MINE sucks…big time. I eat cr*p, but I am slowly changing that. I was just curious to hear from people doing various distance events what kinds of diets they follow. For instance, what would you eat in a “typical” day while training.
I know that there is a ton of variance here, but I am just curious. Also, what IN RACE nutritional plan do you follow for various distances…again, just trying to learn here.
Mike
While training, its not what I eat, its what I dont eat. Severely limit the beers (1-2/week), no candy, sugars stuff like that (except red bull), NO fast food, none. (usually gorge on FF burgers on the way home from a long race). Nothing deep fried, no sodas (diet soda if im really craving it), NO cream sauces. Other than that, its pretty much fair game. For racing, I like hammer nutrition, and I can get it for cheap, so thats the route I take, I like the hammer gel, anti fatigue tabs, and I have mixed feelings about perpetuem. I basically fuel up with those during a race. And clif bars.
Before you change anything…I’d recommend writing down EVERYTHING you put in your mouth (including workout food, beers, water…everything) for 7 days.
You won’t understand where you’re going unless you truly understand where you currently are.
Good advice.
Also, keep in mind, as far as weightloss is concerned, 90% of it has to do with how many calories you consume. You don’t have to give up any favorite foods, but you can’t eat a lot of ice cream if you are going to get enough protein and carbs in without going over your caloric needs =)
Oh, I did that on fitday.com for a couple of weeks, and it is FRIGHTENING…I mean BAD, BAD, BAD…
No wonder the pounds haven’t come off quite as well as I had hoped…
A couple of weeks ago:
two bacon/egg/cheese muffins and hashbrowns for breakfast…
two cups of coffee
mushroom/swiss burger and cheese curds for lunch with a diet coke
snickers for a midafternoon snack with another coffee
three pieces of double cheese pizza and a lemonade for dinner…I mean gawd…
I could get away with this when I was 18, but I can’t anymore…the problem is I’m truly addicted. There have been so many times when I’ll eat much better, and then say…“OH, I’m just gonna treat myself”, then I feel guilty, and then I’m back to eating like above. I need to change, which is why I started to change just one meal at a time, and right now I’m doing good with eating a good lunch, when I get one, but need to work hard on the other two meals. Just curious as to what others ate.
Why change? Explain…
1 Intrinsic motivation 2 Extrinsic motivation
Breakfast I usually have cereal or toast and jelly. Sometimes bannana and a yogurt
Mid-morning snack of fruit
Lunch - sandwich, salad bar, a burrito, 2 fish tacos, something like that
Mid-afternoon another piece of fruit
Dinner - whatever, just don’t eat that much. Several glasses of wine sometimes. Small desert like a fruit popsicle
Lost 30 lbs from 2005 to 2007.
The trick is: eat whatever just watch the portions. No supersizing. Use eating as fuel for your engine and you will tend to eat better.
I agree with the comments about the importance of not eating certain things, and I am learning just how true it is as my workouts increase in intensity. I have had two very bad workouts in the last 2 months or so. In the first one I skipped my evening workout and had a McDonalds pigout - large soda, large fries, Big Mac and 10 piece McNugget. My workout the next morning was a disaster, it was supposed to be an easy 6 mile run but I crumbled about 2 miles in. My heartrate skyrocketed to a rate that was higher than my max heart rate in a sprint tri I had done about 4 days earlier. I couldn’t believe it.
I thought it might be coincidence until last week. Sunday night Thai pigout - 2 spring rolls, 2 fried corn things, 2 fried dumblings, one huge serving of Pad Thai Beef with an extra container of peanut sauce poured over it. I was filled to the top. The next evening after work I attempted a 20/5 brick. I was flat on the bike and then had nothing for the run, my mile splits were a minute slower than usual. Im seeing a pattern here . . .
