zkbro

Going the distance part 3 - Diet

2024-12-07 21:44

Going the distance is a blog series I'm creating related to how I've continued to lace up and just run, week after week, for the past 16+ years. It's a reminder for myself of the things that work, and an exploration into the why's and how I actually do it.

Diet

I don't do strict diets, nor do I eat too much crap. I enjoy growing my own veg, so I've always got greens at the ready. I eat a lot of rocket and silverbeet year round from the garden. My gardening philosophy is to grow whatever would be good on pizzas. I love pizza.

Breakfast

Nothing special here, lately it's been toast with ham, avo and tomato. I was postponing breaky for a while, till 10am when I'd then have yoghurt and nuts, or tuna in olive oil on crackers. When I was doing tuna and crackers I was also limiting my sugar intake. I substituted milk in my morning coffee for coconut oil which kept the hunger at bay, then the tuna and crackers kept me going to lunch. That was probably when I had the most energy and maintained a good weight. Now my job is a bit more physical I'm happy to have an earlier breakfast. I would like to reduce my sugar intake again though.

On weekends when I have a bit more time, one of my favourite breakfasts are chorizo and wilted silverbeet and mushroom with soy on toast with poached eggs and feta. Salmon instead of chorizo sometimes.

Lunches

Some options:

Dinners

A typical week might look like a couple of steak and veg meals, chicken/bean borritos, fish (salmon, white fish), and a vego curry. I always have a heap of veg or salad. Homemade pizzas when I'm feeling lazy or scraping the back of the pantry. I rarely eat out or get takeaway.

I find red meat aids my recover quicker and keeps my energy levels up, so I like to have this on a day or two after those bigger runs.

Snacking

Fruit (bananas, oranges, apples), nuts, muesli bars, cheese and crackers, mussels, dark chocolate.

Drinks

Water, teas, coffee, kombucha. Sometimes smoothies with blueberries, banana, cacao, yoghurt and honey. I have a beer every now and then, but go big stints without. I feel noticebly lighter and more energetic when I'm off the beers. Same with red wine. Alcohol is shit really for many things so try and avoid it as much as possible.

In the middle of summer I'll have cans of softdrink with icepacks in the car for when I finish those big hot days out. Cold watermelon too. Yum.

While running

On my longruns I use gels and electrolyte powders (Tailwind). I found when I was having less sugar in my regular diet, my energy maintained itself better without the use of these, so I'd like to explore that again. On my really long runs I'll pack everything: gels, powder, bars, nuts, jerky, sandwiches, fruit, cold pizza.

In summary

Nothing crazy, I listen to my body a lot. I'll naturally eat more when my load is increasing. Try and keep the water up, healthy fats up, and sugar down. I let what's growing in the garden dictate a lot.

For context, today (a Saturday) my eating and activity looked like:

Going the distance series