache, chills, vision changes, etc.), your body is no longer adapting to training stress but it's trying to protect you. Never get upset at your body for a bad workout or race if it is simply trying to protect you from a serious heat or other-related injury.

There are far too many athletes failing with workouts and experiencing negative health issues due to poor fueling/hydration strategies before/during/after training and improper pacing. Sport nutrition is a complicated area with many misguided tips and suggestions that are not always practical or healthy. If you know someone who can benefit from this blog, please share.

Attention athletes! Don't overlook your special nutritional requirements.

As an athlete, you have special nutritional requirements compared to your fellow exercise enthusiasts. There's a good chance that you do more volume of exercise during a long workout than most people do in a week. Although this may make you feel a bit superhuman at times, it may also make you feel exhausted and worn out a lot of the time. Thus, it is important to take your "athlete in training" title, very seriously, recognizing that you can only adapt to training if you have a good understanding of your individual nutritional needs AND you meet them on a daily basis. 

In working with athletes, I am never surprised how many athletes struggle to meet daily energy needs. Not only is it tough to be an athlete but it's tough to eat like an athlete!

Consider how the following affects how you well (or not well) you meet your daily energy needs:
-Training load (volume, frequency, intensity)
-Family commitments
-Meetings/social events
-Work commitments/travel
-Lack of appetite
-Little time to eat
-Poor meal planning/prep
-Environmental stress (heat/cold)
-Dietary trends/body image concerns
-Appetite/cravings
-Timing of food
-Influence of professionals/other athletes/social media
-Availability/convenience of food/drinks

As I mentioned above, you are not like other people. The athlete mindset is to adapt to each training session to better prepare for race day. Thus, every training session is an investment to your development and ultimately, your goal is to maximize fitness with the least amount of training stress.

As an athlete, your active lifestyle is quite extreme and because of that, it is important that you understand why nutrition is so critical to helping you achieve success in your sport and why you need to make the effort, every day, to stay on top of your daily and sport nutrition needs.

As an athlete, you need an opportunity, an appetite, awareness, knowledge and availability to consume adequate nutrients and fluids in recommended amounts to meet your daily energy needs, which is dependent on your training load.

As an athlete, you have high energy costs because of your high energy expenditure. In other words, you must meet carbohydrate, protein, fluid and electrolyte needs every single day to ensure that you can stay healthy and consistent with training.  If you do not meet your daily needs, your body begins to fatigue, you struggle to keep your body in good metabolic and hormonal health and you increase risk for injury, sickness, burnout or over training. 

As an athlete, you must spend more time than other people to strategically plan your meals and your snacks and to also time your nutrition around workouts. So in your already busy life, yes, you still need to make YOUR eating a priority.

As an athlete, with the racing season quickly approaching (or you may already be in it), I strongly encourage you to not overlook how critical and extremely necessary it is focus on your food consumption and nutrient quality throughout the day. Busy schedules, lack of planning and intentional undereating will negatively affect training so do yourself a favor and make nutrition a key component to your active lifestyle. 

As an athlete, you have the energy to train so dedicate some of that energy to healthy eating and proper fueling/hydration. Consider that that extra energy on your diet can actually help you train harder, longer and faster!

As an athlete, you likely have a tremendous amount of information on how to fuel and hydrate for workouts, how to fuel properly before/after workouts and you likely understand the basics of how to eat a healthy diet throughout the day. Apply this information to your daily life so that eating, fueling and hydration does not become an after thought. I see it all the time but athletes do not make healthy eating, fueling and hydration a priority until something bad happens with the body. 

As you continue with your summer training, consider that a loss of appetite, heavy training, fatigue, poor access to suitable (or healthy foods) and distractions from proper eating can all negatively affect your ability to train well and keep your body in good health, during the time of the year when you expect your body to perform the best. 

As an athlete, there are no magic bullets or secret nutrition tips to boosting performance. Consistent training, proper fueling/hydration, planning ahead and understanding what works best for you will help you get to that next level.

Here are a few simple nutrition guidelines to help you achieve athletic excellence: 

1. Plan your day of eating before it happens. Plan out your nutrition before/during/after workouts, 3 meals and a satisfying snack between your meals. 
2. For every workout, don't just show up. Have a plan for hydration and fueling before/during/after all workouts. 
3. If you have an off day or a bad workout, underfueling or overexercising will not make things better. Just move on with the methods that are working for you so that you can stay consistent with training. 
4. If you have a bad workout and you feel like your methods are no longer working for you, reach out to a Board Certified Sport Dietitian for help. 
5. Don't be afraid to focus on (and eat for) your own nutrition needs when eating with family, friends and co-workers. 
6. Plan ahead! You must shop and prepare food before a hectic day happens.
7. Plan ahead! You must prepare your pre and post snacks/meals before fatigue/tiredness/business sets in.
8. Sport nutrition products not only help you perform high quality training sessions and keep your body in good health but they bring confidence for race day application. 
9. Always consider how your environment and terrain will affect how you fuel/hydrate before, during and after workouts. 

As an athlete, if you are committing yourself to training for an upcoming event, consider the reward to your training investment when you can confidently say that your nutrition is enhancing your performance and health and that your mind (and not your nutrition) is your only limiter in training and on race day. 

Don't miss my next Facebook live chat - Top 10 nutrition tips for athletes

You are invited to attend my "Top 10 nutrition tips for athletes" presentation, on March 6th, 2017 from 7:00-8:00 pm EST. This is a FREE presentation for all fitness levels.

Are you bummed that you are not local and can't attend? Well, not to worry!

This is a Facebook live chat so yes, I will be live, you don't need to show up to the store and you can watch it from anywhere in the world!

This also means that you can ask me questions anytime during my presentation. No matter what you are doing, you can "join in" on this interactive nutrition presentation.

To access the live discussion, just refresh the Run In Facebook page at 7:00 pm and turn up your volume. I will be speaking and my friend Dane (manager of the store), will be alongside me to read off the questions from the comment section as they roll in.

