4 Easy Tricks for a Better Diet (Guest Post)

Your body has undergone millennia of evolution and development to achieve it’s highly tuned state of an anatomically modern human, H .s. sapiens. And as an athlete (professional or not) in training, you’re also trying to better your mind and body even further, right?
So why then go and fill it full of junk? Why ‘feed’ your body unwholesome, highly processed, noxious ‘food’?
Instead, you should be filling up on nutrition that your body wants, needs and enjoys. But you know that right?
In this day and age, it’s hard not to be exposed to the world of health, even indirectly. And as an athlete in the making you have no doubt been told, nae! preached unto, time and time again that getting the right nourishment is important.

Well, here some simple tips to help you achieve this with minimal fuss, and don’t worry; I won’t even mention tofu or kale!

KISS
Keep it simple, stupid!

    Why fuss over gourmet health meals, when all you need is food in its (almost) natural state? Your body doesn’t care whether your veg has been sautéed, steamed, stir-fried, baked, boiled… whatever. It cares about the nutrition it can provide, and what better nutrition than food in its natural state?
We have the simple, good-to-the-core, tasty availability of numerous vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, lean meats, fish and fat-free dairy all at our fingertips in stores today. So keeping it easy and simple is a walk in the park when it comes to all of your main meals.

Have A Plan = Have Some go-to’s!

    In the morning, try some simple oats, some peanut butter (the no added sugar or salt variety, of course) and some honey – all natural sources of energy for your tough day of living! You can add in a scoop of your favourite protein too, for added oomph!

    Snacks include the aforementioned nuts, seeds and fruit – or why not throw in some satiating vegetables like celery, carrot, cucumber sticks? One of my favourites is single celery sticks with a peanut butter layer (go easy here with the peanut butter, mind) on top, dotted with berries or pistachio kernels. All super portable, various, cheap and damn tasty!

    Lunch is where most people crack and go for the ‘easy’ options like fast food. Well, this is where your planning comes in most useful!

    Try taking a sandwich (with wholesome insides of course), or buy a low-fat-ingredient salad with plenty of raw vegetables and salad leaves, or if you have access to a microwave oven, try bringing a small sweet potato (or yam, to all you ‘mercans!) and  give it 4-5 minutess in there, topped with tuna/mackerel/chicken and your salad for a more filling lunch

    Dinner, easy! Simply grilled/baked chicken breast with a large helping of veg and greens! Give google its name sake and peruse all of the healthy dinners available for us lazy/tired/broke/can’tcookwon’tcook young and fit folk.

All easy, all simple, all tasty and all nutritious!

HALT

    This tip stems from another of my abbreviations – HALT. It’s simple really, before sauntering over to the fridge, stop and think:

H – Hunger. Is it true hunger, or are you just bored? Or…
A – Anxious. Are you feeling anxious, nervous, depressed about something? It’s called ‘comfort food’   for a reason. Or are you…
L – Lonely. When we are alone, we feel no pressure to eat what we want, food is our company. Are you just lonely? Go out and socialize or recognise that it isn’t right to eat for amusement alone. Or maybe you’re just…
T – Tired. We all need energy, and when we are tired, we often look to calorie-dense foods that seem more appealing at the time than looking to wholesome foods.

    So the next time you find yourself standing in the glorious luminescence that is your fridge light, HALT.

Substitute for Sustenance

    Some easy substitutions can make the difference between a s**t body and a fit body.
It’s easy, just look at some of the more calorie laden things that you eat, like sugar, chips, fries, chocolate, soft drinks, full fat milk, among others, and you’ll soon see how easily they are snuck in to your diet without thinking.

·         Unsweetened tea/coffee/cocoa – if you must have sweetener, use a stevia based one, it’s all natural with no harmful chemicals.

·         Skim milk, or 1% milk – good for your oats in the morning or in your tea, coffee or cocoa etc.
David note: I have substituted my dairy milk for almond milk, which tastes awesome and almost none of the fat.

·         Wholemeal carbohydrates – complex carbohydrates provide longer lasting energy and are ultimately less likely to be stored at fat after metabolizing. So brown pasta, brown bread, brown rice…you get the idea.

·          What about mustard instead of mayo on your sammich?

·         Buy, or make, your own vegetable chips, or have sweet potato fries instead of the fat laden originals.

·         If you can’t resist chocolate, try swapping milk chocolate with a high cocoa content dark chocolate, and limit the amount you eat to 30 grams – about the size of your thumb!

    So, you get the idea. Stop and think, “Is there any way I can substitute something here with another, more healthy option?”

Your Humble Hand

    Often, portion size control is to blame when it comes to overeating. Here is a trick that utilizes your humble hand as a visual aid in determining portion sizes:

One Cup = Your Fist – a portion the size of your fist is roughly one cup portion of food.
Use for: Vegetables, fruit, salads, drinks, soups etc.

