Nutrition can either make or break a ride, and it's when you put it to the test and experience this properly for yourself that you really understand that it's not just a fluke.
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Many cyclists assume that if you weigh less your power to weight ratio will be higher and you’ll perform better on the bike. While this CAN be the case - it is not always true for every individual depending on their starting place and the strategies they have used to change their body composition.
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How many foods right now are on your 'not allowed to eat' list? Maybe it's cookies, chocolate, icecream. chips, cheese..... It might even be hot cross buns! Whatever the food that you've got on your 'forbidden list - I want to challenge you to think about what happens when you restrict those foods and I want to challenge you to a new approach where you give yourself permission.. stay with me!
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Are you training for the 3 peaks Challenge in March? Have you thought about training your nutrition as well as the physical training you need to ride 235km with >4000m climbing in less than 13 hours?
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What does success look like to you?
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There are a lot of labels attached to the word 'hungry'. Sometimes people think this can be considered a 'good' thing, for others it's a bad thing.
Especially when people are trying to lose weight I often see people feeling hungry all the time, fighting themselves and their hunger all the time because it's not time to eat or they don't think they are allowed to.
If you find yourself hungry ALL the time. Then it might be a useful activity to record your hunger and fullness levels across the week to see if you can find any patterns that may be causing this.
Hunger is normal, but if you are extremely hungry, trying to rely on willpower alone is a strategy doomed to fail.
This is where the hunger-fullness scale can come in handy.
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Rather than using nutrition tracking as punishment to guilt trip or shame you into action (which rarely works in the long time by the way), I like to use nutrition tracking intentionally as a tool to help you rewrite the way you eat on and off the bike.
The first step if you want improve your nutrition is get clear on what you are eating, when and why. Which is why I encourage all my clients when we first start working together or if they join my team and use my cycling nutrition framework is to do some nutrition tracking.
By getting clear on your baseline, it will raise your awareness of when and why you’re eating certain foods and help figure out the best place to make changes that suit you, your lifestyle and your training plan
Which is why nutrition tracking is there as a tool, not a rule.
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Fuelling your cycling is a game changer if you want to avoid the bonk! Josh Bradwene is a cycling coach and cyclist who has made major cycling performance gains since learning my cycling nutrition framework and shaking up his nutrition approach. He used to bonk all the time and by fuelling proactively continues to experience some of his biggest improvements in power, speed & cycling performance.
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Protein is good stuff and is often overlooked by many of the cyclists and clients I work with. But does that mean I recommend cyclists use protein supplements or first try to get everything from food? Not at all! Sometimes I’ve found clients using protein bars as a less tasty chocolate bar substitute when a real food option would be much more filling.
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Are you scared to stop training in case you gain weight? I went riding with a cyclist recently who told me that during their off season they kept training anyway (despite being told to take a break) because they didn’t want to gain weight. Fear of food, fear of stopping training and fear of gaining weight has been the common theme in conversations I've had on and off the bike these last few weeks.
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Tim Cutler winning Dirty Warrny in a solo breakaway fuelled with an epic 138g carbs an hour for 8 hours! Tim shares how he managed so much carbs over 8h and we discuss some of the nutrition changes that helped fuel his success.
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Have you said to yourself that you know what to do when it comes to nutrition, but you just aren't doing it? Let's unpack why that might be, what's stopping you and how to start doing the things you already want to do and aren't doing.
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Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) is a syndrome of deleterious health and performance outcomes experienced by male and female athletes exposed to low energy availability - which is - inadequate energy intake in relation to exercise energy expenditure leading to REDs. It’s very common in cyclists and in this episode I explain what REDs and low energy availability is, how it affects your cycling performance and health and how you can avoid it.
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"REDS: Nobody told me about it, I didn't know that losing your period was a problem.. the team asked if I had my period and I said no. That's when they raised a red flag and said that is something you should address"
Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) is common amongst both male and female cyclists. A red flag indicating REDs in female cyclists is an irregular or missing period. Unfortunately many female athletes are unaware of this or are wrongly informed that this is ‘normal’. Kaia Schmid is a female pro cyclist who shares her story of discovering and recovering from REDs.
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What do bike fitting, Race Across AMerica (RAAM) and Cyclists Fighting Cancer have in common? Diagnosed with cancer aged 21, Rich's career veered away from the racing path that he had anticipated and led him into bike fitting, sports rehab and his work with the Cyclists Fighting Cancer charity. Listen to our conversation as we reminisce how Rich's RAAM ended up in a hospital bed with sepsis and how the kids who benefit from bikes donated by cyclists fighting cancer continue to inspire him.
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Have you ever thought about how many food rules and thoughts influence your nutrition, what you do and don't eat?
For example, were you told as a kid that you couldn't leave the table until you had finished eating? Today I am going to be sharing one tool that can help you to HALT and pause next time you find yourself eating on autopilot, avoiding food when. you are hungry or eating emotionally.
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Have you ever wanted to get support with your nutrition but ruled yourself out because you aren't a pro athlete? Today I am talking about ten of the most common reasons I work with people as a sports dietitian- which can range from working through low energy availability and REDS to regain your menstrual cycle, creating a nourishing a plant based diet, nailing a race nutrition plan or overcoming raging hunger or need to eat all the contents of the fridge every time you ride.
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Are you trying to lose weight as a cyclist to improve your power to weight ratio and frustrating by the rate of progress? Jamie asks: “I am struggling to work out why I'm not making any progress with my weight loss. For some reason this morning I weighed myself and I'd put on over a kg. Why do you think this is? What am I doing wrong? “
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Have you ever caught yourself saying I’ll try to do better when it comes to your nutrition and eating habits? There is more going on than just numbers when it comes to our nutrition choices. 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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Where do you start when you want to transform the way you eat on and off the bike? Today I talk you through the first step in my cycling nutrition framework to help you transform your nutrition. Once you understand where the problems are, you can build in the right nutrition solutions for you to address them!
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