You’ve spent the past year since 17.5 working hard on making positive changes to your training, nutrition and lifestyle and now the time has come to make the very most of all that work and showcase it at your Box’s Friday Night Lights! In one way, all the work has been done, there isn’t much left that you can change that will make a big impact on your overall Open performances. But at the same time, you don’t want to do anything that will take away from your performance and not help you use all that you’ve developed over the years!
I have heard a lot of people talk about cleaning up their diet this week and making some changes to really feel good about the effort they are putting towards their Open performance. If you aren’t yet at your goal weight that you think could help you perform your best, this week is not the week to try to reach that goal! If you haven’t eaten as “clean” as you would’ve liked to prepare for the Open, this week is also not the week to try to do that either! Trying to tighten up your diet by limiting calories or restricting food choices means you will likely be at an energy deficit. When you want to perform at your very highest level, you cannot be at an energy deficit! Even if you don’t expect to place anywhere significant within your division, it is still worth going into your workout thoroughly fueled so that you can really put yourself to the test, set some PRs, and feel great while doing it!
So if you aren’t “cleaning it up” or dropping some weight, how should you handle these next 5 weeks??
In general, eat similar foods you have been consuming already. If you have participated in any of my recent Nutrition Challenges, you already know how much food it takes to fuel your body and you are prioritizing real, whole foods! If you’re not sure how many calories your body should be getting each day or you’re not very good at including plenty of vegetables or real foods, join in on the Open Nutrition Challenge or contact me for individual help 🙂 . While we don’t want to change up things too much or limit ourselves to specific foods, it is beneficial to eat plenty of foods high in micronutrients because of their positive impact on overall health, recovery, anti-inflammation, and energy delivery. That means lots of vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein sources – just be sure that those foods are in large enough portions (especially carbohydrates from starchy vegetables and whole grains) that you are getting the fuel you need!
Each week, just like I did last year, I will be sharing exactly how to fuel for the workout that is released on Thursday night! If you plan to do workouts on Friday, know that Thursdays should be your re-feed day. You should consume a few extra servings of carbohydrates (80-100g if you’re tracking macros) to ensure your energy stores are fulfilled for your next day! What to eat on Friday? Subscribe to my blog (scroll down & click “FOLLOW”) to be the first to get updated on Thursday night – I will break down the day for those who do the workouts in the morning (5:30am/9am class), “Friday Noon Lights” (11am, 12pm class), and Friday-Night-Lights (4:30-6:30pm class) and include what each meal should look like including some meal ideas to help you be prepared! Fueling these workouts are important and recovering from with the proper foods is equally – if not more – important as well!!!
foodcertitudenutrition.com 