Bananas

   I eat a helluva lot of g'damned bananas. Seriously. I practically live on them. They are my main Go-To food in almost any circumstance. I eat them straight up, with peanut butter, in smoothies, sliced over granola, after my swim, before my run. I eat a bare minimum of two a day, more often four or five, especially on weekends. Why? They are delicious. And versatile. And incredibly nutritious.
    I have been paying a lot of attention to what goes into my gullet these days. For the first half of the year I was more concerned with getting my weight down to a solid, competitive weight. I confess, I hit 165 almost too easily. Hey, now don't go throwing rotten tomatoes at me for that statement. I really did work my ass off to get down here. For months I was working out twice a day, as my morning insomnia drug me out of bed and onto the treadmill most mornings before work. And neurotic, nervous energy had me back on the treadmill and strength training for several hours in the evening, in an attempt to wear myself out enough that I could sleep. NOT a recommended method of weight loss, but it really fucking worked. The neurotic phase really only lasted for a short while, but it was long enough for me to get into a routine, both with workouts and with caloric consumption. Kind of a kickstart, as it were. But I needed to get my weight to level off and stay steady at 165, so I had to focus on what I was fueling myself with, both for maintenance and strength building.  And then as spring arrived, I began the notion of training hard for obstacle runs, and I did train hard. That dream was shot down by doctor, physical therapist, and Coach. So I reverted to a long held Dream: The Ironman. True, that is a ways off, but I am holding it as a carrot on a stick. So anyway, back to Bananas. I have been eating "clean" for quite some time, limiting sugar, avoiding all refined foods, no prepackaged, no processed, no unnatural chemicals, no artificial anything. The addition of dairy free (yes, I really miss my g'damned milk!) and wheat free cuts out a lot of potential unnecessary calories. I try to balance lean protein, good fats, whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, and lots of bananas (see, there was a tie-in, eventually).
    Where has this led me? Besides late night, incoherent ramblings after an incredibly long day, an arduous swim, and a delicious dinner? It has led me to study the science of sport nutrition. I avidly read up on various diets for athletes, gleaning bits of information here and there. I have been particularly interested in pre and post workout nutrition, and even more for the pre-race nutrition. There is a whole science evolving around how to fuel the machine for best performance. Yes, there are powders, bars, goo, beverages and supplements aplenty out there. A person could go broke buying up every new arrival on the scene. I prefer the simple approach: cook good food with good ingredients. I do cook for myself almost daily. Last week was venison chili with garbanzo beans in a home made barbecue-esque base, served with GF cornbread, and all the fresh fruits I could scavenge from my various trees. The last few days it has been lean beef stew made with green beans and carrots from my own garden, served with GF biscuits. I love whole foods. Yes, I down more than my share of whey protein smoothies chock full of fruit and greens. Okay, reining in the ramblings. Did I mention I've been up since 5am after only about 4 hours of sleep. Yeah, kinda loopy tonight.
    To prep myself for my 10K I focused on eating high protein, good carb meals the 36 hours before the race. I made a kind of Taco Pie (I don't know how else to tag it) with lean beef, onions and a GF cornbread batter. this was dinner thursday night, breakfast and lunch friday, along with eggs and fruit, especially bananas. Dinner the night before the race was fresh guacamole with baked corn chips, and a high protein smoothie with organic pure black cherry juice, pure cranberry juice, almond milk, whey protein, and frozen banana (see, back to the bananas). Breakfast before the race was a 240 cal protein bar and black coffee. I felt fucking awesome. But basically I followed the regiment of: lean protein, whole grains, fresh fruit, low fiber (you do not want full bowels when you race), but a light dinner so it was fully digested before I ran. This whole "carb loading" thing is actually kind of outdated. Fill your system with carbs the night before, and you are still bloated and digesting when you need to feel lean and mean. I think I have found the formula that works for me, and knowing my OCD nature I am very likely to develop my "lucky meal plan" that I will stick to before every competition. It worked great for the 10K, next event is a Sprint Tri in 10 days, I shall see how it works then.