Hi guys, Luke here, to talking about another interesting part of my training. Today I am going to talk about nutrition and what I have learned from a talk I went to about nutrition and the benefits of a good diet to your well being and training…
So the talk I went to had had three guest speakers, each one of them athletes and parents. They talked about why when we train, how our body should replace the energy and what to replace the energy with, this is what I would like to share, and tell you a few things, not just for you, but your young athletes like me.
Fuel the Machine
The first thing I learnt was balance. Balance was everything to a great diet. Healthy lifestyle and positive mindset. Having that in your mind as you may have a friends birthday party and you don’t want to be the one just sitting there looking stupid, if you know what I mean. 80/20 rule is great. As 80% of the time you eat a good diet nice and healthy not too much added junk food, then you have 20% called soul food where you can enjoy a little treat.
Fruits and vegetables; Having enough colorful fruit and vegetables on your plate will fill you up and also release quick and slow sugars, (glucose and fructose) into your blood, so you don’t get that craving and hunger pains to eat more. They are also packed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals of all kinds to enhance that recovery after that hard track session or long swim set. Try to eat as any fruits and vegetables as you can in a day to keep your body healthy and nourished.
Carbohydrates; When we think of carbs we mostly thing of Breads, pastries, pasta, noodles, etc. Well do you know what is the right carbohydrate you should be having? Rice is a great source of carbohydrates, but comes in various forms, White, Long grain, Brown, Basmati, Brown Basmati. Just to name a few. Although on many occasions we opt for the cheapest and tastiest flavour, which is generally white, This can sometimes be a bad choice as in white rice there is less than a 1/3 of fibre than most brown rices, and most brown rices have a higher amount of nutrients, like Iron, Magnesium, Potassium and more. So next time your at the supermarket think about what your body needs to replenish and not what your mind tells you to grab. *note; this may change just before a race as you want less fibre and more energy.
Protein; The essential building block for the muscles and their recovery. Protein comes in various things like dairy, meat, poultry, nuts, legumes, plus more. We should make our recovery after a hard workout from protein and a little bit of carbs to get the muscles to recover faster. The normal person should have 0.8g of protein for every kilogram of body weight per day, now this may change if you are trying to build or loose muscle, but as a general rule.
I have now taken some of this information with me and have changed my diet completely and have not eaten any added sugar, junk food/processed food for the last two weeks and am enjoying it. I feel so much more awake, happy, nourished and I get to eat more food, because these foods are lower calorie, so its great!
I now need to prepare for my event happening later this week, so I need to go train, Bye for now.
Luke Clatworthy (Clatters Chatter)
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