Hey Excel followers!
I will be creating a few blogs on something new that I’m giving a try. As I’m sure many of you know by now, I help athletes to Exceed Their Potential by helping them master the four Facets of Performance: Training, Mindset, Recovery and Nutrition. I will openly admit that Nutrition is the facet that I feel least confident in. Not because I haven’t had the education (trust me, I’ve had a lot of education on nutrition), but more because of my own life choices.
You see, I was born with a very fast metabolism, something I am ever so thankful for. Because of this, I never really had to watch what I ate. In high school, I was literally told by a doctor to “eat more Big Macs” so that I could gain weight, not something I would expect to hear from a doctor!
Now, you might be asking yourself, “But Derek, you swam in college and at the pro level, didn’t you have to watch what you ate?” The answer to that question is, sort of. I ate healthy, for the most part. I rarely ate sweets and I tried to eat fresh ingredients. I made good choices in terms of what I ate before/during training and competition times. But, I have never been on a “meal plan” or “diet,” I’ve never counted my macros, I’ve never exclusively shopped organic foods, and I’ve never attempted to stay away from added sugars (AND HOLY CRAP ARE THERE A LOT OF ADDED SUGARS! But I digress).
I don’t feel like I’ve ever lived a consciously nutritious life. The best way for me to learn anything, is by doing it. While all the lectures, articles, reading, videos, and podcasts taught me about nutrition, I feel like I have to live it to fully understand it.
So, I decided to start Whole 30.
Whole 30 is mostly for people that need a body reset. This meal plan was “created to help you curb your cravings and bad habits, boost your metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and calm your immune system.” Never do they claim this will make you lose weight (it probably will) or boost performance (it probably will), but it certainly can’t hurt either.
The plan boiled down looks like this:
· Only eat whole nutritious foods
· Avoid “problem” foods like: added sugar, dairy, gluten, peanuts, legumes, and alcohol (also butter)
Everyone, you would be SHOCKED at how much added sugar is in the foods we eat. This was the only part of the plan I am interested in. We all know the adverse effects of sugar in the body, especially for performance. The dairy, gluten, peanuts, and legumes I am normally fine with having in anyone’s diet, but one of this plan’s goals is to help digestive tract issues and single out personal problematic foods. Either way, I am committing to the full plan (I’m not thrilled about not being able to have my fourth of July cocktails, but hey, my body is a temple and must be treated as such!).
So, the reason I am doing this is to see if avoiding sugar and eating only nutritious whole foods (while favoring organic options) makes a positive impact on how I feel, sleep and perform.
A secondary reason, I love food. A lot. I am excited to try new recipes, cooking techniques, develop my taste buds, and just appreciate food more.
I’m sure there will be things I love and hate about this plan. Stay tuned, I’ll be keeping you all updated on how this thing goes. Wish me luck!
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