Nutrition Seminar - I can eat ALL THAT!?

I've never worked with a nutritionist before, much less had a professional tell me what I should or should not eat without trying to sell me something. Gail Flanagan, MS, RD, gave a good insight on nutrition for athletes. 

My short attention span gathered the following; EXERCISE = YOU GET TO EAT FOOD! Who has been hiding this wonderful diet secret? Is there a patent pending? Has the FDA locked this secret up with the Ark of the Covenant in a military vault to make room for diet pills?

A happy sigh settled about the group as we ferociously scribbled "potatoes", "honey", "pasta", "REAL sugar" under the GOOD FOOD columns. I poke a hole in my paper where I placed exclamation points next to CARBS.

Gail tells us the myth of the low/no carb diet and how you can spot an Atkins fan by bad breath. (Sorry to break it to you folks, an excess of protein leads to increased ammonia in the system. And you know what ammonia smells like...) The right amount of protein is just fine - lean meats, turkey, chicken - to recover muscles from intensified training. But don't expect this to work in your favor for tomorrow's round of drills and training. A diet of 50-60% complex carbs is broken down to glucose and deeper stores of glycogen. Your body's jet fuel when faced with that quarter mile uphill push.

No to "low-fat" anything. Salad dressing, yogurt, soda, you name it. Low-fat products are laden with artificial sweeteners and high-fructose corn syrup. Don't pay attention to the media brainwashing commercials claiming HFCY is not bad because its made from corn. Bottom line, it is a cheap alternative for sugar (hence Pepsi's limited edition Throwback, Made with Real Sugar!), and the last thing you want fueling your well oiled machine (I mean your stomach) is cheaply made food. Regular Italian style dressing is better off since olive oil is a good source of Monounsaturated fat. 

We get to the part of the information sheet about water consumption and the first description states "A tasteless, colorless, odorless fluid." Hmm. Was this in reference to NYC tap water...? This part wasn't anything new. Drink water. Plenty of it. You would think with all the pool water I drank last night, I'd be set for the rest of the summer.

So this sloth of an eater (it takes me HOURS to finish a meal) will now need to consume the following on a daily basis - full breakfast (coffee A.O.K. yay!), mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and a full dinner with dessert.  That means I'll always be eating!

Oh. And those energy gels speeds up digestion due to the caffeine content. That means test them out during training first. You know, to avoid pooping yourself during the race. Classy.