Half Cup = Cupped Hand – a cupped hand of food is roughly half a cup.
Use for: Pasta, rice, cooked vegetables, beans etc.

3 Ounces = Flat Hand – roughly the size (thickness, width and length) of a 3oz steak of meat/fish.
Use for: steak, chicken, pork, fish.

One Tablespoon = Thumb – thumb sized portion of food is a tablespoon of food.
Use for: peanut butter, dark chocolate, salad dressings etc.

One Teaspoon – Thumb tip – similarly, the tip of your thumb is roughly the size of one teaspoon of food.
Use for: oils, sweetener, chia seeds etc.

Use these tips and try find some more to pave your path to success in your track fitness goals!
Good luck!

Dom

The Athlete's Essential Grocery List It

No matter how hard, or frequently you train, if you are not putting the right fuel into your body you are not going to succeed to the best of your potential. Without the correct diet you will either crash and burn with a season ending injury, or if you are lucky, only carry on at a mediocre level. It's your choice. But here through my resource scouring I have come up with a list of essential grocery items for athletes. Here they are:

• Dried Fruit - Dried fruit is quickly digestible glucose, which is necessary for the body to sustain itself especially during physical exertion. It is more easily digested into the body than fresh fruit and it's easy to carry. Ingested in not stupid amounts and it wont upset your stomach during a race either.
• Bananas - The energy bar that nature has provided. They are filled up to brim with essential performance nutrients and energy sustaining electrolytes. Trumps an expensive energy bar or sports drink every time.
• Almonds - Almonds are stacked full of "good" fats and Vitamin E, a fundamental ingredient to boost an athletes immune system.
• Eggs - One egg is a significant amount of your daily protein needs. It is also contains absolutely necessary amino acids that promote the recovery of your working muscles. It also has a large amount of Vitamin K, which aids in bone health.
• Sweet Potato - This powerhouse is often overlooked, yet it contains a huge amount of Vitamin A, which is a powerful antioxidant. It also supplies the body with a great many other essential nutrients, but most importantly it contains trace amounts of  Maganese and Copper. These minerals are absolutely essential, and frequently under received, for healthy muscle function.
• Mixed Greens - They contain a unique combination of phytonutrients, and these phytonutrients are also antioxidants which can fend off muscle damage following a rigorous workout.
• Salmon - Not only is this a great source of protein, but it also supplies the body with essential Omega-3 fats. These fats balance the body's anti-inflammatory response, which are beneficial to any athlete with breathing or muscle problems during workouts.
• Whole Grain Bread & Pasta - Great for the body's function, but also may be beneficial to those weight conscious athletes. Those who eat whole grain bread as opposed to white or other grain breads weigh , on average, less. Pasta is great for the athlete regardless as it contains easily digestible carbs, but the whole grain version contains far more fiber and B vitamins that aid in metabolism and disease prevention.
• Frozen Vegetables - Packed with antioxidants and much quicker to prepare than their fresh counterpart. Great for an athlete short of time.
• Chicken - One serving of chicken provides around half of an athletes daily value of protein. It also contains selenium which prevents free-radical damage that can occur during exercise, and Niacin which helps fat burning during a workout.

Also, try these drinking concoctions that are fantastic to any athlete, and vastly cheaper than their advertised counterpart.

• Green Tea with Honey - Honey contains both sodium and potassium, which are the key electrolytes in most sport drinks. The green tea is great for antioxidants, but its main one has been linked to help raise your VO2 Max.
• Orange Juice Diluted with Water - Orange juice is full of potassium! Mix in a tiny bit of salt and dilute it with water and you've created your own homemade sports drink.

Now these are only some great ingredients for an athlete. But these are the ones I deemed to be most valuable. Remember that greater performance starts within. Hope this helps those unsure about what to buy! Good Luck!

An Ancient Secret To Improved Athletic Performance

Every athlete is seeking out ways to improve in their chosen sport be it running, snowboarding or their weekly game of unicycle hockey. As previously stated I am a runner so I will develop this post from the perspective of a runner. Hours upon hours of blood, sweat and tears (sorry to sound cliché) on the track will always grant excellent results - Hard work and dedication do pay off. However, you can supplement that to kick-start your athletic performance and take it further than just running alone can do without the use of performance enhancing drugs, of which I am whole heartedly against. No, I am talking about the ancient practice of Yoga.

