Everywhere You Look

Or I look, it seems, there's another article on Nutrition. I can't seem to escape it. The New York Times Sunday Magazine featured an unfortunate article on the sorry state of food science and "nutrition" here in the United States. Outside Magazine recently ran their Nutrition Special, featuring articles such as this one detailing what US Olympians "eat to win". NPR is all over it. Our friends over at Bicycling Magazine just gave us their list of Big Fat Lies.

So what's it all mean? Is it the same old song and dance? The same fad diets that we see time and time again? Will everyone jump on the bandwagon, sing the praises but not understand the foundation, crash and burn?

And why does it matter, Mike?  Don't you want to train people? Don't you want to coach? Don't tell me what to eat. Tell me how to train. I want to get faster. I want to feel better. I want to get stronger.

OK, here you go. Here's the secret. Stop eating GARBAGE. Michael Pollan puts it a bit more eloquently (and I've taken the liberty of amending his rule just a bit, I don't think he'd mind):

"Eat (REAL) FOOD. Not too much. Mostly Plants"

There you go. That's it.  Those 8 words are the KEY to training, in my opinion. You can do all of the Sub Lactate Thresholds you want to. Over/Unders. Big Gear work. Squats. Tempo. Strides. Race Pace. Get your massage. Work on your core. All of those things are going to work when implemented into a periodized training schedule based on a solid foundation of strength and balance. But none of them will yield the optimal outcome if you are not eating properly. If you are not giving your body the necessary energy it needs to survive and thrive, and then to aid in performance and recovery while you pile on hundreds of hours per year of training...then the training is in some sense a waste of time (in some respects, if you're training hard and not eating properly, you're putting one foot into the grave a bit sooner than you would otherwise).

Training is a piece of your life. Food and nutrition are the FOUNDATIONS OF YOUR LIFE. Think about it. Take a week off of training. What would happen? Yeah, you'd get cranky, maybe (because your balance of nutrients is surely improper). You'd likely gain weight (because you're eating too much). But you would have more time with your family. That's not a bad thing. Or some time to enjoy a day. Rest. Start a new project around the house. Maybe take a vacation, see an old friend.

Now what would happen if you tried to take a week off of eating? You'd be cranky at first, again due to an imbalance (in this case a complete deficit) of nutrients. But then crankiness would be replaced with lethargy and an inability to perform many tasks. Free time wouldn't mean a thing because you wouldn't have the energy to do anything. The obvious conclusion to not eating is obvious...needless to say it's NOT the look we're going for.

The whole idea of proper and adequate nutrition should resonate with all of us on so many levels. It should seem so obvious. But it's apparent that many of us are not mindful of our eating, nor do we realize the implications of nutrition ignorance/imbalance on our lives. I'm not calling on all of us to become vegetarians (while I realize the positive lifestyle impacts of a vegetable diet, I did eat baby back ribs this weekend...and I enjoyed them thoroughly). You don't have to give up on food. I love food. I love good food. Food that is prepared in my kitchen. With love and thought. By my wife. With my family.

We don't need to simply eat. We need to EAT SIMPLY. Eat for living and THEN eat for training. There are some simple ways to get started, I think. I'm a BIG fan of Michael Pollan's Food Rules. It's a simple way to get started. After that, well, the water is deep, as far as "knowledge" is concerned (remind me to share some of the photos I took in the "Diet and Nutrition" section of the local Barnes and Noble). For the sake of the discussion here, let's get to the basics and start to build a foundation of healthy eating. Upon that, we can start to build a better man.