Fast Fitness - Healthier Sports Shake

A New Zealand swimmer asked for more sports nutrition. Here is Friday Fast Fitness - quick, good tasting sports shakes - cheaper and healthier than store-bought.

My father and grandfather, (and great-grandfather+) were Ice Swimmers. We all swam all year in open water including several over 20 miles (32km). My grandfather's sure-power recipe was an oily mixture (for future posts). When I raced competitively, I swam 5-7 miles a day, 35-40 miles a week (up to 64km/week). The coach pushed the common fad of eating Jello powder. As a vegetarian I skipped it, and watched other vogue sports food assumptions come and go. Best is real food.

Throw in a blender or other mixer:

• Clean water
• Peeled banana
• Peeled orange with the seeds
• Some of the well-washed orange peel
• Raw walnuts or other favorite
• Some cooked brown rice left from a meal
• Sweeten with raisins or a prune softened in clean water. Molasses optional. Adds many minerals.
• Cinnamon powder to level blood sugar

Tips:

• For the day of the event, you can substitute tea for the water.
• Experiment with amounts to get preferred consistency
• If you want a chocolate shake, add a scoop of unsweetened cocoa powder (unsweetened non-dutched baking cocoa). People with migraine can leave out the cocoa.
• Don't junk it up with milk, sugar, artificial sweeteners, commercial sports powders.
• If you use a juicer, put the solids and pulp back in, or you will be drinking sugar water and throwing away the point and the nutrition.
• Try different fruit - Persimmons, mangosteen, pineapple, melon, berries, your favorite. Raw red beets are an overlooked sweet fitness food good in shakes.
  
• For flavors, add a small slice of unpeeled ginger root, washed mint leaves.

Labels: cold, endurance, fast fitness, nutrition, performance enhancing modality, swimming

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