The Eating Plan

Today I ran 5 miles on the treadmill. I felt sluggish, probably from doing speed work yesterday. Also decided to start practicing what I preach, so I did a short core workout and 50 push-ups. The 50 push-ups were hard and have given me some real motivation to get serious about my training.

Now back to “The Eating Plan” . . . The next step is to establish an eating schedule that we follow every day. The best way to eat is to graze, meaning eat small portions frequently throughout the day. Most of us know this, but do we do it? As athletes, we need to scheduling our eating around or training or vice versa. It’s a good idea to eat 3 meals (yes, this includes breakfast) and 2-3 snacks throughout the day. I use the term “schedule” very loosely here. When you are hungry you should eat, don’t wait till the next “scheduled” eating time to eat. It also works the other way, when you feel completely stuffed, don’t eat.

Now, let’s go back to our weekly grocery store trip. If you really want to get serious about your eating plan, it would be an excellent idea to plan all of your meals and snacks for the next week before you head out to the grocery store. This allows you to plan healthy meals and snacks and to go to the grocery store and come home with everything you’ll need to eat nutritious meals the following week.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about what to eat!