Performance Nutrition: Orange Vanilla Mango Shake

Whew, it is HOT outside! A few weeks ago my hamstring started cramping during a run and I realized I needed to be more on it with regards to my hydration and electrolytes if I wanted to have productive training sessions in this ridiculous heat and humidity.

So, I came up with this shake to help myself hydrate and start recovering as soon as possible after runs. This shake is a great option for about an hour before or immediately after any intense training session. It is refreshing, delicious, and an easy way to hydrate before or after exercise while giving your muscles the nutrients they need.

Orange Vanilla Mango Shake

8-12 oz water

1-1.5 cups frozen mango chunks

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (whey)

1 scoop orange electrolyte powder

1-2 scoops BeetElite (optional add-in before intense aerobic training, WODs, or team sports with lots of running)

Toss all the ingredients into a blender. Blend well and enjoy!

This shake is legit tasty. I am a big fat of BeetElite and that’s why the picture is of a light pink shake. Beets boost stamina for endurance and high intensity training.

Based on my estimates, the shake has the following macronutrient profile: 25g protein - 25-35g carb - 0-1g fat

Feeding the Family: Clean Plate Club

I don't know about anybody reading this, but when I was growing up, the big thing that my parents always said was that you wanted to try and finish all the food on your plate at any meal. My mom made a game out of it, and called it the Clean Plate Club. It was a celebration if I ate everything on my plate. In my house it was not something that was strictly enforced, but rather something to be attempted at every meal and celebrated when it was achieved. This helped me have a positive association with eating everything on my plate (and not thinking twice about having seconds!). 

But I know in other homes, it would be typical to take it to a bit of a different level, where children are told they have to sit at the dinner table until they eat everything on their plate. This method doesn’t necessarily create a positive association, but it does effectively make the children grow up into adults who feel a sense of guilt for not eating all the food they’ve ordered or made at home.

Okay, so what’s my point here? Well, BOTH situations are examples of us teaching our children to ignore their hunger and satiety cues in favor of not wasting food. This could result in a lifetime of slight overeating that will add up to unwanted weight gain at some point in their lives.

So, I want to talk about this concept for parents, because I believe it is really up to the parents to make important dietary decisions for their children in the early years (say, the first 10 or so). Up to a certain point, parents are the ones that introduce different types of foods to their children. If you introduce them early on to a lot of processed foods, that are quite frankly delicious, then it's pretty tough to dig yourself out of that hole to get them to eat vegetables and other unprocessed foods. 

How parents talk about and influence the eating of their children is very important.

Another thing to keep in mind is that children are born really knowing exactly how much they should eat on any given day. This is why their appetites can fluctuate pretty dramatically day to day and is impacted by several factors such as their activity level, if they are getting sick, or if they are about to grow. The activity level of the day before can affect the appetite of the next day, with a high activity day prior making the kids want to eat more, and the kids wanting to eat less after a low activity day. As parents, we need to be mindful of what factors could be driving appetite and be attentive to what they need (or don’t). 

Of course as any seasoned parent knows, at the dinner table, there’s a balance that needs to be struck between appetite fluctuations and just pickiness. I know my kids are extremely picky, so what may look like a lack of appetite may just be them being picky. The key is to keep up the positive association with eating, but also with respecting their actual appetites that day. Avoid forcing them to continue eating when they are not and definitely avoid any kind of shaming or guilt if your child is wanting more food - they’re growing! It’s something to celebrate!

Many times at the dinner table there is a little bit of negotiation that has to go on as well. I know a lot of parents out there know what I am talking about. If we have something really delicious with our meal, like applesauce for my kids, that’s all they will want to eat and will ask for more apple sauce. You have to be careful in those situations. While applesauce is a fine choice, I want them to eat some of their salad or some of the hamburger, too. So we say “Okay, but first you need to take two bites of the other things on your plate. If you do that, and you're still hungry, then yes, you can have some more applesauce.” This way they'll get through some of the other food. The point is that we aren’t sitting there making them eat everything on their plate, we are noticing that they are still hungry and trying to get them to eat a little more balanced. That's where I try to be flexible and help them understand that they don’t have to have it all, but they do have to try everything. 

I would just suggest thinking about how your family talks about eating at the dinner table, and just investigate that a bit. I think many people eat with the idea that food is expensive, we don’t want to waste it! They also think: “I have a little bit more room before I’m stuffed, I can finish that.” And I agree, the last thing we want to do is be wasting food. But, this approach leads to excess calories being eaten, that many people don’t intend to eat or need.

