Great Meals to Fuel Your Workout? I Don’t Think So…
Here it is, yet again, unfortunately. A list of ‘five great meals’ to fuel your workout from a triathlon newsletter I subscribe to, written by a registered dietician with a Master’s Degree. I’ve highlighted the ingredients in red which are not only not Paleo, but are likely to a host of issues to the body, including all sorts of gastric distress and congestion. Just what we all want when we head out for an important workout or race!
Breakfast #1
- 3/4 cup granola
- 6 oz plain lowfat Greek-style yogurt
- 1 cup strawberries
- 12 almonds
Breakfast #2
- 2 slices of whole-grain toast with1 tbsp peanut butter
- 12 oz skim milk blended with 1 cup frozen blueberries
Breakfast #3
- 1 hardboiled egg or 1 oz string cheese
- 1 cup bran cereal with 1 tbsp raisins and 8 oz skim milk
- 1 banana
Breakfast #4
- 4 egg whites, scrambled
- 1 cup cooked oatmeal
- 1 peach, sliced
- 8 oz low-fat chocolate milk
- 4 Tbsp protein powder (questionable as it doesn’t indicate egg powder!)
Breakfast #5
- One large whole-wheat tortilla containing:
- 1 egg or 3 egg whites, scrambled
- 1–2 oz low-fat cheese
- 1 sweet red or green pepper, diced
- 1 tomato, diced
I get it. I know that not everyone digs Paleo. But why must all the options be so far from it? It would be commonplace to see a vegan option these days, so why not one out of five Paleo friendly options in a place like this, which serves as one of the main informational channels to the endurance community?
As long as we continue to be force fed this info about what we ‘have to have’ in our diets, so many athletes are not going to reach their full training and racing potential, not to mention how they’re going to feel on a day to day basis outside of training.
When I think back to the five plus years of racing Ironman I did before I was Paleo, and the number of times I was sidelined by emergency porta potty stops in races (that would be every single race), how much I sabotaged all the fruits of my months of laborious training, and how many athletes are still putting themselves through the very same rigors, it really saddens me that there are not other options being presented.
It just is not all about grains, grains, grains and dairy, dairy, dairy.
We endurance athletes, along with all who are not athletes…none of us need this stuff!
Give it a try and see for yourself!
