So, remember how a couple of blogs ago I told you that I would let you know how I modified my diet and how it affected my workouts?  Well, I have data in hand.  It’s riveting stuff, I know.  But before you bail on this one, just think of how YOU could possibly modify your diet and how it may help you to maximize your workout experience.

How many people do YOU know who would drive up in a Honda Civic to a gas pump and ask for diesel?  Unless you have an extremely modified Civic on your hands you would be asking for trouble.  Or how many race car drivers do you think ever tell their crew to not bother with race fuel, but just to fill ‘er up with regular?  They sure wouldn’t make it very far.  The idea is pretty ridiculous, right?  Specific fuels have been matched to specific machines for a long time now in order to achieve specific results.  So why would it be any different for the human body?

Before my first couple of Bootcamp workouts I really outdid (yes, I’m being sarcastic) myself and prepared for a time of physicalexertion by eating Special K in the morning (on Saturdays when I go for the 9:15 am session), or if I went straight from work in the late afternoon I would not eat anything because it was before I went home for supper.  I would be running on empty.  What was the result?  Well, how well does your car work when it runs out of gas?  I was about that functional during my workouts.  I also discovered that I cramped up more easily when I had eaten so poorly (or not at all).  There’s nothing like a well placed cramp to dampen your motivation during a good workout.

My modification was slight, but very effective.  I ate a banana with peanut butter inside it about an hour before my workouts.  I did this on top of adding more to my diet during my meals (more GOOD stuff, like fruits and lean meat).  But even the simple addition of the banana produced some amazing results.  The potassium in the banana put just about an immediate end to the cramping, and the peanut butter gave me some instant energy that I drew from during my workout.

I think that the subject of diets is often beaten to death.  It seems like so many “authorities on the subject” say this or say that, agree that one thing is bad for you and then two weeks later say that it will add twenty years to your life and prevent gas (I made that one up to make sure you were paying attention).  But honestly, doesn’t it seem that way?  But what if we simply saw food as fuel for our bodies?  Obviously we can enjoy birthday cakes and ice cream or the occasional bacon burger and beer, but overall we should eat so as to allow our body to perform the way it needs to.  Is this often more easily said than done?  Absolutely.  Besides, what do I know?  I’m a guy who is just jumping into this whole fitness thing and you are riding in the backseat being forced to listen to me thinking out loud.  Feel free to be a backseat driver though.  Have some suggestions?  Post a comment to the blog!  I’ll take your input, and I’m sure that others would appreciate it too.  How do YOU diet for training?

Note from Eric:  I can’t tell you how often I have conversations similar to what Adam is describing here with people.

The analogy I use is that the body is like a machine.  You have to fuel it properly in order for it to perform to it’s potential.  Each body is used for a different purpose and therefore has different needs in terms of optimum fuel.

One of my favorite ways to explain this concept is the comparison of a Ferrari and a Fiero.

If you take an old gas can from behind the shed and top off your cherry Fiero, there may be a bit of a dip in the performance the next time you take her for a rip down to the Quickie Mart to grab a pack of menthols and a case of Old Milwaukee Ice pounders, but she will probably get you there in back in high style no worse for the wear.

If you were to take that same rusty can of Hess 89 octane of a finely aged vintage and used  it in your precious Ferrarri, well there may very well be a more noticeable dip in performance.

The Italian Stallion is engineered to very precise tolerances in order to deliver world class performance and as such necessitates very specific maintenance and fluid specifications be met.  Any deviation from the manufacturers recommendations will have a vastly different outcome on the performance of this vehicle than one designed to much lower engineering standards.

The human body is no different.  If you  want to saunter on down to the beach wearing a moomoo, carrying a cooler full of twinkies and Coke will serve you just fine.

If, however, you have higher expectations of your body than the aforementioned description depicts (and you can thank me later for not adding a picture for that description.  There are PLENTY out there…) then you need to pay attention to EVERYTHING you put into your body.

Check out this Free e-book from our friends at Prograde Nutrition telling you what NOT TO EAT.  It is very informative and best of all, FREE!!!!

Please feel free to post questions of comments about this topic right down below and we will do our best to help you out!

Tags: Adam Zobel, Article, Bootcamp, Common Questions, Diet, Education, Healthy Eating, informational, results