Body Image

How to listen to your body’s cues and intuitively eat for running and all of life’s activities.

With all the different (and often contradicting!) health and nutrition advice out there, it can be so confusing to know how to eat for the best running performance. Some sources say high carb, other sources say low carb, and yet others differ on how much fat or protein to eat. Because of this, I reached out to my friend, physician, and dietitian, Lynn Stiff, to share with us the best runner’s diet and how to intuitively eat!

As a runner, mom, dietitian, and doctor, I get asked a lot of questions about fueling runs with a busy schedule and reaching health goals. I was so excited when Chelsea asked me to write a little something on these topics. When I got started I realized I had way too much content and am going to break it into 2 parts.

Part One: Food as Fuel 

What am I supposed to eat?

Spoiler Alert…A runner’s diet is basically the same general healthy diet I would recommend for the average person on the street. That’s right – no special magic here. 

To be well, you need to nourish your body with healthful foods that will allow your muscles to repair damage, cells combat inflammation, and the body mobilize the energy it needs during a run or race. This can be accomplished by a general healthy diet, which is basically a Mediterranean diet.

Want to see what a Mediterranean diet looks like? Check out this neat infographic from thehealthy.com.

The following items are essential for your health and body’s ability to recover post-run:

• Healthy proteins: protein is essential for repairing muscle. Every run you do results in some muscle breakdown followed by repair. Lean protein, such as fish, chicken, beans and nuts. Fish and nuts have fat in them but they are a healthy fat that is essential for brain health and cell repair. Remember, the 1990s are gone and fat is no longer the ultimate enemy. To estimate your protein needs, take your weight and divide it by 2. That is how many grams you need a day as a runner.
• Complex carbohydrates: the heartier and nuttier, the better. Whenever you choose a grain, as yourself, “Does this resemble its original form in some way? Or is it ultra-processed to a perfectly white and uniform consistency?” You should reflect on how long it takes you to chew it. Fiber is essential for gut health (which influences your immune system) and fibrous foods require more chewing. There are also more nutrients in the grain pre-processing, so the less processed, the healthier.
• Vegetables: Load up on all the vegetables. Anything you like. Half of your plate should be vegetables for optimal health. Vegetables are loaded with fiber, water and tons of vitamins and minerals. They also include things called “phytochemicals” that have been found to have anti-inflammatory and health properties. Aim to eat vegetables at every meal – even breakfast. I promise you can do it 😉 
• Fruit: Fruit gets a lot of flack, but I promise it’s healthy. Yes, it’s a carb. Yes,  it’s basically sugar. But hear me out. We need sugar for health. Over half of our intake should be from carbs and all carbs are broken into sugar. But macros aren’t just macros. You need to look at the WHOLE picture here. Whole fruit has extra vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and fiber. When we eat fruit we get tons of other health benefits you wouldn’t get from fruit juice, candy, or soda. Berries are one of the best fruits as their total sugar content is a little lower and they jam-packed with nutrients. Try to have 2-3 servings of fruit a day. Consider using fruit as a dessert or treat. 
• Water: Need I say more? Drink mainly water, all the time and lots of it. Avoid sugary drinks. And remember, juice = soda, so please reserve it only for post-race fluids. 

But I’m hungry ALL the time!

Running is not for weight loss. Sure, you’ll probably lose weight or be better able to maintain your weight if you run, but that’s not the GOAL of being a runner. The goal is to participate in a sport you love and enjoy it while you’re doing it. If you fuel yourself to perform well, you will enjoy the sport SO much more than if you’re withholding the nutrition your body needs. Your health is not determined by an arbitrary weight. You’ll feel great, perform optimally and settle in at YOUR body’s ideal weight.  There will be more on this with the next article, so stay tuned! 

If you’re hungry all the time, you need to eat more. If you fuel your body with nutritious items above, you’ll be fine. I promise. I am an advocate for intuitive and mindful eating to guide you because I believe strongly that your body knows what you need!

Find other great guest posts & recipes on my social channels!

Intuitive eating is paying attention to when you are hungry and when you are full. It is getting in tune with your body’s natural drive for energy. When we are in alignment (so stress management, regular physical activity, and adequate sleep) our hunger and satiety cues are quite accurate in determining how much and what we should be eating. Mastering intuitive eating is quite challenging at first. After all, it has been silenced for decades. 