For the presentation, I will be discussing: 

1. How to organize your diet as an athlete
2. Incorporating whole grains into your diet
3. Daily hydration needs
4. Natural anti-inflammatory foods
5. Incorporating more vegetables into the diet
6. Easy to digest pre-workout snacks
7. How to master post-workout nutrition
8. Tips and tricks for dialing-in during workout fueling and hydration (for triathletes and runners)
9. How to make your own energy bar out of real food
10. Why it's important to create a great relationship with food and the body

Be sure to LIKE and follow Run In on Facebook. 

"See" you on Monday evening! 

Surviving Thanksgiving as an athlete

For an athlete-in-training, there are many challenges around the holidays, especially when it comes to staying consistent with training and healthy eating. Your frustration is not well-understood by your non-athlete family members but your training buddies understand that a routine disruption disrupts your goals and makes it difficult to get back on track. 

So what's an athlete to do? 

Do you put your training on hold and say "oh well" to healthy eating, every time there is a disruption to your routine? 

Do you become stubborn with your ways and begin to remove the distractions from your life, even if it means pushing away your family and close friends....maybe even quitting your job, because it takes up a lot of your time and energy?

What's an athlete to do.

While it's not necessary to put your training on hold for an extended period of time or avoid your family in order to get in every minute of your prescribed workout, it's important that you see any disruption, like a holiday, as a great opportunity to enjoy a little downtown and change up your normal routine. 

Here are a few tips to make the most out of your Thanksgiving break. 

MINDFUL EATING TIPS

1. Create a better internal dialogue in your head when you are eating, especially as it relates to your body and food. 

2. Trust your body. Tune into your true signals of hunger and satisfaction as a way to guide you through your holiday feast. 

3. Treat yourself to family, don't make the holidays just about food. Enjoy your time around your loved ones or if you are alone, call up an old friend or volunteer and help out those in need. 

4. Slow down and taste your food. Appreciate the aroma, presentation, flavor and texture of your food - real food and store bought. Share a story if a dish reminds you of something happy. 

5. Love what you eat. The first few bites of anything should always taste amazing. If you don't love it, don't eat it. 

WORKOUT TIPS

1. Get it done early, but not too early. Enjoy waking up without an alarm but if you can squeeze in a workout before your day gets busy, you'll find yourself energized and you won't have to deal with the guilt that comes with removing yourself from family time, just to train. 

2. Loosen up. It's ok if you have to modify a set or reduce the volume. Heck, skip a workout if you want to! Prioritize the workouts that give you the most payback for your investment at this phase of training. A few modified workouts over the holidays will not affect your race performance in September. 

3. Keep training fun. Participate in a Turkey Trot, exercise with your kids, go for a hike or set up a local group workout. Do something each day that is good for your mind and body. 

4. Be efficient with your time. Indoor workouts provide a great bang for your buck as you can get in a quality workout, with minimal distractions. 

5. Communicate. Now more than ever is the time to communicate with your family. You may be surprised that if you tell your family/kids on Wednesday, that on Friday you will be gone from 8:30-10:30 for a workout, they won't care about your absence. But if you tell them last minute, they may be upset that you are suddenly leaving them, which then leaves you with guilt, if you get in your workout. 

NUTRITION TIPS

1. Don't skip meals throughout the day. Excessively restricting calories or an entire food group (ex. carbohydrates) will likely lead to overeating at your upcoming feast. Instead, focus on small meals throughout the day, eating every few hours. Prioritize higher fiber, natural food options like fruits and veggies at your meals. Don't forget to stay hydrated - with water, of course. 

2. Do not go into your big meal with a starving belly. Plan a healthy snack around 45-60 minutes before your meal. Options like apple slices and pistachios, deli meat and lettuce wraps, celery sticks with cheese or a few almonds with figs should take the edge off so you don't eat with your eyes when serving yourself. 

3. Fuel your workout. Seeing that there is a good chance that you will workout in the morning, restricting calories around/during your workout is not a permissible strategy to indulge (or to eat more calories) at your upcoming feast. It can actually backfire on you as you will likely be so famished by meal time, that you may eat beyond a feeling of fullness - stuffed and very uncomfortable. Treat your workout like any other day. Fuel smart and hydrate well. And be sure to eat a healthy breakfast after your workout (or Turkey Trot). 

4. Choose wisely. Create a healthy plate of a little of everything. 

5. Indulge wisely. You are not forced to eat everything at your feast but you are allowed to indulge. Choose your favorites and say "no thank you" to the unappealing or familiar options. Share, split and limit yourself to just one. 

It's very easy for athletes to remain rigid around the holidays for a change in the normal routine (training or eating) can bring anxiety or a feeling of loss of control. 

In the big picture, a few days away from your normal routine may be a good thing. Don't stress and enjoy yourself. The holidays are a wonderful time to give thanks to your body, to your friends and to your family.
Be sure to tell those around you how much you appreciate them for putting up with you.....I mean, supporting you, throughout the year.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Don't forget to yum!

Nail the basics - recovery nutrition

                                                                                                   (picture source)

Most athletes don't nail their recovery nutrition like they can nail a workout.

Whereas the purpose of recovery nutrition is to help an athlete refuel, rehydrate, repair and build, athletes often fall short on recovery nutrition due to a rushed lifestyle, poor planning, loss of an appetite, or the tendency to reward or restrict food.

Coupled with a body that is mentally and physically exhausted after a hard training session, it's no surprise that athletes find it easier to make the time to train than to make the time to plan smart recovery meals and snacks.

Although recovery nutrition appears to have evolved in a precise science (not to mention that everything related to nutrition has become far more complicated than it should be), taking into consideration age, gender, environmental factors, fitness level, workout intensity and duration, endurance athletes should recognize that in a real world setting, you can not eat perfectly per "scientific recommendations" after every workout.

Seeing that many athletes have an all or nothing approach to nutrition ("if I can't be perfect, why bother?"), here are a few simple tips basics on scientific recommendations to help you apply basic recovery nutrition tips to your crazy, busy and stressful life.
Ultimately, when you recover well, you can train more consistently and when you train more consistently, you improve your fitness.