We never want to waste food, so just be willing to pack up the leftovers for another day and consider putting smaller portions on your child’s plates. How eating is approached from childhood can really influence how a person eats when they are adults. The goal is for a positive association between food, but with respect to hunger and satiety cues. This will build children into adults who are better prepared for navigating our world of delicious, but nutritionally devoid convenience foods.

Eating to 80% Full

Let’s talk about calories.

All we need to know with calories is the amount. If you want to lose weight, or if you want to gain weight, it's all about the caloric balance in the end. There's no magic formula for this. For example, we’ve all heard of these experiments where people would eat a Mcdonald’s or 7-Eleven diet and still lose weight. Mind blowing, am-I-right? Not really. 

If you’re only goal is to lose weight, all you need to really worry about is a negative calorie balance. There's a million different ways that you can do this. That’s one of the reasons that things like intermittent fasting, ketogenic diets, and whatever else are so popular, is because it gets you into a negative balance with what are - on the surface - easy to follow rules.

But In the end, they don't work for most people because they're so restrictive. They overly restrict the things that people like to eat that aren’t necessarily considered healthy, but are just fine in moderation. This is why learning how to truly EAT is a better long term plan. 

Removing carbohydrates from your diet for the rest of your life is not realistic, it's really just a short term strategy. Different diets whether it’s high fat and low carb or low fat and high carb will make you perform and feel differently, but both can help you lose weight. 

The thing that confuses people is that the popular diets they see models or physique competitors use are short term solutions, not long term plans. Most people’s goal is not to step on stage, but to be 10 pounds lighter and feel better about themselves. For this to happen, it’s more about understanding very basic dietary concepts. One is to consume more quality non-processed foods. 

Another important one I use with my nutrition coaching is the concept of eating to 80% full. Essentially you can eat whatever you want, as long as you don’t eat until you’re stuffed. That's a strategy that works extremely well.

In the end if you are looking to perform at a high level or to build lean body mass, what you eat is going to matter. But if you're just trying to lose a little bit of weight or feel a little bit better, ignore all of the fads. Just start with eating until you're 80% full and see how that works for you. Once you get comfortable with that, there’s plenty more strategies to start trying, just start simple. 

Please remember, ignore the fads and strive to learn how to eat in a sustainable way for a lifetime. You need those sound habits before you use any other advanced methods. Diet is something to be thought of in the long term, not what can make a quick fix. Using sound and simple habits such as the 80% rule will definitely get the best results and allow you to keep them.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT

Feeding the Family: Plant Based Eating

People become plant based eaters for a lot of different reasons. I experimented it with it myself a number of years ago, and actually ate completely vegan for probably about a year and a half. There are many reasons people do this, some people may be concerned about health and longevity, there may be religious reasons, or they may just love animals.

Some people are maybe focused on the environment and making sure that our food sources are sustainable. Other people may just not like the taste of meat or the idea of where that comes from. For me, it was a health and longevity question that I wanted to experiment with.

People also have different definitions of what plant based eating means to them. For some people, that just means that ⅔ of their plates are plants, and there may be a little bit of animal protein on their plate. For other people it means they're vegetarian, or strictly vegan. Some only eat dairy, or only eat chicken, or only eat shellfish. You can really define it for whatever fits for you. But to me, the main point is that we're really focused on getting a lot of vegetables.

I encourage you, if you're interested, to try this out to do some experiments with yourself, and see how you feel and how you react. Just be careful and don't have too many rules or restrictions, just really switch the focus to getting lots of really good foods into your body and into your system.

As far as what to include in the diet, I would encourage making sure that you include beans and legumes because they're both good sources of protein. Be careful with these, there’s a lot of fiber in them and that could cause some intestinal distress. You may also want to look at higher protein whole grains like quinoa. A good rule of thumb as you're starting is try to limit soy products as much as possible. Again, focus your base on the plants and the beans and only have soy products in moderation.

You may also want to consider some supplementation. A good start would just be a good multivitamin, there are also algae based omega three fatty acids that you can use instead of fish based products. You can also purchase plant based protein powders, they have a different flavor than the milk based ones but I think they are palatable.

If you’re looking at experimenting for a longer period of time, you may want to get some blood testing done.

