16: How to Fuel as a Busy Triathlete

Full transcript of the episode: 

Hey everyone. And welcome back to another episode of the fueled triathlete. I’m your host, Andrea. And today I’m talking all about how to fuel when you have a busy schedule. So, and a lot of us are busy, especially when you factor in work, training, social life, all that kind of stuff, family life.

Sometimes it can be hard to get enough to eat. So I’ve got some tips and some strategies for you. And this has been inspired by conversations with some new clients recently, who know that they’re not feeling enough, but they struggled to get enough in through the day to fuel their training and to recover. And because of that they notice that they don’t have the energy that they want to have through the day. So I was working with a new client.

He’s a physiotherapist and back-to-back sessions all throughout the day. Really doesn’t have a lot of time in between clients to fuel. So not really taking the time to snack during the day. I’ve also had clients who are massage therapists, and that can mean sometimes again, back to back clients, not a lot of time to eat in between, but also working at night sometimes.

So I had a client who had like a one to seven or two to eight work schedule. So there wasn’t a lot of time to really kind of stop and eat dinner and then they would go train after. So this is just kind of a snapshot. I’ve definitely worked with some other people who have different schedules, people who work, shift work or busy moms who are on the go, or parents who coach sports. So all of us can be busy. And I just want to talk about today: why fueling is so important, why we want to be a fueled triathlete or a fueled runner, what are the signs and symptoms of under fueling and then also some different strategies to fuel when you’re busy.

So how to start your day properly with some quick and easy breakfast ideas, how to fuel on the go ,so when you can’t really stop and eat a full snack or a full meal, here are some things that I recommend to you and things I recommend to my clients as well.

So let’s get into it. So under fueling can also be known as low energy availability. This can be a topic all in itself. So I just want to briefly explain why it is so important to fuel. So fueling means, we’re eating enough, we’re taking in enough calories to support both of our training, but also our normal bodily functions. Our body requires not only calories to get through exercise, but also to keep our body functioning.

So low energy availability essentially means that when you take the total amount of calories that you consume in a day and you take away what your body’s expending through your training there’s limited calorie or energy intake available to support your normal bodily functions. So you’re basically not consuming enough to support both your training and your basic biological needs. And what this means is you don’t have really enough calories to keep your organs, your body operating at optimal levels. And in effect, this can start to affect your hormones. It can start to decrease your metabolism. It can weaken your bones, puts you more at risk of fractures. It can be a loss of your menstrual cycle, GI issues. So when it’s a prolonged period of time of having a high deficit in your energy intake can start to lead to some troubles. So this is different than, you know, having a period of time where you might be in a small deficit if you are looking to lose weights or change your body composition to any way. So sometimes it can be just like I said earlier, when you’re struggling to get enough nutrition in through the day, because you’re busy or maybe you find exercise decreases your appetite. I also find that it’s under fueling at the wrong times.

So maybe you’re consuming enough or close to enough energy intake that your body needs, but you’re consuming it not necessarily around your training or limiting. Your intake is limited before training, during training and after training. You kind of decrease your intake throughout the day and then tend to eat a large amount of dinner and maybe that’s not necessarily in and around your training. So the meal timing is really important as well. So this could be someone who’s just, again, busy throughout the day forgets to eat and then all of a sudden it’s dinner time or it’s nighttime and you’re starving, and you’re doing a bunch of snacking there when you had a morning training session or an afternoon training session.

So what are some signs to know if you are maybe not fueling your body properly, not giving it enough calories, enough energy intake. So one can be not recovering well from workouts. So you’re often feeling sore. You have low energy levels through the day. You’re kind of struggling maybe just to get through work. You have that mid afternoon slump, maybe you want to nap a lot after work or maybe just getting through workouts can be a challenge as well. If you’re feeling very hungry throughout the day, so you’re feeling extra hungry throughout the day, or very soon after your meals, it could be also a sign.

Another thing I see can be cravings for sugar. So, you know, sometimes I have clients coming to me like I’m just constantly craving sugar. How can I cut out sugar? And sometimes it is due to not fuelling your body properly, not consuming enough because your body’s just really craving quick energy that it can get as soon as possible. Other things that can happen when we’re under fueling or actually GI issues or stomach issues. You’re having gas, pain, bloating, after eating or you’re not having regular bowel movements. Our digestive tract is a muscle. It can start to slow down or just doesn’t have enough food to really push through our digestive system. If you’re getting frequent injuries, so frequent stress fractures ,bone injuries, musculoskeletal injuries. So when it comes to bone health, if we’re not consuming enough, our estrogen levels can decrease and this can decrease our bone density. Losing a lot of hair or nails are brittle. And also trouble sleeping.

