Nutrition and Health

Then it's time. It's time to sweat. It's time to burn fat from your body. You face the treadmill (or stair climber, or rowing machine, or exercise video with the perky aerobics instructor on it).

You start.

You warm up, and start moving faster and faster. The sweat starts to pour. The blood is pumping. Man, you are burning! That size 2 exercise instructor is going to look like a whale compared to you when you get through!

The adrenaline hits your blood and you feel GREAT! You could exercise forever! In fact maybe you will exercise forever!

Your time winds down. Ok, maybe you'd better slow down, no sense in going TOO crazy here. The cool down sure feels good. You turn off the treadmill, or the exercise video and head to the shower.

Then it hits you.

Exercise Repercussion

You feel like you want to die, or at least sleep for about 12 hours. You go through the day craving anything you can easily grab: anything edible or, depending on how good it looks, anything at all. Nutritional value? Who cares!

Nothing seems to satisfy your appetite, and you could swear that you've just eaten all the calories you burned during exercise, PLUS more! What was the point in exercising at all if you go through your day tired and eating everything in sight? It was just a waste of your time and a stress on your body for nothing right?

Well, not necessarily, not if you can learn from it. There are very real nutritional needs for an active lifestyle. Regular exercise is absolutely beneficial to good health, but you need to practice good fitness nutrition to fuel your activity. Here's how to avoid the above experience when exercising:

1. Check Your Hydration Levels

   I know not really exciting-but it will do wonders!! Adequate hydration is a critical component of sport nutrition.

   The average adult loses 10-12 cups of water a day (that's not including water we lose from exercise, caffeine, etc). It's estimated that approx 75% of North Americans are chronically dehydrated. Even MILD dehydration slows down the metabolism as much as 3%.

   Here's the key, all you exercise fanatics, dehydration is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue!!!! Unfortunately this fatigue is often mistaken for hunger, and we eat more than necessary in a desperate effort to regain the water back into our bodies.

   What can you do? Before your workout, drink 1-2 glasses of water. During your workout, have about ½-1 cup of water for every 20 minutes of exercise. Afterwards, have at least 3 cups of water in the hour after you exercise. In this way, you replenish what was lost during your workout, and meet your basic hydration needs to boot. Remember proper hydration is the cornerstone of healthy fitness nutrition.

2. Check Your Pre-workout Nutrition

   Your workout places demands upon your body. To meet the extra demands, solid sport nutrition includes high energy food sources. Since you want energy over the long haul, your best bet is to have some complex carbohydrates before exercising. Good sources are oatmeal, whole wheat toast, or whole wheat crackers. Some people prefer to get their carbohydrate from fruit also, it depends on what works for you.

   Try to combine carbohydrates with a little bit of protein (like peanut butter on your whole wheat toast, or a couple slices of cheese with your apple). The protein is an added boost to your muscles. You may even wish to consider a nutritional supplement rich in protein too. Try different combos and see what fitness nutrition variation gives you the most energy.

3. During Your Workout

   If your workout is under an hour, make sure you keep drinking that water and continue to listen to your body. If you want to go more than an hour you should try eating 25 to 30 grams of carbohydrate every half hour (i.e. From sports bars, fruits or whole grains).

   If you are exercising for more than 3 hours, consider sipping a sports drink to replace lost electrolytes. Both sports drinks and energy bars help to maintain your blood sugar levels and prevent muscle glycogen (energy) depletion.

4. Nutrition After Exercise

   Keep drinking that water! (See above) You also want to refuel with carbohydrates as soon as you can after exercise. Healthy choices include toast, bagel, fruits, oatmeal, etc.

   The basis of sport nutrition is supplying the right fuel to power your workout, and support your body afterwards. Your body not only needs to refuel, but it also needs to rebuild with some protein since intense exercise involves the breakdown of muscle tissue. Some protein-rich snacks are peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole wheat toast, cottage cheese mixed with fruit, scrambled eggs with whole wheat toast. If you are concerned about the quality of your food intake, by all means, consider a nutritional supplement.