Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Fuel Choices

Posted: December 29, 2014 in Class, Food
Tags: ,
2

The-WallIt doesn’t take many classes to realize that Krav Maga training is a very high-intensity activity. Without proper nutrition prior to class — and many times, boosts of energy during class –it is all too easy to “bonk”, or “hit the wall”. This is when your body is out of energy reserves (stored in the form of glycogen in your muscles and liver), resulting in dizziness, fatigue, and a host of other unpleasant symptoms.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I like hitting up one of my special oatmeal concoctions a few hours prior to training or sparring. There are a lot of other great choices to be had as well, the best of which have a good balance of complex sugars, protein, carbs, and fiber. This is pre-training nutrition and is pretty straight-forward as you don’t have to rush to eat it, aren’t jittery from adrenaline, and don’t have to fish it hastily out of your bag between drills, etc. — unlike your nutrition during your training. It will keep you going through a 1 to maybe 2 hour class, though you will likely begin “feeling the deficiency” into that second hour. (more…)

Your Weight and Krav Maga

Posted: November 23, 2013 in Exercise, Food, Targeted Exercise
4

Feet_on_scaleWeight plays a huge role in Krav Maga (no pun intended). Who am I to say, you ask? Well, let’s just say that I speak from experience. As you may know, I started Krav Maga training about two and a half years ago pretty darn obese, maybe even ‘morbidly’ obese. I was carrying all that extra weight with me every class, for every push-up, every burpee, every lunge, every squat. And man was it exhausting!

To date, I have lost 82 of those pounds and am shooting for about 18 more before I can consider myself ‘done’ (incidentally, you can see below for an up-to-the-minute view of my progress). As the weight has come off, the change was noticeable. Now I’m not talking about appearance-noticeable, though that certainly was there, I mean noticeable from a physical performance standpoint. The push-ups and squats were getting progressively easier because I was lifting that much less weight with each rep. The running and sprints, I found the same thing. I even stopped wearing my knee brace since I was no longer pounding my knees into submission and getting frequent jumper’s knee. I found it extraordinary how much easier it was not to have to lug all that fat around with me. I was less winded and was amazed at the feeling I got exercising in this new body. (more…)

Pre-Training Meal of Champions

Posted: May 28, 2013 in Food
4

A while back I wrote a post about what I eat before sparring. I still do that routine fairly often. Lately however, I had been looking to spruce it up a little bit and ran across the idea of refrigerator oatmeal.

bowl

Fill me up and I’ll do the same to you!

It’s a pretty basic idea really: you have a base recipe of rolled oats, milk, yogurt, honey and a dash of salt and get creative with other ingredients as you see fit. You can add pineapple and coconut for a piña colada-type concoction. Or maybe cherries and chocolate to create a bit of an indulgence. Apple Cinnamon, Blueberry Maple, Banana Cocoa. Whatever your choice is, you mix it up and toss it in a mason jar in the fridge overnight. When you wake up the next day you have breakfast ready for you. Well, fortunately for me, what I found out is that the overnight component to the recipe spoke more to the convenience of the meal rather than a necessary part of the preparation. In other words, I found that you can mix the same ingredients up and leave it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so — rather than overnight — for pretty much the same results. This is great because this is a great meal a couple hours before hitting the mats. (more…)

The Gatorade Myth, Part II

Posted: February 12, 2013 in Food
1

20130212_185306A little while back I wrote about Gatorade and my hard realization that it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you read that you’ll recall my lamenting that I don’t live down in a tropical climate with a lemon tree in my backyard. Because of this I was resorting to bottled juices for convenience as well as cost reasons. While this is not a horribly bad thing, it’s just not lemon. I love me some lemon!

Fast forward several months to my discovery of True Lemon. Whoa is it good. They come in little packets and when dissolved in liquid it tastes JUST. LIKE. LEMON. Amazing. My first question was: does it include any nasty artificial sweeteners? That’s usually how manufacturers ruin a good thing. Del Monte No Sugar Added fruit, low calorie flavored waters — heck, even SodaStream has Splenda in its regular sodas! Imagine my happiness when I read the ingredients on True Lemon and saw that it has NO artificial sweeteners (or sugar) at all! Just pure crystallized lemons. (more…)

Pause for Reflection

Posted: November 22, 2012 in Attitude, Food
2

Today’s Thanksgiving in the U.S. where I live. It’s not just a time to stuff ourselves silly with good food and spend time with family and friends, it’s also a time to stop and think about all the things we have to be grateful for. For me, it obviously extends to many aspects of my life: my family, my job, house, health, etc. Since this is a Krav Maga blog, however, I want to focus a few minutes on Krav Maga and one thing in particular that I am thankful for. (more…)

The Gatorade Myth

Posted: September 29, 2012 in Food, Older
2

Glass bottle of Gatorade circa 1970’s.

I’m a kid of the 70’s. I remember playing football in New Jersey (one season and I sucked at it) when my parents bought me some stuff to drink after practices and games called Gatorade. It was green, sweet, and came in these clunky glass bottles. It was pretty new to us in that part of the country and I can tell you I loved it. My mother would pour a good amount into a Thermos and I’d be good to go. It only came in Lemon Lime back then but that was enough. I don’t remember much about the games, the play book, or much else about that season on the Ponies (yes, a football team called the Ponies. I don’t get it either) but I do remember that Gatorade all right.

A few years after that time I had moved on to other sports and Gatorade began offering Orange flavor. That blew my mind. You mean I now have TWO flavors?! WOW! And following that, Gatorgum. Boy, that was rough. Not sure if they still make that sour gum but it was pretty awful. Made your mouth water and, I suppose, that was what supported their claim that it quenched your thirst. Okay, sure, if you say so.

Fast forward to the 80’s, 90’s, and beyond and you have every color Gatorade under the sun. G1, G2, and G3. Low calorie, original, you name it. It’s the wonder drink with lots of imitators.

(more…)

Pre-Sparring Meal of Champions

Posted: April 6, 2012 in Class, Food
4

…or favorite pre-sparring meal for me, anyways.

As practitioners of Krav Maga we are often faced with the question, “what should I eat before my instructors abuse me?”  You want something light, optimally, and quick, with minimal cleanup.

Now, I’m no nutritionist but intuition tells me this is pretty healthy.  I love having this a few hours before a workout. Doesn’t weigh me down, cause gas, or make me want to barf two minutes into class.

image

What we have here is:

  • A mound of old-fashioned oats (not instant or quickcook oats)
  • Handful of fresh blueberries
  • Handful of walnuts
  • Some dried fruit (papaya, pineapple, raisins, coconut, etc.)
  • Half a sliced banana
  • Some brown sugar
  • Real maple syrup
  • Low fat milk to cover

I let it sit for 10 minutes to soften the oats but I don’t cook them.  Then chow time.

Give it a try sometime.  Your options are limitless.

For more info on this kind of thing check out my other post Pre-Training Meal of Champions