So I have worked with a client before who was having a lot of trouble sleeping in the night. Put it off to menopause and once they started fueling better, so getting enough energy throughout the day and really looking at their meal timing, this actually improved their sleep.

So if you find you’re struggling with eating enough throughout the day, and it’s more of a barrier to you to be adding extra food and things that I’m suggesting, it can be good to work with a dietician and help you overcome this. If you are also somebody maybe who is struggling with fueling enough through the day due to a busy schedule, not knowing what to eat, not having time to fit it in, then I’ve got a lot of tips and strategies for you in today’s episode.

First and foremost I think it’s really important to recognize that we need to prioritize fueling our body. So we really need to try to take a break in the day, take some time to eat, take some time to meal prep, grocery shop, whatever that looks like.

As triathletes we can fit in tons of training sessions through the day ,we can wake up early, we can get ourselves to bed early. Just like you treat a training session and block that time off and get to that training session, I’d really recommend treating, fueling the same way.

So schedule in your week, it doesn’t have to be a Sunday, can be at any time, but schedule some time to kind of look at your week :what are you going to eat? Do some meal prep, make sure you can get some grocery shopping or order groceries. This is what fuels your training. So every time that you eat is an opportunity to fuel your body for the next training sessions and also to recover from your training sessions.

You’re not going to get the most out of your training and feel your best if you’re not giving your body what it needs to get through that. A lot of us get into triathlon, maybe to challenge ourselves to be our best version, maybe we have a race goal. Maybe we got in it to be healthier. Nutrition goes hand in hand with that. So, if you really want to be able to do this thing for a long time, you want to be able to run for a long time, train, be a triathlete and not get burned out, not get injured after a few seasons, then really make sure you’re prioritizing your nutrition. So, yeah, a little bit of tough love, but I think it’s really important to recognize that that this is just as important as your training and you want to prioritize your fueling just like you would prioritize you’re training sessions.

And prioritizing fueling can mean a couple of different things. Like I said, it can mean taking the time to grocery shop or even order groceries. It can be taking time to do a little bit of meal prep or some meal planning and also scheduling and allowing yourself some time to stop and eat a meal and nourish your.

Okay, so let’s break it down into a couple of scenarios. So if you are somebody who is, you’ve got a busy day ahead of you, sometimes it’s hit or miss you’re going to get a snack or going to get a meal. Prioritize a really good, satisfying well-balanced breakfast. That is a good start before your day gets crazy, it gets hectic. This is where you can get a lot of good nutrition in. As well, if you’re someone who works out, first thing in the morning, breakfast is your recovery and it’s going to help get you through the rest of the day. So a couple things that I suggest, one is, sometimes I see a lot of us, we are getting those carbs, which is super important to make sure you get your carbohydrates at breakfast, but also make sure you pair those carbohydrates with some protein. A lot of times I see protein, being skipped or sometimes not being optimal. At your breakfast everyone’s needs can be different, but maybe start aiming for around 20 to 40 grams of protein.

So what are some good protein options at breakfast? One is eggs. If you eat eggs, this can be great. Not always possible to fry some eggs, scrambled them in the morning so some things that can be on the go, are making hard-boiled eggs or making egg muffins. So egg muffins are where you’re going to scramble your eggs in a bowl, add some milk, you can add some egg whites, add some vegetables. I like to add in some vegetables, so I just do the frozen spaghetti makes it’s called. So it’s actually just pre-chopped onions, celery and peppers. And it’s so simple. Sometimes I’ll do some chop spinach and add some cheese as well.

So in a muffin tin, I find silicone muffin tins work the best they don’t stick. You’re going to put the mixture into the pan, bake it, and you’ve got these little egg cups or egg muffins. This is a great way to get some protein there. I’m going to link in the show notes. I’ve got a recipe for some egg muffins. These actually also have cottage cheese in them so it boosts the protein even more. Speaking of cottage cheese, cottage, cheeses are really high protein food. So a cup of cottage cheese has 30 grams of protein. So if you’re someone who usually does like some toast with some peanut butter in the morning, Pair that with half to one cup of cottage cheese. I love it topped with some frozen berries and you’re good to go. Yogurt is also great Greek yogurt or SKYR yogurt. If you need to keep it simple on yourself, then by the small cups that are pre-packaged. Another thing I like to do is just meal prep, a couple of Greek yogurts for the week. So I’ll get a big container of the plain Greek yogurt. Put a serving in a Tupperware container or a Mason jar, top that with some frozen berries, I’ll make three to four of those. Put them in the fridge. The berries thaw, over time in the fridge and a lot of the juices come out to add some flavor to the Greek yogurt. You know, you can have that and then top it with some Greek yogurt or some granola or some nuts, and you got a great breakfast to go. Smoothies can also be awesome as a breakfast in the morning. You can pack a ton of nutrition in there. I would say in a smoothie you want to put in some liquid, so optimize your nutrition by not just using water, use some almond/ cashew milk, you know, a nondairy beverage or regular cow’s milk. That way you get some calcium and some vitamin D you get some electrolytes, some minerals. And then you’re going add some scoops of Greek yogurt, cottage, cheese, or some protein powder. You can add some fruits and vegetables or frozen fruit, personally that’s what I love to use best. Some veggies you can throw in there, spinach, kale, cauliflower rice .

