The Core Diet Blog

When the weather gets hot, there are some basic hydration guidelines you should follow before, during and after your training sessions. However, when the summer months kick into high gear and the rise in temperature and humidity cause you to break out in a sweat the moment you walk out the door, it’s time to step up your hydration plan. Read on for some key points to consider during these summer scorchers:

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

As the hot weather months approach, we encourage you to move hydration to the top of your athletic priority list. Although hydration is an important factor to your overall health year-round, slight dehydration of even 2% of your body weight can have negative effects, and your chances of this happening in the upcoming summer months are much higher. Staying properly hydrating is the best way to improve your training and race day performance.
When can athletes run into dehydration troubles?

• More than 1 training session per day
• Competitions held in hot and/or humid environments (if the athlete is coming from a colder climate, the impact is even larger!)
• Competitions of long duration such as marathons and triathlons

Boston, MA - The Core Diet, an operating business of QT2 Systems, LLC and a foremost provider of sports nutrition services, is very excited to announce its recent affiliate partnership with OutRival Racing (ORR); offering ORR athletes nutritional support as a part of their training and racing needs. ORR is a Texas-based coaching service providing comprehensive training plans, group programs, and weekly training sessions to triathletes, runners, cyclists and other endurance athletes. ORR consists of ‘first-timers,’ age-groupers, amateur elites, and professionals led by its founder Michelle LeBlanc, and her experienced staff of triathlon-specific and specialty coaches. ORR is the official coach of the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas and Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas.

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

I’ve never seen a food surrounded by so much controversy as soy. This is even bigger than eggs. If you recall, the same eggs that were once touted as being bad for you are now actually healthy. With soy, on one end of the spectrum, we have claims of this “nutrient-packed” food lowering heart disease. On the other end, we have claims that soy causes cancer. How is it this possible?

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Rachel Gargano.

We’ve all heard the short version of the nutrition mantra, “We are what we eat.” What we’re really saying, however, is that our health and mood are reflections of what we have eaten and what we have not eaten.
We can be deficient in both macro nutrients (protein, carbs, and fat) and micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals). These deficiencies can lead to symptoms associated with depression, behavioral issues, stress, and physical illnesses. For example, what we eat can lower or raise serotonin, dopamine, or norepinephrine – neurotransmitters in our brain that control our ability to relax, resist food cravings, or maintain energy and alertness. What we put in our mouth can also affect how well our red blood cells carry oxygen to our body, and how well we convert food to energy. Poor management of either of these will make us feel tired, weak, confused, moody, or any and all of the above.

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

When I first started on my hunt for a homemade fig bar recipe to test, it was for athletes. The traditional Fig Newton has always been a Core Diet recommendation for a pre-workout fuel, so I thought, why not make my own? “If they can make it, so can I!.” That is sort of my mantra these days. From household cleaners to wreaths on my front door, I love “making my own stuff”.

The Core Diet will help you to achieve and maintain your optimal weight and body composition in the New Year, improving health and athletic performance, and SPEED along the way. Staffed by experienced registered dietitians that work exclusively with athletes, The Core Diet offers several options for those looking to attain a healthy body weight and/or solve race nutrition issues.

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Rachel Gargano.

Exercise in general is very beneficial. It helps improve cardiovascular health, reduces stress, helps with weight maintenance as well as overall quality of life. And yet it can play a role, or be a trigger, for a combination of health issues called the Female Athlete Triad.

This syndrome, which includes disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction, and reduced bone mineral density, can be present in female athletes of all levels; from high school girls just joining a team to elite adult athletes. Whether intentional or not, it occurs when there is a lower calorie intake than what the body needs to support increased activity, needs for recovery, as well as necessary nutrients for everyday functioning.

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

As your hydration needs increase during these hot summer days, you'll find yourself craving juicy fruits more than you did before. This is no surprise! When I review food diaries for my clients during the colder months, I see log after log listing apples and bananas as the fruit of choice, with very little variety. But a fruit is a fruit, right? It's not until the summer months that citrus and antioxidant-filled fruits make an appearance, bringing a little more excitement to your diet. One of my favorite ways to savor the season's fruitful flavors and save yourself from the apple/banana rut, is this refreshing summer salad recipe.

Eating "clean" once meant nothing more than steamed broccoli and chicken in a Tupperware container. Putting an end to this myth can actually mean extra attention to eliminating additives, bulking agents, preservatives, pesticides and hormones. By doing just this, you really clean up your food, and your body will run much better. Similar to an automobile engine that uses only premium fuel, to decrease residue collection, we can streamline our energy source and decrease unwanted deposits in many parts of our bodies.

