One of the best side effects of becoming a triathlete for me has been the dietary changes it has prompted me to make. For years I have always struggled with “yo-yo” dieting and the weight fluctuations that come with that. Counting calories and cutting out macro nutrients(fat, carbs, protein) works for a little while, but they are not sustainable over the long haul. The fact is your body needs a balanced intake of all of those nutrients to properly function. By pushing your body’s limitations through triathlon or any endurance sport, you are eventually forced to take a new perspective on the food you eat. Food is looked at more as a fuel to get you through those long or intense workouts and less as some short-lived taste.
If you had to race your car against your friends car, you wouldn’t go and put economy gas from the Hess station in it would you? So if you want your body to perform at its best at your next 5k, triathlon, or marathon, why would you put over-processed, chemical-laden food devoid of proper nutrients in it? It just doesn’t really make any sense when you think about it. One thing I have noticed through triathlon is that that I started to feel so wiped out after my training, while eating the standard Western diet of processed foods, that I felt like I had no choice but make a change. I knew something wasn’t right. Once I started on the whole foods, plant-based lifestyle I finally realized what it felt like to be properly fueled with some high-octane nutrients. I would guess that many people end up giving up on exercise programs because of the limitations an improper diet put on them while they are ramping up their exercise.
One of the other side-effects of properly fueling is not only feeling good while training and racing but also in the recovery period after those bouts of high intensity. Many of the foods in our typical Western diet are very acidic in nature and put additional stress on the body as it tries to maintain a balanced state of neutral pH. The body then works extra hard to correct this further taking away the ability to repair broken down muscles. If you can maintain that balance through eating more alkaline foods, then the body can then concentrate on properly repairing your exhausted muscles and get ready sooner for that next bout of high intensity.
I really wish I could have back all of the time I had spent entering all the food and calories I had eaten into a daily food journal. It was the one thing I really worked, but I could never maintain the diligent data entry for a long period of time. Eventually, I stopped and the weight came back again. We are always told a calorie in/calorie out, but I finally realized that is not really true. Since I have been eating a whole foods, plant-based diet I have been able to eat until I am satisfied and still maintain a healthy weight and never recording any daily calories. I thought that maybe that was just during training season, but I made it through the off-season(didn’t run for an entire month ) and the holiday season with gaining any weight. In previous years I had gained about 15 pounds every fall/winter when my heaving training subsided.
Pushing your body to do what it is capable of and start fueling your body like the complex machine it is will make a dramatic change on your health and well-being. Diet and exercise work together to balance the body and working by themselves is much more difficult to attain good health.
