Mindful Nutrition

One of the most frequent comments I hear from athletes is their concern about eating right. Most athletes are quite honest with themselves and know that changes need to be made. Yet how to make those changes and where to begin is confusing.

Most age group athletes would benefit most from making changes in nutrition by eating more mindfully. Simply put, think before you eat. While not everyone can afford new wheels, a more aero bike, swimming five times a week, we all can afford to make informed decisions and improved choices with what we eat throughout the day. And these changes will pay off. Improved nutrition improves your performance, recovery, and how you feel about yourself.

The key is to make the commitment to take control of yourself to make mindful nutrition choices. First, taking a few extra minutes to make mindful choices will pay off in huge time and health dividends. Think before you eat – think of the purpose of why you are eating (fuel, performance, health) and then eat. Second, believe in better nutrition. Your physical, emotional, and athletic health will benefit from better nutrition. When you believe in this you will make choices to coincide with your belief. Third, you are what you eat. You cannot expect peak performance and rapid recovery with poor nutrition. Lastly, you are worth it. Treat yourself right by putting the right fuel in your body to feel confident, healthy, and proud of the choices you make.

Keep in mind that I am not a sports nutritionist. However, in my own experiences and work with a nutritionist, here are a few helpful hints for making mindful nutrition choices:

Have your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) tested: This is a simple, inexpensive test that is performed at many health clubs. You fast for 4 hours then sit and breathe into a tube. A machine generates the number of calories you burn at rest. Eating too few calories is just as destructive as eating too many. Learning your RMR helps you better gauge what you need each day just to survive, and from there you can determine what you need when adding in exercise.

Three food groups at each meal: If you are not familiar with food groups, please visit www.mypyramid.gov. Basically, a three food group meal would be pasta with chicken and broccoli. As athletes, be sure one food group is always protein. Once you focus on getting in the essentials at each meal, you will find yourself less interested in filling up with ‘junk’.

Eat a rainbow: Think about your last meal; how colorful was your plate? The more colorful your plate the more nutritious your meal. Plus, more color means more variety. Avoid eating white when possible; white bread, white pasta, white rice. White foods break down as sugars and do not have as much nutritional value as wholesome brown grains. Aim to make your plate as colorful as possible.

Learn to reward yourself with non-food rewards: It’s so easy – I did something I didn’t like now I get to have a triple whip cream mocha or ice cream. Take food out of the reward circuit. Treat yourself with a new CD, a movie, or a something non-edible instead. The ‘value’ and attractiveness of junk food diminishes when you place less value on it.

Stock up on Sundays: Devote time each Sunday to thinking about the week ahead. Commit to grocery shopping on Sunday nights (stores are less crowded) and purchase everything you need for a week’s worth of healthy food choices. Starting the week with a bare cupboard is a great way to start the downward slide to eating wrong all week long.

Get food from the ground up: Eating from the ground up ensures you start with fresh, wholesome foods. Eat as low on the food chain as possible – in other words, grains, vegetables, fruits. Go higher up on the food chain and you’ll find animals and their by-products (meat, cheese, milk, fish) – eat these in moderation and use them to compliment meals rather than make your meals.

Consume unprocessed products: Look at the ingredient list on a box in your pantry. Think about it – you are putting all of that “stuff” into your body. And what is most of it? Aim to eat as unprocessed as possible – especially with snacks. Fresh vegetables, small pita pockets, dried fruit, nuts make the best snacks.

You are what you eat - and it's true. Fueling yourself with healthy foods is a good way to promote better recovery and performance. And we could all use some of that!

Killer Moves

Looking for some new moves to shake up your stale routine? Try these out:

Push ups on the foam roller (think log roll with the arms & without the log)

Squats on the bosu ball (for added fun add weights)

Lateral steps with the power systems ankle band (yet another ankle leash)

Moving squats on bosu ball (start on right side, squat low & step on to bosu ball then step off to left side, repeat back & forth; add weights to add burn)

Flutter kick while in seated position holding medicine ball legs up & then flutter kick

Plank off the foam roller (arms extended w/palms on roller, legs out, tuck butt; no idea why this hurts it just does)

Balance one legged on the bosu ball (again, extra punishment add weights)

Spinal extension & reverse crunch on the swiss ball

Lay on swiss ball holding medicine ball, arms out in front of you then move arms overhead to your right, to the middle, to the left

Pass the swiss ball from your legs to your hands back to your legs again while crunching up
and down

Squat jumps (as low as you can go then burst up into squat jump)

Lay on foam roller on your back & try to balance entire body on it (arms up, knees to chest)

Sit on floor, put the foam roller behind your back (between your arms) & twist side to side

Anything involving a pilates circle – just squeeze it together with your arms, I dare ya

Forward press w/stretch cords or a band (put band around wall & hold handles chest height, press forward)

Butt squeeze on bosu ball (lay on back, feet on bosu w/knees bent & squeeze cheeks up)

Upside down bosu ball push up (turn it upside down, hold handles & do push up)

Deep squat while holding medicine ball

Reverse lunge with pilates bar on shoulders

As always, use caution when performing these exercises easing into anything new. Perform on a soft surface with sturdy shoes.

