Peak Nutrition - Maria Hines

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If they understand from a young age that good food equals good fuel, they will have these values forever. A few tips when educating the small ones: Kids will eat what you give them if there are no other options. This can be a painful process if they suddenly can no longer eat the things they were accustomed to because their diet has to change for health reasons. But they will learn to eat what you give them. Make eating vegetables a game.

      Other tips: Do not use food as a reward. Avoid commenting on people’s bodies, including your own, whether it’s good or bad, because this could evolve into body image issues later in life. Talk to kids about hydration and poop. They should learn to feel comfortable with their body and what their body does. Kids can learn fast, much faster than adults. They may surprise you if you frame good nutrition in a way that brings them into the process.

      Adequate protein intake also helps in recovery. Constant exercise breaks down proteins and enzymes; after workouts, this process is reversed, making you stronger and regenerating ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the body’s energy currency. You will recover faster if you consume enough calories with adequate proteins, carbs, fats, and micronutrient proportions. Hydration and supplementation are also key.

      Many athletes want to change their body composition, and to accomplish this, they often think they should do more cardio. This could be the wrong approach, however. Doing more cardio takes away resources that actually help the body recover, requiring it to work harder when it is already fairly taxed. There are some ways to change your body composition without the extra work, such as by manipulating what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat—known as food timing (or periodization). You can try nutrition partitioning, spacing meals out, eating for your body type, timing your nutrition plan, and tinkering with water consumption. As athletes age, the role of nutrition in recovery becomes even more important (see chapter 4, Longevity and the Aging Athlete). Mountain athletes need to pay close attention to nutrition, making sure they hydrate well and get adequate vitamins and minerals for optimal performance and a long, healthy life in the mountains.

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       BUILDING FOOD HABITS

       Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

       —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

      BEHAVIOR CHANGE IS KEY TO CREATING habits that support peak nutrition for mountain athletes. But how is that change achieved? Often people don’t consider their behaviors when it comes to eating; they usually develop a target for what they eat, change their eating habits for a brief moment, and then fall off the wagon and wonder why. It’s because of behavior and lifestyle choices made each day. People are creatures of habit, and it’s difficult to get out of patterns that have been deeply ingrained since childhood. Behaviors are like trails in a forest. It’s so much easier to stick to the path of least resistance. For behavior to change, you have to choose one trail at a time and make it clearer and easier to follow. Then you can create a new trail.

      In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg states that to be successful at changing habits, you should address only one habit at a time. If you work on two habits, the likelihood of failure increases; if you work on three or more, you will undoubtedly fail at all of them. This chapter reveals the secret to building (and keeping) a new habit. For the following exercises, work on each habit for two weeks to one month at a time before adding the next one. These habit exercises have been used successfully by thousands of people. We are 100 percent confident that you too can get great benefit from practicing them. And you’ll form mindfulness and appreciation while doing so.

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       “We are what we repeatedly do.

       Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle

      Building a habit requires following a series of smaller steps. The tough part is fitting these steps into your busy life. It is difficult for mountain athletes to find the time outside of their longer workouts, family priorities, and job responsibilities, but with these simple tricks, you can quickly improve by 1 percent—every day. One of my favorite “habit” bloggers is James Clear. His newest book, Atomic Habits, will get you started on creating your path more clearly. His “1 percent better” rule, detailed in the book, is about becoming 1 percent better every day. Think of all of the little things you could get 1 percent better at. That’s 365 percent better at something by the end of one year. Those are some pretty incredible numbers! I (Mercedes) have implemented some of Clear’s ideas in my own life over the past few years. Use these hacks to integrate his ideas into each day so that you can stay strong, eat well, and crush your athletic goals.

      1. Develop a ritual to make starting easier. Habits take place day in and day out. They are also “started” day in and day out. You don’t have to think about starting to brush your teeth or starting to make coffee—you just do it. But for a new habit, it’s the starting that makes it challenging. There are two ways to start a ritual. The first way is to stack your eating or exercise habit on top of a current habit. Stacking an eating habit on top of a current habit means telling yourself, After/Before [current habit], I will [new habit]. For example, “After I brew my morning coffee, I will prepare my vegetables for the day.” Or “Before I go to bed, I will sip on some herbal tea to calm my nervous system so I can get the best sleep.” It’s a great system to fit some of your new strategies into the day. This method is useful because you already have one habit dialed and you are linking your new habit to it.

      The second way to start a new habit is to set a schedule for yourself, like this: During the next week, I will [new habit] on [day] at [time of day] at/in [place]. Mercedes: My wife and I had to get into the habit of meal prepping. We decided that on Sunday mornings we would search for simple recipes, and then at around 12 p.m. we would shop. At 2 p.m., we would cook all the meals for the week. The duration of cooking time varies, but we try to keep it to three hours so we can chill for the rest of the evening. This works out great for us.

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       “Start with something that is so easy you can’t say no.” —Leo Babauta

      2. Start with something that is ridiculously easy to accomplish. Mercedes: I love this advice; it takes the pressure off. When I’m doing nutrition coaching, this tactic is an integral part of changing how my clients eat. I have seen clients achieve a lot of success by using this simple strategy. For example, I want to improve my vegetable intake, so the goal is: “Every day for the next seven days, I will take a baggie of vegetables to work to snack on.” If you are looking to improve your eating habits or your health, choose only one thing at a time, and give it about two weeks to become a habit. Choose a new habit every two weeks to one month and see your health compound over the year. Maybe you have one shake each day to get in more protein, or perhaps you take five deep breaths before bedtime to boost your recovery, or maybe add five minutes of hangboard time every day to improve your climbing. Start simple!

      3. Focus on the habit first and the results later. This strategy goes to the heart of the difference between grandiose goals and process goals. If you focus too much on the results that you ultimately hope to achieve, you probably won’t stick

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