Eat Enough
“Eat enough” said my dad, weeks into my restrictive eating. It was previously thought that thinner meant better at many sports. At the age of 14, I had been a competitive gymnast for 8 years. As I entered puberty my body, as it should, began to change. My coach admonished that I was getting harder to spot due to my larger size. I weighed 100 lbs.
Taking my coach’s warnings to heart, I devised a plan to severely cut my calories and slim down. Unfortunately, I learned that thinner did not mean better, it meant broken. I went from one injury to another, only to find myself at my gymnastic career’s end vs. on top of the podium.
Athlete’s I work with ask me often “how much should I eat?” I work with them on eating mindfully so that they can re- learn to listen their body and understand how to identify and connect with their hunger and fullness cues as well as their cravings. It would be easy for me to calculate how much they need and devise a meal plan, but everyone’s body is different and everyone depletes nutrients at different rates. Of course there are nutrients that are required but as far as individual needs, being in touch with what one’s body is telling them is paramount.
A general rules of thumb are to eat before one works out. To workout fasted is similar to trying to drive your car without gas. It’s just not going to work very well. The most ideal combination is a whole grain carbohydrate and some protein so that one doesn’t burn through the carbohydrate as quickly and the energy is sustained further into the workout. Some examples of pre- workout meals and snacks are a bagel with peanut butter, a peanut butter and banana sandwich, whole grain pretzels and hummus, or an apple and cheese.
A second rule of thumb is to eat within a half an hour after exercise. While we are exercising we are secreting a hormone called cortisol which allows us to mobilize nutrients for energy. However, once we are done, sustained cortisol release leads to inflammation making it harder to recover from the workout, increasing soreness, increasing the risk for injury and decreasing the likelihood of nutrients consumed later to be able to get back into nutrient storage, all of these factors decreasing how an athlete feels during subsequent workouts. The way to turn cortisol off is to eat a combination of carbohydrates to replenish what was utilized during the workout, protein to facilitate movement of the carbohydrates back into glycogen storage and some healthy fat to help decrease the inflammation even further. A few examples of meals and snacks that would work well post workout would be a smoothie made with fruit, yogurt and chia seeds or a pickle and cheese sandwich with avocado and hummus.
As mentioned earlier, eating what one craves is of utmost importance. But, social media and diet culture has taught us to create food rules and deemed some foods good and some foods bad and has made it harder and harder over time to remain connected with one’s hunger and fullness cues and cravings. I utilize nutrition counseling and yoga therapy in my Coalescence Method to help athletes reconnect their minds with their body’s to identify these cues, honor these cues and to do so without guilt.