Yoga has been around for centuries and regardless of whether or not you are an athlete, the instantaneous and long term benefits are astronomical. See HERE for the short and long term benefits. Here is a list of 10 professional male Football and Basketball athletes who practice Yoga, including the likes of Lebron James, for the male skeptics who think it is too feminine.  But I am here to tell you why us athletes should practice it - regardless of gender. Here are my findings:

• Greater Strength - If you stick to one form of exercise only your are going to over train and under train different muscles in your body. Yoga helps to utilize those muscles that may not be getting attention in your workout schedule, especially those that are supportive to the larger muscle groups giving you an overall level of strength.
• Balance - Yoga Asanas (Poses) require coordination with all of your body at once, giving you an improved sense of how your body moves which in turn allows your running technique and form to benefit.
• Flexibility - Undoubtedly one of the most known benefits of Yoga is its ability to improve flexibility. Increased flexibility means more structural soundness, and a better range of motion in both the joints and muscles. For a runner an improved range of motion for the hips mean a greater and more efficient stride
• Mental Focus - Yoga allows you to gain a greater sense of control over your mind. It gives you the skills necessary to quieten your thoughts, reduce anxiety, relax your mind and be in the moment. A skill unfathomably beneficial to an athlete who is 5 minutes away from the start of a race.
•  Breathing - One of the main aspects of a Yoga session is the breathing along with the poses. These breathing exercises undertaken alongside physical poses increase the lung capacity overtime and aid the body's ability to transport oxygen to the working muscles. An invaluable asset to have for an athlete who needs to get oxygen to the muscles as effectively as possible.
• Reduced Recovery Time - Yoga also helps in flushing out the lactic acid build up that occurs after rigorous exercise. Reduced recovery time means your fresh and ready for the workout the next day.

...and last but certainly not least,

• Injury Prevention - The most common injuries in running are illiotibial band (ITB), knee, hamstrings, hip flexors and shoulders. The majority of these are  directly linked to a lack of flexibility, poor core strength and misalignment. Yoga fixes all of these and more. So what better reason to try it out than being safe in the knowledge that it will allow you do your beloved sport to the best of your abilities for longer.

Now, obviously these are just some of the benefits of Yoga and yet these alone were enough to get me to jump on board. But if you are not looking for all this technical reasoning, well I do Yoga most mornings now and it is a fantastic way for me to wake up my mind and body to greet the day.

Hope you all give it a try and reap the benefits I am. Good luck and Namaste!

The Worst Kept Running Secret

For years people have been wondering how to become a faster runner, whether they are a sprinter, middle distance runner, or a distance runner. Yes, High Intensity Training (HIT) will definitely help you improve and is essential. Yes, hitting the weight room to increase leg strength will benefit you. But as the weight lifter has to max out on the bench press to get to their maximum resistance and improve, so must the runner. And the way for a runner to max out is hills. Free to use, accessible almost anywhere and to almost everyone they are one of the most effective ways to get stronger and faster. What Kenyans running the East Africa Rift mountains and the Nike Running Project running the trails in Oregon, and just about any other effective running team in the world have in common, is that they all do hills. So if you would like to know why this is then here are some of the main benefits of running hills:

• You Will Get Faster - The muscles used while running uphill are the same ones people use while sprinting. So if you improve the strength and elasticity of those muscles then those benefits will show in your new found speed.
• You Will Get Stronger - When you run flat you have a limited number of factors slowing you down such as wind or terrain. But with hills you are adding one of the biggest resistance training factors possible - mother nature nature trying to drag you back down the hill with gravity.
• Injury Prevention - Weak muscles make a weak runner. By strengthening the muscle in your legs you greatly decrease the chance of getting an injury, and one of the most common running injuries that is prevented by strengthening the leg muscles is shin splints.
• It's Not All About The Legs - You may not think it but by running hills you strengthen your arms and upper torso as well. The uphill climb forces you to drive with your arms more vigorously, therefore increasing their strength.
• Increase Your Endurance - A great effect of running hills is that when you come back to run your flat trail it no longer seems as hard after your body has gotten used to the energy exertion involved with running uphill. This lets you go faster and for longer adding a new element to your training regime.
• Corrects Your Running Form - By running uphill your body it forces you to use your arms more, improving your arm swing motion and forces you to keep your head up and your back upright. Positive effects that will still hang around when you go back to the flat.

Personally these benefits are great, but the main factor that attracts me to hill running is the view once you get to the top. And living in Los Angeles does not leave me short of breathtaking views. From a 10 mile mountain run in Santa Clarita locally named "The Beast" with its beautiful view of both the Santa Clarita Valley and the San Fernando Valley from the summit to the infamous Hollywood sign trail with a grueling last mile uphill but leads to an absolutely fantastic view of Los Angeles, and on a clear day you can see right to the  Pacific ocean.

Hills ARE the worst kept secret in the running community. Anybody can do them, and they are everywhere (it doesn't have to be a mountain to be a hill run). Improvisation is key - for instance last week Venice Beach was being combed and left a 30 foot high sand hill. Which was a perfect opportunity for me to get in some hill sprints. There are plenty of different hill workouts to cater to every athlete and here are a few from Running Competitor. So get out there and hit those hills.

Here is a video I found on RunnerSpace of the Northern Illinois Cross Country team getting in a hill workout.