Let’s discuss clean eating for athletic performance.
Today, I am going to put forward my observations as a clean eating practitioner, coach, and an athlete.
Can you name any 5 world-class athletes who are plant-based?
Novak Djokovic – Tennis
Venus Williams – Tennis
Virat Kohli – Cricket
Lewis Hamilton – Formula one
Scott Jurek – Ultra Marathoner
Why are the topmost athletes going plant-based today?
Some of the reasons are –
- For improved performance
- Minimum Recovery time
- Reduced Risk of injuries
The basic and simple rule to understand is,
If as a part of your training, you are burning lots of calories, then you need to consume more.
How much more should always be driven by our own hunger.
If we get hungry, we need to eat the power plate (Plant based power plate) maintaining the same proportions until we are full.
We may end up eating the power plate two times in one go! or we may end up eating double the number of fruits!
Now if we stick to natural laws of clean eating, we generally don’t bulk up the muscles.
One remains on the leaner side even though we don’t lack the strength, stamina, endurance, and flexibility.
Focussing on single micronutrient like protein is not needed at all, unless you want to take up body building which is bulking up the muscles which is not a natural process on plant-based regime.
By consuming more plant-based proteins like legumes, beans, nuts, and seeds the increased protein requirement can be easily met. There are many plant-based proteins powders available too, but I always choose not to prescribe or recommend it as, first,
we are focussing on one nutrient which is against the laws of natural eating and second, all these are processed and packaged.
As I write this, I am in Lucknow, participating in the master’s nationals swimming tournaments, 6th year in the row, after I started my clean eating journey ?