Fuel for the Engine
Alright folks, its time to discuss some basic nutrition! The goal of this post is to talk about your body and the fuel you put in to it. Although strength and conditioning is a great way to kick-start your system, nutrition is the most basic and key component that will determine your body composition as well as your performance in the gym.
Think of your body like a jet plane or a race car. I’m no mechanic, but I am fairly certain that if you throw in cheap oil and 87 octane straight from the gas station that it’s either not going to run well or even worse it will break down and require a complete engine rebuild. Now take that same jet or car and throw in jet or racing fuel, and you now have a perfectly functioning machine that will perform exactly how its supposed to. That’s probably enough with the metaphors though, so lets talk some real life examples.
Let’s say John (entirely fictional) wakes up at 6:30 AM, he makes himself breakfast by pouring a bowl of granola cereal with almond milk and has a banana with it. Seems healthy so far right? John then goes to work at his desk job where he sits for the majority of his morning, and at 10 AM he has a bag of kale chips to hold him over until lunch. Don’t worry, he bought the “healthy, low fat, no sugar, kettle cooked, all natural, super organic, blah blah blah” chips. Still seems healthy so far! 12:30 hits and its time for lunch, so John grabs the Subway sandwich made with 9 grain wheat, plenty of veggies, and an apple on the side. Fruit, meat, and whole grain bread? Who wouldn’t think they are being healthy! John gets off work and on his way to the 4:15 CrossFit class has a protein bar and a Gatorade to give him that extra boost and electrolytes he needs (at least that’s what they tell you) for the WOD which is a 2k row for time.
Now without going any further let’s break down John’s macro-nutrient intake that day leading up to CrossFit. Although it isn’t included in “macros”, I’m also include added sugar because the western diet most people have become accustomed to has introduced a lot of processed foods. Note that the word “added” is specific to foods that don’t contain sugar in them already or had sugar put in during processing or preparation, so sugars from products like fruit will not be included.
While the guidelines and recommendations for percentage of macro nutrients are up for debate depending on training program, goals, and medical history, please be aware that every individual should consult with their doctor or dietitian before changing or modifying dietary intake. By no means am I suggesting to change what you eat, the purpose here is to try to be more aware of what you are putting in you body.
With that being said, let’s get back to John. The daily added sugar intake recommendation by the American Heart Association is 24 grams for women, and 36 grams for men. If you go back and take a look, John’s total intake leading up to his CrossFit class was 95 grams of sugar. That means that John hit the daily recommended added sugar intake a quarter of the way through lunch. He consumed 264% of the AHA recommended added sugar intake, or almost 3 days worth of sugar and the guy hasn’t even had dinner yet. Let that sink in for a minute… This is a person that probably thought he was being healthy about all of his choices without even realizing what was going in his body.
Now imagine, John has consumed almost nothing other than processed foods, a ton of added sugars, and a very limited amount of fresh vegetables all day long. How well do you think that 2k row will go for him? I’m willing to put my money on it not going great. In the end, his 2k row is 45 seconds slower because at that point his body has no sufficient macro or micro nutrient levels to elicit anything more than a mediocre performance. This goes back to the original metaphor I used earlier; cheap oil and 87 octane in a race car. If John was to eat like this every day he would be on this constant rotation of eating nutrient deficient products, expecting great performance in the gym, and then either being let down or angry that he didn’t hit a PR or his workout was slower than it should have been.
Alternatively, if you want to start with the basics and not worry about calculating macros and added sugar, there are 2 basic rules I try best to live by and the majority of the time they will yield a healthy and nutrient filled diet.
- If you can’t pick it, grow it, or kill it, don’t eat it.
- If you can’t rinse it, don’t eat it.
That’s right, I said rinse! As in run it under water before eating it. These two rules support one of my favorite quotes about diet and nutrition.
The main point here is that training will only get you so far. I’m not saying you have to be perfect all the time and don’t deserve the dessert you want to eat on occasion or that you can’t enjoy a night out and not worry about calculating your intake 24/7. However, you want the results you are looking for either in performance or body composition then take a look at the fuel you’re putting in your body.
Happy Eating!
References:
American Heart Association: “Sugar 101”
Nature Valley Honey Oat Clusters
can we get largeBanana Nutrition Information
Rhythm Superfoods Kale Chips
Subway Sandwich Nutrtion calculator
Apple Nutrition Information
Combat Crunch Protein Bar Nutrition
Pepsi Company Beverage Facts
Silk Original Almond Milk
