Happetite_

2024 nutrition ins and outs 👋🏼🕺

Ins:
- Fermented foods
- High protein breakfast
- Recovery shakes
- Eat the rainbow
- Chocolate daily
- Vitamin D
- Peanut butter out the jar
- High quality meats
- More fibre

Outs:
- Caffeine before water
- Food you don’t like
- Fasted training
- Forgetting to defrost food for dinner
- Eating like someone else
- Mouldy cheese
- Supplements that aren’t batch tested

Protein Porridge appreciation 🥣

Building Muscle Takes More Than Just Protein Building muscle requires a combination of:
💫Added resistance to muscles
☄️Staying in a good energy balanced state to encourage anabolic hormone production
💥Having a good distribution of nutrients to sustain tissue health
🌟Adequate sleep
🔥Consuming more protein in the right amounts and at the right times to encourage muscle protein synthesis

It’s Not Just More, But When and How Much If you are an athlete, you need about double the protein as nonathletes, but just eating more protein isn’t enough. It must be consumed in the right amounts, at the right times and when in a reasonably good energy balanced state.

Fibre 🌾 and performance 🏃🏻‍♀️

Dietary fiber is the portion of plant-derived food that cannot be completely broken down by human digestive enzymes.

An important reason to include fibre in your diet is because it slows digestion of food and can increase satiety. For an athlete this may not be ideal around training and competition as at this time athletes need fast-acting energy to fuel performance.

This heavy textured rye bread for example is high in fibre, fantastic for digestive health and full of phytochemicals which act as an anti oxidant in the body to prevent cell damage.

This meal is therefore a perfect recovery meal full of the three main macronutrients. Yet, for a pre-workout (performance) meal, focussing on high Gi foods with fast acting energy, relatively low fat and fibre will keep dishes give upsets and bay and help energise performance.

Brain food 🧠

When I talk about food for performance, it’s not always physical performance.

Yes, we all understand the fundamentals of food as fuel, but mental performance is just as important, and often over looked.

Take a desk job - albeit a sedentary style of work and little daily physical energy expenditure - however, our brain actually accounts for ~20% of our daily energy expenditure and has to be fed.

Food and hydration are essential for concentration. With exams just beginning it’s essential to stay hydrated as just 2% dehydration can hamper mental performance.

Foods high in omegas, fatty acids and complex carbs are also your brains bestie. As our polyphenols, antioxidants and nuts (especially walnuts - they even look like a brain!)

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Grab and go overnight oats perfect for everyone 🧡

Full of fibre, complex carbs, delicious sweet flavours and energy to fuel both performance and daily life, this is a recipe you don’t want to miss.

Grab yourself an old jar, any jar will do, but if you are at the end of a peanut butter jar you get the best of the remaining bits at the bottom 🤩

Ingredients:
- 50g oats
- 1 banana
- 1 TBSP peanut butter
- drizzle of honey / maple / golden syrup
- hand full of blueberries
- 2 TBSP yoghurt.

Method:
- soaked the oats in a bowl with a dash of boiling water for 2/3 mins to thicken
- add the remaining ingredients then transfer to a jar and place in the fridge overnight to absorb all the flavour 😜
- Grab and go and you’ve got yourself a delicious, nutritious breakfast 🧡

Let me know if you give it a whirl.

Performance meals - contents, importance and variability in order to enhance performance 🍴

Performance meals are meals before and after a session (e.g., breakfast and lunch) with their main purpose to provide adequate fuel for the session, and nutrients for sufficient recovery.

If an athlete has a double session, say morning and evening, breakfast is essential for morning fuel, lunch is vital for morning recovery; but also just as important for afternoon fuelling whereby periodising carbohydrates here is essential.

The contents of a performance meal is hugely individuals; an endurance athlete working above 70% VO2max should priories CHO, whereas a boxer trying to make weight, but also enhance performance must periodise CHO and focus on protein and healthy fats.

It’s important to understand the aims of the athlete, as well as the bigger picture to ensure their performance meals are opportunities for success.

Over the past few weeks on the applied practitioner pathway, Dr Sophie Killer has provided me with such an incredible insight into the applied world of performance nutrition, and I cannot wait to learn more!

