CSA - Community Supported Agriculture and Eating for Fitness

The group from Mideast Multisport did a beginner's triathlon clinic this past weekend and the number one response that I saw was - "We want to know more about nutrition". The topic is very large and extremely polarizing. The other aspect to the topic of nutrition is that when you get down to the area of creating meal plans and specific requirements, you really should consult a sports dietician. (In fact, if someone other than a dietician is doing this, they are likely stepping "outside the bounds" of required licensing.)

With all of that said, when I hear people talk about nutrition and their needs I commonly hear a couple issues:

1. They are only concious about their nutritional intake while consuming sports drinks and other sports nutrition products. They just want to "fuel" the workout.

2. They want the details, details, details, yet lack a proven track record to show they can manage the basics, basics, basics.... a great interview that I just listened to recently was with Faris Al-Sultan on Competitor Radio, he makes a few funny comments regarding age-groupers and nutrition.

Focusing on the Basics - my experience with CSA since May

This may seem too basic for everyone here, but when it comes to nutrition I have to allow myself to keep it very simple. If I make it too complicated than I start to obsess about details regarding everything I eat and then I have a mind that continually crunches kcals, grams of pro/carb/fat, good fats, bad fats.... and on and on.

To be honest, I used to like doing those calculations, especially when in an academic setting. And there's still a glimmer of interest that resides in my head to move on to get my Ph.D. in that area, but all that data never seemed to make my diet and behaviors improve.

This season's quest for sticking-to-the-basics was kicked off by an article I read in the Chevy Chaser Magazine back in March. The magazine had a great article discussing the idea of community supported agriculture (CSA) and the local farms that have CSA programs. After researching a few of the farms at localharvest.com, Nikki and I sent an email to and eventually signed up for the "mini-share" at Elwood Stock Farms.

The idea behind a CSA is that you purchase a share in a local farm, in return you get a share of the current harvest each week. The benefits are pretty amazing from our point-of-view:

• You get locally grown vegetables / fruit
• The cost is cheaper than purchasing organic foods at chain stores (nice little yuppie organic/whole food stores too)
• You are forced to eat a variety of produce
• The volume of produce is enough that we have to eat them regularly
• We support a local business and economy

There are a lot of good things to say about CSA's and while this is our first year of participating in a program, we are already discussing what we will do in the "off" months here in Kentucky.

How this relates to sports nutrition.

It all goes back to the basics. If you have trouble maintaining a normal diet, is it reasonable to believe that you can carry out the habits of an "optimal" diet for performance. The study of human behavior shows that drastic changes are not likely sustainable. Eating a well balanced and healthy diet is similar to the first suggestion I give to people about how to improve their training - do it everyday. Eating a "perfect" diet for 3 days a weeks, 2 weeks a month or even 4 months a year is not a beneficial in the long term as eating a sensible diet everyday, all the time. Just like working out for 30 hours in a single week doesn't mean much if it takes 3 weeks to recover.

The CSA program allows us to focus on one of those sensible and healthy habits - eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. We try and combine that aspect of our meals with adequate (and lean) meats, limit as much "extras" as we can, this leads to a eating style that helps us support our health and training.

It's not fancy, it is not a strict meal plan (couldn't do it if it was), but I feel satisfied this summer with how my eating habits have improved. Do I eat perfectly? Nope. As most of you who have read my blog over time know, I still have a sugar craving quite often, but I'm not obessing about it as much. We are becoming entrenched in the basics, the fundamentals, once that becomes a way of life (or more so ...) the other details can be addressed.

I figure by nailing the basics, I have a leg up on 75% of my age-group competition anyway...!

4,152 Calories and 1,038 grams of sugar.

I have been doing a little experiment over the last several weeks with myself. I have been logging the cans/bottles of Mountain Dew and Coke that I have been drinking - primarily to gain an understanding about the amount of soda I consume regularly.

In the last seven (7) days, I have consumed: 240 fluid ounces of Mt. Dew and 32 fluid ounces of Coke.

That equals: 4,152 Calories and 1,038 grams of Sugar.

That is a pretty large consumption of Calories that ultimately equals zero nutritional value. So the question should be asked, Why do you drink all that soda? It is a question that I actually get asked in different ways at times. The most common way is more of a statement, "I can't believe you drink that much soda and run all those miles!" I never know if people are thinking I run so that I can drink the soda or if they assume I would be the-picture-of-all-healthiness because I workout?

I have talked about this habit before (here, here and here), but the main reason that I drink soda is out of emotional need and boredom. I'm tired - I grab a Mountain Dew. I'm bored - I find a coke, etc. It is a habit that weighs on my guilt too. Some people say that I shouldn't worry about it because I don't gain any weight, but there seems to be something intuitively unhealthy about it. Maybe I'm just ultra-sensitive to the subject because of the diabetes that my step-father and brother have?

Whatever the reason, whatever the motivation - I would like to make another serious attempt at breaking this habit. One thing that I might do to support this attempt is to read the book, "Mindless Eating: Why we eat more than we think." I saw this book awhile back, but Ironclm did a review of it recently that peaked my interest again. (The link of the book is to her review.)

Sometimes it is good to review my old thoughts on this subject and in January of 2006 it looks like I had some similar thoughts. They actually were not bad (IMO), check them out: "Thoughtful decisions vs. Decisions made without thought".

Maybe everyone here can help me out with this very difficult change in behavior?