YMCA Healthy Living Magazine, powered by n4 food and health (Summer 2015) | Page 16

SOPHIE TAYLOR, APD Sophie Taylor (www.sophiectaylor.com) has two passions in life: creativity and health. Sophie is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, an Accredited Nutritionist, as well as a qualified Sports Dietitian, Yoga Teacher and Anthropometrist. Through a blend of Western science and Eastern philosophy Sophie’s goal is to help people improve their health, lose weight and increase their physical fitness as well as help them navigate the stresses of modern life as a way of improving overall wellbeing. Click here to learn more about Sophie. SPORTS NUTRITION FOR WEEKEND WARRIORS Work hard all week, and train hard all weekend. Sound familiar? Finding the time to exercise regularly, hold down a full time job, and a social life can be a challenge in itself, and that’s before you have even tied up your sneakers. So, if you are keen to make the most of the weekend session – a good sports nutrition plan is key. Nutrition expert Sophie Taylor provides these tips. There are three main goals to any sports nutrition plan: • Fuelling • Hydration • Recovery. Fuelling Fuelling your body correctly comes down to two areas: your general everyday diet and your pre-training meals and snacks. If you fill your body with junk food all week then it’s not going to be strong and energised to perform at its best, no matter what you eat before that run. The strategies that elite athletes use, such as carb loading or supplementing with nitrates are only the icing on the cake, so will only make a difference if the bedrock of your nutrition is solid. Not that you can’t enjoy eating out or a couple of drinks – but try and apply the 80 per cent / 20 per cent rule. During the 80 per cent, eat well with a mixture of lean meats or fish, wholegrains and lots of fruit and vegetables to give you a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat and fibre, with enough vitamins and minerals to sustain you. Fuelling up before a long or hard session is about carbohydrates. This is the body’s preferred fuel source, which it stores as glycogen. If you don’t have enough energy available you will under-perform during training, improvements will be slower to achieve, and you will be more likely to injure yourself. One hour before training, eat a high carbohydrate snack, as this will help top up glycogen stores. Try an energy or muesli bar, a banana, a piece of toast or a bagel. If you can’t tolerate solid food before exercising then try drinking 300ml to 600ml of a 16 YMCA HEALTHY LIVING MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015 sports drink, but be careful with these drinks because in some instances you may just be taking in unnecessary calories. Hydration This is the other main factor when it comes to performance. Make sure you are properly hydrated before you start your session. If you are training on the weekend then it’s possible you may have had a couple of alcoholic drinks the night before. This will leave you dehydrated and even mild dehydration can significantly impact performance. An easy way to check your hydration status is to look at the colour of your urine; it should be pale yellow, displaying almost no colour in the bowl. During the session you will need to take in fluid. The amount will depend on both your size and how much you sweat. Both water and sports drinks will hydrate you, but a sports drink will give you fuel and electrolytes, such as sodium to replace sweat loss. Sports drinks also help keep glycogen stores topped up, but are only recommended when exercising longer than 60 minutes. Weigh yourself before and after training to assess how much fluid you lost through sweat. It is recommended that 120 to 150 per cent of this deficit should be replaced. Recovery Recovery is one of the most important aspects of sports nutrition. The three R’s of recovery are: • Replenish: your glycogen supplies with carbohydrate • Repair: your muscles with protein • Rehydrate: with water and electrolytes. Recovery strategies will vary depending on the type of