New Year, New You? Do You Have A Training or Diet Resolution? Make It Happen!

It's so tempting to set a New Year's Resolution but, when you think of it, New Year's is a fairly arbitrary date to choose as a starting point.  There are 364 other options.  But, in terms of organization of a training program for a summer sport, it is convenient:  with the race season 4 to 6 months out, it's about time you got started.

Training Resolutions

Our last blog article touched on this.  Yes, it's absolutely important to have goals but sometimes one big goal looming months or years in the future doesn't have enough immediacy or sense of urgency to get you to kick start your training.  Plus, there are lots of different paths and multiple steps to achieving long term goals.  To help get you going in the right direction, here's a simple strategy that should give you some stepping stones to success as well as some moral support along the way.

Step 1 

Set up a bunch of smaller shorter term goals.  Lots of little successes along the way will provide motivation as well as a sense of achievement (because, damn it - you did it!!)

Step 2

Find some people to train with.  It might not work to have just one training partner you do everything with but even if you have someone to meet up with for a weekly ride or group swim, I find it so much easier to get out the door if I know I'm supposed to meet someone in x-minutes.  Otherwise, I find it easy to put it off until later in the day when, truthfully, I usually feel better to get it done first. Training is a great way to start my day or kick off my evening.

Step 3

Just get started already!   Just do something, even if it's not an organized training plan.  If you are considering seeking coaching guidance, rather than waiting until you have it all lined up, go for a swim, a bike or a run and get your body moving.

Diet Resolutions

Just watching anything on TV or social media, you'll notice tons of weight loss and body transformation programs being advertised so it's pretty natural to take this time to think about diets or dieting.  A couple of things prompted me to think about this one.

First off, on Christmas Day, I had a discussion with my nephew and my mom about losing weight.  The discussion started with the comment that "losing weight is easy".  My mom disagreed where my nephew and I took the other position. My nephew might not be qualified to provide a definitive answer but I was arguing that it must be easy if you believe all the advertising:  every program claims to have high success rates so it must be easy, no?  I mean, advertising is never wrong is it? But, the correct answer is that my mom is right - it's not easy.  It takes discipline, awareness and constant attention.

(And if the challenge of losing weight isn't enough by itself, then there's the issue of how to pick a diet plan.  Which plan is right for you?  I can't answer that for you. I can only tell you what works for me and I am no weight loss expert. I have more experience with weight maintenance and eating well while training.  That I can share with you but something else that came across the news this week provides some support for my diet plan.)

Then, I recently saw a news piece about soon to be released update to the Canada Food Guide.  Coming in 2019, Health Canada the new Canada Food Guide undergoes a few big changes. Included the new Canada Food Guide is a focus on behavior.  So, not only is there guidance on what to eat but the suggestion is that we can be more thoughtful about the process of eating and preparing our food.  Here is my quick summary of those two changes.

Food Groups Change

It gets rid of the standard format of 4 major food groups. Instead it focuses major nutrient groups:

• -  proteins including the inclusion of plant-based proteins.
• -  fruits & vegetables
• -  whole grains and carbohydrates

Behaviors Around Eating

What I was more interested, even excited to see, was that the new food guide will also address behaviors. Now, since the food guide isn't out yet, I only have my notes to go on but here are the points that struck me as being particularly helpful in helping establish more mindful eating habits:

• Eat with people.  I think this brings with it more planning, more thoughtfulness and a meal eaten more slowly and with more joy.
• Cook more often.  Cooking more means less processed and prepared foods, less fast food.  Cooking puts you in control of your intake.
• Enjoy fresh foods more often.  That means fewer processed foods that are high in added sugar, salt and fat together with all the empty calories those additives bring with them.

Training & Diet Work Together To Make A Better Athlete

You can maximize the effects of your training by eating well and you will train more effectively if you have good dietary support. It's just that simple - these two go hand in hand to make you a better athlete and healthier person:

Proper diet provides:

1.  Energy support for your training

2.  Nutrients you need for rebuilding glycogen and muscles

3.  Dietary support for bone health

Cranberry Walnut & Feta Salad w/Balsamic Dressing

I took this to my family's Christmas Dinner (sorry - I don't measure stuff when I make salad. I just go by feel and by whim it so these are all approximations).

Dressing
1/4 c olive oil
2 T fig balsamic vinegar
salt (1/2 tsp??)
pepper (1/8 tsp?)
crushed garlic (1/4 tsp?)
sugar (1/2 tsp?, optional)

Salad
mixed baby greens (lots - maybe 4 to 6 cups)
1/2 c dried cranberries
2T chopped walnuts (you can toast them for more flavour)
1/3 c feta
2 or 3 T chopped onion
I like to add mandarin orange slices but not everyone likes that part so I just put it in my serving. Sometimes I add chopped avocado too.

YUM!!