Pip Harrigan Food Challenge
The difference between being an average athlete and an elite athlete is mostly determined by the rate at which your body can recover from physical training.
When you train, you are breaking down muscle tissue. Athletes who can restore muscle tissue (recover) the quickest have an advantage. You are able to train at a higher intensity, longer, and schedule more training sessions closer together thus gaining an advantage over your competitors. Now, think about what happens when you add these extra training sessions up over the course of a few months, 6 months, a year and a half. You have now made significant performance gains.
What helps with recovery? Rest plays a part but more importantly, nutrition. Nutrition has the greatest impact on recovery. When you rest and eat foods that fuel your body, the muscle grows back stronger than it was before the training session.
We want to eat foods that are nutrient dense and easy to digest. These are foods that come in their natural, whole state and foods that are alkalizing. pH is the measure of acidity or alkalinity. Alkaline foods help maintain a balanced pH in our bodies. If the pH drops, our bodies become too acidic causing inflammation, fatigue, and other ailments in the body.
What should you be looking at when it comes to planning meals before and after training sessions? Macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fat. Carbohydrates fuel the body, this is where your energy comes from for high intensity workouts. Protein helps to re-build muscle while fat is for long term energy/fuel (think marathon).
The Challenge
Your challenge is to come up with (1) pre-workout meal and (1) post-workout meal. Your pre-workout meal should follow the guidelines of a 3:1 (carbohydrates to protein) ratio while your post-workout meal should follow a 4:1 (carbohydrates to protein) ratio.
Send me a picture of both your meals and a description for each one. Happy cooking!
Contact info
E-Mail- [email protected]
Text- (323) 350-4186
Helpful hint:
Good sources of whole food carbohydrates: fruit, whole and pseudo grains, potatoes and sweet potatoes, dates, vegetables
Good sources of whole food proteins: hemp seeds, nuts and seeds, chia seeds, dark leafy greens, beans and legumes
Good sources of whole food fats: hemp seeds, flax seeds, avocado, seeds and nuts
The Ashley Yudin Writing Challenge
“There were a few times in my life that I could not wait to sit down and put pen to paper. Of course that has really gone out of vogue with computers, iPads or iPhones now front and center, but the concepts of putting thoughts together is still very much an important component of our lives. I have a close friend and a granddaughter that keep a daily journal. They poetically put pen to paper everyday. I often think that it is the internal push to everyday doing something, such that at the end of the day when you sit down, you have a story to tell, even though it is just for you. I grew up wanting to write books or be the owner of a bookstore, but eventually chose science as a career path where the concept of creative writing was not allowed, so I had to stick to the facts…the basic facts, because anytime I strayed from just the facts, when the paper went out for peer review, I was reminded…please, just the facts. Since I was young I have been taken with the fact that everyone has a story and if someone was willing to listen you could hear some amazing things. We would love to hear your stories, because everything is yours and yours to tell. Distractions are what destroys this ability and there are today, so many distractions. The love of reading creative writing did not die and I still marvel, as do many, with the ability of the written word to entertain us and educate us. Writing connects us all.”
–Ashley
The Competition
U9-U11 200-250 words
U12-U14 250-400 words
U15 above 400-600 words
All essays must be submitted via the link below. We recommend you complete your work on word or google doc and cut and paste to the form when ready. The deadline to complete the work is March 30th.
Questions: Contact Ashley at [email protected]
Good Luck!