This past week, I went on a 3 day family ski trip at Copper Mountain in Colorado.
With Ironman-level fitness, everything in life looks like an opportunity for physical adventure.
And with 2 more Ironmans under my belt since I last went skiing, I was eager to put my increased fitness to use and get in 3 days of epic, outdoor exercise.
That meant one thing: I needed to make good choices around food.
Am I Too Obsessed?
Sometimes I think I’m too obsessed with nutrition and what I eat.
Then I remember I spent my most of my childhood overweight because I developed the habit of overeating to cope with stress.
And I was constantly stressed.
I’ve reversed a lot of my bad habits, but I’m not immune from them rearing their ugly head.
My health is the #1 priority in my life. And sometimes I make choices that go against that.
It’s ok that both of those statements are true.
It Takes Time To Bounce Back
I wanted to feel good because I hadn’t been feeling good.
My previous 3 weeks were filled with mistake after mistake in my overall health and decision making.
My 4 big mistakes, in order:
trying to cut weight during an increase in training volume
dessert 3 nights in a row, 2 weekends in a row
training too intensely after an early morning flight
binge eating late at night
I felt like shit.
I was physically inflamed, mentally depressed and desperate to return to feeling good.
A nutrition lesson I’ve learned: I can’t rush my body’s return to balance if I abuse it by overeating (or eating crap food) and causing tons of inflammation.
I wanted the ski trip to be a launching pad, not another set back that would take 1-2 weeks to correct.
How I Think About Food
The combination of being away from home, wanting to feel good and wanting to fuel significant exercise helped me realize there are 3 primary decisions I make around food.
All are focused on one thing: minimizing risk
Risk = feeling crappy physically or mentally
My 3 main decisions are:
Are the ingredients clean?
The main goal is to eat clean, real food.
If I eat processed crap that is void of nutrients, I feel like shit. I don’t think clearly and I feel physically low energy.
I feel better going a few extra hours without food rather than settling for food with low quality, highly processed ingredients.
What is the protein source/how much is there?
The secondary goal is to eat high protein.
Eating high protein, real food makes me feel physically strong and mentally sharp in my decision making across all areas of life.
The #1 nutrition upgrade I’ve made is replacing processed food snacking with real food, high protein mini-meals.
What exercise have I done? Or am going to do?
Finally, I align how many carbs I eat with whatever exercise I get into.
If I have a big training session coming up, or recently completed one, I’ll eat more carbs. If my exercise has been light, I’ll eat less.
Summary Thoughts:
It’s incredible what happens when you put in the reps.
Over the past 3+ years, I’ve made a concerted effort to ask myself these questions as I improved my nutrition (and health overall).
It took a lot of effort initially, but over time these decisions have become second nature and now happen completely subconsciously.
This gives me a lot of hope in the new habits I’m trying to implement now.
Every rep is another pass along the path toward automatic behavior working in my favor.