Stage 5 of recovery eating or post workout nutrition is essentially the time between stage 4 (continued recovery 2 hours post exercise) to the next stage 1 (pre exercise nutrition) This is the stage where Most athletes get a little too relaxed. The common mistake is to continue to eat a diet that is high in glycemic load and has low nutrient value. You do not want to squander the opportunity to consume fresh whole natural foods such as fruits and vegetables that are extremely nutrient dense for foods such as pastas, rices and breads which have a high calorie load but extremely poor amount of nutrient content. Your best chance of not only maintaining health and longevity but also increasing your fitness goals is to adopt a diet similar to our paleolithic ancestors some 2.6million years ago.
During this stage you need to maintain your glycogen stores however this time the food choices are different. You need to steer away from the potatoes, sweet potatoes and sometimes fruit for some people and concentrate on foods such as cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, onion, mushrooms. These are extremely nutrient dense and low glycemic load. These foods provide essential vitamins such as vitamin A, C, B1, Niacin, B6, B12, folic acid as well as minerals like sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron zinc, copper and manganese.
You will also need to consume good sources or protein. These protein sources should come from grass fed beef, free range chicken and eggs, wild fish such as salmon and herring. Attempt to stay away from feed lot raised animals as the fats contained in this protein sources are much higher in omega 6. Also try to avoid canned food however some canned tuna etc is very convenient. It is better than eating nearly all other packaged foods. When buying foods in labels ensure that you read ALL the labels. Most tuna etc contain sunflower oils, vegetable gums, and other extracts. There are only a few that have 100% tuna and olive oil. Meat from grass fed free roaming animals will also have higher amounts of BCAA's. Kangaroo is a great meat for low fat protein source and iin Australia it is the closest thing to wild game we can eat. You should aim to eat 1 gram of protein per 2kgs of body weight or 1 gm per pound if that is easier.
Maintaining a near neutral acid/base balance is essential. The more basic your system the harder the body can work before it becomes acidic. You should be aiming to eat lots of vegetable matter. If you eat too much protein with out enough leafy greens you may be running an acidic system with out really knowing it. Whilst maintaining a basic system you should look at ways you can control inflammation which is what will happen when you may get injured or just a wear and tear from your regular training. Your inflammation control comes in the form of fats. Omega 6 and omega 3. Omega 6 fats are pro inflammatory fats whilst omega 3 are ANTI inflammatory fats. the typical Australian diet has an omega 6 to omega 3 ration of 10:1. You should be aiming for 1:1 or 2:1. Often omega 3 supplement is used as this will reduce the ration of omega 6 and omega 3 however current thinking is if you can lower your omega 6's right down then you may not need to take much of the nasty fish oil. Omega 6 containing foods are all pre packed foods, poor quality meats and grains and cereals. Some nuts are said to have high omega 6 however this is normally due to not having any omega 3 hence giving a poor ratio. More on this in fats.............
Courtesy of Crossfit Norwest
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