Thursday, January 10, 2008

Nutrition for Athletes

Good morning~

Whether you want to analyze the diet your on, get an answer about creatine, or find a new recipe for chicken you can get an amazing amount of high quality food, nutrition and health information on the web. I have been researching several web site that I feel have quality information and I feel some of you will find this information helpful to!
Although I do not like to use the word diet or tell anyone they should be or go on a diet!!!
Living a long healthy life means eating and living a healthy life style. The old saying is true," you are what you eat."

If you feel you need to be on a diet try to change the wording your using. Tell yourself your going to make some different choices in your daily food intake..the word choice is a big one.
You are the one who usually goes to the grocery store to shop and you are the one who puts the food in your mouth. Stop and think about it before you do, it is about making the right choice.
The word diet can be so sabotaging, this means YOU CAN'T HAVE IT, and when people think they can't have it or eat it they seem to grave it even more leading them to eat more!!!

So..try to take the word diet out of your life and start to make some better choices for yourself and your family. I know in this new year you will feel better, your exercise will feel better and everything else in your life will fall into place!!!
We are all so unique and different. What works for me during training, racing and recovery might not work for you. I can lead you and help you find the magic that will work for you but it will take some trials and we will get you to a place where every thing works! Why don't some of you tell us what you eat and drink before, during and after training and a race? This would be such helpful information for us all.:)

Check some of these web sites out!

www.ais.org.au
If you have questions about fueling for exercise, The Australian Institute of Sport has a great deal of sports nutrition information. Click on Sports Science/Sports Medicine and you can find out how to fuel for any sport (triathlon,running, rowing, etc.) Good articles on this site to!

www.fitday.com
This web site will let you analyze the protein, carbohydrate and fat content of what you are eating and help you track your food, exercise and weight goal. Just enter what you typically eat in a day into the nutrition calculator and you will learn how well or how awful you eat!

www.ific.org
If you have any questions about anything you eat or drink this is a great site.
Questions about caffeine? Chocolate? You will find the answers here. Just go to "search:, enter the topic, and you will find articles that will answer your questions.

www.americanheart.org
Do you need to lower your cholesterol? This site you will about foods that interest you (soy, fish, eggs..) or click on Healthy Lifestyle.

www.findingbalance.com
This is one of my favorite sites! If you are having trouble trying to find the right balance of food and exercise this site will help you. There are videos of professionals who can help you peace it all together.

www.cancernutritioninfo.com
We all know someone who is afflicted with cancer. This site will help you learn and understand the latest research about healing food suggestions that can help cure or prevent cancer.
Search the topic you are interested in on this site..they have the latest information on exercise and carb loading.

www.mealsforyou.com

Have no idea what to have for dinner? This web site has over 8,000 recipes but also the nutrition information about each recipe and the shopping list you need to prepare the recipe!
I would have to say, it does not get any easier than this:) By the way..I love to cook!

www.vegweb.com

If you are thinking about a vegetarian lifestyle, this site is sponsored by Vegetarians Unite.
It has over 4.300 recipes..even meals for kids, chat room, articles, books..it is a fun site.

www.SCANdpg.org

If you are looking for personal help with your sports nutrition this site is sponsored by SCAN, the American Dietetic Association's dietary practice group of Spots and Cardiovascular Nutritionists. This site has a referral network. Just click on the state you live in, and you will get a list of sports nutrition professionals who can give you personal attention!!!


Ok..now it is time to go eat breakfast and then for a sunrise run!

Have a great day

Lisa

12 comments:

Bryon Powell said...

Thanks for posting this, Lisa! A vast majority of runners (not to mention everyone else) could benefits from an improved diet. I know that I too often take unhealthy shortcuts with my diet. There have certainly been weeks of late when I've eaten takeout pizza more than 5 times in a week. No good.

Once you stop and think about good nutrition and then decide to make the change to a healthier eating style, it's really not all that harder or more time consuming (and likely cheaper for city dwellers like myself who end up eating out too often). For instance, last night I was cleaning out my fridge and found I had fresh cauliflower and carrots. I decided to cook a meal with them. Literally, 30 seconds of internet searching later I had the idea for an Indian dish with the cauliflower, carrots, some frozen peas and seasoning. After ten minutes of prep and 30 minutes of cooking while I did other things, I had a tasty and healthful meal.