And who doesn't love an improvement in fitness?

HYDRATION

Science: 
For every 1 lb weight loss (pre workout weight minus post workout weight), replace it with 16-20 ounces of fluid.

Nail it tips: -Your total amount of fluid consumption to replace post workout should be spread out throughout several hours, not consumed all at once.

-Be mindful that you are also losing glycogen from the muscles and liver when you train long, which affects post workout weight. Don't overthink the drink - just drink.

-If you are losing more than 4% body weight during a workout or gaining weight post workout, you need speak to a sport RD regarding your sport nutrition fuel and hydration intake during workouts.

-Be aware of the mental and physical signs of dehydration.

-On a daily basis, it's recommended to consume 3.7L for men and 2.7L for women each day for adequate hydration.

-Adding additional sodium (start with ~1/8 tsp salt) to your pre and post workout snack/drink can help with rehydration if you are an excessive sweater, as well as curbing salty cravings that may appear post workout or later in the day. A glass of OJ after a sweaty intense or long workout (with 1/4 tsp of salt) is one of my favorite rehydration beverages.

-Every long workout is an opportunity to understand your hydration needs. Don't wait until race week to guess how much/little you need to drink during your race to perform well. This should have been figured out months in advance and tweaked throughout your peak training.
Consult with a RD if you struggle to understand your hydration needs - a board certified sport dietitian who specializes in your sport can help you out.
-Adding ~1/8-1/4 tsp of salt or 190-380mg sodium (I use pink Himalayan salt) to each 24-28 ounce bottle of sport drink/water may help you retain more fluids of you are a heavy and salty sweater. You may also need to increase your overall fluid intake (not calories) to 28-32 ounces of fluid per hour.
-If you are not a great water drinker, add fresh lemon or lime to your drinks, opt for seltzer or mineral water or add a splash of juice to your water. 

CARBS

Science: 
It can take up to 24 hours or more to completely restock muscle glycogen stores after an intense or long workout.

-Aim for 1-1.2 g/kg of carbs, every 90 minutes in the 4-5 hours following a workout.

Nail it tips:
-If you are working out for 1-2.5 hours (ex. typical "weekly" workout), it's best to consume a recovery meal with protein and carbs (and some fat) within 60ish minutes post workout. Although some exceptions will apply that a recovery snack then meal is encouraged, most athletes can go right for a meal post workout.

-Understand the best foods that will digest the best after your workout when you do the following workouts: intense workout, long workout, early morning workout, late evening workout, mid day or lunch time workout, EZ workout. 

-If you are recovering from a 2.5+ hour long workout (ex. typical "weekend" workout), the next few hours post workout are key for optimizing recovery. Carb and protein intake are critical for recovery and repair.

-Avoid being the one meal a day post workout type of athlete (ex. minimal food post workout and then one big meal in the evening or the opposite, one huge meal post workout and then no appetite the rest of the day). Frequent meals, low in fiber and fat, along with mini meals/snacks are key to recovery without affection digestion.

-If you find yourself with no or little appetite post workout, opt for foods that will sit well like a glass of OJ, a handful of granola, rice, applesauce or fruit for carbohydrates. 

PROTEIN

Science: -Dietary protein ingestion immediately post workout can assist in the skeletal muscle adaptive response to training. Regardless of the workout, your recovery protein can also help meet your daily protein needs.
Many athletes fall short on daily protein intake.  Protein intake should be around 1.3-1.8g/kg/bw a day for athletes and around 25-30g of protein per meal. 

Nail it tips:

-Aim for 25-30g of protein within 30-45 minutes post workout and additional 15-20g protein every 2-3 hours for the next 6 hours (with carbohydrates) to maximize recovery.

-Plan your favorite go-to protein options for immediately post workout as well as for the hours post workout. Be mindful that the heat, the intensity of the workout and your overall appetite (or lack thereof) can affect your ability to tolerate and crave/want protein post workout.

-For a sensitive stomach, choose as soft or liquid as possible. Most athletes will find that liquids will digest easier than solid food, especially in the summer heat after a hot workout. Whey or vegan protein, scrambled eggs (or tofu), yogurt (or a yogurt based drink), milk or cottage cheese (great for salty cravings post workout) are easy go-to options. Always choose your options based on what your body can tolerate the best.

-Be mindful to continue eating protein throughout the 4-5 hours post workout and in your evening meal. 

Nail the basics: 

Be mindful that after a workout, your recovery window is open all day!
That is - everything between two key workout is "recovery".

The best way to nail your recovery nutrition is to plan ahead.

Because most athletes spend more time focusing on the workout itself than on what will assist in helping the body absorb the training stress (ex. sport nutrition and pre and post workout fuel and hydration), I suggest to write down what you will eat in the 2 hours before a workout and in the 4 hours after your long workout.

If you tend to finish your workouts exhausted or starving, it's in your best interest to have your recovery snacks and meals prepared (or easy to prep) ahead of time as you know what happens to your food choices when you don't plan ahead (especially after a long/hard workout).

Here's your get-started recovery nutrition planning guide:

60 minutes post workout: 

Fluid intake: ____________

Carb and protein snack or meal: ______________

1-2 hours post workout: 

Fluid intake: ______________

Carb and protein snack or meal: ______________

2-4 hours post workout: 

Fluid intake: ______________

Carb and protein snack or meal: ______________

How do I fuel if.....

Writing an article for a magazine usually goes like this....

I pitch a lot of articles to a magazine and a few (or one or none) gets selected OR a magazine reaches out to me with an article topic for me to write about.