I eat very clean during the week, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, fresh fish, chicken, hummus, yougurt, oatmeal, legumes, no fattening add ons. On the weekends, usually after my long run, I usually have one good meal where I eat whatever I want. If I do more than this (see above) my body is just not properly fueled for my workouts and I can’t get the job done. It wasn’t as big a deal when I was doing almost all LSD work, but as my workouts have gotten more specific and intense my diet matters more.
As far as race day/workout nutrition, I like cliff bars, hammer gels and gatorade.
Adam
Typical training weekday looks like this, weekends differ slightly. While it may sound boring to eat the same foods every day, I actually credit regular & consistent eating habits with good recovery, sound sleep, & injury prevention…meaning regular & consistent training.
Breakfast:
bowl of oatmeal with banana, a few tinned peaches & skim milk
two slices of grainy toast - one with marmite, one with “lite” PB 
half a glass of OJ
SWIM
Post swim:
large strong black coffee
grain-based bar with carbs (mmmm sugar!) & some protein
(if i don’t swim a i have the coffee on arrival at work, less the muesli bar)
Mid-morning snack:
two-thirds of an apple and orange and one banana, chopped up & topped with a few spoons of natural yoghurt
(i save the other thirds and another banana for mid-arvo snack)
Lunch:
large leaf-based salad, usually with some chicken or tuna, lite dressing etc
or two vege based sandwiches on grainy bread, no butter
or small takeaway soup with a vege wrap
(I’m fortunate to have three great lunch sources within 2 minutes of my office)
Mid-arvo snack:
small bowl of brown rice with tuna
the other third of my fruit salad with yoghurt
maybe another coffee, usually a skinny latte with one sugar
RIDE or RUN (or both)
Post ride/run:
recovery drink, maybe a protein bar after particularly gruelling sessions
Dinner:
tinned beans on grainy toast
or small bowl of vege soup with toast
or tomato-based pasta dish (especially around those hard sessions)
protein shake before bed
So basically lots & lots of fruit & veges, raw wherever possible. Certainly not a food nazi, but i do try to avoid bad fats & overly processed products (white breads & pastas for e.g.). Apart from the yoghurt I don’t eat a lot of dairy. It shocks my family how little meat I consume too. I usually snack on a nutty trail mix during the day (good fats, a little protein), and consume 2-3 glasses of water. I think its important to remember as an in-shape endurance athlete its easy to overdo the water. I might treat myself to some peanut m&m’s occasionally, or a burger or kebab once every 6 weeks or so, but only when my body REALLY craves it (i consider this is a sign that shouldn’t be ignored). IMHO, any more and you’re wasting your time with 20+ hr training weeks, so easy to throw all that hard work away with poor food choices.
I’ve been a triathlete for 18 months. I prefer the HIM distance, but training for my first IM in 2008. This diet seems to work for me*.
*results may vary
Figure out your Basal metabolic weight (there are websites).
Get a food scale, use it to calculate portions and calories.
Weigh and pack food for yourself for the whole day… 6 meals with appropriate calories, equal to or less than your BMR + workout expenditures. And tell yourself that those containers have everything that you’re going to eat for the day. That’s it.
Do that for six weeks, then treat yourself. Once a week.
(I don’t do this, my wife does it. I support her by prepping food. She lost 25 lbs in 5 months, keeps it off, and looks/feels great.)
Jesus Christ! What sort of a bird feeding program is this?! No wonder none of your posts makes any sense for a while now. You Sir are a good candidate for a food intervention.
I think you know what is healthy and what is not healthy. I’m being pretty blunt because I see you are a physician’s assistant (so your name says), and I know you can’t be unwise or ignorant - you have been trained to understand physiology and some amount of biochemistry.
There are many psychological issues to “treating yourself” and food addiction and other ways that one can get off track to your goals. One of the simplist is to re-discover what “treating yourself” is: is you re-frame “treating yourself” as RESPECTING YOURSELF and really aim for healthy meals which FUEL your day and training, you will start coming out ahead.
