Peak Nutrition - Maria Hines

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to accommodate various dietary requirements, a nutritional guide to the recipes, and resources for further reading.

      Each chapter offers in-depth information about human physiology for the mountain athlete. Sprinkled throughout are easy-to-understand, step-by-step directions for improving your outdoor nutrition and food. Some sections may not be relevant to you, given your specific outdoor sport, but if you are a super nerd, read every word—it’s worth it.

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       Watch for the knowledge bomb icons throughout the book. They highlight important tips and fun facts.

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       MAKING FOOD PART OF YOUR ATHLETIC PLAN

      For you to succeed in your mountain sport, and to live longer and enjoy life, it’s important to know that the mind and body are deeply connected. The decisions you make each day—your training and recovery as well as what you put in your mouth and the relationship you have with food—significantly affect your cognition and peak athletic performance. How do you prioritize and make good decisions? Become more aware of what you are doing right now. Start a food journal. Ask yourself questions, such as: When do you have your cravings? When do you overeat? Why do you have a hard time preparing foods or eating well? Once you have identified some critical situations that hold you back from eating well, you can begin to optimize your nutrition and experiment with different ways of eating. Decrease the foods that cause inflammation by experimenting with elimination diets, play with strategies to hit your individualized macronutrient percentages, or try out other special diets, and figure out which one works best for you.

      The first part of the book covers the importance of athletic nutrition, building food habits, and motivation, as well as longevity and the aging athlete. Dive deep into habit building and find out how to change your behaviors around food. For you to stay on task, train hard, and identify the foods you need, first define and set your goals. Then figure out how you are going to achieve these goals. This book will help with that, guiding you through a series of questions: What is your identity? What is your environment like? Is your kitchen full of calorie-dense foods? Do you have the right cooking tools? Have you researched all the best ways to optimize your sport performance? Then you can experiment on your own. It takes time and commitment to figure out what works best for you. But if you make the effort, you can get the mind and body you want to achieve optimal athletic performance in the mountain sport of your choice.

      Building supportive food habits is a crucial component in reaching your athletic and nutritional goals. This work includes adjusting your environment so that you can succeed in the practices you’re trying to put into place. For example, if you don’t want to eat sugar for one month but your pantry is filled with Nutella, Swedish Fish, and granola, it’s very likely that you will fail to meet that goal. This book will show you how to implement no-fail strategies. One way to reach the no-sugar goal, for example, is simply to get rid of all the processed sugar in your house. Get friends on board so that you can share your struggles. Avoid places where you overeat, and have a backup plan if you are faced with sugar.

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       THE IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITION FOR ATHLETES

      PROFESSIONAL AND RECREATIONAL MOUNTAIN athletes may train or practice for more extended hours than some other athletes, such as those who play basketball or soccer. Mountain athletes take entire weekends for their sport, compared with playing basketball in a league for a few hours once or twice a week. Outdoor sports require a big time commitment, and on top of that, some activities involve considerable risk and social commitment. Some climbers get only one chance to summit or to cross a vast portion of the earth to reach a long-dreamed-of climbing destination. And since the experience is fleeting, many alpinists train like freaks so that they are ready for that one chance. For my friends who boulder, if there is a trip coming up, they are in the gym grinding it out, working on squeezing out that last bit of strength in their fingers.

      If you master the basics of peak nutrition, you’ll incur less stress and inflammation from the demands that training for mountain sports usually puts on your body. The right blend of macronutrients and micronutrients, as well as supportive recovery strategies, will help you perform at your best. Higher volumes of exertion and activity stress the body, leading to compromised immune systems, hormonal imbalances, and inflammation. Recovery is key. Eating and hydrating well can help you adapt to aerobic and anaerobic training. Peak nutrition supports higher exercise volumes, promotes healthy immune function, can help you be insulin resistant, and can ultimately increase longevity.

       WHAT IS NUTRITION?

      From Merriam-Webster’s:

      Nutrition: the act or process of nourishing or being nourished, specifically the sum of the processes by which an animal or plant takes in and utilizes food substances

      Nourish: 1: NURTURE, REAR; 2: to promote the growth of; 3a: to furnish or sustain with nutriment: FEED

      Nutrient: a substance or ingredient that promotes growth, provides energy, and maintains life

      Mountain athletes need plenty of calories to fuel their activities, whether climbing, backcountry skiing, or mountain biking—somewhere around 2500 to 5000 calories a day on high-activity days. A negative calorie intake (meaning the exercise expenditure exceeds the number of calories consumed) can drastically affect your performance because of a decrease in energy supply as well as an imbalance of minerals and vitamins. A constant negative calorie intake increases the risk of injury, overtraining, depression, fatigue, and decreased muscle mass. That’s why we suggest not combining heavy training with negative calories for fat loss. Rather, aim for fat loss during an off season so you can fuel your training appropriately. Negative calorie intake can also cause the immune system to become compromised and lead to illness. Just one session of long-duration or high-intensity exercise done on insufficient calories, for example, can compromise your immune system. (But note that not getting enough exercise will also lead to a weak immune system.) On the other hand, eating more calories than the body needs leads to fatigue, insulin resistance, weight gain, depression, lower feelings of self-worth, and a decrease in performance. You need to be somewhere in the middle.

      Nutrition can affect immune integrity. Carbs and proteins during and after big bouts of exercise (when you’re in a heavy training cycle) can help the immune system recover. If the body lacks any essential vitamins and minerals, it will shut down, resulting in illness. If you know people who are always sick, they may be lacking in vitamins A, B1, B6, C, D, and E, as well as iron, zinc, copper, selenium, or magnesium. Want to know if you are lacking in any of these critical substances? Ask your doctor for a blood test; more on athletic testing can be found in the Resources section at the end of the book.

       THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING KIDS ABOUT GOOD NUTRITION

      The future of food, health, and pushing the limits of mountain sports begins with

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