Back in December, after I received confirmation that I would be writing three articles for Triathlete Magazine for the May (Fueling the Vegetarian athlete), June (Sport Nutrition - progressing from short to long course racing) and July (Common fueling mistakes) issues, I was asked to write a 2000-word, feature assignment for the March/April issue on "How do I fuel if...." with the following topics discussed:
-I don't have time to cook
-I'm trying to lose weight
-I'm (going) gluten-free
-I'm a female athlete
-I bonk in races

The article would include 5 different scenarios (each around 200-300 words or the equivalent of a short article) with specific advice, tips and suggestions for each topic, in addition to a sidebar of common-race day fueling mistakes. 

Not only was this the longest article I have ever written for print (essentially, 6 articles into one) but I had a two week turnaround with a very quick deadline as it was a last minute addition to the magazine.

While reading an article after it is completed is rewarding (and hopefully, it flows well and makes sense), the process of writing an article is not easy. And I think any writer can admit that sometimes words easily flow from the brain to the fingers to paper and viola, an article is written quickly but many times, writing an article is a tough process with a lot of mental struggles, either lack of creativity or difficulty getting anything done.

When I am about to write an article, I always do a lot of research before I start typing and this includes reading a lot of current scientific studies as well as learning/understanding what the masses (athletes) are doing, not doing or are most concerned about (or struggling with). There is a lot of thinking that goes into writing easy to read, easy to apply and easy to understand sentences. Finding a way to get 2000 words on to a blank piece of paper is not an easy process but I love the challenge of being a writer.
(If I didn't write, my brain would stay filled with words. Getting those thoughts on paper clears up my head).

While this article took a lot of time, energy and brain power, and several long days of locking myself in a room (with Campy - who is a professional napper) to work on this article, I loved the challenge of writing this feature article and I am really happy with how it turned out. 

I hope you enjoy the article and can take away something helpful from one or all six of my nutrition topics.

How to be a well-fueled machine
(2016 March/April issue)

If you need a more personalized approach with nutrition or have concerns about specific nutrition topics, be sure to reach out to professional who can help in your individual journey. 

Understand your appetite tips

Struggling to understand your appetite?
I find that far too many athletes are on the search for the perfect eating plan for weight loss, more energy and improved health. Sadly, this plan doesn't exist for the masses. Figuring out the ideal style of eating for you takes some work.

Calorie or macronutrient -focused meal plans which offer no flexibility or options do not address normal hunger and satisfaction cues.

Whereas I do like the idea of having a meal template for different meal and snack options to better understand your appetite,hunger and satisfaction and to create new nutrition habits, you can't expect a meal plan to be a forever approach to eating.

Your diet will always evolve just like you evolve from baby, to child to adult to elderly adult. And when it comes to training for an event, a periodized approach to nutrition is also a way to support your extremely active lifestyle as you develop your skills, strength, power, speed and endurance.

It takes time to work on your eating to determine what works best for you. But if you are constantly trying to do what everyone else is doing or waiting for the perfect moment to start something new, you'll waste many months, if not years, struggling to understand your own appetite.

Here are some suggestions to help you learn how to eat in a smarter way while moving closer to meeting your energy and health goals. 

1. Plan your day of eating before it happens.
You should include carbohydrates, protein and fat at your 3 meals and snack between meals (aim to eat every 3 hours).
You should not follow any diet fad or specific style of eating during this time as you need to learn what works best for you and your body.
Try to follow a similar style of eating with your meals and snacks for at least two weeks but pay attention to your hunger and fullness. Every evening, reflect on the day and make one or two small tweaks based on what didn't go well during the day. Your goal is to feel that by the end two weeks, you have a better idea of how much food is enough to leave you nourished, satisfied, healthy and energized. You have to trust yourself in this process as you may find yourself with confusing signals from the brain and belly. Even though it's only two weeks, many athletes make the mistake of doing the same things over and over and never make a change. Give yourself a week to make small changes  each day and then try to follow a style of eating for week #2 based on what worked and didn't work in week #1. 

2. Create easy options for fueling before and after your workouts.
For the athletes who have little appetite before or after workouts or for those who have extreme hunger, it is important to have a plan with your eating so you don't overeat but also so you don't undereat. If you want your body to work for you, you have to feed and fuel it properly on a consistent basis. You  need to understand what helps you fuel for an upcoming workout but also what helps you recover, replenish and rehydrate.  If you have a plan, you will be more likely to follow through with your good intentions. Consider easy to digest options which are easy to find and prepare before and after workouts. Training is stressful - don't make your fueling plan stressful.

3. Understand YOUR body.
I often hear from my nutrition athletes that they do well in the mornings with eating and then everything falls apart in the afternoon or eating. More willpower is not the answer. If you are following a diet plan or a style of eating that is not fit for you, you will spend your entire life struggling to understand how to eat and constantly hoping to do better tomorrow.
Learn to understand what works best for you. Eating is not cheating and what works for one person may not work for you. Accepting your hunger, your fullness and your individual needs is the first step to creating a diet plan that works for you.

4. Create a fueling game plan.
While it is easy to consume treats, indulgences and reward food to replenish the calories that were used in training, it's important to understand what foods, drinks and products work best before, during and after your workouts to help you better adapt to training. While you may need to work with a sport dietitian to understand how much and when you should be eating and fueling to help you meet energy, electrolyte and fluid needs, it's important to figure out what works best for you, your appetite and your body around and during your training.
Whereas one athlete may be able to eat a stack of pancakes, syrup, milk and fruit and eggs after a long run, another athlete may struggle to eat a handful of berries. In this scenario, the later athlete would benefit from a liquid recovery meal after the workout and to slowly ease into solid food as tolerated. No two athletes are the same, especially as it relates to fueling before, during and after workouts. However, every athlete should nail the basics before creating a personalized fueling plan. There are general guidelines that all athletes should follow and once these are mastered, individual scenarios and situations can be discussed.
In any case, you need a game plan that will allow you to train consistently and meet your energy needs. 

Performance-focused nutrition

As an athlete, you have special nutritional requirements compared to your fellow exercise enthusiasts.
You do incredible things with your body on a daily basis and you have high expectations for what your body will do on race day. And unlike research laboratory studies, you are not exercising to see how long you can go but instead, you train to see how fast you can cover a specific distance on a specific date.  

