The new year is around the corner and with the new year comes the start of many new training plans to get ready for the 2012 racing season. As you begin your base training, leave the sports nutrition products in the cabinet and avoid buying them for now. It is an opportune time of the training year to begin teaching your body to become more metabolically efficient, or to “reset” if you have fallen off a solid, well-balanced nutrition plan since the holiday season graced us with food parties, cookie exchanges, mom’s pumpkin pies and the like. If you are doing any training sessions less than 2-3 hours in duration, you do not need to rely on any sports nutrition products to supplement your workouts -- not even before, during, or after. Use real and whole foods with appropriate food ratios to support your daily nutrition and training needs. You will help your body become more efficient at using its fat stores for energy while avoiding unwanted weight gain and a dependence on these products from the get go.
Want to learn more? Read “Metabolic Efficiency Training: Teaching the Body to Burn More Fat” by Bob Seebohar and our NEW “Athlete’s Food Guide to Metabolic Efficiency Training” e-book available at Fuel4mance.
Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year!
Dina Griffin, MS, RD, CSSD
Sport Dietitian
dina@fuel4mance.com
