I’ve got a theory about triathletes which goes like this:
They are driven people. People with a tendency for extreme behaviour. People who are a little all or nothing.
These characteristics are what make us get up early to train and do things which are uncomfortable, instead of being like everybody else on a Sunday morning – lying in bed eating pain au chocolate.
So whilst these characteristics are positive, they can be negative.
For me one of the best examples of this is the tendency to starve yourself during the week and binge at the weekend.
Now, this binging is often accompanied by long training sessions on the weekend but……..
Whilst you might need the extra calories, those calories should still be quality.
That is as long as you want to perform your best.
A lot of this comes down to the fact that we use food and alcohol as some kind of reward for our discomfort, so the fact we suffer more at the weekend means we feel we deserve a treat.
That treat is often excessive in calories and equates to far more than we actually burned.
How do I know you do this?
Nearly every athlete I have ever met does.
One other problem is that social engagements often mean consuming more and these often fall at the weekend.
So what to do?
I don’t think we should try to get away from the fact that we deserve some sort of treat, because we kinda do.
The key therefore, is to make that treat taste awesome but actually be good for us and help fuel our training and recovery.
If you get this right, the fat will literally drop off you and you will perform better.
Social engagements are another thing all together and my theory is that if you eat perfectly 80-90% of the time you can get away with one night out a week as long as you don’t go crazy.
So how do you eat food which tastes awesome, leaves you full and is healthy?
Well it’s actually really easy.
You just need to know what to do, how to setup your diet to work for you.
That is what I wrote my book:
The Triathlete Nutrition Code:
It teaches you how to set up the perfect diet for you and your training requirements, whether that be an Ironman or local sprint.
But more that anything……..
It is full of recipes which taste really good.
Which leave you full.
They are all full of goodness and quality sources of energy, not the sort you get from a pizza, 4 beers and a load of ice-cream.
You see there is a difference between the quality of calories and that makes a huge difference to your health, performance and how lean you are.
Go and get it now, it’s only £9.99/$14 ish:
Jamie “Always eat tasty food” Leighton