And then add some healthy fats, like peanut butter, nuts, hemp seeds.

Another great thing is overnight oats. So overnight oats are some basically, if you haven’t made them before. They are just like oatmeal that you can eat cold in the morning. You don’t have to cook it. So the night before you’re going to mix, this is just a basic mix. I would say you can adjust the apportions up or down, but you take about half a cup of rolled oats. You could also use steel cut oats. You’re going to add about two thirds of cup of a liquid. So using again, a milk or a plant-based milk. What this helps to do is soften the oats overnight. Then you’re going to add about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of chia seeds. Sometimes I’ll use ground flax seeds to help them make sure thicken up a little bit more, so it has more of a consistency of cooked oatmeal. Stir that around. If you want, you can add some honey. To add some protein you can add about half a cup of Greek yogurt.

You can add a scoop of protein powder. You could do both. Top it with some frozen fruit. And let that sit in the fridge. So you can make a couple at a time .In the morning, if you wanna add some peanut butter, if you want to add some nuts, if you need some extra healthy fats, then you can do that as well.

So this is great on the go. This is something that I personally like to do if I’m training first thing in the morning, and then I need to have breakfast after I’ll take that with me. You could pair it with those egg bites. I’ve talked to a client recently, their breakfast was bagel with butter. As an athlete, we need more protein at breakfast. So we talked about switching the butter to peanut butter, sprinkle on some hemp parts, and then maybe pair some hard-boiled egg or some egg cups to go along with that, to balance it out more.

Okay, so next I want to get into this, how to fuel when you can’t really stop. So what are some, bite-size easy to eat foods, fluids that are going to be energy dense and help to fuel you through the day. So those times, like I mentioned, you’ve got back to back meetings. Yeah. You just can’t really stop. What can you do? So a couple things I find overnight oats can be great as well here.

If you’re not going to eat them in the morning. When you have a time to take a bite here and there. Another thing would be smoothies. If you are working over a period of time, that’s going to be, a meal and you know, you just definitely can’t stop. Usually end up skipping it or eating later, do a smoothie. You can pack a ton of nutrition in here. Like I talked about, have some liquids, have some fruits, veggies, and protein, some healthy fats. It’s a lot of things that you can get into a full meal. You can easily boost the calories , you can add avocado, you can add peanut butter.

The other thing is making some different, energy bites. So energy bites, you’ve probably heard of them or seen them before, but basically you’re going to mix up usually some oatmeal with a bit of honey ,maple syrup, some type of nut butter, it could be peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter. You can do nut-free butter like a sun butter or a soy nut butter. If you’re someone maybe who works at a school and you can’t bring nuts. Then you want to add in some seeds or nuts, if you can, some dried fruit, maybe a little bit of chocolate chips for fun, and you mix that together and then you have these little bite sized balls. So, you know, again, there are one or two bites and sometimes depending on what you’re putting in there, you can get up to about a hundred calories, maybe even more in some of these. So it’s a great fueling option and easy to customize, to make nut free, gluten-free or even vegan, if you need that. There’s other ones that I , make in a food processor. Blending up a cup of dates and a cup of almonds together. It can be almonds, it can be cashews. It’s almost like a Larabar, but you can add different flavorings into it. You can add some cocoa powder, you can add some lemon for a lemon flavor. So I’m going to link some recipes as well in the show notes for some of these types of things.

It’s sometimes is a lot to make these every week. So take some time, make a huge, make a big batch of these and they keep in the fridge for a week or you can keep them in the freezer so that you have something to grab and go when you need it.

The other type of thing can be, having a backup, like some protein bars or some energy bars.