As an athlete, you probably experience many challenges when it comes meeting your extreme training needs through the daily diet because you are not like other people who must only meet basic nutritional needs - you must have great nutritional habits on a day-to-day basis but you also have an extra responsibility to your body to ensure it has the right foods, at the right times to give you extra energy, to delay fatigue, to promote recovery and to keep your body in good hormonal and metabolic health.

First off, if you are reading this right now, I want you to own-up to your "athlete" status.
If you are training for an event, you are an athlete. If you are taking a break from training for an event, but you have completed an event in the past, you are still allowed to call yourself an athlete as nobody took away your past accomplishments - you just may not be able to eat like you use to as you are no longer in need of the energy that helped you train for your events.

 For this very reason of being "an athlete" you are not like other people who can afford to make drastic changes in the diet (like restricting specific food groups for 30 days or excessively cutting back on carbs or calories) or experiment with different diet fads or exercise programs.
At the same time, just because you are an athlete, you can not abuse food because you will burn it off in training.
If you bring poor past dietary habits to your new training regime (or pick up on poor habits as you find that you have less time for meal prep because you need to train longer), you will learn that a dietary change is needed. 

Even though you are training for an event, your extreme active lifestyle should not compromise great health. And for this very reason, performance focused nutrition is your style of eating. 

It is important that you understand that nutrition is very important in your development and in order to achieve personal success in your sport, you need to stay on top of your daily and sport nutrition. 

Far too many experts provide plans for eating which are not practical or feasible at this phase in your nutrition journey. Sure, they may be what you need to kick-start a new style of eating but gaining control over "healthy" eating is more than simply following a plan. You must learn how to eat as an athlete, without feeling deprived, denied or low in energy. 

It boggles my mind that athletes think it's ok to follow the same diet as someone who is not active or has serious clinical health issues. And if a significant amount of weight loss is a necessary goal, training for an event alongside dieting may be a challenge as losing weight through a diet while trying to train the body for an event comes with risks if not done carefully with great supervision by a professional.

As an athlete, you have high energy costs to ensure that you can stay healthy and consistent with training.  If you do not meet these needs, your body begins to fatigue, your motivation for training subsides, your hormones/metabolism change and you may increase risk for injury. 

As an athlete, you must spend more time than non-athletes to strategically plan your meals and your snacks and learn how to time those meals and snacks around workouts.  Busy schedules can interfere with normal eating (and healthy eating) but do not let this be an excuse as to why you are unable to eat well and fuel smart. 

Through a well-chosen, varied diet it's important that you put an extra emphasis on providing your body with the nutrients that will most used (and needed) around workouts. 

As your season progresses, you have many opportunities to fine-tune your nutrition strategies to help you prepare for your upcoming events but you must be consistent for a specific period of time to ensure that what you are doing is working or not working. If you are training harder or longer, don't believe that food restriction and elimination will help you get through your workouts better.

As an athlete, you need the opportunity,  desire AND appetite to consume adequate nutrients and fluids in recommended amounts around workouts and throughout the day. This makes it rather hard for some athletes to easily meet nutritional needs whereas for others, there is lack of passion, awareness or knowledge. 

As you continue to train and advance your fitness, understand that loss of appetite, fatigue, poor access to suitable (or healthy foods) and distractions from proper eating can all negatively affect your ability to train consistently. If your nutrition is keeping you from meeting your training expectations, it's time to reach out to a professional to help. 

Remember that there are no magic bullets or quick fixes when it comes to keeping your body at a healthy body composition, meeting your energy and hydration needs around workouts and staying healthy as an athlete.
The same healthy living strategies that apply to the "normal" population apply to you as well.
Don't assume that you can just out-train poor lifestyle habits and still be a healthy athlete. 

As a performance focused athlete, you must apply the basic healthy living and more specific sport nutrition fueling principles to your active lifestyle on a consistent basis and be sure to learn what works best for you as you slowly create your own performance-focused nutrition plan. 

If you are willing to push your body to new limits and make the investment in every other area of your life to be the best athlete you can be, consider the importance of taking the time learn how to eat and fuel like an athlete.

Healthy eating - getting started

Most athletes will come to me for nutrition help with the goals of:
-Improving performance
-Improving their relationship with food and/or the body
-Changing body composition

All three goals require dietary changes (in some capacity) and depending on the athlete, he/she may want to achieve all three goals listed above, or just one or two.
Oddly enough, sometimes changing body composition can improve performance but so can improving the relationship with food and the body. And sometimes focusing on nutrition limiters and strengths in order to improve performance, with a great relationship with food and the body can change body composition. 

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to dietary changes as every individual is on his/her own nutritional journey.

Furthermore, every athletes may have his/her own personal limitations when it comes to the "best" approach to changing the diet - this can be anything from lack of healthy food options, unrealistic eating/body/performance goals, disordered eating or body image dissatisfaction, training routine/fitness level, motivation, family support, self-confidence, etc. 

Similar methods and ideologies may work for the masses but ultimately, every athlete is in his/her own journey.

Healthy eating for one person may be making homemade almond milk, grinding his/her own nut butter, picking produce from an at-home garden and never using sport nutrition because no workout exceeds 70 minutes in length.
Whereas for another person, healthy may be better portion control and controlling the emotional eating.

And for another individual, healthy eating may be not restricting calories from the daily diet and learning how to use sport nutrition properly to help adapt to endurance training while preparing for a half or full Ironman.

Or, healthy eating could be making changes so that cancer doesn't return for a second time.
Or, healthy eating could be overcoming years of disordered eating (ex. orthorexia) or an eating disorder.

As you can see, you may have a goal of improving performance or changing body composition but in order to eat "healthy" it's important to create healthy eating patterns which work for you....right now in your life.

The goal of "healthy eating" is to not try to eat like someone else who may be more along in his/her nutrition journey.

Healthy eating doesn't mean buying food that you have no idea how to prepare (or you hate).
Healthy eating doesn't mean eating “perfect” like what you read and see on the internet nor does it mean eating food that doesn't make you feel good inside your body.

