Carbo-Loading

Posted on April 17, 2011. Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bikini Competition, bikini model recipes, Bodybuilding, cardio, cardiovascular exercise, cardiovascular training, clean eating, clean eating recipes, cooking with a fitness model, Disney princess half marathon, fish recipes, fitness model recipes, get in shape, gyms in peabody, healthy snacks, how to lose weight, lose weight, oatmeal recipes, online personal trainer, online trainer, personal trainer in boston, personal trainer in medford, personal trainer in peabody, the get in shape girl, the shred, virtual trainer, virtual training |

This Monday is the Boston Marathon, one of the most popular of all the marathons in the world and my boyfriend is running.  As you all know I am training for Ms. Bikini April 30th, so only 12 days after his 26.2 mile stroll.

So this means his eating habits couldn’t be any more different than my own.

Granted, when nearing a run of this magnitude, I don’t think eating anything that could potentially upset the stomach would be a good idea, when you area gearing up for this kind of race, you can generally have a pretty lax diet.  This includes and lots and lots of carbohydrates.  For my training, my carbohydrates (minus veggies) are depleting by the day.

Carb loading is the act of adding more carbs to your diet so you increase the amount of fuel in your muscles to improve your ENDURANCE activity.

By endurance I mean more than a 5k people.  This is an event that should last about 90 minutes or more.

According to the Mayo Clinic, ” Any physical activity you do requires carbohydrates to provide you with fuel. For most recreational activity, your body uses its existing energy stores for fuel. But when you engage in long, intense athletic events, your body needs extra energy to keep going. The purpose of carbohydrate loading is to give you the energy to complete an endurance event with less fatigue, improving your athletic performance.”

Carb loading also doesn’t mean just a pasta dinner the night before a race.  Honestly, if you aren’t used to a pasta dinner, it wouldn’t be advised the night before a race because who knows what will happen to your digestive system.

How To Carb Load Properly…

About a week before your event you want to increase your carbohydrate intake to 50 – 55% of your daily caloric intake (a DISASTER  if you are a fitness competitor, like myself) should be from carbohydrates.  That means vegetables, fruit and starches.

And 3 – 4 days out, 70 – 75% of your daily caloric intake should be from carbohydrates.

During this process you should be scaling back your activity level to very little if at all.  So if you don’t think you can make the full 26 miles, 3 days ahead of the race isn’t the time do your last long run.

So can you imagine what it’s been like lately with one runner in the house consuming carbs like it’s his job while I’m carb depleting and wondering why my belly is still poking out so far?!

Here’s a few examples of how our eating habits have differed this week:

Wednesday night’s dinner – I had mahi and veggies.  Ryan had mahi, veggies and brown rice.

Thursday’s breakfast – Ryan had two servings of an unmeasured amount of oatmeal. I got a 1/4 cup of oats.

Friday – Ryan ate fruit and bagels before heading to dinner where he got breaded salmon with mashed potatoes.  The he went for ice cream. I had seared tuna, asparagus and a stick of gum.

Saturday – Ryan had pizza.  I had tupperware chicken and brussel sprouts.

While his food sounds fantastic and mine sounds bland and so not glamorous, I don’t think I could stand the feeling of bloat or softness endurance athletes have to deal with.

So I’ll take my chicken, fish and veggies while I watch him cross the finish line knowing that in less than two weeks I’ll be walking proudly across that stage at Mohegan Sun!!

The Get In Shape Girl

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