To fuel or not to fuel?

                                                

The off-season/foundation phase presents itself with a unique opportunity in your season where training volume and intensity is relatively low and thus, you don't expend a great amount of calories. This is a perfect time to break away from relying on engineered sport nutrition products to get you through your workouts and to see your daily diet as the fuel for your workouts.
In other words, sport nutrition will play a very small role in your training routine. 

However, I feel this is where many athletes eat and train with confusion.

I'm sure you have been told that you don't need to eat before a workout in the off-season/foundation phase or you should avoid all sport nutrition during workouts, to burn more fat, in the off-season/foundation phase.

While there's scientific research to support that working out fasted has an extra metabolic response where you metabolize more fat, improve insulin sensitivity and increase lean muscle mass, it's important to remember that scientific research is great for providing results but not every research study may apply to you.

As an athlete, your best performance enhancement is having consistently great workouts where the body is not limited in energy but also being able to maintain a healthy diet, all day, every day.

There are several types of athletes who I feel will receive no benefit from fasted workouts as they can actually cause a cascade of negative health and performance issues.

Do you/Are you....
-Experience hypoglycemia during a workout
-Overcoming an eating disorder
-Struggling with disordered eating
-Struggling with body image issues
-Overeat later in the day
-Experience great carb cravings later in the day
-Fast for reward food/overindulging after a workout
-Have never trained the gut to tolerate food before the workout
-A new athlete who is trying to develop consistent training and healthy eating patterns
-Struggle to get through workout without feeling lightheaded/dizzy/moody/low energy
-Experience a blackout/foggy sensation during workouts
-Get sick easily (weak immune system) or get injured easily (fragile body)
-Experience great hunger during a workout
-Diabetic athlete
-Health issues (organs, bones, heart, brain, etc.)
-You've tried it before and you feel you perform better and make better food choices when you aren't fasted

Sadly, many athletes in the above category are brainwashed to believe that they must perform fasted workouts to become more fat adapted and thus all symptoms will improve, paces will drop, heart rate will be more controlled and fat will melt off the body. And, if athletes are still feeling issues by performing a workout fasted, they aren't doing it right, they need to give it more time or it's proof that they are a horrible fat burner.

So what do you do if you are one of the above types of athletes I listed and you need to eat before a workout and maybe even take in a little extra energy during your workout?

Will it ruin all of your hopes and dreams for your 2017 season if you chew on a few energy chews during a run or sip on a 100 calorie sport drink during a 90 minute bike ride?

Believe it or not but Karel and I eat before all of our workouts, 365 days a year.
We also continue to use engineered sport nutrition products for our longer (60+ min) workouts (or intense short workouts), throughout our entire season. 

Does this make us unhealthy?
Are we inefficient at burning fat?
Are we overlooking the best way to take our performance to that next level?

Ironically, we don't bonk in workouts or in races, we don't experience GI issues in training or on race day, we never get sick, we don't overeat, we have great consistency in our diet, we have never had a stress fracture and we have great consistency in our training.
I'd say we are doing something right and that's because we have figured out what works best for us. We are one of those athletes in my above list, in that we have better workouts when we eat before our workouts.

I'm not anti-fasted workouts but I believe that it's not for every athlete and certainly, it's most appropriate to apply in the off-season/foundation phase for only the easy workouts.
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NEVER take in calories before or during a workout less than 90 minutes!!!!
I often shake my head when I read statements like this, from coaches and nutrition experts to never ever take in calories before or during workouts less than 90 minutes - "you simply don't need them", says the expert. 

You certainly do not need the same calorie intake before and during your workouts in the foundation phase/off-season as you would peak season (as that is the basis of periodizing your sport nutrition) but statements like this confuse athletes because there could be times during your off-season when it would be of value to take in calories during the workout AND you could be an athlete where fasted workouts will be of no benefit to your body right now in your development.

I understand that the topic is confusing, especially if you are looking to the off-season to change your body composition or to break yourself from a long season of sugary sweet sport nutrition concoctions and there's so much talk on metabolic efficiency.

But you are in control of your body. I say this with sincerity because whatever fuel strategy you choose in the foundation phase, it should help you move closer to your performance goals. And that means training consistently and eating well, on a daily basis.
Never should you "not fuel" for the sake of losing weight or because someone told you not to fuel. If you are an athlete and you want to get the most out of your body, even in the early phase of training, consider using food to help you have great workouts and to encourage healthy eating throughout the day.