One of the tricks is NOT giving in to every ‘treat’ whim which goes through your head. Sometimes, you are simply hungry (perhaps you had a hard workout and hadn’t eaten enough real nutrients) - your body will fool you into craving ANYTHING which can satisfy caloric intake, and it will make you imagine ‘treats’ as the solution. This isn’t true and you DON’T HAVE TO GIVE IN if you take every minute ‘one at a time’ - like an alcoholic does.
Seriously, you know what a quality diet is, if you’ve been reading ST, read a tri book, or even been on the planet more than 25 years. If you are frightened by what you write in Fitday, then you understand where you are at.
I understand food addiction - I really do. Honest. So do many other people. I’m cutting underneath all that to help you see that it just takes the will to begin - and after that, it’s an every-minute journey until you kick it… don’t allow yourself to be caught in the trap of “I’m addicted” mentality, because for some people, it’s an excuse - instead, what they need is the first step of the way out.
Please excuse any harshness to my words - I am not meaning any harshness. I’m meaning to help you cut your own bull so you can start your days anew.
Best wishes,
lauren
No harshness implied or interpreted. I am trying to change that, part of the problem was that as a kid, being raised by a single working mom, I established some rather ugly eating habits. Not making excuses, just trying to explain. I was eating big macs and quarter pounders as a rule. My mom rarely had time to cook, so fast food ruled the roost. Now it seems, it is coming home to nest. The other part is my wife, who is rather closed minded to new or different foods, she was raised on a ND farm, and is almost exclusively a meat and potatoes gal. I understand healthy foods of course, I guess the point of posting this was to try and see what more experienced tri people were eating, and perhaps use those examples as motivation to help me change my own diet. Thanks for the post though.
Mike
Just keep in mind, that when you ask people what they eat, they’re usually on the light side.
“I understand healthy foods of course, I guess the point of posting this was to try and see what more experienced tri people were eating, and perhaps use those examples as motivation to help me change my own diet.”
Don’t ask here… sorry to say… read about it or get expert help. As someone else said, you’ll often get someone mistakenly telling you what THEY do instead of what is CORRECT to do. In addition, there are many people who are still working on their own physiques. You are better off learning the proper ways from tri experts instead of a forum - you will also get the science behind it, which might help you as well.
You can easily create a quality diet using such endurance authors as Joe Friel, Carmichael, etc. They have books which help you plan meals as well as training foods.
I grew up on creamcheese sandwiches and frozen chicken pot pies. My own mother (who lives 3000 miles away) still eats packaged processed food; when i visit her, I create my own whole-food meals or we eat out at heathy restaurants. The point is (and again, I don’t mean to be harsh at all) that we can now leave the past behind us when we realize that it’s mistaken. You can also start healthy habits now even if your wife eats meat and potatoes - maybe she will join you after she sees what works for you.
The final point that I’m making is that we can’t let excuses (or the past) keep us mired in ‘what we don’t want’. That’s too easy. Once we realize those excuses (or habits) aren’t suiting us, we can leave them behind: “bye bye”: and start on the good habits. This is one way to stop the food addiction, if you can somehow connect this ‘treat’-issue with the REAL TRUTH that these foods are NOT treats: they are anchors to a body and a way of life you DON’T want.
Unfortunately you may find that the real answers you seek on this forum may be found in past threads – I’ve been on ST maybe 2 years and I’ve noticed that people get tired of answering it, so you won’t get quality replies right now (especially in summer). This is also why I am suggesting that you start your own reserach with quality books or live (coaching) experts.
Best wishes,
Lauren
Guess I’m 1/2 good, 1/2 bad
I too am on the consistency plan, mainly because of my work & school schedules, but that will change after I finish law school and then the bar, I guess!