And healthy eating doesn't mean feeling the need to eat differently, at any/all costs, because you hate your body image.

Healthy eating means setting yourself up for good eating patterns - eating patterns that are sustainable, realistic, healthy and performance enhancing.

As you progress in your individual journey, be mindful that your definition of healthy eating will/may change overtime. You may go from being extremely rigid and strict in your diet to allowing more food freedom and food flexibility. Or you may be proud that you are "at least" eating breakfast now and eating a few veggies throughout the day and you may find yourself learning how to plan a more balanced breakfast and even eating a hearty salad as a meal. 
And as you adapt to your training plan, your physiology will likely change, thus allowing you to train harder, longer or stronger. Your body will require additional energy and electrolytes and fluids and you will begin to understand that a well-planned sport nutrition plan is very important to keeping your body healthy. 

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

-Create an eating plan for what you will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day of the week as well as for snacks. When you have a plan, you will find it easier to be proactive and plan ahead. You can keep this extremely simple by eating similar foods each day to get started. Be mindful of your hunger and fullness cues. 

--Don't bring a diet mentality (or off limit food list) to your eating patterns. Allow for flexibility and avoid having an all-or-nothing approach. You have enough education and knowledge to know what foods are "healthy" (hint - prioritize food made in gardens and grown on farms).

-Spend 30 minutes each day planning for tomorrow's eating. Reflect on today and what worked/didn't work and make small tweaks so you feel more control, satisfied and comfortable with your eating patterns. The more food that you have prepped and available, the easier it is to follow through with your plan. 

-Consider your life to-do's so that eating is not too complicated, time consuming or difficult. Never let eating be an afterthought (or pushed aside as something you don't have time for) as a well nourished body functions well in life.

-Give yourself time at time-out to eat a meal (at least 20 minutes) before continuing on with the rest of your day.
-Don't aim for perfect - allow for flexibility.

-Consider how your workouts impact your appetite and food choices.

-Consider how your pre/during/post workout nutrition can positively or negatively affect your workouts as well as your eating patterns throughout the day. 

-Don't try to use willpower, discipline or being strict to initiate a change. Be proactive with your eating patterns so you set yourself up for good behaviors. If you have trigger foods that are too tempting to eat right now in your journey, remove them from your environment.

-Always maintain a healthy relationship with food. Food is not for managing stress or emotions and it is not reward for a great workout or punishment for a bad workout.

-If a body composition modification is a desired goal to enhance performance or to improve health, the methods should not be strict, limited or extreme. You should allow for gradual weight loss (not a quick fix), without extreme food restrictions, excessive exercising, unsafe behaviors (starving, purging, laxatives) or use of weight loss or performance-enhancing supplements.   

How's your off-season relationship with food?

The off-season weight debate is a serious topic of conversation at the end of the racing season. Year after year, athletes, dietitians, nutrition experts personal trainers and coaches continue to justify the reasons for intentional (or unintentional) weight gain at the conclusion of the racing season, which is then often followed by the dietary rules and methods of intentional weight loss/maintenance in the early phases of the training season.

Yet rarely, if ever, do we hear about the importance of having a healthy relationship with food and how your relationship with food throughout the entire season affects overall health, sport nutrition choices/methods and daily dietary choices. 

If anything, all athletes should FIRST learn how to have a healthy relationship with food prior to even discussing methods of improving sport nutrition, body composition or overall health.

Before talking about how to improve your relationship with food during the off-season, I would like to discuss two main reasons as to why I feel athletes struggle with their relationship with food (which consequently starts or follows an unhealthy relationship with body image). 

THE START OF YOUR SEASON

It was not even a year ago when social media was flooded with athletes who were gushing over their new amazing "lifestyle" by eliminating gluten and dairy (without a clinical reason for doing so), going Paleo or Whole30 or starting a new training/fueling/diet regime in order to burn more fat and to become more metabolically efficient. I wouldn't be surprised that in less than two months, it will all happen again.

It wasn't too much later in the racing season (but more so this summer) when social media became rather quite as many athletes we no longer enjoying their diet as they felt unhealthy or less fit (as in, performance was not improving or declining). Additionally, many female athletes were experiencing health issues relating to their metabolism, bone and thyroid health.

In other words - the diet was no longer working, helping or maintainable. 

It is very unfortunate how these annual, New Year food trends destroy an athletes' relationship with food. Sure, it may look very tempting (and necessary) to jump-on a diet train when the start of your training plan falls soon after the holiday season as a previously very flexible "off season" workout routine, coupled with splurges and indulges, can leave you ancy for a quick fix.

And to make things easier, much of the world (non-athletes) are thinking just like you in that a drastic change combined with extreme determination is the best way to start the year. Because of this, there is information, a plan and even products to support your dietary/body composition endeavors which is why so many athletes follow a diet plan sometime in the off-season.

But as we all know, these extreme eating habits have the potential to completely disrupt any opportunity of you creating or maintaining a healthy relationship with food during your season and are not beneficial for your performance - so why see them as an option?

If you have a past history with trying diet fads or following extreme diets or eliminating food, you constantly experience great fear of certain foods, food groups or nutrients, worry about eating the wrong things at the wrong times, associate guilt with your eating, feel like no matter how much you workout and reduce calories you can't lose weight or feel like you are constantly unhappy with your body, the off-season may leave you in a very vulnerable position to be a sucker for diet fads/trends at the start of your season.

In the off-season, when training volume/intensity is reduced and you can live a much less stressful and busy lifestyle, this is a great time to develop a healthy relationship with food and to begin to love your amazing body. You can focus on yourself without having to focus on a race but it is important that you do not focus on what other people are doing. 

Would you believe me when I said that there a lot of athletes who eat gluten, drink milk, eat before workouts, use sport nutrition, drink on a schedule (and not to thirst) while working out and not only perform well but maintain a very healthy body composition throughout the season?

It wouldn't be hard for you to find theses athletes too as they do exist - lots of them - and this includes many professional athletes!