Although this blog post started as an off-season topic, I find this "fuel smart" topic more relevant for the Foundation phase or your "post season/first phase" of training as this is often the time of training when you are easing back into structured training, your workouts are specific, you can start training your gut to tolerate food before and during workouts, you need to stay healthy to stay consistent and your focus is on getting stronger and fine-tuning the basics before you next more intense phase of training. 

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picture source

The big takeaway from this blog is to not let scientific research, a nutrition expert or an article tell you what you should or shouldn't do as it relates to nourishing or fueling your body.
While there are many sport nutrition recommendations available, it is important that you listen to your body and understand your own body signals, to figure out what works best for you.
Also, be mindful that a past version of you may be different than a new version of you. So if you are hanging on to old nutrition strategies, you may need a nutrition professional to help you figure out your new/different metabolic needs.

Even if someone tells you that you don't need to fuel before and during a workout, it's OK if you decide to go against the crowd and do what works best for you.
As an athlete, you need to make choices that keep you healthy and you move you closer to your health and performance goals.

If you are still confused on fueling in the foundation phase/off-season, let's work together.
By reviewing your current training and eating strategies, we can quickly figure out which workouts require fuel during and how much to eat before and after workouts.

Trimarni Nutrition Consult

Healthy relationship with food - athlete edition

We are all aware of how diets work - follow rigid food rules and you will lose weight.

If you can follow the diet for a specific period of time, you will lose weight. It's as simple as that.

With every diet, there are certain foods that are allowed at certain times of the day, a specific amount of food that is allowed to be eaten and foods that are forbidden.

This is why people love diets - they are nothing more than a plan telling you how to eat so that you have a reason to avoid certain foods and to ignore biological hunger cues.

With a diet, you don't have to learn how to be a mindful eater or how to eat with intention. You become a robot in that you only have one program for x-weeks and that is all you have to focus on.

Ask any person who has followed a diet plan and she/he will likely say that food rules offer boundaries or perhaps a level of discipline that the person wasn't able to do on his/her own and this is why diets work so well. Whereas once a person had trouble resisting treats, sweets or specific foods, rule-based eating provides strict guidelines as to what not to eat.

But as we all know, diets don't work.

Furthermore, a diet is nothing more than a dysfunctional relationship with food.

It's very interesting how a diet can change how a person views food. With almost every diet, there is a fixation on good and bad foods relating to health, appearance and weight.

The act (or even thought) of eating a cookie, a banana, a piece of pizza, a pancake, a slice of bread, a potato, ice cream or any other food that has been termed "bad" is associated with shame and guilt.

And above all, a poor body image combined with conflicting information as to what you should and shouldn't be eating increases the risk for more and more food restriction which can increase the risk for an eating disorder.  

But as an athlete, you would never diet, right?

You know better than that. 

Cleanses, fasts, avoid food groups or restricting calories is not how athletes eat as we need food for fuel. 

So why is it that so many athletes justify a new style of eating (often starting in the off-season, after the holidays and around the New Year) all in an effort to improve health and performance that is nothing more than a well-marketed diet for athletes?

Since when did depriving your body of crucial nutrients, intentionally not fueling or hydrating before, during and after workouts, limiting, reducing or avoiding carbohydrates, skipping meals or snacks or not eating when you are biologically hungry, become socially acceptable for athletes?

Since when did it become ok for athletes to think it was ok to deprive the body of energy, fluids and electrolytes when the body needs it the most - when training!!!??

Where are our ethical standards for coaches, dietitians, nutrition experts, physicians, personal trainers, chiropractics and other professionals who provide nutrition advice to athletes?

These fueling/hydrating practices are NOT ok!

If we know it is unhealthy and damaging for a normal person to follow a diet, why are we pretending that these extreme eating and fueling methods are "healthy" for athletes? 

It's very evident how many athletes are treating their bodies around/during workouts and during the day when it comes to their eating (or lack thereof) and it is not for a healthier lifestyle, a better body composition or for performance gains ...it's not healthy, it's just plain dangerous.