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

Whether you are an athlete or not, you've most likely experienced a weight or fat loss plateau at some point in your life (especially if you have ever tried to improve your body composition for health reasons and/or athletic performance). A plateau is defined as reaching a state of little or no change after a time of activity or progress. In this case, we're referring to those little numbers on the scale that won't budge, or that disappointing moment when your trainer/coachpinches you with calipers and thesamemeasurements come back again and again…Although frustrating, there's no reason to throw in the towel or go to extreme measures when this happens, as that will only hurt you and your performance in the long run. Chances are there are one or more factors you may have overlooked that could be the key to breaking through this barrier.

The Core Diet is very excited to announce its brand new affiliate program! This program was created primarily for individual coaches and coaching groups who would like to offer nutrition services to their clients, with our experienced staff ofRegistered Dietitians. The new affiliate program can also be used by other fitness related companies that may have clients who would be interested in athletic nutrition.

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

You have just returned home from a typical shopping trip to the grocery store, and your car is overflowing with the healthiest foods you could find. Although you are pretty sure that there are a few items in there that you are not quite sure about, but you just couldn't resist! Filled to the brim with fresh fruits, vegetables, and anything else labeled organic or "natural", your refrigerator is now ready to be photographed for the cover ofEating Well. Day dreaming about all the nutritious meals you will be enjoying this week, you realize it is time for dinner…"What should I have?!"

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

Between work, family, sleep and high volume training weeks it can be very difficult to find enough time to cook or prepare freshly made meals and snacks each day. As a result, food is often put on the back burner, as we search for quicker and easy options that are as time efficient as possible. But, with big performance goals and weight or body composition as a significant limiter, improving diet can be just as important as developing fitness.

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

Here is our pick for February! This Core Diet recipe of the month, submitted by QT2 One-on-One triathlete Rob Gilfeather using the NEW Core Diet recipe module, is perfect for not only vegetarians, but for all those flexitarians out there! Wondering what a flexitarian is? While there is no precise definition, this term was coined to describe those who eat mostly a vegetarian dietbut occasionally eat meat or other animal proteins. They are, well… flexible vegetarians! At the Core Diet we recommend going meatless once per week - try'Meatless Mondays'with this nutrient packed Black Bean & Sweet Potato Soup!

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Amanda Cassell.

As a registered dietitian (RD), I have always known that nutrition was important for health, disease prevention, and weight loss. Throughout my college years, and during my dietetic internship, this was stressed incessantly, time and again. Clinically, I had learned a great deal of useful information, but my specialized education had never focused specifically on sports-related nutrition.

The following content was provided by Registered Dietitian, Jaime Windrow.

As we slip into the colder months, I often see a steady decline in the consumption of fruits and vegetables of many of my clients. While much of this can be explained by reduced availability, especially in the northern regions, it should serve as no excuse. When this is coupled with increased cravings for holiday treats and comfort foods, the athlete is sure to miss many of the vital antioxidants and phytonutrients necessary for fighting off those winters colds, supporting recovery, and general overall health. One easy, and often overlooked, way to ensure that you are incorporating these into your diet is with homemade power smoothies.

Today is not much for tropics, but with left over pineapple and papaya I will try to give it a go. I have previously decided to add the ginseng over the horseradish, and so do. There is nothing sparkling today about my juice as I feel like predetermining the ingredients removes a bit of the excitement. Maybe if I add a spontaneous ingredient, things will perk up. In attempts to mask the tropical feel, I go with beet and romaine, and am quite surprised at the smooth vegetable taste.

Project Juice: Day 19

This morning I am participating in a workout/lecture (I'm lecturing in between intervals of circuit training) so I think that juicing before this event may be helpful. I like the superfood properties of the kale and the tomato addition really adds some substance. The two of these together seem like they may stand on their own quite well, but something is telling me to add some kind of heat. Perhaps cliché with the tomato, but I pull out the forgotten horseradish root. Somehow I will work the juicer into an adult beverage, but alas, another blog topic. Not knowing much about horseradish, I had purchased some while in the root section picking up my ginger and ginseng. Now, I am quite pleased that I did. Properties of horseradish root include strong antibiotic, expectorant, bronchodilatator, antibacterial, coronary vasodilatator. However, systemically horseradish raises blood pressure associated with its heat characteristic. The immune system is stimulated, and oh yes! it has anti-inflammatory properties in addition to being antiparasitic, antianemic, antiscorbutic (prevents scurvy by preservation of vitamin C) and is a diuretic. It can stimulate the appetite. Also it is known that horseradish has aphrodisiacal properties. Seriously! Where has this been hiding and why does this not get more press! Horseradish, I love you.