Nutrition 101: Eating to Train

My health goal this week is to attempt to figure out my nutrition/calories of my daily intakes and see how it pertains to my current training load. For the past few weeks I haven't hit my pace numbers, so after reviewing my general food intakes, Mr. Coach highly recommended I consult a nutritionist.



Well, Gracias a Dios for blogs, b/c my former nutritionist read my post and offered to help. Cool! So we're currently in the middle of emails of my intakes/training and her analyzing and getting back to me.


And in the meantime, in these past 3 days, I've become aware of just how many calories I'm burning during training. In the past, I never paid attention to the calories on either my Garmin or Polar because...well, because it's just one more thing to worry/think about and I figured I'm eating enough to fuel me. Well, now that I'm amping up my training progressively to ~13 hrs/week, I figured I should check it out.

So...yesterday my bike took ~400 calories and my run too ~500 calories. That's 900 calories!! Holy Moses! (And my workouts are supposed to get more intense/long) In the past few months, I gave myself ~2500 calories a day (1/3 of em' not so good calories...I'll be honest right now), and figured that is prob enough. Well, 2500-900= 1600 which seems like a good amount of basic calories to have, but I think I need more like ~1900. Just to live and schlep the kids around. And I'm not giving myself the right calories at the right time: pre/post workouts.


So I've been WAY more mindful of it this week (2 whole days I tell ya!). And I think it's making a difference. I'm eating more for breakfast, making sure I have ~200-300 calorie protein/carb snack ~30 b4 my first training, and ~150 calories in protein recovery drink right after (not to mention a ~150 electrolyte/carb drink during either the bike or strength training). 


And I'm packing my snack bag more mindfully. Hence the pic above. Normally my snack bag included the kids' leftover goldfish/pretzels/Clif bars from their lunches (I'm not kiddin' and all you moms out there are noddin' your heads). Well, not this week my friend! It's all about MY snack bag: jug of protein recovery drink, string cheese, cottage cheese/berries, banana, odwalla protein shake, banana, trail mix..you get the gist. 

So my take away is this: I need to shift my mind to realize I'm EATING to train. Not the other way around. This food/drink above is what's gonna fuel to hit those numbers/watts/etc. Not just today, but for tomorrow, and the next day too.

Now I'm waiting to hear back my fabo nutritionist (who might blow all this out of the water)...but this is my theory for now. 


And, I'd love, love to know if you:
A. pay attention to your calories in/out
B. have a plan/theory you believe in/follow
C. even give a ratt's @$$ about calories, shmalories!;-)