Keep these in your car, keep these in your office. Non-perishable snacks that you can keep in your office can be great and super helpful. Again, if you’re feeling hungry or if you do get a moment to stop and have a snack, then you’d want to do this. So when it comes to protein bars, Some that I recommend are Darryl’s bars, RX bars, Clif protein bars. There are some type of protein bars, like pure protein, quest bar, one bar. These are pretty high protein. They usually have about 20 grams of protein. They’re very high fiber. And there’s artificial sweeteners in there. So these are not so great to eat close to training, especially with the high fiber content or the artificial sweeteners. And you just in general, want to figure out if you can tolerate them because sometimes these added fibers and artificial sweeteners can cause some stomach issues for people. The simply protein, simply bars are also great too. They don’t have like this super high fiber content, artificial sweeteners, a little bit more natural ingredients that can be again, easier to digest. If you’re looking for something that’s like a higher car bar, maybe you have a higher carb needs that day, or you need something to fuel a training session that’s coming up, then go for something like a Cliff Bar, Bobo’s bars, Larabars can be great too. I also love those nature’s bakery fig bars.

Other great snacks are trail mix. So head to bulk burn or a bulk food store. Grab a couple of your favorite nuts, almonds, cashews, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, whatever that may be. Pick some dried fruits. There’s a lot of different dried fruit options, you can do apricots, dates, apple rings, raisins, that kind of stuff. Dried fruit and nuts can be a good source of plant-based iron and you can make up your own trail mix. So make up a big batch of trail mix and proportionate into little bags or small containers it can be those like peanut butter filled pretzels, Stroop waffles.

I also really love, either applesauce pouches, or baby food pouches. It’s basically a replacement for a piece of fruit and a little bit of veggies. These are options that are easy to eat while you’re driving. If you’re someone who’s driving a lot through the day, especially in the morning or at mealtimes and do you tend to maybe go for like a fast food restaurant and you don’t really want to do that, or you tend to skip it then all of these options can be great that I mentioned, but also wrap or sandwich can also be great too. It’s something that is, you can easily eat with one hand pretty much. So a wrap with some Turkey or some leftover chicken and some veggies hummus, avocado, you could do. Another wrap that’s good on the go would be whether it’s a meal or a snack or breakfast is you take a tortilla, put on some nut butter, sprinkle with some hemp seeds or ground flax seeds, and then put a whole banana and wrap it up like this banana burrito. Something else I forgot to mention a little bit earlier. This could be part of a breakfast or snack . It’s quick and easy to put together. You can make muffins with pancake mix. So Kodiak cakes has this like pancake mix, which it’s still a good amount of carbs and fiber, but it’s a higher protein. And if you, you can use that as a muffin mix.

So you take one cup of pancake mix, one cup of water, one egg. Mix that all together. Add optional mix-ins: chocolate chips, bananas, walnuts, frozen fruit, and then portion that out in a muffin tin. Bake at 350F for eight to 10 minutes. So one bowl, all in one pancake mix, it’s got a mixture of some protein and some carbohydrates. Pancakes on the go top it with some nut butter .

So another option that has worked for some of my clients is a bento box style lunch, snack, or kind of adult Lunchable. If you’ve seen those kids’ lunch boxes that have different types of compartments, you can use these, or you can just use your regular rectangle container. It’s basically where you’re just putting different foods from each food group and they’re bite-sized, snack size. You can maybe eat while you’re driving, it’s something you can snack on while you’re doing some other work .

So you want to have some protein there, some vegetables, some fruit, some fats and some carbohydrates. So you pick one or two from each category. So I’ll give you a rundown of some examples. So some protein that works: if you’ve got any leftover protein, like tofu cubes, some chicken. You could use smoked salmon ,turkey deli meat. You could put some hard-boiled eggs in there, rotisserie chicken, canned tuna, salmon, edamame, jerky. Your vegetables, use some sliced raw veggies, like celery sticks, radishes, bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, baby carrots, and then some fruit. Apple slices, pear slices, grapes, berries, cherries, Clementine or orange segments. Then we want to add in some fats. So you could use a dip like guacamole, hummus, some olives, some nuts or seeds, a cheese string, sliced cheese, Babybel cheese, maybe some nut butter. And then some carbohydrates too, so maybe leftover sweet potatoes. If you don’t mind eating those cold, you could do some whole grain crackers. Some cut-up pita , sliced for Tia.

So there’s lots of different ways you can kind of mix and match these. And again, it’s designed to , if you make it balanced enough, you’re putting all the different types of food groups in there so that you can make a balanced meal or balanced.

