I am amazed by the number of athletes I come across who simply...do not eat breakfast. I find myself looking at them with a cocked head, and some screwy look on my face. Not very professional for a coach, I suppose.
But come on folks...you don't eat breakfast? Really?
Having worked primarily with athletes from the high-school and collegiate ranks, I became quite used to the answer "I don't have time to eat breakfast", when I inquired about their nutrition. I almost understand why it happens - I don't agree with it, but I understand.
They're kids.
They don't have the years of wisdom and experience that we, the aging athletes possess. The knowledge that food is fuel, and most certainly affects one's performance. They don't understand that the body is primed and ready for nutrients after fasting all night. They don't...what? Oh wait, you don't eat breakfast either...do you?
Alright, let's try this again.
They're kids...and very few kids are able to discern what is important. That's not a slam...it's just the truth. Kids have a hard time prioritizing their lives, so why should I expect that a young athlete (who is possibly being pushed by his parents to play anyway) would see the value in sacrificing fifteen-minutes of precious sleep in the morning, to eat something.
We've all been there. We were once kids too.
Some of us have been there as parents of these kids as well - making sure your son or daughter was up and ready for school on time, only to find that he or she was still sound asleep only moments before they had to catch the bus, or catch a ride from their friends. What does that look like?
Complete chaos. Oh by the way, chaos does not allow for something as trivial as breakfast.
Let's regroup for a second here....
I almost forgot that this blog is not about kids...it's about you and I. Adults who still like to play hard and compete in our favorite sport.
Do you compete just to compete? Or do you compete to achieve success - to PR on a Strava segment, or stand atop the podium at your local Sunday triathlon? I would guess that many of you don't just compete to compete...you want to win, or at least set a personal record. No sense putting all of that work into it if all you intended to do was go through the motions on the day of your competition, right? I suspect however, that many of you are going into your training
sessions, and even your competitions with less calories at your disposal
than you need to be at your best.
How about life. We've seen the ads right? Life is a sport.
How many of you view life as something worth performing well at. How about if I told you that even your performance at work could benefit from eating a healthy breakfast?
Let's take a look at what happens when we don't eat breakfast.
The following illustration is an adaptation of a presentation slide from my good friend Scott Peltin's company Tignum. Find out more about Tignum and the amazing work they do to develop Sustainable High Performance among their incredible client list which includes companies like Adidas, IBM, Unilever...you get the picture right? We're talking big players!
Anyway, this illustration is a simple way of looking at two individuals...one who eats breakfast (red line) and one who does not (yellow line). The line represents blood glucose levels within our bodies. Oh, did I forget to mention that glucose is the primary fuel source for the brain?
This is a pretty typical day...at least the red line is, for me. Let's start with the yellow line though, because I know this is pretty representative of many of your days.
Starting at the far left - you awake at 7:00am, feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep, ready to take on the world. You throw down a cup of coffee to shake the brain fog, grab the newspaper, or may be check on what's going on in the wonderful world of social media. Your second cup of java has you feeling like a million bucks, so it's time to jump in the shower and get ready to head in to work.
While you are preparing for work, and better yet...driving to work (while continuing to check your Facebook page and answer a few emails) your brain is struggling to make sense of everything.
Why?
Glucose. Or better yet...a lack thereof.
OK, let's keep going.
12:30, maybe even 1:00 pm rolls around, and you finally succumb to your brain's needs. It's time to eat lunch...and not just any lunch. Nope. Many of you will consume a meal that is high in simple sugars.
How do I know this? Science.
You see, you have starved your body and brain of glucose. Now your brain is sending signals to your body to consume what it needs...sugar. This is reflected in the illustration, by the first big bump in the yellow line. This is a spike in your blood glucose levels...or more commonly known as your blood sugar. The problem with simple sugars is that they don't last very long, so
they cannot quell your body's desire for fuel, for very long. Not to mention the whole inflammatory response that simple sugars create...but that's another post.
The bolus of sugar that you just introduced into your body satisfies the brain's need for fuel...in fact, it more than satisfies it. Now you have too much glucose running rampant throughout your body, so the brain sends an urgent message to the pancreas to release insulin to deal with all the extra sugar.
This response is far greater than what the pancreas is designed to do, so eventually these repeated requests to produce significant amounts of insulin take their toll on the pancreas, and it decides to go on a permanent vacation. Can you say Type 2 Diabetes?
Anyway...you can see in the illustration that you decide not to eat again until some time between 7-8:00 pm, because you are a hard working company man, and you decided to get in a few extra hours at the office. Or maybe it's more like 10:00 pm because you decided to go to happy hour with your girl friends for a couple drinks after work, and before you knew it...it was close to 9:00 pm. Time to go home and grab something to eat, right?
Once again, your brain is starved for glucose, so it prompts you to consume more simple sugars....and you can see what a wonderful circle of health this becomes.
The other guy however, the guy in red, eats about every 2-3 hours throughout the day. In the morning, he has some whole grains, some proteins, and maybe some fruits or veggies. That combination of fuel only took him about fifteen minutes to prepare, and maybe ten-minutes to consume, yet it satisfied the brain's need for fuel after hours of fasting.
A couple hours later, this same guy takes out the apple that he brought to work from home, along with the small Tupperware container that he put some organic natural peanut butter in, and consumes a healthy snack comprised of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats.
Throughout the day, this guy has more energy, less mood swings, and doesn't get that feeling of needing a nap at about 2:00 pm - which is due to the rapid depletion of sugars as a result of the insulin flood.
Now...imagine that you are an athlete. Does this seem like a sound nutritional plan that will fuel you and prepare you for the demands of your training or competition?
Probably not.
Tomorrow is a brand new day. I challenge you to get on the path to better health and performance by simply eating breakfast tomorrow morning. If you can do that, then you can do it the next day, and the day after that...well, you get the picture.
Yours in Health and Performance!
John...the breakfast eater.
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