What should an athlete eat? part 4

An athlete should eat fat, and plenty of it with no worry that they will get fat!!!

Coach Nack is about to say something borderline controversial: fat doesn't make you fat, sugar from carbohydrates does (or too much fat with too much carbohydrate will also make you fat). That said, eat fat and enjoy it. Fatty foods often taste delicious, but just make sure you are eating the right fats.

Here are some fatty foods I recommend you eat:

Almonds, pecans, walnuts and other nuts and seeds- (a peanut is not a nut, by the way, so remove it from this conversation) The great thing about nuts is that they are easy to have around. Anyone can carry a bag of almonds with them, and can benefit from the awesome energy boost they can provide. All athletes should have these in their "Go Bag" when they are competing at a meet.

Almond butter- this is the creamed form of the nut mentioned above. This is a preferred option to peanut butter, because of the better health contents within the spread. Find some almond butter, and bring it to meets to put on fruits, vegetables, or even some bread (that last one pains me to say).

Olive Oil- Always try to go with extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO as we used to call it in the restaurant biz, because it is less refined then its counterparts. The one thing about EVOO is that it is hard to carry around, and hard to decide which foods to eat it with, so bringing it to meets may be unrealistic. I would simply suggest replacing the dressings on your salad with this (try a mix of EVOO, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper; it might not have the taste of your ranch dressing, but you will feel better and your performance will improve). EVOO is great not just on salads but on any vegetable. Let yourself get used to it for a couple weeks, and I can almost guarantee you will love it. Like nuts, this is another great energy booster, as well as an appetite suppressant. In fact, ultramarathoners (100+ Miles) carry tubes of olive oil on them and pound down shots of olive oil as the only means to get them through their events.

Coconut milk- Yummy, yummy, yummy! A million things to do with this, but I would recommend adding around 4oz of it to our post workout protein shakes.

Avocados- you might have hated these things as a kid, but make a return to it and you might just love it (I speak from personal experience). What self-respecting adult doesn't enjoy some delicious guacamole every now and again?!?

Meat- This should primarily be considered a protein source, but it can be a good source of fat, when the source is fish. Fish contains a healthy amount of Omega-3 fatty acids that are essential to our well being as people.

Avoid these things when looking for good fat sources- French fries, things cooked with vegetable oil, donuts, potato chips (my weakness), lard, butter, dairy fats(I question this for young athletes), margarine, and shortening.

To wrap it up I would tell you to learn what good sources of fat are, get some in your kitchen pantries, add some to your "Go Bags", and see what fat can do for you. Fat is probably the most misunderstood macro-nutrient we consume. Almost everyone presumes that fat is bad, because "it makes you gain weight" or "it causes heart attacks" , but I assure you that fat is fine when you take it from good sources, and eat it in moderation along with carbohydrates.

Nack

Note: if you are interested in the debate of the effects of fat compared to carbohydrates in the human diet I would recommend Gary Taubes' book Good Calories, Bad Calories. It is a book that will make your head spin with its thoroughness, and ability to make you say "wow! I never knew that." I definitely recommend this book for those of us over 30 wanting to know a little (rather a lot) about diets. Here is a good interview with Taubes where he talks about many things, including his findings over fat consumption and the poor science that has gone into labeling it as a killer.

A Great Showing today at Cherry Creek-Grandview Invitational

Congratulations to the girls track team for winning first place at today's meet at the Stutler Bowl! The girls had some great performances by many athletes. I know that at least one school record was set, we had a good number of first placers in individual events, and improved times/heights/distances on the way to victory. Considering the teams we were up against--Cherry Creek, ThunderRidge, Arapahoe, Heritage, Smoky Hill,etc...--this is huge.

Not to be overlooked is the boys team. We have no idea at this point where the boys finished, but the coaching staff is optimistic about having a 4th place finish. Who knows?!? Caught some bad breaks in some areas, but overall there were some great performances! I know that there were 2 school records pushed nearly to the limit today (Discus, 3200m), and that there were improvements seen in the 4x100m; a great race for this boys team.

Fellas: hold it together! There has been a bit of stress lately, but you are a strong bunch of athletes. In my years here at the school the boys are always at their strongest at the end of the year, and are able to surprise a lot of people.

Well, all of this after a week full of activity. Many of the athletes competed 2 daysin a row in multiple events. Huge showings from some hard working kids.

