7-Day Food Log Journal for Ironman Pro Triathlete

Simple CARBS that sit well during training

"What gets measured gets managed" it is one of my all-time favorite quotes. Food journals are a a great way of measuring what you are eating to help manage body composition, macronutrient intake, and overall well-being.

Keeping a food journal is not something I do 365 days a year. I take breaks in the offseason but I find it is important for everyone, even if you only do it once a quarter. Simply put, it creates much greater conscious awareness, and tracking it even 7 days a quarter, will result in better eating habits for the other 12 weeks.

Personally I think I have a relatively clean diet, I also have a simple diet. I tend to vary foods over periods of time, but over 7 days the number of different foods I eat is low. On a typical day when I am training hard I will consume about 5,500 calories, however, since this is the off-season, and I'm only doing base training, it has trended down a bit.  

MyWeigh KD8000 Food Scale - My preferred scale

Lastly, I will say that the activity of eating is a highly social activity. However for me eating is part of my job and I have to take it very seriously. I eat to fuel my body and perform better on race day.

Below is a complete 7-day food log. This list does not show the amount of water, coffee, and tea that I consumed. It also does not include another small set of calories that I would get from supplements like fish oil and condiments like mustard, I don't eat ketchup. Everything I eat is weighed to be as precise as possible. These are the scales I use to weigh things.

Weekly Total of Calories (7 days): 32,606

Average Calories Per Day: 4,658

As far as timing of food goes. I am eat most of the carbs in the morning. Powerbar product is consumed during the day with Kona Punch as my go-to gel, and Strawberry Banana when I need a little extra boost of caffeine. At night I tend to eat more of the fats, proteins, vegetables and complex carbs.

Lastly if you are a triathlete or endurance athlete, I have set up a FREE Ironman Q&A group on Facebook. Feel free to ask any question you might have about Ironman Training or endurance sports.

Cocoa Powder vs Cacao vs Dark Chocolate vs Milk Chocolate - Which is Healthier - A Comparison of Antioxidant Nutritional Values

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Which is healthier milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or raw cocoa powder, also known as cacao powder. Health conscious people are probably aware of the benefits that are touted regarding chocolate which comes from their presence of antioxidants. What people don't know is that the more processed a chocolate is, the more those antioxidants get diluted by added fats and sugars. After all, chocolate is just a mixture of sugar, cocoa butter (fat), and cocoa solids (cocoa powder).
The benefit of these antioxidants are that they bind to free radicals and may reduce oxidation that causes aging and other bad things in our bodies. The USDA tested a list of common foods and assigned each an ORAC value. ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity and quantifies how much of these potent antioxidants are present in various foods. The higher the number, the more antioxidants present.

The following are the respective ORAC values for:

Milk Chocolate: 1,263

Dark Chocolate: 5,903
Raw Cocoa (Cacao): 80,933

A few other ORAC values for comparison:

Cinnamon: 131,420
Chia Seeds: 7,000
Blueberries: 4,669
Strawberries: 4,302
Spinach: 1,513
Kellogg's Pop-Tarts (Strawberry flavor): 150

In reality I wouldn't get too hung up on which is healthier, but raw cocoa certainly has a higher ORAC value than milk chocolate, dark chocolate and other "Superfoods" like blueberries and spinach. Raw cocoa is an excellent way to get all the benefits of chocolate without all the added fat and sugar.

You can find raw cocoa in the baking section of your local supermarket, Wal-Mart, and Target, or you can order on Amazon immediately.

Amazon Shopping Links:
- Hershey's Cocoa Special Dark (my favorite, add to oats for a rich dark color and intense taste)
- Hershey's Natural Cocoa
- Nestle Toll House Cocoa
- Ghirardelli Chocolate Unsweetened Cocoa Pouch

Healthy Antioxidant Fruit and Spinach Smoothie Recipe

In this edition of Simple Triathlete Eating I share my recipe for my super antioxidant fruit and spinach smoothie.   Personally as someone who just has to get the calories in, I prefer to drink a lot of my calories.  Frankly it is much easier to do, empties faster from the stomach, digests easier, and ensures I am adequately hydrated.   Usually I have at least 2 of these smoothies per day and usually consume them immediately after workouts.  By doing this I consume over 9lbs of spinach per week.