If you're a strength athlete, I recommend supplementing with three to five grams of creatine each day. You may also want to consider taurine and beta alanine, as these are useful for people who are 100% plant based athletes. Lastly, if you're getting into this and you're really sticking with it for a period of time, you want to just keep your eyes open for any hormonal disruptions that could affect your energy balance. For example, if you're eating a lot of processed soy, this can affect your thyroid and sex hormones. The same thing can actually happen if you're eating a lot of cruciferous vegetables. So kale, cauliflower, broccoli, things like those can also affect your hormonal health and even your nutritional nutrient status. All that fiber binds to fat based substances like steroid hormones, and then pulls them out of the body with that fiber when you go to the bathroom.

Another thing to keep an eye on with this kind of diet is undereating. Keep an eye on calorie intake and make sure your calorie intake is appropriate for your body size and your activity level. The other thing is, if you end up getting into some processed foods, or eating a lot of like nuts and nut butters for your protein source, then you may find you’re overeating. You want to keep an eye on those things.

You know, when I started eating a vegan diet I did enjoy it and I did feel good.

For me, what I found over time was it required a whole different skill set in the kitchen to prepare food. Preparing food when I was vegan was extremely time consuming, labor intensive, and expensive if the meals were going to be appetizing. After a certain period of time, my schedule just wouldn’t allow this amount of food preparation time.

When this happened I began going to the store and picking up convenience foods that were labeled vegan, but were extremely processed and filled with things I didn’t need. At this time 7-8 years ago, pre-cooked healthier items became more available such as pre cooked chicken breast, so the convenience foods I was eating to stay vegan were less healthy than the animal based products available.  So it dawned on me that I was actually starting to eat less healthfully than if I would just have a chicken breast. That's when I migrated back to, a more moderate style traditionally balanced diet.

The key when experimenting with these diets is to know what you are getting into and plan accordingly, stick to healthy options and keep your health in check.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

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Feeding the Family: Fluid Intake Recommendations

Hydration is extremely important for humans and animals to stay alive and have all of our biological processes be executed as precisely and efficiently as they are capable of. So today’s post is going to be on some tips and guidelines for proper hydration year round.

First of all, we need to talk about the fact that there is a variance in how thirsty we feel depending on many different factors. The weather, how much salt we are consuming, whether we have trained, or whether we are drinking alcohol all play a role in how thirsty we feel. And just because we don’t feel thirsty doesn’t necessarily mean that our bodies aren’t losing fluids, there is a lag time between the fluid loss and our bodies’ registration of the thirst signal to our brains. For many of us in climate controlled environments most of the day excessive dehydration isn’t a huge concern, but for athletes and people working outside in hot climates, it is a major risk that needs to be discussed. These dehydration problems can get serious very quickly.

So, how much should you be drinking? Well, it definitely depends on your size and your activity level, but there is a starting point we can use as a rule of thumb. Most adults need around three liters(L) of water, which for everyone using the english system is a little less than 1 gallon of water. It doesn't have to be just straight water, other fluids count as fluid intake. Some fluids like sodas and alcohol aren’t very valuable to your system, so I typically don’t count them toward fluid intake, but most other things can be included. I know that sounds like a heck of a lot of water to get down for an average sized person!

Just know that you may get a whole liter of fluids from the food that you eat, taking it down to 2L a day, something that sounds much more manageable. If you’re a larger person, you will still need to be closer to that gallon mark. If you're sick, and especially if you're losing fluid through vomiting or diarrhea, your fluid and electrolyte intake will need to be increased. If it's warm and dry, you may need another few cups of water a day. And if you're exercising a whole heck of a lot you could potentially need up to like six liters of fluid per day, so there are clearly a lot of factors to keep in mind when looking at hydration! If you’re going to begin drinking 3L of water per day, and this is interrupting your life because your going to the bathroom so much, you may want to reduce your fluid intake until you adapt to the higher amount.

Again, just because you're in a comfortable environment does not mean that you're not losing fluid. Everything passes through our skin as it is the main medium between our internal bodies and the external environment. There's a lot of heat and water that gets lost just through your skin.

By no means is keeping up with hydration easy, I know I have trouble with it!. Most of us are in a mild state of dehydration at all times. To keep up with this, I have a water bottle with me at all times, because if I don’t have constant access I will not get enough fluids in. Personally, I like to have a water bottle that is a full liter in size, because I have to fill it up less and will naturally get more water in.

