What should I eat?
This is the question that gets asked most often in terms of nutrition.
Firstly, eat as much veg as you can. The bigger the variety and range of colours in the vegetables you eat the better. It’s very (very) hard to overeat vegetables and they contain lots of vitamins and minerals that your body needs to stay healthy.
So pile your plate high with leafy green veg, peppers, the works!
Eat enough carbohydrates to fuel your training. Carbohydrates can get a bad rap, depending on what diet is being pushed in the media. But in the same way that an engine needs fuel in order to work. your body needs fuel to allow you to do perform all of those movements you love in CrossFit and throughout the rest of your day.
Carbohydrates are that fuel. So to fuel your training, you need to eat carbohydrates. Some of the more common types of carbs are sweet potato, oats, white potato, rice.
There are times when we can benefit from less carbohydrates but for most of us, look on it as fueling your body, eatenough of them to do the things you demand of your body.
When we train, our muscles can get broken down down a bit, This isn’t as extreme as it sounds, Your muscles don’t really get stronger during the act of lifting weights. They get stronger by adapting and recovering after lifting weights. How much time it takes to recover can depend on how much you beat them up. For example. four sets of heavy squats will need more rebuilding that some sets of moderate kettle bell swings. This rebuilding uses proteins. These proteins come from your diet. More specifically, they come from the lean meats, poultry and fish etc that you eat. For most of us, aiming to have some protein with each of your meals will mean we have adequate protein intake. This will do a couple of things, it will help your body repair itself from training and daily wear and tear and will also keep you feeling fuller which will prevent you from over eating on the carby sugary items.
If you find that you are starving all the time, and feel you don’t have energy then try adding a little bit more food into your day. This assumes that you are getting enough sleep, if you aren’t, then get more, you’ll be amazed at what more sleep can do for your energy levels.
As I say, nutrition doesn’t have to be complicated. If you have no idea where to start, just picture the plate of food that your granny would present you with if you were visiting. Sure the broccoli may have been boiled within an inch of its life but the plate had everything it should have, some sort of meat or protein source, some potatoes and a stack of veg. It might be basic but it’ll do the job.