+ Nutrition
and More

By Kate Fisher

Kate Fischer, MS, RD, LD is the managing partner of Edge Performance Fitness, LLC, Portland, OR. She offers group fitness classes, and personal nutrition counseling.

503-265-8685
kate@edgeperformancefitness.com
www.edgeperformancefitness.com

Recovery Nutrition

As you read this issue of Walk About, you find our focus to be on taking care of yourself, investing time into treating your body right, making time to stop, check in with your body, and take care of you.

That being said, we all know that both exercise and nutrition are key pieces of taking care of ourselves, being well, staying healthy and achieving our goals, whether walking a half marathon or reducing body fat. How exercise and nutrition intersect is also essential. Physical activity, whether a 30-minute walk or a strength training circuit, puts stress on our bodies — muscles, tissues, bones, tendons, etc. Our body responds to that stress, adapts, and becomes stronger, fitter, and more efficient at those movements or activities we choose.

What we often forget, however, that adaptation requires that you invest in the appropriate recovery to allow your body to cope. Without sufficient rest, recovery time, nutrients, sleep, etc. your body is unable to adapt as well as it would if those inputs weren’t there. After exercise your body has many jobs to do to aid sufficient recovery. One of the primary jobs is to repair muscles and tissues that are broken down during exercise. Another is to replenish fuel and fluid used up during exercise.

Recovery nutrition involves more than just the fuel itself; it also involves timing of nutrients. If you wait to refuel your body after intense exercise, you will dramatically shift how long it takes your body to bounce back. Additionally, your body recovers from exercise for the next 24 to 48 hours depending on the amount of damage that occurred during the exercise bout (strength training versus walk), or the amount of stored energy depleted during exercise (example: marathon run or walk).

Here are some helpful hints to improve your recovery after exercise so you can get the results you want out of your exercise, but also improve how you feel following your workouts and throughout the day.

Suggestion One: Consistency
Because your body’s recovery process is occurring throughout the 24 to 48 hours following exercise, it is important that you eat consistent meals and snacks to supply the energy and nutrients to fuel the recovery process.

• Do not skip meals.
• Do not back load your calories; instead, spread your intake out throughout the day. This includes eating a good breakfast.
• Try to achieve consistency with macronutrients, like healthy carbohydrates and protein. Including combinations of foods rich in nutrient-dense carbohydrates (whole grains, fruits, and vegetables), protein and healthy fats (nuts, seeds, healthy oils, avocado) with each meal and snack. This will improve the diversity of nutrients available to your body for recovery.
•• Proteins are necessary to repair tissues, replenish enzymes, etc. while carbohydrates will be utilized to replenish fuel stores in your muscle and liver.
•• Healthy fats, like omega 3 fatty acids (salmon, flax seed) have anti-inflammatory properties that can aid in recovery.
Lastly, achieve consistency with fluid intake throughout the day. Keep a water bottle by your side and refill often. You may consider setting reminders on your calendar or computer.

Suggestion Two: Timing
Include a protein/carbohydrate combination snack within 30 to 60 minutes of exercise for faster recovery — this allows for faster delivery of nutrients to your muscles and faster restoration of fuel stores in your muscle and liver. Examples of this combination include: fruit smoothie, yogurt and berries, yogurt itself, low fat chocolate milk, sandwich and a piece of fruit, cereal and milk, toast and peanut butter with a piece of fruit or glass of milk or juice. This snack should be followed up by a balanced meal rich in nutrients.

These two suggestions are key to improved recovery, but it is also important to note that sleep, rest, and movement all impact recovery as well.

Overall, if you focus on adequately refueling your body after exercise, your body will be better able to adapt to the exercise you do, improving the results you see from your workouts. You will feel better following your workouts by decreasing soreness/fatigue, which allows you more time and energy to stop and smell the roses.