23. Trying to improve or training new nutrition habits?
Have you ever caught yourself saying I’ll try to do better when it comes to your nutrition and eating habits?
I’ll try to do better next time.
I’ll try to remember to eat more of this and less than that?
I'll try not to eat xyz?
There is more going on than just numbers when it comes to our nutrition choices - which is why a key part of my cycling nutrition framework gets you to look at not just your food choices but WHY you are or aren't eating something - picking out all the food rules that influence your food choices and might be sabotaging your progress.
Today I want to encourage you to reframe your thoughts from I'm trying to I’m training approach - just like you do with your physical training.
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Using a training mindset with our nutrition
When we come in from a training mindset, there is more grace and forgiveness for our self and also expectation that we aren’t going to be 100%
For example you have a training session that has 4 intervals at a set watt in relation to your FTP, max power or perhaps heart rate.
Now the goal obviously is that you want to hit that same number for every interval right?
We are looking for consistency, but we recognise that perhaps at times some of those intervals may be slightly over some might by slightly under snd hopefully they all average out.
Many of us cyclists are competitive by nature whether it’s against others or just against ourselves.
But! If we go too hard in that first interval - usually the subsequent intervals suffer and are of lower quality and lower power.
Which is where if we have a coach they’ll step in and correct us on our approach and help us to train our mind to hold back on that first effort so that we still have something left in the tank for the final effort.
Rather than continuing wasting energy going too hard on that first interval or beating ourselves up for it going wrong, we go try again the next time that session g comes around.
The more we practice this, the more we learn from our training sessions, the better quality adaptations we get on a physical level becoming stronger and faster. And more efficient.
Our coaches give us specific training sessions for a reason. But many amateur cyclists get caught in the messy middle where they aren’t going hard enough in their hard sessions and not going easy enough in their recovery sessions. And as a results don’t see much improvement.
Fuel smart by training intensity
Training intensity dictates what type of fuel and how much of it our body is using. So if you are riding unfuelled but at an intensity where you using considerable amounts of carbohydrates - your glycogen stores will be slowly or rapidly depleted compromising not just type quality of training that you do - but how you recover in the hours afterwards.
Which is why we want to be proactively fuelling according to the needs and demands of the training ride we are about to do. Not all high carb not all low carb but being smart with your carbs.
The intensity of our physical training will influence just how much energy our bodies uses snd needs to support that effort. Without the right fuel in the tank, the quality of our training, our watts our speed starts to drop as we fatigue and run out of fuel.
Now this is where nutrition and training our nutrition comes in to play.
Assess your food choices with curiosity
If we start to approach our food choices with the mindset of curiosity and recognise that we are training new behaviours - we can start to see how this relationship with food influences both positive and negative food choices.
Say something is off with our nutrition but we don't know what it is? by being systematic with these changes we can build confidence if they are or aren't working for us.
Take our training nutrition.
A lot of the time I see cyclists intentionally avoiding eating in training because they believe they don't need it, are trying to lose weight or save calories for later in the day.
Now I know as a sports dietitian that you could probably be fuelling that training session with 60, 80g or perhaps even more carbohydrate depending on what the session aims are. But you are the one that has to take action, put it to the test and try it out. See how it makes you feel and train a new behaviour.
You already know how you feel and what your power looks like with your current fuelling strategy - if you train your mind to allow yourself to fuel with more than you usually would - how different do you feel with the new fuelling strategy?
It doesn't mean that you are automatically going to fuel 100% every session, but if you start to feel and notice the difference for yourself, you are able to train your brain and thoughts into new ways of fuelling. This is where the try vs training concept comes into play.
You might get it spot on in one ride and then completely forget the next - but if you keep notes for yourself of what changed between those sessions you can start to build up evidence for yourself about why the fuelling makes a different for you and why it's important to continue playing around with it.
There's always room for improvement, but this is not about being perfect. Just as we are training our bodies to get stronger, so we can train our minds and our food choices to support peak health, performance and body composition.
That's all for today.
Like, subscribe, fuel your ride and I'll see you next time.
Gemma
Fuel your cycling with confidence
Learn how to fuel before, during and after cycling with the Fuelled Cycling Nutrition Team for optimal body weight, recovery and performance.