Sports Nutrition

You Are What You Eat, and Preform Like You Are

The year before I married my husband I really got into running. It became a daily routine and helped with the stress of planning my own wedding for 200 plus people and a little depression from not finishing up my degree. I felt wonderful after my workouts and was comfortable with my 10 minutes miles running about 8 miles a day... that did take up a good amount of time and at that point of my life I had all the time in the world. After I had my son I realized that a comfortable 10 minute mile was not going to be possible for this new momma trying to fit in a work out while he slept or attempting to take him along in a stroller, that chuncker ate every 2 hours, nearly not enough time to complete an 8 mile run. So as a result I sped up and because of this had the courage to enter a local race. I was terrified at first, it was very intimidating standing in a crowd of people at the beginning of the race, most of which looked like they were running pros, so the 10 minutes we were waiting for the race to began turned into what seemed like a life time and I found myself slowly creeping back, back, back behind the herd with the jogging strollers and people taking along their dogs. As the gun went off I found myself annoyingly behind the walkers and zig zagging around them, the joggers, and other runners, wow I was moving up to the front!

I ended up running hard and faster than I thought was possible for this momma. I ended up taking 8th in my age group, and let me tell you that was absolutely fabulous! Then it began, my addiction to running races, well almost. A couple weeks later my life was going to get crazy once more and I had to put my new found love on the back burner, I was pregnant. I didn't let that hold me back for long, three months after having my daughter I took on a 5 mile race, and although I was really slow I was so proud at the fact that I kept up a jog through the whole race and finished strong. Ok I felt like I was going to pass out after I crossed the finish line, I'm not gonna lie. Anyways as time went on I gained my speed and endurance up resulting in finishing my first half marathon and taking 1st place in my age group in my running clubs races overall, The Grand Prix. That leads me to today and I'm still trying to improve my time and endurance which brings me to the reason I'm telling all of you about my running so called "career." Lately I have been doing research on sports nutrition. I have been running on a regular basis but still not improving my time and crazy as it sounds gaining weight, this is what I found:

4:1 Carbohydrate to Protein Ratio

This morning I read an article on Active.com that I really took an interest to. The article was all about sports nutrition and this so called 4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. The idea is that after a work out you should be consuming 1 gram of protein for every 4 grams of carbohydrates at least 30 minutes after your workout. This will result in building adequate glycogen store in muscles and therefore result in weight lose and more importantly performance improvement. I have yet to test this and plan on letting all of you know how it works out for me and my journey to running my first marathon, second half marathon, and hopefully early next year a Tough Mudder. Juice and fruit is a good source of carbs and protein bars for the protein, but if, like me, eating right after a workout is difficult a sports drink will do the job. Another article goes into further detail that consuming too much protein or waiting longer than 30 minutes after a workout can result in less glycogen stored in muscles. Active.com actually has a calculator that tracks how much caloric intake in fats, proteins, and carbohydrates your body needs based on your age, weight, activity, and height. Keep in mind to calculate post-workout ratios you should be eating between 0.3 and 0.6 grams of carbs for each pound of body weight. Another important factor of post-exercise is drinking enough water for rehydration; a helpful tip is weigh yourself before and after each workout for every pound lost drink between 20 and 24 fluid ounces of water.

I hope this information will be useful to you and I will post my own results and good sources of carbohydrates and protein that I discover through my journey to becoming a better athlete.

Good Carbohydrates and Sources of Protein

I woke up this morning and had some time away from my little ones so decided it was the perfect time to research some "good" post-workout fuel. I came across some great sources such as The Harvard School of Public Health, CNN Health, and my go to site Active.com. On the Harvard website I came across a great visual of what our plates should be looking like throughout the whole day:

CNN Health had great ideas of quick easy foods that we should include in our daily routines and go to snacks for after exercising. Smoothies consisting of milk, yogurt, and bananas; or granola bars containing: oats, honey, orange juice, flax, nuts, and dried fruit are also a great snack. If you are sitting down for breakfast or a small meal eggs, cheese, and fruit are a good combination, or just a protein packed fish.

Now that I am informed of foods containing excellent sources of proteins and carbs I am excited to seek out recipes and try my own creations. Will keep you posted!