Percentage of body weight is the main measure we look at for the consequences of water loss.. With ½%, there is increased strain on the heart, with 1%, we see a reduction in aerobic endurance. This is why you see athletes in endurance sports are always on top of their hydration levels. At 3% we see reduced muscular endurance while at 4% we see reduced muscular strength, a reduction in motor skills, and heat cramps. At 5% heat exhaustion begins with cramping, fatigue, reduced mental capacity and at 6% we see physical exhaustion, heat stroke, and coma. Once an individual hits 10 to 20% they are probably going to face death. So we want to make sure we're keeping fluids in at all times. Very regular consumption. Most people shouldn’t have an issue with this.

It’s easy to monitor percentage of body weight lost due to exercise: simply weigh yourself before a training session and then again after the session. Those two numbers will tell you how well you are hydrating during the training session.

Now, I mentioned before, there's often a lag between becoming mildly dehydrated and your body's signal to let you know you're actually thirsty. So we tend to not even notice thirst until we've lost 1 to 2% of our body water. As I just mentioned, at this point it is already having some negative effects on our performance. So just as a reminder, this is increased strain on the heart and reduce the aerobic endurance. And beyond that, we start to get into some pretty unpleasant things. Other side effects that can happen outside of just performance implications include headache, fatigue, low blood pressure, dizziness, fainting, nausea, and even rapid heart rate.

The goal here is to simple: always make sure if you're working out in the heat or, your job requires you to be in an extreme environment of some kind (hey, this includes athletes!) that you always have access to fluids and be sure that you're rehydrating regularly. If we do that, then we should be all set and stay out of trouble.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT

Feeding the Family: Low Carb Diet Magic?

So what's the deal with fast weight loss? We've seen for years the low carb diet promoters claiming you can lose a bunch of weight really quickly if you follow their diet plan.  The fact is, when somebody switches from a carbohydrate rich diet to a low carb diet, they do lose weight.

So let's talk about that.

What's happening is your body is losing water. For every gram of carbohydrate stored in your muscles, four grams of water are stored with it. When carbohydrates are no longer stored in the muscles, that water is no longer stored either. In the short term, this is the magic of these diets, this is why people can lose weight so quickly.

This is similar to the way wrestlers and other athletes in weight class sports lose weight, they just get their bodies to stop storing water. For something like this you don’t even need to change your carbohydrate intake too much unless you go to an extreme. You just basically overload yourself with a ton of water, and then start cutting back over a period of days, and you'll lose an enormous amount of weight.

I personally lost 10 pounds for the last powerlifting meet that I did and that was over a course of, I want to say, five days. The advantage here is that you are losing the weight quickly, so the body isn’t typically going to attack the muscle fibers.

Sheet pan salmon. Technically low-carb, but also just a super healthy dinner option.

Another key to the popularity of low carb diets or fat heavy diets tends to be the high fat and protein. These high levels of fat tend to be more satiating, so people aren’t hungry for a longer period of time. Much like with weight lifting and conditioning, I’ve personally tried every diet from here to the other side of the world that made any sense to me to see what it felt like. The best thing for me about the low carb diets were how tasty they were, because of how much fat there is in the diet.

However, nothing compares to a balanced carbohydrate rich diet for energy intake.

The point is there's no like magic to losing weight. At the end of the day, a low carb diet will give you a little bit of immediate motivation, because of the rapid weight loss. However, this may also happen if you just clean up your diet a little bit as well, even with keeping a lot of carbohydrates in. Just from cleaning things up but still eating a lot of carbohydrates, I'll lose a bunch of water that first week, you know, to the tune of four or five pounds. The truth is weight loss or gain is a calories in versus calories out game.

Having the discipline to control your caloric intake over a long period of time, is what always wins out in the long run. Having the discipline to make sure that you are eating a very nutrient dense diet with lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and whole food sources of carbohydrates will always win out in the long run for what's going to make you feel and perform at your best. Ketogenic and low carb diets are great and as I said, I've done them myself with quite a bit of success. But, I’ve also had quite a bit of success from a carbohydrate rich diet and much more energy.

So these diets can be beneficial in the short term, but nothing beats a more balanced approach. This goes for how you look, feel, and perform.

Since you’re here: We have a small favor to ask! At SAPT, we are committed to sharing quality information that is both entertaining and compelling to help build better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage us authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics.

Thank you! SAPT