Heart of the Matter

Here's a simple, easy to understand article written by midwestern athlete Amy Kuitse about the basics of heart rate training:

http://www.triathletemag.com/Departments/Training/2007/Get_in_the_zone.htm

IHeart rate training is the key to understanding how your body responds to different types of training. It helps to train smart, train safe, and train in a way that will help your body to make improvements over time.

Several times each season we test our heart rate zones. From there, workouts are written using heart rate zones as a guideline for your effort. It's not so much that I write workouts with heart zones to get you to work harder during a hard workout - it's to keep you in check during a lower intensity workout. Espeically at this time of year, it's easy to find yourself drifting into Zone 3 and training in that dead zone that doesn't do much good right now. Instead, workouts in the winter are predominantly in Zones 1 - 2. A few short bursts of Zone 4 are a good way to keep your legs snappy and sharp here and there but mostly you'll pass the time in Zones 1 - 2 building your aerobic engine to safely handle harder efforts ahead.

The best way to get the most out of heart rate training is to make the connection bewteen heart rate numbers and how your body feels. Paying attention to changes in breathing and the feeling in your legs helps you to become more in tune with how the numbers and feelings correlate. On the bike, get familiar with how different gearings and cadence influence your heart rate. On the run, notice how different stride rates and terrain correspond to heart rate. Making these connections ultimately makes you a better athlete on race day. While racing with a heart rate monitor is not always preferred or feasible, if you can better understand your body's cues in the different zones you can learn to listen during the race and make changes in your effort accordingly.

I'll give you an example of how heart rate monitors are a useful tool for training. The other day, my husband and I were running. The run included Zones 1 - 2 efforts. I was wearing my heart rate monitor and followed it, working into Zone 2 on the hills and coasting down to Zone 1 to recover. My husband, on the other hand, was falling behind. Quite unusual because he is a much faster runner than myself. At one point, we were climbing a hill and he stopped - he said you win. I stopped and asked what he was talking about. He told me he couldn't keep up in Zones 1 - 2, he was in Zone 3.

I thought that was funny because I didn't notice he was wearing a heart rate monitor. I asked him where it was and he said "at home." I asked him how he knew he was in Zone 3 and he said he could tell by his breathing. Now, if you do much running in the cold weather you know that your breathing tends to sound much harder than your heart rate reflects so breathing is not an accurate cue. Another reason why a heart rate monitor is very useful at this time of year.

Not believing that he was in Zone 3 climbing some rolling hills, I decided to do an experiment. I gave my husband my heart rate monitor strap and told him I would wear the watch. When he went into Zone 2 I would tell him and if he approached Zone 3 on any hills I would let him know and we would slow down. He told me the upper limits for his zones and off we went.

A funny thing happened - we started running faster than before. Actually, he did and I kept up while maintaining my zones. And watching his heart rate on the watch I noticed that he wasn't even near the top of his Zone 1. It took a good 15 minutes and a fairly steep hill before he even entered Zone 2. When I told him he finally entered Zone 2 he said "you have to be kidding me." His breathing was not quiet, his legs were feeling it (but this is common at this time of year from cumulative fatigue of lifting or big gear bike work) and was what he would have thought was Zone 3 effort. Not the case.

After a few more miles, we started our cool down. I summed it up for him - according to his heart rate he wasn't even close to touching Zone 3 - at his "hardest" he was off that zone by 10 beats. So he was running as prescribed in Zones 1 - 2. Coincidentally, our pace was 1 minute per mile faster when he had the heart rate monitor on and he wasn't blowing his zones.

The lesson learned is that at this time of year going by perceived exertion is not always consistent. Simply put, it pays to wear your heart rate monitor. It pays to pay attention and learn your body's cues. Because right now you will sound and feel different when you run than you did in the summer. And by learning your body's cues you become a better runner. You start to understand how to make changes to not only increase your heart rate but to bring it down. You become more in control of yourself and the way your body works.

Keep in mind your heart rate will be influenced by several factors; stress levels, hydration, nutrition, overtraining, terrain, temperature, fatigue, interference from power lines and more. By monitoring your heart rate over time and under different conditions, you'll get to the heart of the matter by understanding how your body is responding to the training and also what it needs (rest, hydration, lower intensity, etc.).

Gratitude

Thank you to...My husband for giving me the freedom & support to take a risk. My mother for passing on a talent to teach & a really loud teacher voice. My brother for showing me that if you follow your dreams you can be a rockstar. My dad for telling me to always be excellent. My grandma for giving me faith. My coach for giving me confidence & putting coaching into my realm of possibility. Sue Welker for turning me into a triathlete many years ago. Miss Marge for giving me the courage to follow my desire. Steve for teaching me that connections are more meaningful than knowledge, numbers or skill. Marcus for giving me a chance and proving yes I can. Jeff Keil for turning his creative vision into the best logo ever. My mother-in-law for giving me the final push. My athletes for giving me the opportunity to share a piece of their life & to help them to succeed.