The Holy Grail of Berries

Now for the record I buy Spinach in 3lb bags that cost $3.99 at the local Costco.  I also get my preferred berry mix there.  The mix of berries - all organic - includes dark tart cherries, blueberries, pomegranate arils, red raspberries, and strawberries in a 3lb bag with a price of $10.99.   I also buy the 192oz bottles of Costco 100% juice blend.  The blend includes grape juice, apple juice and cranberry and runs $6.99.

Super Antioxidant Fruit and Spinach Recipe:

1)  Fill blender with Spinach

2) Add 1 cup of water

Crucial Step - Blend Spinach First

3) Add 1 cup of juice

4) Blend that mother' until the spinach is liquefied

5) Add 1 cup of berries and liquefy

6) Add an additional cup of berries and continue liquifying

7) Add two servings of your preferred sweetner (sugar, splenda, honey, whatever)

8) Enjoy

In the end you should end up with a smoothie that fills at least two glasses and contains ~300 calories. It goes down like water and you can feel good about what you are eating.  It empties from the stomach  quick and I can get onto the next workout without any GI distress.

The Finished Product - Fruit and Spinach Smoothie

Quick Tasty Oatmeal Recipe for Triathletes, Runners, and Cyclists.

Typical bowl of oats

After living with many professional triathletes over the years I can safely say that oatmeal is one of the few commons things we share.

Oatmeal isn't rocket science and that is why I like it. I like that it is easy to prepare, digest, and inexpensive. I eat it nearly every morning because I know exactly how my body is going to feel and my stomach will respond. Some people like variety in their meals, I prefer consistency.  Last time I went out for a pancake breakfast I felt terrible afterward. With oatmeal I always know how my stomach is going to feel.

Those of you who eat oatmeal probably have your own recipes with your own mix-ins. For me I don't even vary the bowl from day-to-day.  Here is my own recipe:

- 1/2 cup of Quaker Oats 
- 1 cup of water

Microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds and then add:

Quaker Oats

- 1/3 cup of raisins or dried tart cherries
- 1 very ripe banana 
- 1 tbsp of cinnamon
- 2 tbsp of 100% raw cocoa
- 1 tbsp of sugar or sugar substitute 
- 10-15 grams of whey protein

Stir it all up and enjoy!!

The total comes out to about 500 calories.

On a side note about the cinnamon and cocoa. I'm sure you know about antioxidants and you eat your blueberries because they are chalk full of them. For the record cinnamon has an ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) value of 131,420, Cocoa has an ORAC of 80,933, and blueberries have an ORAC value of 4,669. I wrote a little more about raw cocoa vs dark chocolate.

Lastly if you are a triathlete or endurance athlete, I have set up a FREE Ironman Q&A group on Facebook. Feel free to ask any question you might have about Ironman Training or endurance sports.

Professional Triathlete Diet - Mini Bell Peppers

Mini Bell Peppers Ready For Eating

One of my favorite words in life is the word "simple".  I really try to live by this word and one area where it comes in to great importance is with food. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I spend the entire day eating. Thankfully there are plenty of good foods that are ready to go and require little preparation.  In this edition of Simple Triathlete Eating I cover the mini-bell pepper..

Ahh the mini-bell pepper.  So much better than the regular bell pepper for a couple of reason.  The main reason is that you simply wash them off and eat them as is.  Now I'm sure there are people who just take a regular bell-pepper and eat it, but I don't like this because you you have the inside with all the seeds and it gets messy.  The alternative is cutting the bell pepper up but this is just a waste of time in my opinion.  In addition - I like to have some varied colors and this way I can get some yellow, orange, and red.

My preference for the mini-bell pepper comes in the form of a great little 2lb package from Costco.  It is rather affordable as well and costs only $3-$4.

Master's Touch Mini Bell Peppers From Costco