When I signed up to do my first marathon 8 years ago with a goal of sub 3 hours I had a few thoughts. One was, “OMG, WTF am I doing? can I finish this” And the second was, “I can eat anything I want” Embarrassing as that is, I bet I’m not the first person to have that mindset. And while digging into endless biscuits and regularly eating an entire cake did not cause the pounds to pack on as quickly as they would have if I had been sedentary, I realized early into my training that diet does indeed make a big, big difference. I’d lost weight because of the 70 mile a weeks that my body wasn’t used to. But was I healthy? Did I know anything about being healthy? As a 26 year old single guy living alone, not much!
Even if you’re not running marathons, chances are you’ve had a stare-down with a cookie or two in your lifetime and have thought to yourself, “What the heck, I’ll just work out more later.” And while you definitely should treat yourself sometimes, it’s important to remember that as a general rule you just can’t out-exercise a bad diet. Unfortunately many people overestimate how many calories they burn through exercise and underestimate how many calories they eat. It almost reminds me of a fear of technology. A lalala, lalala mentality. Much of the gym equipment we use contributes to a false sense of calories burned, and denial contributes to thinking we eat much less than we actually do.” Add that to portion sizes, which seem to be constantly detached from reality, and it’s a wonder we’re even able to guesstimate our daily calorie intake.
And that doesn’t mean the solution is to cut back on the good stuff so we can have more of the bad while still staying fit. Great nutrition affects every aspect of your life: mood, sleep, and your appearance. Allowing your body to have the right nutrients it needs is critical no matter what type of activity.A healthy diet is like putting premium fuel in your gas tank. A junk food diet is just putting sugar (literally) in your tank. We need food to feel energetic and fuel our workouts as well as help recover post-workout. The only book I have read that really resonated with me has been SANE eating by Jonathan Bailor.