Hi, I am Steve Born with Hammer Nutrition in Whitefish Montana. I have been an Endurance Athlete for over 20 years and for the last 10 plus years it's being my passion to help endurance athletes like you to get the most out of all the time, money, and energy you are putting in the training. While there are many intangibles and tangibles that are involved in having success as an athlete, you can boil down to three basic things. Number one, the use of good equipment. Now, that doesn't meant that you need the 10 years limited edition gold plated model but you do need to use an incorporate good equipment in your training and workout sessions.
Number two, you need to have some structure, a well thought-out training and recovery program. You simply just can't wing it going out and doing whatever it is you think that you need to do and hope to have any success in your workouts and races. And number three, you need to incorporate a solid sensible nutrition program.
Now of these three things, the equipment, the training, and the nutrition it's that third one, the nutrition that athletes either forget or neglect all together. And that's really unfortunate, because without a solid nutrition program in place those first two things and all the time, money, and energy you spend on those will never realize their full value.
Now we have all heard 'Garbage in Garbage out', well I think that's really appropriate when it comes to nutrition, because the quality of the food that you put into your body greatly determines the type of energy you are going to get out of it. Not only that but it determines the type of health that you are going to enjoy. So it's very important that you take into consideration, a solid well thought-out high quality nutrition plan as part of your overall training program.
Number one, eat whole foods. This includes copious amounts of fresh organic fruits and vegetables, while avoiding prepackaged food as much as possible. Fruits and vegetables are not only a good source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, they also contain a goldmine of numerous fiber nutrients all of of which are believed to have a wide range of health benefits. Number two, reduce the amount of sodium in your diet. Chronic high intake of sodium is associated with high blood pressure and several other other disorders including the potential to produce damaging effects to the kidneys and the heart. A wise strategy with then be then reduce the amount of sodium in your diet. For sedentary people, the body only requires approximately 500 mg of sodium per day, while, endurance athletes require about two to four times of that amount, 1100-2400 mg/per day.
Did you know however, that the typical American diet supply several times that amount up to and over 7000 mg daily, that's a huge amount. Number three, increase the amount of essential fatty acids in your diet while reducing the amount of saturated fats and trans fats. Sadly, the typical diet supplies far too many cholesterol raising artery clogging saturated fats. These are the kind of fats that are usually solid at room temperature, as well as providing too high amounts of trans fats which are also known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Not all fats are bad. In fact, the human body requires certain types of fats known as EFA or Essential Fatty Acids, not only for optimal health and athletic performance but for survival as well.
Now the body cannot make these important fats, you need to obtain them through your diet. EFAs are found in many types of fish such as Salmon as well as in a variety of nuts and seeds. Other healthy sources of fats are mono-unsaturated fats such as olive oil. Number four, greatly reduce the amount of refined sugars. Refined sugar has been linked to numerous health conditions including Diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Still the average consumption of sugar for every person in the US today is at staggering 150 pounds/year. Clearly an important key for maintaining optimal health is to consciously and drastically reduce the amount of refined sugar we consume daily.
Number five, drink adequate amounts of water. Did you know that roughly 60% of you body weight is made up of water. It's true that's why it's no coincidence that maintaining adequate water intakes is essential for athletic performance and health. Here is a good gates for optimal fluid intake. Take your body weight, divide it in half, the figure you get is the amount of fluids in ouches that you should be consuming daily. In other words a 180 pound person would want to consume approximately 90 ouches of water per day.
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