Weekdays:
workout (swim or run)
yogurt smoothie (light & fit I think)
cereal
grape juice
hour or so later- coffee and 1/2 a nutrigrain bar (they are so high in sugar 1/2 is plenty)
b/w 10am-11am either fruit or veggies and light ranch (not for the veggies)
lunch- sandwich, sometimes pb and jelly, both without sugar if not pbj turkey and cheese on real grainy bread; baked lays or some pretzels, raw veggies
the inevitable sweet craving that comes w/in an hour of lunch- sugar free organic apple sauce
around 3pm- fruit snack
5-6pm (school nights) healthy choice dinner (I know not the must substantive or whole of foods, but I don’t have time to cook w/ work & school);
non school nights, something we cook at home after the evening workout
8pm usually starvin marvin by this time, so I eat a yogurt or something light
here’s the bad…we have the “candy bin” which is full of all sorts of chocolate miniatures, full size some items, you name it, we got it… and people send our firm cookies, muffins, and donuts all the time… I usually end up with a couple of choco miniatures a day.
And I try to drink as much water as I can.
Weekends… I just try to eat fresh whenever possible even after a really long brick or something, I go to Fresh Market and get a sandwich and pita chips or something… and a cookie (I am a sucker for the good quality heath bar cookie!..heaven!)
Listen to what Fitnesscoach is saying- she’s right. My diet was a train wreck similar to yours as late as 3 years ago (plus I used the “I can eat whatever b/c I’m trying to build bulk/strength as a powerlifter” excuse). I made gradual changes over time, and am now a very healthy eater, 42 # down from my all-time high weight.
One of the best things you can do is go to the grocery store on a full stomach. This drastically reduces the amount of garbage you will buy. Go by yourself sometime, and spend 3 hours reading labels. The best stuff has no label- fruits and vegetables. Work to cut HFCS, other added sugar, and hydrogenated oils. Whenever you go someplace for more than 60-90 minutes, bring food: WATER, fruit, something solid (clif bar or whatever). This will allow you to eat healthy without caving in and going to some fast food joint. And remember: a little hunger is good- it means you’re getting smaller, and will thus get around the racecourse faster!
As for your wife and her eating habits: I feel you there. My wife is from Panama, and her family still eats a lot of fried foods (chicken, plantains, various types of tortillas, etc). The thing is, her generation is only the 2nd that hasn’t made a living working on a farm (her dad still does- he’s in outstanding condition for a 58 year-old!)- if you do that kind of work, you need the calories! (and even though fried, it doesn’t contain the added garbage most packaged food does). For most of us, we don’t need to eat those types of food. It took 5 plus years to get my wife to modify her cooking style, but all of us feel better for it- get her to make small changes over time, and you’ll be surprised how much changes in 2 years.
One last thing on meats: only eat meat that is cut directly off an animal. If its blended, mashed, or anything else (sausage, nuggets, etc), who knows what the hell is in there.
You can watch the butcher blend it if you are really that concerned.
Besides a little eyeball or tendon or bone never hurt anybody =)
OK, I should say “pre-packaged” processed meats. Eyeballs, tendons, bones, etc. are not too terrible. What gets me is HFCS (I’m still wondering why this shit needs to be in MEAT!!!), added oil (its meat- fat is in there!), large amounts of fat, insects, a booger flicked into the vat by some guy at the factory, that sort of thing…
Lauren speaks sooth. Follow her advice.
For what it’s worth, here’s what I TRY to do: train in the AM and front load my calories toward the beginning of the day and taper off toward the end. Make dinner your lightest meal, and don’t eat anything after you’re done. If I start to get hungry about 30 minutes before I go to bed, I feel that I’ve timed it just right. The problem for me is portion size. I eat nothing but good food (fruits, nuts, lean protein, whole grains, etc.) my problem is that I eat too much of them at the wrong times. It’s an ongoing effort.
As I heard someone say, there is not one thing you can do to lose weight. It’s the dozens of things you do each day, like deciding to have an apple instead of a pop tart, deciding not to have seconds unless you wait 5-1o minutes, not using food as a reward. All these little things add up.