Think about a young child. Some days they can go without dinner other days they can’t stop eating. This is because they are deeply in tune with their hunger and satiety cues. They listen to their body tell them what it needs. Imagine what the health of our country would look like if we did this one thing.

Mindful eating is more about being present in the experience of eating. This means no distractions. When you put something in your mouth, you are aware of how much and what you put in your mouth. You savor each bite. You pay attention to the textures and flavors. You legitimately enjoy the food that you’re consuming. Allowing ourselves this pleasure actually reduces the craving we feel later. This is the piece that’s often missed on a day-to-day basis.

This brings in an important topic of cravings. The guilt and shame associated with eating something that we feel we shouldn’t eat prevents us from actually enjoying what we eat.

Think about the infamous Halloween candy. Did you happen to sneak a piece or two? Why did you have to sneak it? Why couldn’t you just decide you wanted a piece? Why didn’t you take a piece, sit down at the table, open it up and eat it over 2-3 bites, enjoying each bite?

There shouldn’t be shame around eating something delicious from time to time. When the shame is removed, the coping strategies for dealing with the shame also go away. That means binge eating, mindless eating and emotional eating are eliminated. Instead, we’re in tune with our bodies and we do what we naturally know is right.

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Here’s my challenge for you – are you ready for it? I want you to commit to 1 week of mindful and intuitive eating. You won’t be a professional by the end of the week. But I am very confident you’ll notice a difference in how you feel and how you approach food. And every week it will be easier and easier. In a month, you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of this sooner.

Are you ready to begin to experience this radical transformation of eating? Here’s how to get started:

1. Learn about the hunger scale. You can google this or check out a free handout I made on my website for free download (nutritionhealthlife.com/free-stuff). Basically 0 is starving, 5 is neutral, 10 is stuffed.
2. Keep a hunger and satiety journal. You can print off a handout for this from my website at the link above. You can also keep a little notebook or a note in your phone. Date the top and list out each meal with a letter (B, L, D, S – for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack). Next to each letter put the number for hunger before eating / number for hunger after eating. For example, B 3/8.
3. Turn off all distractions
4. Use your senses while you’re eating. In addition to flavor, pay attention to the texture. Notice the nuances of the flavors. Smell the aroma of the food. Visually notice the differences in the various items within the dish. Really be present while eating.

We can understand when our body needs nourishment. Through intuitive and mindful eating we can become confident in our bodies and begin to love them for how amazing they are. Be sure to check back next week to learn more about how we can change our focus from weight loss to behaviors!

Want to learn more? Check out my podcast called Medicine for Life. It’s all things lifestyle medicine presented in a realistic and relatable way to help empower you to reach your health and wellness goal through small, sustainable action.

Lynn Stiff is a dietitian turned family medicine physician on a mission to empower individuals to implement realistic and sustainable diet and lifestyle choices to prevent, treat and reverse disease. She is passionate about demystifying nutrition, addressing weight bias, and moving past diet culture to achieve complete wellness. She believes health can be attained by all regardless of size and past choices.

She works full-time as a physician and started her online education platform, Nutrition Health Life LLC, in September 2019. When she’s not working on her passions,  you can find her enjoying the beautiful state of Colorado with her husband and 3 spunky and sweet children, ages 1-5. She is an avid runner, hiker, home DIYer and brewery explorer. She can be reached at this link: https://nutritionhealthlife.com/lets-get-in-touch/.

More ways to get in touch with Lynn:

Website/blog: nutritionhealthlife.com

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/NutritionHealthLifeLLC/

Women’s Only FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenbecomingwhole/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/nutrition.health.life/

Some parts of this post were originally published on two separate blogs:

SheMD –https://www.shemd.org/post/taking-back-the-meal

Mindful Marathon – https://mindful-marathon.com/blog/fueling-your-run

Interested in other running-related content? Check out these articles:

• 9 Smart Habits Mother Runners Have
• Your 10 Next Best Steps to Becoming a Better Runner
• 3 Proven Ways to Fuel and Refuel After Long Runs
• 9 Meal Prep Tips for Busy Runners {+ 2 Yummy Recipes!}

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