Greetings. So I’m back – the ‘Every Guy/Girl’ training for an Ironman. Last month I kicked off my blog entries with a bit of an introduction to my early morning workout routine. This month, I’m going to focus on nutrition. I say that word loosely. Nutrition sounds so scientific. Truth be told I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s with a mother who taught Home Economics. Back then Home Economics included topics like sex education, sewing, health, and cooking. It was a pretty simple time. So my take on nutrition has been quite simple, but it works.
I grew up in time where there were 4 food groups. There was no food pyramid or whatever the latest craze the FDA has dreamed up. There was food, then there was junk food. Pretty simple, right? Then in my teen years, this wild stuff called ‘health-food’ came out. Health food was radical stuff like granola and tofu. Since then, there have been countless diets, recommendations, fads, books, programs brought to us by doctors, psychologists, exercise physiologists, therapists, and even the federal government. There are even those concerned with people’s ‘relationships’ with food. Let me start with full disclosure here. I have a relationship with food. Its quite simple. I eat food. I eat food that tastes good and that is good for me; most of the time. Like I said, pretty simple.
I do not believe that partially hydrogenated vegetable oil should be spread on toast. I do not know what gluten is, so I do not avoid it. Evidently, I’ve been eating it all my life, so I continue to eat it. I believe that humans are on the top of the food chain. I believe that we have incisor and canine teeth for the purpose of eating meat. I believe that we have the knowledge to grow food, so we do. I have never, and do not plan to ever give up eating, chocolate, beer, wine, red meat, butter, etc. Like I said – it is food, and I eat it. That said, the key to my nutrition is eating well. All the TV commercials for candy-coated cereal used to have a disclaimer that said something about ‘part of this well balanced diet’. Now, if you actually believed those TV commercials, you probably have some other significant issues in your life. But if you thought about the bigger picture and focused on your own well balanced diet, you most likely eat well. Let me outline a pretty basic day’s food intake for me:
6:00am – protein shake (25 gm protein, 150 calories, 1500 mg amino acids)
6:30am – breakfast – 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup granola, 1/2 cup berries, 2 cups coffee, glass of OJ, and vitamins (omega, multivitamin, Motrin, glucosamine)
9:30am – hard boiled egg
10:30am – peanut butter and jelly sandwich on unbleached flour white bread
12:30pm – carne assada (beef) burrito and salad
3:30pm – banana
5:30pm – dinner (chicken breast, broccoli, pasta)
7:30pm – 1/2 cup red wine and 1/4 of a pumpkin pie with whipped cream
In my mind, that’s a pretty normal diet for a pretty normal day. The only change would be if my morning workout was a long ride, I would be using CarboPro (2 scoops per hour) as a nutritional supplement.
I can fill in some details that might strike you as strange.
- Protein shakes. I don’t pay crazy money for any designer protein mix. I use an off brand 100% whey protein with a ton of branch chain amino acids.
- Coffee – I don’t subscribe to cutting out coffee or taking extra caffeine on race day. I like coffee, so I drink coffee.
- PB&J – yes there is fat in peanut butter, but also good protein. AS for my bread choice, as a family when we can’t tell the difference between healthy and regular, we buy healthy.
- Lunch – on occasion, I’ll bring leftovers from the prior night’s dinner. Other than that, I alternate between beef and fish burritos
- Dinner – I’m really lucky. My wife is a great cook. We typically have salmon, beef, chicken, pork, or ham as a meat; broccoli, carrots, asparagus, or cauliflower as a vegetable; and pasta or rice as a starch.
- Wine – I have at least a glass of wine each night. On weeknights, I keep it to 1/2 cup. On weekends – let’s just say we don’t measure at all.
- Snack at night, if I don’t find a baked good, I’ll have yogurt, granola and fresh berries
My diet or nutrition never really change much. The quantity of food will change with my workout volume. For me, weight management is really quite simple. I subscribe to the basic concept that weight management comes down to calories; NOT fat, and NOT carbohydrates, but calories. If you take in less than you burn, you WILL lean down. If you take in more than you burn, you will GAIN weight. Any thought that I give to my snacks or desserts are guided by quality of calorie, but that’s really all the thought I give to it. As a disclaimer, I can say that I’ve always been pretty lean. I’ve been 165 pounds and 5’ 11” for about 20 years. In 2008, I topped 177 pounds for the first time ever. That was after Ironman Florida in November. I finished Ironman and continued to eat like I was training. I went right through the Holiday Season and kept eating; and I gained weight. I was surprised, as I had never before been over 165 pounds. In hindsight, there is nothing that really should have surprised me. I was eating a lot, and not working out much after Ironman.
Remember, I’m the ‘Every Guy/Girl’. I don’t have a coach. I don’t have time to do much other than work, spend time with my family, and work out. Its all that I can do to get a training program together – that takes enough time as it is. The last thing I have time for is to scientifically evaluate and create a nutritional plan. Occasionally, I have wondered what life would be like without a job, and with endless funds, and endless time to train, be coached, and have someone tell me what to eat. I wonder how fit I could get. How fast could I be? But alas, that is not my life. I’ll gladly take the life I have, and feel super fortunate for everything and everyone in it. I’ll wrap this up and tell you that I’m going to pour my wife and I a glass of wine, and sit on the couch…. for I am the ‘Every Guy’. Tomorrow morning begins at 4:30 am for a 10k run and 2400 yards in the pool – home by 6am for a shake, a shower, and it all begins again……
