Nutrition Quarterly Series 3, Volume 1

r EDITION Many people look forward to winter as a time for gathering, spending time relaxing with the family, and eating and drinking comforting foods. These moments strengthen our spirits and our relationships – they are important and give us solace. But sometimes, if we’re not careful, repeated changes to our habits can have adverse effects, undoing all your hard work from seasons past. Now is the time to reassess and set some short- term goals, just enough to get through the next three months of winter. I enjoy indulging in those seasonal foods too, and since winter is my off-season from competition, I really need to pay special attention to calorie consumption relative to expenditure. You should too! Generally, as a society, we cringe at the prospect of gaining weight, but maybe it’s time to take a thorough look at weight gain. Did you know that there are different types of weight gain and one of those is actually good? Gaining muscle will add good weight to your body and ultimately help you lose the bad stuff – fat! If we can save the muscle we have and add to it, wonderful things will happen. Your metabolism will become a torch and you will be able to eat more calories while your body is burning fat naturally, because the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn. A short-term goal should be to begin rebuilding our bodies so that we have more muscle weight! "TIMING IS EVERYTHING!" - Dan Young SO HOW DO WE DO THAT? DON’T OVERINDULGE IN PROCESSED FOODS – Trade your high-glycemic carbohydrates for slower-digesting low-glycemic carbs, like fruits, veggies, nuts, legumes and whole-grains to nourish your body and give it the building blocks it needs to build and maintain your hard-earned muscle. STAY AWAY FROM STARVATION DIETS – We’ve become so programmed that the only way to lose weight is to join a program or starve ourselves. Nonsense I say! While they may work short-term, once you’re done, the weight, in the form of fat, comes back with a vengeance. Plus, they make you feel miserable. KEEPMOVING – As much as the winter season is a tempting one to just kick back and hibernate, it’s important to keep your activity level up. Also be honest with yourself about the level of activity you plan to include in your day and adjust your diet accordingly to avoid fat gain. But hold on – there is one more way, and it may be the most important one – Drinking a nutritious Post-Workout Recovery Shake! RECOVERY SHAKE BASICS To put it simply, exercising is a smart choice. Whether aerobic or anaerobic, moving your body over a 45 to 60-minute period will burn at least 250 calories, often much more! Once you have concluded your workout, you need to keep your body in a muscle-saving, anabolic state, by drinking a nutrient-dense Recovery Shake. This is the secret to weight management! But, what IS a Recovery Shake? A Recovery Shake is defined as liquid calories, preferably with a 3:1 ratio of Carbs to Protein respectively and consumed within 30 minutes of your workout. If taken within this metabolic window, all the natural carbs, protein and fats from your whole-foods based shake are shunted directly to your muscle fibers and will add the good weight – muscle – back to your body. Calories consumed within that window are considered FREE calories because the body absorbs and utilizes them differently than calories consumed throughout the day by feeding your muscles directly. Remember, weight gain isn’t always a bad thing. Keep your hard-earned muscle weight throughout the winter by recovering with a nutrient-dense Recovery Shake immediately following your workout. You will save your muscle, which helps you naturally burn off fat, keeping the good weight on and the bad weight at bay. POST-WORKOUT RECOVERY: • • • Nutrition Quarterly · Series 3 – Volume 1 Nutrition Quarterly · Series 3 – Volume 1 5 4 Post- Workout Recovery Post-Workout Recovery