I know it sounds crazy (as the nutrition experts don't want you to believe it) but dieting and restrictive eating have no place in an athletes diet (or vocabulary).  

Every athlete must customize a diet and fueling regime that works for individual goals. 

In summary, starting the off-season or New Year by following a mass marketed diet or restrictive eating plan in an effort to lose weight, jump-start a healthier lifestyle or to improve fitness, will only increase the risk that you may have an unhealthy relationship with food during your training and racing season - when food is no longer just viewed as nourishment but also for fuel. 

If you currently have an ongoing struggle (or fear) with food, please avoid any and all diet plans in your off-season as they are simply an easy means so that you can control underlying issues. They do not fix the your food problems, they only exacerbate the issues.

It is time to get to the root of the problem which is likely your current relationship with food and your body as an athlete. 

THE END OF YOUR SEASON

Did you experience an injury at some point during your training prep leading up to your last race?

Did you finish your season burnt out or with a subpar performance at your last race?

Did you feel you reached a race weight that left you unhealthy and improperly nourished?

Did you struggle with your weight throughout the season and still feel as if your body composition is a limiter in your overall health and/or training/racing?

OR

Did you feel comfortable with your body image at the end of the season?

Regardless of your body composition, did you experience a great result at your end of the season race?

Did you feel strong, healthy and fit throughout your season and feel like your composition has not be a limiter all season?

Depending on how you answered the above questions, this will directly affect your relationship with food in the off-season. Because weight is not a simple topic that can be "fixed" with a simple method or strategy for the masses, it is important to ask yourself how the last few months of training/racing or your last race performance may be affecting your current "off-season" relationship with food.

There is a great association between body image, performance and dietary choices in the off season but as we all know, this is not limited to the months when we are not gearing up for a race.

Athletes are constantly bashing and criticizing their body for being the reason for injuries, poor performances and not reaching expectations or goals and this needs to stop.

 It is very important that athletes and "experts" are sensitive to this fact when it comes to chiming-in on the "off-season" weight and diet conversation as an athlete who was injured during the season, has a poor performance at his/her last race, struggles with his/her body image or has struggled with his/her weight all season is going to have a very different relationship with his/her body at the start of the off-season compared to an athlete who had a great training/racing season, feels healthy or in the best shape ever.

Because of this, body image concerns may drive eating choices/behaviors as some athletes will indulge responsibly whereas others will restrict food.

Depending on how you finished your season, it is very important that you take the time to recognize what your body has allowed you to do and to give your body some credit.

Next, identify what's driving your dietary choices in the off-season? Are you allowing your current body image/composition or lack of a training routine from helping you make smart food choices?

 Certainly, it is important that no matter your body composition or performance at the end of the season, you have the power to develop a healthy relationship  with food in the off-season and you always focus on eating for health.

No matter your off-season weight/body composition goals, all foods in your diet should make you feel good when you eat and after you eat.

Next up - I will discuss a few simple steps on how you can improve your relationship with food in the off-season. 

All-day nutrition tips for athletes: Dinner

DINNER

Now that I have discussed my breakfast and lunch tips, it's time for dinner!!

First off, before discussing my tips, I want to preface by saying that my all-day nutrition tips are designed to help you fuel smarter, eat healthier and develop or maintain a healthy (or healthier) relationship with food and your body. There are no rules or guidelines as to when to eat or even exactly what to eat. There are no bad foods to avoid or even a list of clean foods to eat.
My goal is to help athletes fuel and eat smarter all in an effort to maintain a healthy body composition, keep the body in good health and of course, boost fitness and perform amazingly well on race day!!

-Dinner is often the "Achilles heal" of most people in our society. For a variety of reasons like being tired and hungry, wanting food fast, feeling too busy or not liking/wanting to cook, sitting down at the table to a home-cooked meal is not an every day occurrence for many. But for athletes, with so much to squeeze into the day, there is great reason as to why dinner may be an afterthought. BUT - that is no excuse. You have to prioritize dinner.

Here are my big tips for ensuring that you can enjoy a dinner meal even as a super busy athlete:

-Prepare meals on the weekend and always plan for leftovers.

-A little meal prep goes a long way. Dice, chop, wash, cook - do as much as you can when you have the time so you at least have options for a upcoming meal.

-Prep a meal (as much as possible) before a workout so you don't finish your workout hungry with no patience to meal prep. 

 -Have a menu for the week. Knowing what you will eat for dinner will ensure that you have those items for dinner. No need to make this menu extravagant, just make a plan. As far as I know, athletes love having a plan to follow.

-Allow yourself one night a week to get a little help from a pre-made meal. Rather than dining out (which takes time to wait for food, eat and pay and travel to and from the restaurant), order out or pick-up food and then use your extra time after dinner to prep a meal for the next day.

-Stop wasting time on stuff that takes up time. Think about your day when you are home. Often times, the cooking and meal prep is an afterthought and athletes get busy doing something else and then when it is time to eat/cook, hunger is too great that the athlete needs something quick and easy. Look at your day to see if there is 10-30 minutes in the morning, when you get home from work (or a workout) or evening that you can do some cooking. 

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As an athlete, food should be high on your to-do list. This means eating, cooking and planning. There's no need to be obsessed and there is nothing wrong with the occasional off day of eating food prepared outside of the home.
Above all, you should love to eat as it is the best way to keep your body in good health and boost your fitness - and who doesn't want both of those??

You know how important consistency is with training and the results you get when you can stick to your training plan. Put a similar amount of passion, effort and enthusiasm into your daily diet (and fueling regime) so that you can feel what it is like to properly fuel and nourish your body in motion. 

If you struggle with daily eating as it relates to your busy lifestyle or body composition or performance goals, send me an email so we can work together to figure out the best fueling plan to meet your health and fitness goals. 

All-day nutrition tips for athletes: Lunch

LUNCH

Now that I covered my Breakfast Tips, it's time for lunch!