Rest becomes so important at this time of the year. You guys involved in so much should be getting 9+hours of sleep this weekend (each night, not combined!). If you can continue that into the week you will be all the better off. If you're sleeping too long, and your parents yell at you to get up, tell them it's okay...your coach told you to stay in bed :)

Nack

What should an athlete eat? part 1

Going into this season I wanted to do a minute or so speech at the beginning of each practice detailing ways for athletes to improve their workouts, recovery, nutrition, rest, and mindset (if you think about it, when all those things are good we tend to be happy people and successful athletes). I learned during the winter season that those minute speeches would not suffice, they would be too long because they leave a lot of open so questions get asked, and some (if not most) don't get answered satisfactorily. So, maybe taking the wrong approach, I have not addressed it a single time in a large group setting of all of our athletes. I have talked to individual athletes a little bit, but I would like to attempt it here for everyone to see:

What are the good things? I will focus primarily on the macronutrients which are protein, fat, and carbohydrates. And I will do that in posts to follow. Let me leave you with the following pieces of advice:

• You must eat within 30 minutes of finishing your workout!
• You should eat again 1.5 hours after that!
• I will go into greater detail what you should eat later, but for now focus on protein and carbohydrates

Thanks for reading.

Coach Nack

A disclaimer: I am not a registered dietician, I am a high school SPED teacher, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Also, I am not a medical doctor, so never pretend that what I say will cure what ales ya'.

A point of potential bias: I have Celiac disease, which means I cannot, and do not, consume gluten which is in wheat, rye and barley. I must say that since I have adopted a gluten free diet, I feel much better, have lost weight, am much healthier, am now "missing" some strange health problems I once had, and, well again, I feel much much better. Honestly, if I could I would remove it from most everyones diet I would.However, I realize the impossibility of that. So I recommend we all try to eat just a little (or a lot) less of it, i.e. from the 6-11 (!!!) recommended daily servings of grains to perhaps 2-3 daily. For high school athletes, eat it, but make sure you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables also.

Hot and Cold Contrast Therapy

(Aspiring writers: the following is not the greatest hook, and should not be replicated by anyone thinking about writing. Anything. Ever. For anyone) The topic of this post is a bit controversial. Not because it is dangerous, but because it is unproven as effective.

The topic expounded: Exposing oneself to intermittent bouts of hot and cold temperatures (with ice, cold packs, showers, or plunges into cold water following a similar dose of heat) has yet to stand the test of time, and the tests of a significant body of scientific studies. The tests that have been run, as well as the anecdotal evidence, show results that warrant a true athlete's experimentation and evaluation.

I will state my bias right off the bat: I am a fan of contrast therapy. I think cold therapy by itself does great things. I think that heat therapy by itself does a little for some people (I am not one of them). However, when the two are put together I think that the best gains in recovery are made.

My personal preferred process of H&C therapy for high school athletes (or for those too busy for more):

1. Take your normal shower at desired temperature
2. Get ready!
3. Crank water temperature down as far as tolerable (Do it, Wimp!)
   
4. Push it a little further
5. Move you/the shower head to around to sore parts of body, and always the back, neck, and shoulders
6. You should stay in the cold spray for 1 - 2 minutes
7. Turn the heat back up for 1 minute (Enjoy, because the cold is returning)
   
8. Turn it back to cold for 1 minute, and try to go a little colder (you will surprise yourself with how accustomed you become to the cold after only a few efforts)
9. Optional: try not to make any noise, or fidgety movements; relax
10. Repeat as many times as wanted--I think one is better than none, but you should aim for 3 cold sessions.

Now, judge your recovery. Is your soreness reduced immediately? Long term? Did you feel more prepared at your next workout? Did you feel more awake and alert directly afterwards? (One of the nice unintended benefits of H&C therapy--if you end your shower on a cold session you tend to be more awake and alert for some time to come. So, athletes, DO NOT end on a cold session right before you lay down for your 9 hours of sleep!)

Want more info, and better justification than I can provide? Check out Patrick Ward's article from optimumsportsperformance.com. Mark Verstegen's response to a reader's question is a bit more simplistic, but I really like the brief explanation of what your blood does during this. This is how I was introduced to H&C therapy.

Remember different things work for different people so no guarantees this will fix you right up, but with how important recovery is it is worth you trying as much as you can until you do find what works for you. I think you will find the simplicity of this method nice, because it is quick, clean, and (relatively) painless.