Nutrition

In my opinion, nutrition is more important than exercise for remaining healthy. This week I will share with you what I have learned over the years from my medical training, coaches, and various publications.

For the past 7 years I have essentially followed the South Beach Diet with a few alterations regarding alcohol consumption on the weekends. In 2008 when I trained for the 70.3 Ironman, I tried to continue on this diet to keep fat percents low and it backfired on me with muscle wasting. I have made a goal not to make the same mistake again. If you put your body through vigorous endurance training then you must add carbohydrates along with protein to keep your muscle mass stable. So far it seems to be working this go around and my concern of adding fat has not happened yet. I have most of my carbs in the early part of the day and I stick to complex carbs or whole grains only. The amount of protein that I consume is 1 gram per pound of body weight that I want to maintain. An easy way to measure protein is that the size of a deck of playing cards of any type meat is equal to about 20 grams.

Here is a sample day of what I eat and drink:

5:30am  10 tablets of MAP( Master Amino Acid Pattern) and one cup of Coffee
7:00am Post workout Protein shake ( 1 scoop Casein protein powder GNC , 1 scoop Whey protein   powder GNC, 2 teaspoons L-Glutamine powder GNC, mixed with 300ml of Skim Milk)
7:30am Either a Banana with English Muffin and nonfat Peanut butter or Low fat yogurt with granola and Blueberries.
10:00am One Muscle Milk Light shake
12:30pm Whole wheat Tortilla Wrap with Mozzarella Cheese and Turkey and some chocolate
3:00pm Diet Green Tea or a Coke Zero
5:00pm Handful or two of Almonds
6:30pm Large Dinner salad with Chicken breast and two servings of vegetables and some chocolate
8:00pm A bowl of ice cream occasionally. ( I have a strong sweet tooth)

In addition to this , I also drink close to 3 liters of water every day. Glucosamine/Chondroitin supplements taken twice daily have kept me free from joint pain for many years now. I also take 1000mg of Calcium and Vitamin D tabs as well.

Hopefully you are staying warm. We are expecting 3 inches of snow here tonight with a high tomorrow of 10 degrees.
Thanks for checking in.
Sloan