Food for thought

So I mentioned in my first post that I sometimes lacked motivation...my rest day unfortunately turned into two rest days! I also sometimes struggle to prepare properly. Take yesterday, I went round to my boyfriends parents, they have a pool, perfect for a few lengths, but I forgot my bikini top! 


Last night I went out for a few Halloween drinks, one drink turned into another and before I knew it I was waking up with a hangover. It got me thinking about the effect of food and drink on your body and how it effects training. It just isn't possible to train to your full and still eat and drink whatever you want. In order to train at your peak your body must be at its peak. 


I am already take a keen interest in my nutrition. Here are a few blogs and websites that I read regularly:
http://www.zentriathlon.com/ Also great for podcasts which I find great to listen to while running.
http://www.holisticguru.blogspot.com/ Some great nutrition tips
http://trimarni.blogspot.com/ Love her for her super healthy recipes and cute doggie pics


Here are a few tips that I have picked up on my searches to improve my diet, I am no dietician but they seem to make sense:

• Look at the ingredients list, you want to aim for fewer. I think the logic here is at the fewer indgredients the more natural a product is. 

• I try not to eat anything that has sugar in the top three ingredients, my understanding is that the list goes from highest percentage down to lowest therefore things lower down the list are less prevalent. Unfortunately there are many other things that can still be considered sugar here is a list I pulled from about.com:

Corn sweetener, Corn syrup, or corn syrup solids, Dextrin, Dextrose, Fructose, Fruit juice concentrate, Glucose, High-fructose corn syrup, Invert sugar, Lactose, Maltodextrin, Malt syrup Maltose, Maple syrup, Molasses, Rice Syrup, Saccharose, Sorghum or sorghum syrup, Sucrose Turbinado, Sugar, Xylose

• Eat as many vegetables as you like, although fruits are good they still contain a fair bit of sugar so don't go crazy.

• Try to have one vegetarian day a week and see if you can do the odd vegan meal. 

• Drink lots of water, it will fill you up to some extent, thirst is often mistaken for hunger, it will make you general feel healthier and when you are feeling healthy you are more likely to want to exercise (maybe!)

• Try to avoid white bread, pasta and rice in favour of wholegrain. As the old saying goes the whiter the bread the sooner your dead.

• Don't go more than about 3 hours without eating something. Have a mid morning/afternoon snack, just make sure its a healthy one. Here are a few things I like: humous (try a home made one) and carrot sticks, cottage cheese with apple and celery, trail mix (probably best to make it up yourself that way you can take it easy on the nuts and dried fruit and include plenty of sunflower and pumpkin seeds)

There are obviously many other things that you should consider when planning you nutrition but these are some that come to mind. Healthy eating seems to take a little more planning but shouldn't be too hard as long as you think about your meals. 

I hope to write a fair bit more on nutrition, I am constantly googling ideas and recipes and something I feel quite passionately about.

And lastly I just got my bike back that I had lent to my friend! :) Time for some summer bike rides.




Chubby Katie