Last year, I joined a community supported agriculture program (CSA) that delivered fresh local veggies to my house once a week for 22 weeks. This was great as each week I had a selection of new veggies, many of which I'd never cooked with before. I certainly ate healthier with those foods around. I should try and pick up a bunch of fresh veggies every week and make random dishes from them. Certainly better for me than takeout pizza, huh?

I'll certainly be checking out that vegetarian link. Although I am careful to include protein sources in my diet, I am not careful enough in planning my vegetarian diet when I consider what I put my body through.

Thanks again for bringing up this important topic and providing useful resources!

TonyP said...

Great post and great links. I need this. I'd love to find out more about the CSA program that Bryon mentions.

Thanks - see you in a few weeks.

Bryon Powell said...

Tony,
To find a CSA near you just search for CSA and "White Plains" or "Westchester". CSAs are quiet local. Many time all the produce comes from a single farm, while other times a CS may add fruit grown at local orchards or other locally grown specialty crops. Often CSAs require pickup at a designated location once a week, but with a little searching I think you'll be able to find one that delivers to your house for a little more money. As I can't guarantee that I'll make any of the local pickups on a regular basis (stupid work), I have mine delivered.

Here's a local one I found real quick: http://www.roxburyfarm.com/site_pages/westchester_csa.htm

And here's alist of CSAs in NY, although it is surely not comprehensive: http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Agriculture/Practices_and_Systems/Community_Supported_Agriculture/Regional/United_States/New_York/

Anonymous said...

This year I have quit all caffeine. It is amazing how ubiquitous it is in our food and drink. Did you know that it takes the body 3 weeks to metabolize that cup of coffee you had on day 1? That really shocked me out of my caffeine high. It will be interesting to see how I feel at my next race. Jacki

Anonymous said...

Good stuff Lisa.

I wish your students would post more comments to your blog about what they use for training, I bet we could all learn a thing or two.
It would be hard for me to give us red meat,I did for about 8 days one time and craved it to much.
Going to check out some of the sites you talk about now.
Meg

Anonymous said...

As Trail Goat said

Thanks for posting this, Lisa! A vast majority of runners (not to mention everyone else) could benefits from an improved diet.

The American diet is very bad. As Lisa said one idea would be to change the word diet. I really think that it's hereditary and our culture that needs to change. We live in such as fast paced culture that no one seems to make time to eat right. Probably why medical insurance costs are so high.

If you get a chance stop by my blog at http://health-vitamin.info for more information on diet, nutrition and eating right.

Lisa Smith-Batchen said...

Good morning!!!

Thanks you for sharing your information and other web sites. This is great and will help the list get longer and longer. NO excuse for anyone these days to have a poor eating habits. If you read our last newsletter Dreamchasers sent out, Mike Smart did his 1st half marathon on Dec. 2nd. In 2 months he lost 24 pounds. The only thing I asked him to remove from his food list was sugar!!!! The weight is falling off him. Make slow changes so you don't feel deprived.
Keep the information coming, it is so helpful to us all.
Have a great day
Lisa

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Good Post and it's so true u are what you eat cause when I eat like crap...yupper I feel like it :-(

Thanks for sharing Coach!

Lisa Smith-Batchen said...

You sure are what you eat!

I ate only raw foods for 2 weeks. Tons of veggies, raw almonds and fruit. Have to tell you, I never felt better. My skin, eye sight, energy and everything felt better.
I continue to eat a ton of the same things but feel I really need the protein as most of us do:)
Lisa

Anonymous said...

here are two good vegetarian/vegan recipes:

mock tuna 1
--------------
1 can great northern white beans, drained and mashed in a large bowl
add to that:
diced onions, celery, 1/4-1/2 cup relish, squirt of mustard and soy mayo (or the
real stuff), salt and pepper to taste.

Stir together and let sit in fridge overnight.

mock tuna 2
----------------
1 cup of TVP (texured vegetable protien), reconstitutioned

add to that:
diced onions, celery, 1/4-1/2 cup relish, squirt of mustard and soy mayo (or the
real stuff), salt and pepper to taste.

Stir together and let sit in fridge overnight.

Chandler aka "Fatty" said...

Thanks for the websites. I have found some great meals on mealsforyou.com.
It is so important to eat well and balanced. Whenever I get away from that it sure comes back to bit me in my workouts. Two things that sound really basic but help me a ton are. I always make a shopping list and stick to it and I never go to the grocery store hungry. Otherwise I’m like a little kid trying to sneak junk food into my cart.

Fitlion said...

Thanks for this, I am very impressed.

nutrition for athletes