In thinking about daily food intake I remember reading back to Joe Friel’s, “The Triathletes Training Bible” and reading a lot about the timing of our diets. How the nutrients in some foods have greater effects when consumed at different times of the day. From what I have read it seems that this is mainly based around workouts and timing consumption of starchy rich carbs within the first 30 minutes following a session.

Some examples include; pasta, bread and rice, which provide nutrients to replace energy stores and promote recovery in the body. Otherwise it seems that there has been to much of an emphasis placed on carbo loading while training and racing. Like most other areas in training I am finding that more of a balance is required. Keeping an almost equal level of carbs, protein and fat.

One of my main goals which I mentioned in the previous post was to shed a few lbs to establish a race weight. In the coming weeks I must time starch to immediately following work outs and limit intake during the rest of the day. If I consume them to often my body will store excess as fat, meaning weight gain. But carbs are vital and I was lucky enough to find the glycemic index, which I promise I will blog more in a future post.

The glycemic index rates carbs on a scale of low to high and are based upon the amount of insulin the pancreas releases upon consumption, to regulate the level of blood sugar. The higher the food on the glycemic index the higher the blood sugar will rise. Equals = the more insulin which will be secreted preventing the body from effectively utilizing stored fat as energy. Thanks J Friel, I appreciate all the information, I really can’t put down this book.

Change 1 in my diet to effectively utilize this information, will be at breakfast time during non-training mornings. Instead of cereal or toast I am going to wake up 10 minutes earlier and have eggs with spinach, which has become quite the staple in my house.

Change 2, will come around time for my midmorning snake on training evenings (like how I switch that up?). Usually I will bring in a few instant oatmeal packages or a peanut butter sandwich. Now I will have yogurt at work with fruit (apple, pear, peaches) or peanut butter with carrots. Wow actually you know what sounds better? Peanut butter and apples, that is actually one of my favorites.

Otherwise on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s I can more or less stick to my standard routine because I have been training in the morning. Pretty pumped about all this new information, now I am on a hunt for a good scale to track body weight and see what happens over the next few weeks.

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