Eat Well and Windsurf Better!

by Domagoj Primužak

My dear windsurfers and all of you who feel like it, it's about time to bestir ourselves from the winter lethargy and startup preparation for the 2014 season.

I guess most of you spend winter days or nights in front of TV, eating all kind of delicious food, especially during the feasts. Some do it to drown windsurfing sorrows, but nevertheless, we all know an old windsurfing saying: „junk food is not good for planing“.

Therefore, the first thing I recommend to everybody is to reduce the food intake and to plan the menu carefully. Instead of 1 or 2 big meals per day, split the same amount of food across 5 to 6 meals along the day and thus speed up metabolism.

While eating several small meals throughout the day, our body gets signal there is enough food coming on regular basis and there is no need to store it in reserves (fat). Instead, food intake is used to maintain homeostatic state of our body and activates we perform during the day.

Now, if we reduce the amount of calories in these 5 to 6 meals, our body will receive regular but smaller food intake. Since it will be less than before or needed, body will start to consume its reserves (fat). This is the first step to get in better shape.

Next step would be to bring in cardio exercise as a weekly routine, at least 3 times per week. It could be cycling, skating, race walking, jogging, etc. This will speed up metabolism (fat burning).

Third step would be to fine tune daily diet to achieve nutrient rich meals rather than calorie rich meals. A few examples are listed below:

• Use carbs with lots of fibers and low GI like oat meal, brown rice, and whole wheat bread. Personally, I have very good experience with whole wheat burger.
• Combine carbs with vegetables. Let vegetables be represented with 50% on your plate and give priority to seasonal vegetables.
• Don't forget fruits, apple is essential; one apple a day keeps doctor away ;-) Banana is good, but makes metabolism work slower.If you don't mind ethics, meet is very important as it provides essential proteins for your body recovery. Choose chicken breast, turkey, veal, beef, salmon and hake. Vegans and vegetarians already know how to enrich their menu with soy, tofu, beans, grains, etc.
• Eat fish rich with oil; salmon, tuna and mackerel are typical examples.
• Vegetarians and vegans can boost protein intake with superfood like hemp protein powder as well as hemp oil that speeds the recovery and repair of soft tissue damage.

Do your best not to eat late, consider 19:00 to be the time for your last meal. After that, relaxing walk session would be more than welcome.

And, never, but never forget to drink at least 8 glasses of water per day.

Finally, once a week, Sunday or any other day that suits you best, it is necessary to have cheat day - the day when you will eat everything you like and eat as much as you like. Can’t believe it, but this will help body to boost metabolism and lose fat!

These were the tips how to reduce weight and improve our capabilities. But that is not all we need to plan. It is necessary to improve endurance too and this is exactly what we are going to talk about in the next article.