NUTRITION

I use a variety of nutritional 'tools', depending on my goals. Some may want to lose weight. Some may want to do longer endurance events. Some may want to get faster. Some may just want to survive the week of training!

I encourage you all to research and read and listen to the various ways of eating, to achieve your goals. I run a couple small nutritional sessions a year, sharing what I have learned and how different foods can help us achieve our goals.

Here are a couple very good articles from Mikki Williden, a high performance ultramarathon runner who promotes Whole Food and LCHF ways of eating:

Does KETO/LCHF make you slower?

Click here

How restricting carbs can improve Ironman training

Click here

Why is sugar so bad?

Firstly, it has very little nutritional value. Secondly, the excess energy from sugar very quickly stores in fat! It gives us a quick ‘high’, then a sad ‘low’ as the insulin spikes and abates. So we want more. Yes it is it highly addictive. Every bite wants to you have more. More so than any other type of food. Why??

Some nutritionists believe it is because of the lack of nutritional value, so we keep eating, looking for more nutrition…I don’t actually believe that though. Let’s think about why sugar (and carbs) pack on weight so fast…

I believe we were engineered to gorge on sugar/carbs. Back when we lived off the natural growing land, the only sugar we got was around Fall each year when the fruits ripened. There was only a 2-3 week window before the fruits went bad or the birds and other animals got to them first. Winter was also just around the corner, so we needed to eat at much as we could in a very short period of time – we needed to make the most of the available food source and pack away precious energy stores (ie FAT) for winter. We would have been right there alongside the bears, gorging for winter and packing on the fat layers for later.

Unfortunately, sugar is freely available all year long these days, it is still highly addictive, and it packs on the fat layers for us!

The following link is great reading from a fabulous Australian couple’s website: http://www.edify.net.au/why_low_carb_high_fat.php

Mikki Williden wrote a great blog on Dan Plews (Kona Ironman age-group champion) and how he follows LCHF to achieve his podium placings: https://mikkiwilliden.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/the-plews-on-racing-lchf/

Interestingly enough, I was researching home remedies for toe-nail fungus, which many of us runners get. This site was very clear in it’s first step of three – cut out the supply of sugar that feeds the yeast and bad bacteria! https://draxe.com/toenail-fungus-treatment/?fbclid=IwAR0qV35W5T-W4_5z5iU37jRAtkVA3Km7rMqzYd8-3UQ1kOwiOa0j-J_e9wE

Download the HOW TO use LCHF - how I use LCHF in my everyday eating, and how I modify that for working out and racing:

https://www.sporty.co.nz/joggingthepowerpoles/Health-Nutrition/How-To-my-LCHF-example-diet?em=1

There is also a Recipe Book that I have collated, to help you get started:

https://www.sporty.co.nz/joggingthepowerpoles/Health-Nutrition/LCHF-Meals-Recipes?em=1

You are also welcome to purchase a bag of my home-made LCHF muesli for breakfast:

https://www.sporty.co.nz/joggingthepowerpoles/Health-Nutrition/LCHF-Muesli?em=1

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How much Protein do you need as an Athete?

PROTEIN INTAKE. So the other day I was ravenous and ate 5 hard-boiled eggs straight out of the fridge in one go. Kinda thought that was overdoing it. Cave-men probably only got meat once a week! So I went searching. For normal living needs, the average daily protein intake should be .6gm - 1gm per kg of your weight. For heavy-training athletes doing 1.5hrs per day x 6 days p/week, most of the experts recommend doubling that to 1.5gm-2gm per kg. At 1.75gm/kg, that means I should be eating 105gm of protein per day. What does that mean?? Three steaks per day, or four tins of tuna, or four pork chops, or SEVENTEEN BOILED EGGS!!

​​​​​​​https://nutritionfoundation.org.nz/nutrition-facts/nutrients/protein

OLDER LADIES NEED MORE! In 2018, I was involved in a University of Waikato Research Thesis by post-grad student Zoe Neureuter. The exercise studied 6 female athletes over the age of 48, as to the effects of protein quantities post-workout. The standard recommended amount of protein after a 'hard' (ie caused muscle damage) workout, is 20g. But it has been suggested that older women, especially post-menopause, need more protein for adequate recovery. So I was part of these 6 ladies studied over a month - we had to do quite hard exercise, and then took random shakes (we had no clue what was in each one), and then our strength, reflexes, and pain were measured the next day. Some shakes had nothing but carb in them, some had the recommended 20g of protein, and some had the higher 40g of protein in them. I remember the day I got the 40g...I'd come back in for the re-test, felt great, and I told Zoe; "Man I don't know what was in that last shake, but hook me up!"

Here is the completed Thesis, showing evidence the 40g of protein did show a marked improvement in muscle recovery! 

https://www.sporty.co.nz/joggingthepowerpoles/Health-Nutrition/LCHF-Meals-Recipes?em=1

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