If you’re finding you’re someone who you can sit down to eat, but you can struggle with snacks, maybe work on slightly increasing the portions of your meals a bit to make them higher calorie to help you meet your energy needs.

If you’re someone that forgets to fuel. So maybe you just don’t feel hungry through the day where it gets super busy or again, your work doesn’t necessarily really allow for it, your home life doesn’t necessarily allow , really try to prioritize yourself block off that time to eat. So put it in your schedule, give yourself a quick lunch, at least try to maybe set alarms, especially if you forget. I have some of my clients set out alarm 10 o’clock, 12 o’clock, three o’clock, whenever they need to get their meals and snacks in. And it’s just that opportunity to stop and realize, you know what? Okay. Maybe I am a little bit hungry. I need to fuel my body. And if you use some of these examples of foods that we had earlier, then you might have something quick that you can grab.

So I’ve talked a lot, kind of about different snacks and things that you can eat. I think it’s also important to make sure we’re having you know, well-balanced meals and that’s where a little bit of meal prep can come in. I find that the one thing that really works for me is batch cooking different types of foods that I can just throw together and mix and match. So I’ll make a couple of different proteins. Usually chicken and tofu, make a large serving each of those. Maybe just open a can of beans and have that ready to go in the fridge. Make some carbohydrates, a batch of rice, some roasted potatoes. And then some veggie. So I like to chop up veggies or I’ll make a salad. I’ll stir fry, some veggies. And if you are someone who doesn’t even have time to meal prep, you can get a lot of this ready to go. You can buy veggie trays, precut vegetables, use frozen fruits and vegetables. Are rotisserie chicken, use tuna, canned salmon, that kind of stuff. So just quick and easy options.

But I find at least when I have some of those in the fridge, at least have the components to be the start of making a well balanced meal. Especially when I’m like working from home and maybe don’t have some time to cook or if I need to throw together lunch pretty quickly the night before, or the morning of, I know that I’ve got some carbs protein and some fruit or vegetables to put something together.

It doesn’t take too much time. So it’s also something that you can do sometimes midweek, if you have time to do a second meal prep, so you have enough food to get you through the end of the week and into the weekend.

So a lot of different types of foods, meal ideas here, don’t forget, I didn’t talk a lot about fruits and veggies, but we definitely still want to be eating those. So I talked about the baby food pouches, but if you’re someone who maybe struggles to have enough veggies through the day, try to maybe get a veggie tray or take some time to cut up your fruit and veggies. You’re a lot more likely to eat them. You can buy pre pre-made salads, or those bags of salads can be great as well.

So I think overall, like these might be a lot of foods that you’ve probably heard about and you know, like that, yeah, that sounds good. The first step is really prioritizing your fueling, understanding how important it is and making sure that you give your body, give yourself time to be eating through the day and know that it’s going to help your performance.

It’s helping your overall health. It’s helping you have the energy that you need to do all the things that you want to do. So if you find that you struggle with fueling and getting enough to eat or knowing how much to eat when to eat, what to eat, reach out to me. This is something that I help my clients with in my one-to-one coaching program.

I teach you how much you need to on different types of days and the practical strategies to be able to do that and things that are going to work for you and your schedule. There’s no one plan or one thing that’s gonna work for everybody. It’s all tailored to, to you.

I just also want to shout out that Monday, February 5th, I’m going to be starting a free seven day challenge called the run and recover challenge. So it’s really designed to help you build that habit and that consistency of recovery nutrition, whether it’s after run, a swim, or bike, strength session, you’re going to learn about what your body needs. What you need to eat in order to recover optimally after your training sessions.

So it’s a seven day challenge. There’s going to be prizes. You’re going to be able to share how you recovered after your meals. So you can learn from others in the challenge and learn all about recovery nutrition, not just what to eat after, but other foods that can help you recover and so much more.

So if you want to make sure that you can join the challenge, I will be sharing next week a specific link of how you can join the challenge. But if you want to make sure that you don’t miss out. Go to the show notes of this podcast and sign up for my pre and post recovery nutrition guide.

This is going to get you onto my email list and I will be emailing my list about this challenge and how to join. You can also follow me on Instagram. It’s @andreadietitian. So I also will be sharing more about this challenge there.

So get on that challenge if you want to learn more about recovery nutrition, or just build some good habits about nutrition. And if you feel that you need a little bit more one-to-one support then to apply to the one-to-one coaching program, there’s also an application in my bio.

So thanks for tuning into today’s episode. I hope you came out with some new ideas and some foods to eat. I’m also going to link some different recipes in the show notes as well. So thanks and