Are You Fueling Right?

The American College of Sports Medicine states the 5 components of physical fitness are cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, body composition and flexibility.

My personal opinion is; Nutrition should be added as a sixth component. In fact I believe nutrition is so important that it should be second only to cardiovascular health. Heck in reality you can’t really have great cardio health if the nutrition is not right. I don’t care how much you run, bike, swim, walk, jump out of airplanes whatever! If you are making unhealthy food choices sooner or later it will catch up to you.

All runners and triathletes, beginner to elite need to understand the basics of eating properly to fuel your training, racing and overall health. I know, I know, with all the different nutritional information on the market today everyone is a little confused. I get that! And I’m not saying that I have a solution for everyone! I am, the biggest believer that as individuals we all respond differently to different things. That being said, I will say that in 99 out of 100 cases the basics apply and keeping it simple and clean will help you.

What do I mean by simple and clean? Easy, we all need carbs, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals for our bodies to function properly. How much we need varies on our body make-up but you can determine that by following a few simple guidelines. Calculate your Resting Metabolic Rate (the number of calories you need just to exist). Then calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (the number of calories you need to support your lifestyle) (all activities). Then fuel your day accordingly. How many carb, protein and fat grams will be determined by your activity level, but that too can be easily calculated.

Eating clean is something that is so easy, but over-processed (no pun intended) that we tend to get confused. Clean protein’s are found in range fed (not feed lot beef), poultry, cold water fish (salmon, halibut, tuna etc,). Clean carbs come from veggies with a low starch content. Fruits are also a great source of carbohydrate. Eliminate the starches, the sugars and the processed foods from your diet. I can guarantee in most people these simple changes will have drastic improvements on your energy levels and overall health.

So in essence it’s not that hard to make smart food choices to support your lifestyle. Look if your willing to run and bike in these miserable summer temperatures, swim like you want to be a fish, all in order to achieve some fantastic physical accomplishment. Enhance those efforts by fueling your body properly and making sure the plugs that fire the engine are clean and tuned properly.

I am always available to answer questions on training and racing by emailing: coach@prsfit.com. You can tune into our weekly podcast www.prsfitlive.com/live, where again we will answer your questions. And as always;

Be Healthy, Train Smart, Have Fun
Coach Jeff