Meal - tandoori spiced salmon with Mediterranean vegetables and roasted sweet potato! 🧡

Food for both body and mind 🌷

With it being Mental health awareness week, it’s vital to stress the importance of mental health at any time of the year - not just in a designated week. And food plays such an important role in both fuel for body and mind.

Eating a diet that is well-rounded and nutrient-rich can help to improve mood, increase energy levels and help you think clearer. There are several elements at play here, from the amount of carbohydrate you eat to the way lacking vitamins affect mental health.

Both the food we consume and environment we eat in can have a positive impact on our mental health. Serotonin, for example; is a neurotransmitter (or happy hormone) and is stimulated in food like dark chocolate, red wine and oily fish ~ having a positive impact on our overall mood and well-being.

So with food in mind, remember when ‘i’ is replaced with ‘we’ - Illness becomes wellness 💛

https://www.instagram.com/p/COaBf2zlPRl/?igshid=145p53curavre

Fridge raiding foodie 🥦 We’ve all been there; nothing in the fridge, cupboards bare and veg on its last legs. But sometimes raiding the fridge creates the best meals, all that satisfy your hungry and performance too. This simple meals is comprised of protein, fats and carbs - the 3 macronutrients essential for health and performance. Along with 6 different vegetables giving the antioxidant hit and whole grain pasta pushing up the fibre. I fried off the veg with some garlic and cumin whilst the pasta was cooking. Chucked in a tin of tuna and a dollop of pesto and like that, you’ve got yourself a winning fridge raider! Nutrition doesn’t have to be tricky - experiment and throw things in and you’ll quite easily fuel for performance. #happetitefood

Eating the rainbow 🌈

We’ve all hear the term “eat the rainbow” - but what does this actually mean, and just how will it benefit both health, and performance?

Plants contain different pigments, or phytonutrients, which give them their colour. Different-coloured plants are linked to higher levels of specific nutrients and health benefits.

To eat the rainbow, be sure to eat a variety of different-coloured fruits and vegetables throughout your day. Most colourful fruits and veggies have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects that may benefit different aspects of your health.

🧡💛Orange and yellow are beneficial for a healthy heart, supports eye health and is natural anti-inflammatory.

💚Greens do the same, further influencing health benefits, especially with cruciferous veggies.

💙💜Blue and purple enhance brain function, whilst red protects the skin from sun-related damage❤️.

All of which are essential, healthy additions to your diet and essential for improved performance.

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Fuelling our way back to normality 🍴

Now the gyms have re-opened, here’s a few simple tricks you can do to help prepare your body.

1️⃣ Energy intake. Your energy expenditure is going to increase with gym workouts, potentially even an active commute. So consider your energy requirements for optimum performance.

2️⃣Protein. We all no these are essential for muscle growth and repair. Regardless of your goal, protein intake should remain consistent throughout the day.

3️⃣DOMS will be 🔥So to prepare your body, do pjs on eccentric training or body weight to re-build foundations.

4️⃣ Plan your workouts and your nutrition. Slowly build back up to previous loads prior lockdown and don’t expect the world of your body. Taking extra rest days, adjusting your training split and planning your meals will really help the transition back to the gym.

5️⃣ Enjoy it. Get those endorphins running through your body and enjoy the process.

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Apple and cinnamon muffins 🍏

These simple sweet muffins are the perfect additions to your picnic, a cracking snack and lovely warm with ice cream or yogurt.

Recipe (makes 12)
- 50g Butter
- 50g caster sugar
- 100g Self-Raising Flour
- 2 apples
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 Egg - whisked in a separate bowl

Method:
- preheat the oven to 190 and mix together the butter and sifted flour to make a crumble consistency
- peel your apples and grate them into the mix, then add the sugar, whisked egg and cinnamon and stir to combined.
- add raisins, nuts, choc chips at this point for an extra bite!
- portion evenly into cupcake cases and bake for 12-15 mins urea until golden brown
- allow to cool and enjoy!

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A taste of summer 🌞

Yellow fin tuna has to be one of my favourite meals. It is a low-fat, high quality protein perfect for muscular growth and repair.

Fish is filled with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins such as D and B2 (riboflavin). Also rich in calcium and phosphorus and a great source of minerals, such as iron, zinc, iodine, magnesium, and potassium.

Paired with halloumi, soft boiled eggs and charred corn - this sure did taste like summer 🌞
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