Eating Right...Hobson's Simple Philosophy:
My philosophy is that once you break the habit of eating
junk food, excess carbs, even excess butter on foods and
in cooking (habit breaking takes about a month to two months),
then you can really understand what to eat by what the body
is telling you to eat. This "listening" is very
important as your "engine" is telling you what
it needs.
The other point I stress is I am not worried so much the
amount of calories an athlete eats, but rather the type
of foods being eaten. If a person stays with fruits (for
your sweet tooth), vegetables, some starches and meats....your
body will regulate itself with the proper amount of calories
you need and you will not overeat and thus gain inefficient
weight (fat).
I encourage people to change the flavor of their eating
with various ways of preparing foods such as:
Vegetables: raw or steamed, when steamed you change the
flavor via spices. This gives the taste buds a whole different
sensation.
Meats - grill, broil, bake, marinate all types of meats
Fruits - fresh, dried and occasionally jelly (as long as
fresh with no preservatives or additives)
I have always thought to "treat you body like a temple."
I can't say I have always treated it this way, but this
is a good mantra to follow. Yes, it might cost more to buy
natural foods, etc., but if it makes the body hum better,
then it is worth it. However, I don't want an athlete to
stress that if they don't have a budget to buy the higher
priced organic, free range foods or if there isn't a type
of store like this in their area, then they should still
make sure they eat the key staples such as fruits, veggies
and meats.
I personally never followed a calorie counting method (racing
is different). I tried once for two months, but this was
too time consuming for me and I had other things I would
rather do with my time. I think eating what your body tells
you to eat (which means you have to listen)! is a simplistic
way of controlling what you eat. Since retiring from triathlons,
I have only been able to train about six hours a week on
average (how many calories an hour does one burn typing
ten hours straight?:)), yet I haven't gained a pound from
my race weight. I eat pretty well and I listen to what my
body craves.
Now, we do have breakdowns and that is fine (my wife just
made a homemade blueberry pie, crust and all). I encourage
someone that if they have a sweet tooth such as cookies,
candy bar, etc., they should either:
a. Take the candy bar and cut it into small pieces, eating
the candy bar over a more extended time period.
b. Grab only one cookie and walk out of the room from where
the cookie originated. You may be too tired or lazy to have
to get out of your chair and simply walk back to the D-day
cookie bag. In the meantime, your appetite may be satisfied
with that one cookie.
c. Also, don't buy the junk food in the first place and
if your significant other does, have that person hide the
junk food OR have a special locker where only that person
knows the code. If you know you can't get to it, you are
less likely to crave for it. PS. a great way to shop at
a grocery store is to shop around the edges of the store,
not the aisles where more of the food is processed
d. If you are craving a nonessential food product, but you
are not necessarily hungry, quickly occupy yourself with
a hobby such as reading which takes your find off of this
craving. Also, a piece of fruit while doing a hobby should
do the trick.
Again, if you can change your habits for two months, the
cravings will come less often and not as intense. You also
mentally will have broken these menacing desires. Have I
demonstrated any pure science here, no, just common sense
for an athlete wanting to improve.
