NUTRITION BASICS FOR CHRISTIAN

ATHLETES

Sports Nutrition 101

Why is Nutrition Important?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Proper Nutrition Seems Complicated

“Diets” Paleo, Best Life Diet, Blood Type Diet Vegan, Fat Flush Diet, Glycemic Index Diet Vegetarian, Grapefruit Diet, Hormone Diet Raw Foods, Jenny Craig, Juice Diet, Primal, Macrobiotic Diet, Master Cleanse

Diet South Beach Diet, Mediterranean Diet, Atkins Diet, Nutrisystem Diet, Volumetrics

Diet

Where do we turn?

No need to be legalistic, count calories or weigh portions which seems to be the latest fad.

Simplifying Nutrition

intuitive eating- Its premise maintains that listening to the body’s natural hunger signals is a more effective way to attain a healthy body weight than tracking calories.

4 Principles of Nutrition for Runners

Eat Real Food Meal Composition Eat Like a Runner Blow off Perfection

Principle #1-Eat Real Food

The single most important thing you can do improve your health is to eat more real food and less processed food.

What is “real” food?

Real Food is…

Food that is in its most natural state and has not been processed or refined.

Things like whole fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and unprocessed grains.

Animal products should be grass-fed and organic, if possible - the way God originally intended.

Reasons for eating real food

real food generally has more nutrients than processed food.

in order to make foods shelf-stable, whole foods are often stripped of many of their nutrients during processing.

this lack of nutrients also means that processed food is not nearly as satisfying as real food, they wont fill you up

The ultimate lesson is to revert your eating habits back to your great-great- grandmother’s.

“If your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, then it’s not food.”

Principle #2-Meal Composition

Include high-quality, minimally processed sources of each of the three macronutrients in every meal and most snacks: healthy carbohydrate, protein, and healthy fat (nuts, seeds, avocado, etc.)

Under-eating or not eating enough of a particular macronutrient will decrease your energy, increase your appetite, and compromise your recovery.

 “Front-load” your food intake during the day so you eat more during the first half of the day. This helps curb late-afternoon and evening cravings.

Pay attention to your hunger signals: eat when you’re beginning to get hungry and stop when you’re full (this isn’t rocket science, but how many of us actually do this?)

Include as many vegetables as possible at lunch and dinner (and breakfast if you’re an overachiever!)

Principle #3-Eat Like a Runner

By eating like a runner and focusing on a diet rich in nutrient-dense foods that provide the fuel you need to boost your training capacity, you’ll be able to run more, train harder, and race faster. These in turn improve your body composition (and make you a better runner).

Don’t get tied up in the low carbohydrate eating that comes from the S.A.D.

Not consuming adequate carbohydrate is to compromise your training, under-fuel your vital workouts.

It’s critical to eat high-quality sources of carbohydrate at every meal and most snacks; it’s the “jet fuel” that propels your running

Eat lots of beans, fruits and vegetables

Swap your refined grain foods, such as white bread and sugary cereal, with whole grains foods like oats, quinoa, wild rice, whole-wheat bread, whole-grain pasta and popcorn.

Good Carbs

Oatmeal, fruit, vegetables, sweet potatoes/yams, brown rice, whole wheat bread, raw whole

dairy products

Bad Carbs

Cereal, candy, chips, ice cream, soda, canned juices, processed foods

Principle #4-Don’t Try for Perfection

One of the most common diet misconceptions out there is that to be healthy, we ALWAYS have to eat healthy.

stay on top of your hunger cues, as we’ve already discussed. It’s impossible to make sound eating decisions when you’re absolutely ravenous.

Be healthy and eat smart - but don’t worry when you can’t. Perfection is many times the “enemy of the good” and can be counterproductive.

Top 3 best changes you can make?

1- Quit drinking soda’s

2-Give up cold cereal

3-Stop eating chips, crackers and candy bars

Artgeekteaching.com/blog/FCArunning

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/sugar-hiding-in-plain-sight-robert-

lustig