-Regardless if you love lunch foods or not, lunch is an important meal of your day as an athlete. Unlike breakfast which is super important as it kick-starts your day (and helps you refuel from your morning workout), lunch is a prime opportunity to nourish your body and fill in some nutritional gaps between breakfast and dinner. Whereas a high fiber, high fat and/or high protein meal is not in the ideal composition from a "fueling" perspective in the morning or evening if a workout precedes the meal, lunch is a great opportunity to fill in the nutritional gaps that may occur throughout the day in an athlete's diet. I highly suggest to emphasize a large salad for your lunch and to make your lunch very "plant strong."

-Many athletes eat lunch and then feel hungry just an hour later. This starts an afternoon of trying to mask hunger with unhealthy methods (drinking coffee or diet coke, chewing gum, eating sugar-free/low calorie processed foods, drinking energy drinks) or giving in to hunger with unhealthy snack options. Or just feeling like hunger never settles. The key to taming hunger in the afternoon is to ensure that your lunch meal is well balanced. I've worked with many athletes who eat a super healthy lunch but because of lack of protein and fat, the healthy lunch ends up becoming unhealthy when the athlete indulges post lunch due to not feeling satisfied. Whereas breakfast and dinner may be more carb-rich, be sure to incorporate at least 25-30g of protein and 10-15g of fat with your plant-strong lunch meal. Along with a heavy dose of fiber from a variety of vegetables, you should find your digestion slowing down and providing satiety for at least 2-2.5 hours. 

-You need a substantial afternoon snack. I feel this is where a lot of athletes go wrong. Don't expect (or plan) for lunch to hold you over for 4+ hours, especially if you are doing an afternoon/early evening workout. And if you workout in the evening, you may need two snacks! Don't be afraid to eat in the afternoon. You are not dieting so you don't need to "save" calories. The goal is to have a substantial snack that looks like a mini meal. It could be a 1/2 sandwich or wrap, granola, yogurt and fruit or a small potato with side of cottage cheese. Whatever your mini meal looks like, consider the evening workout so that you allow adequate time for digestion (at least 2-3 hours before the evening workout).

-Simple pre-workout snacks before an evening workout can be very similar to a morning workout. Ideally, athletes should still consider a small afternoon snack in addition to a pre-workout snack. This may look like a lot of eating but in the big picture, you are trying to manage your appetite throughout the week, minimize overeating in the late evening when you are sedentary and seeking good digestion before bed and to ensure great workouts on a daily basis.

-Don't be afraid to get a little help from others. There is nothing wrong with relying on eating-out once a week, picking up a pre-made salad or selecting from a salad bar. Just always keep your goals and appetite in mind. A pre-made salad at the grocery store or restaurant may work for your sedentary co-worker but it may not be enough for you if you are training for an Ironman!

-Lastly, I have worked with many athletes. I try to help my nutrition athletes better plan their day rather than abiding by a standard meal plan that may or may not work for their lifestyle. If you are a retail employee, emergency room nurse, lawyer, doctor, teacher, stay-at-home parent, vet, accountant.....whatever your job  may be, you must eat based on your schedule. Consider your day and how your job requirements impact your food choices, timing of food, energy, cravings and anything else that will help you be a better planner (and healthier eater). 

Stay tuned for dinner tips!

All-day nutrition tips for athletes: Breakfast

Would it surprise you to hear that many athletes express that they are too busy to eat?

Yes - too busy to eat!

I am a very busy person but there is always time to eat. And plus, food is my fuel.

How can I expect my body to perform well in training and throughout the day if I do not make time to nourish it? 

I wanted to share a few of my nutrition tips to help with meal planning, nourishing and fueling your body throughout the day so that you can set yourself up for great health and great performances.

BREAKFAST

-For the athlete who works out in the morning, there are two priorities. First, you need to focus on what you will consume before/during/after your workout. I call this your "sport nutrition". Next you need to plan what you will eat post workout for your post workout meal (or breakfast). Also, do not neglect your hydration in the form of sport drinks (during), water (before/during/after) and electrolytes (during/after).

-Keep your morning nutrition super easy. This is often the time when busy athletes are extremely rushed and tend to prioritize working out. Don't make your sport nutrition or post workout meal super complicated. In the best case scenario, you should be able to prep your meal/snacks in less than 10 minutes. 

-Create a list of 2-3 pre and post workout snack options (depending on the workout) and make sure you always have those foods available. To that list, add 3-4 staple breakfast meals. Your house should always be stocked with these 6-7 food items to ensure that you set yourself up for great workouts and a great recovery.

-Consider your routine, environment (home/work), travel and anything else that makes your fueling/nourishing/eating regime specific to you. Depending on your commute to work, your job requirements, your morning workout (time/volume/intensity) and anything else, this will factor into what you plan to eat.

-Prioritize carbohydrates and protein, with a little fat with your breakfast meal if you are working out in the morning. This is a prime opportunity to replenish liver and glycogen stores and to help reduce the chance for any afternoon/evening cravings. Focus on wholesome foods that leave you satisfied. 

-For athletes who work out super early and eat breakfast soon after, you may find yourself snacking your way through the morning simply because the breakfast (or post workout meal) and lunch occur more than 4 hours apart. In this case, it may be helpful to eat two mini-meals as oppose to one big breakfast post workout (or first thing in the morning). This can also offset extra calories that you may be consuming in the morning simply because you can't seem to feel satisfied. Two mini meals can often solve that problem (example: instead of eggs, oatmeal and fruit at 7am post workout, have 1 hardboiled egg + 1 banana + smear of PB and handful granola at 7am and then your oatmeal creation with fruit and nuts/seeds at 8:30/9am). 

-No two days will be the same. Never get mad at your body and always honor your biological hunger. Make notes (mental is fine) as to what workouts bring on more/less hunger and how to plan accordingly with your morning meals/snacks. 

-Bring finger food for morning snacking. Many times, a few almonds, a handful of grapes, apple slices or chopped carrots can do the trick to hold you over until lunch. 

Stay tuned for lunch tips!