My Nutritional Journey - Part II

by Coach Mike Ricci

In the last issue I talked about the up and downs of nutrition – even for an athlete who doesn't have too much to lose. If you read that article you would have seen my struggle to get below 165 and stay there. Even on a daily basis this was a battle. I am happy to say that I have been 160 LBS for two solid weeks now and I seem to have nailed my nutrition on a daily basis. Below you will see my body composition analysis. I would like to offer up a few tips of what to avoid and what to include in your daily nutrition to help you get where you want to be.

Do's:

• Eat a lot of fruit and vegetables (frozen is ok but organic and fresh are best)
• Eat lean meat, or Tofu or Tempeh
• Have some protein with every meal
• Drink plenty of water
• Eat right after a long or hard workout (within 30 minutes)

Don'ts:

• Don't eat processed foods
• Don't eat cheese
• Don't eat cereal
• Don't eat before going to bed
• Don't backload calories at dinner (meaning this should NOT be your biggest meal of the day)
• Don't eat breads/pasta except before a race, big workout or immediately after a tough workout

Those are the basic guidelines I followed. Here is a sample day in the life for me:

Basic week structure: 14 hours total training broken down as 2.1 swim, 6.3 bike, 4.0 run, and 1.6 of yoga, core strength, and stretch cordz.

Weighing in at 160, I estimate my caloric needs for the week to be 3,185. This would be less 500 calories (3,500 calories weekly) if I were aiming to lose a LB per week. The 3,185 I would break out to be around 50% CHO, 25% F, and 25% PRO.

Here is a typical day for me:

Although I didn't hit the
numbers I wanted to exactly, I came close. There is no perfect meal plan out
there, unless you want to wrap your life around it. This was pretty intensive-
even for me. I am no longer logging my food, but generally if I see my weight
slipping back up, I will start logging my meals again and try to figure out
where I am going wrong. The point of this article was to give you some
knowledge about how simple nutrition really is. It all comes down to one thing – if you expend (burn off) more calories
then you consume, then you will lose weight. If you want to gain weight,
then obviously you should consume more then you expend. Below are my Body
Compositions tests from this year.

Body Composition Analysis:

The lighter you are does not necessarily mean the faster you will go. A fit person at more then ideal weight when properly fueled will beat the underweight athlete that doesn't eat properly. This is even more true as the distances go longer. Focus on Body Composition, your body fat (not weight) and you will see improvement. Eat right, train smart, and go like a rocket!

Michael Ricci is a USAT certified coach. He can be reached for personal coaching at
mike@d3multisport.com.