Diet du Jour

TriBob · Jan 17, 2012

Or maybe nutrition du jour is more PC. Off season is a great time to adjust or try new things. What has been working for you or what are you trying? If you have a medical condition that requires a special diet (i.e. gluten free), let us know if you feel like sharing.

hobey · Jan 17, 2012

After a truly enjoyable but insane holiday diet with too much red meat, butter, etc., we're going back to our normal whole grain (millet, farro, quinoa), more vegetarian than not, diet. Lean proteins especially fish & tofu (and sometimes chicken) 2-3 times/week and then four-legged friends every 2 weeks or so. I was just starting to feel normal and then traveled last weekend and I think my body went into shock at the amount of junk I put away. I'm actually craving the green bean masala curry & rice I'm planning for dinner tonight.
 
One thing I am looking into this year is minimizing gluten. Neither BrewDad or I have any sensitivities but we tend to perform better athletically if we skew to GF whole-grains the week before big events vs. the traditional carbo-load. And yes, this is purely anecdotal evidence. Note that I'm not cutting it out but just choosing things like millet, rice, and quinoa more often than not. And I'd like to take some credit for BD's great marathon last Sunday since I've been packing him full of anti-inflammatory cruciferous veggies like brussels sprouts (in the form of Japanese okonomiyaki, pizza, and stir fries) lately. 
 
I like to joke that N is a kosher pescatarian. He is not a huge fan of meat but can eat fish at every meal...but he doesn't like shellfish, etc. So pastas, rice, some veg, and any swimming thing with gills and fins.

AdCo · Jan 17, 2012

So, i've had great success eliminating pretty much all gluten. I've lost 20 lbs and feel way better. I have no known issues with it, but I can tell you that Sunday I ate pizza dough and a sandwich and within 5 min, I got stuff and didn't feel I was breathing as clearly. Since October, I have gotten thinner, faster, and had NO breathing issues / asthma issues, even in COLD weather. Last march, I got diagnosed with exercies asthma, but my standard MO is to eat a bagel and cream cheese before a race. I've also cut out almost all dairy, most red meat and 100% of chicken in general. If I do eat meat, it's grass fed or non-farm raised fishes. We eat a lot of Turkey - all natural - and try to eat better fruits and grains. Now, I do cheat, and I eat sushi 2-3x per month, and I eat a lot of it, but none of that seems to bother me. 
 
now, a lot of this is anecdotal, but I am not nearly as hungry and I eat less, but I don't feel like I need to eat. When I do cheat - I have pancakes or other things now and then, I seem to eat less and not want as many, but also, it seems that things with yeast bother me way more. the one time i had chicken I felt like crap. I'm sure I will cheat and eat bad things, but I won't do it before big races or workouts. It does get a little boring now and then, but feeling better is worth it. I'm sure em73 can expound a little more on it, but the way I'm feeling really makes my boring breakfast of turkey and sweet potato's or something similar worth it. I'm running, swimming, and biking great (comparably) and feeling less logy. 
 
Oh, after pizza the other nigh, I felt very anxious (a feeling I often had about things like my job, the bills, the heat, etc..) since yesterday night - after 24 hrs of better eating, the anxiety is gone and I'm back to a more even keel. It's crazy, but I really do recommend it for people. it is NOT easy, adn the first two weeks suck, but after that, you try things and you know pretty quickly what throws you off. Another MS member tried it and after 1 week had lots more energy, wasn't as tired, but she fell off the wagon.
 
any, ask questions and I'll answer. PS. monica has done this and it works for her, too.. even more so as she has more known food issues.

Swimmerbee · Jan 19, 2012

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<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by hobey <a href="/t/76160/diet-du-jour#post_2025957"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> . I was just starting to feel normal and then traveled last weekend and I think my body went into shock at the amount of junk I put away. I'm actually craving the green bean masala curry & rice I'm planning for dinner tonight.
 
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I just got back from a long road trip this am, my SO looked very puzzled at my breakfast of kale, soy sausage and pineapple but I obviously was missing some fruit and veggies (although we did visit the artichoke capital of the world).
I am allergic to the binders in "gluten free" products and the sweeteners in "sugar free". I recently discovered one of the binders is derived from broccoli mold and I'm allergic to broccoli and mayonnaise (the commercial kind) which has this binder too! At least it all makes sense now. So I'll be avoiding "gluten free" and mayonaise but I do need to cut back on sugar. Although recently some convincing arguments have been made for "high fat" low-carb diets for athletes I feel best by adding lots of green veggies and cutting the fat and sugar. The old "zone" diet approach has worked pretty well for me and I think I’m going to use it to trim a few pounds with the goal to go down in fat, train in cold water all winter then go up for my summer cold water events.

Thor · Jan 20, 2012

Can't add anything to the diet list here, as I eat whatever I want when I want and have felt good with high energy for years.
 
But I can talk about a new supplement I just started taking that, at this point, roughly a little over a month in, I *think* is working.
 
Glucosamine
 
Over the last two two years, "sore" joints start up around May or June, not long after I start hill and mountain running, including mountain races. I don't know that the joints are actually sore, but I describe it as that I can "feel the joints." And I feel as if it is the pounding from all of that down hill running and unevenness found on trails. So although trails tend to absorb far more brunt, the truth is that when you run hard, that down hill pounds the lights out of you. And so starting in May or June, I start feeling my joints -- and I know I have voiced that in the daily bread threads, so this may sound familiar. I feel them pretty much through the end of my season, some time after the long stuff ends. It drags on a bit because the last two years I have extended my season with an ultra here or there, thus continuing the "pounding" feeling on the joints. My mother heard my babble about feeling the joints and, for my birthday, got me a bottle of Glucosmine. I was going to hold off taking them until the mountain season, but she convinced me otherwise. Plus, other mountain running friends said they took it, so I started taking it. It's hard to say if it really is helping, mainly because I had already started to feel better in the joints as the season ramped down. But I do feel as if the Glucosamine is helping. I am feeling better in the joints now, maybe more than I have in a long while. Proof will be in the spring, as training on hills and mountains ramp up. So, I think it helps but, well, I'm not entirely sure.
 
Also, I'm taking roughly half the dose prescribed. They say to take two pills a day, and to me that seems a lot. I also skipped on the "loading phase", where you're suppose to take like 4 a day or something like that for a few weeks. I didn't need the pills at that time, so I skipped it. When this bottle runs out, I will likely get another bottle so that I can continue taking them. I do feel it helps. At least my joints feel better.

Diet du Jour

TriBob

hobey

AdCo

Swimmerbee

Thor

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