I find it important that before the holiday season and right now in your  off-season, prior to starting the first phase of your training, that you work on your relationship with food. The number one reason to justify food restriction is body dissatisfaction and because athletes will always associate body composition to performance, it is extremely important that you improve your relationship with food before increasing the intensity and volume in your training regime. 

Food is designed to nourish your body and fuel your workout routine. Eating enhances your life. It should not be an obsession or a vehicle of guilt, shame or fear and you should not blame poor performances, injuries or slow fitness progress on your body. 

Whereas you may engage in unhealthy behaviors, like extreme dieting, restricting nutrition around/during workouts, calorie restriction, using diet pills, laxatives or diuretics or engaging in excessive exercising as an easy fix when you feel dissatisfaction with body or after you eat "bad" food, by developing a healthier relationship with food and your body, you will be well on your way to also improving your relationship with your body.

When you eat better, you feel better. And when you feel better, you make better choices. And with better choices, your body will remain in better health as you train to improve fitness, endurance and strength.

So how can you improve your relationship with food and your body?

It's not a quick fix and it takes work. But it is worth it.

Here are three tips that you can start applying to your life today when it comes to improving your relationship with food. 

First, focus on eating mindfully. Listen to your body. Accept biological hunger and don't get mad at your body for being hungry. Learn to create a diet that works for your lifestyle and learn to respond to cravings in a responsible way. Eat with intention and enjoy eating. Next time you say to yourself "I shouldn't eat this", ask yourself why you are questioning the food that you are about to eat? If you have a good reason for not eating something (for example, you just finished a meal, you are comfortably full and someone presents you with a brownie for dessert), don't eat it. Say no thank you and move on with your day. Life will go on and you will feel better without thoughts of guilt that you should not have eaten something that doesn't make you feel good inside. 

But if you are in the mood for rice, pasta, chocolate, a glass of milk or some other type of "forbidden" food, ask yourself why you created this off-food list? Be a mindful eater as you are figuring out the best diet for you. 

Eat when you are physically/biologically hungry and stop when you are satisfied.

It's time to get more in-tune with your body and hunger cues as well as understanding (and possibly adjusting) the thoughts that are associated with how you currently eat.

Next, you should always feel better after you eat than before. I find that this is so important for athletes to keep in mind in the off-season as there is a brief period of indulging after the last race of the season, especially with food that was not once not consumed as it was viewed as "non-performance enhancing".  But after a week (10 days at most), it is important to indulge responsibly. Sometimes, food just tastes better than other times - like pancakes after a long ride. But certainly in the off-season, you are still allowed to yum over food.... you just don't want to overdo it. It is possible to eat the same foods year round (like "reward" food) but you must adjust how much you eat based on your workout load. If anything, you want to avoid "making-up" for how you eat as you must learn how to feel good about your eating habits without justifying how much you worked out before/after or trying to "save" calories.
You can still yum over pancakes in the off-season without having to workout for 5+ hours and just because you eat pizza for dinner, you don't have to avoid carbs for the next 24 hours. 

Lastly, within our diet obsessed society, we have lost the enjoyment for eating.

Our society has such a big obsession with healthy eating yet we have such an unhealthy relationship with food.  It sounds so simple but our society really misses the mark when it comes to educating on how to eat "healthy." The first step is to focus on eating real food. Nothing will make you feel better than eating food grown from the earth, with the help of a farmer. Next, those food needs to be purchased (or grown) and then prepared. This takes time, planning and effort. We live in a world we are driven by being busy and have easy routes for eating quickly.

Sadly, much of our society has become rather comfortable with eating but not making time to nourish the body.

If you really want to improve your relationship with food, an easy place to start is by appreciating a varied wholesome diet, with you as the cook.
It's time to make peace with food. 

If you are missing out on life or struggling with improvements in performance because you want to maintain a certain style of eating that makes you feel in control or the opposite, food overwhelms you or stresses you out and you don't feel comfortable around food, it is time to start seeing food for what it is - nourishment, fuel, satiety and enjoyment.

No diet can teach you how to have a better relationship with food.

It is time that you are honest with yourself and if you feel as if your past thoughts and actions were not healthy for your body, it's time to change. 

It's time to start improving your relationship with food. 

In case you missed the  last blog - address your off-season relationship with food HERE. 

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.