New Performance Nutrition Tip of the Week

Carbohydrates; complex or simple and Fat?

The body has two sources it uses for energy, carbohydrates and fat. The question is how much to have while training? If you find yourself doing all this exercise to prepare for the big day and you have hit a plateau, at the same weight for some time or possibly gained weight, you are asking your self WHY. Simply, you are eating too many carbs for your level of activity throughout the week.


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As your mileage has been increasing to your highest mileage people tend to over eat carbs and forget about the proper fat to combine with those carbs during training. For instance, for breakfast before your run don't load up on fruit, bagels, bars and performance drinks, have one cup of cooked oatmeal and 2 tablespoons of either peanut butter or almond butter, water with electrolytes 45 minutes to one hour before your run starts. Our bodies make 13 times more energy from one gram of fat than it does from one gram of carbohydrates. If you spike your insulin too early in your run, your blood sugar will be bouncing and then we get ourselves into trouble. When you combine a carb with a fat you sustain blood sugar and its usage of energy in your body, allowing you burn it as you need it, not leaving you heavy legged and tired. Use the sports drinks only on the runs and post run, they are loaded with extra sugar we don't need in our daily lives. Drink water and lots of it.

Food tip: try baking a large yam for 45 minutes, skin it and puree it with 2 tablespoons of pure natural honey, with 2 tablespoons of peanut or almond butter, add 2 oz. of water and take this out on the run. It's an all natural low glycemic carb with a high glycemic carb(honey also a natural anti-inflammatory) and the fat. Put into a sandwich Ziploc(double bag it) and squeeze it into your mouth, easy on your stomach, great energy and this will get you through miles 8-16.