Climbers Breakfast

7/29/2019 Climbers Breakfast

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You may be one of the many people who think that a

nutritionists job is to tell you not to eat all the things you

probably enjoy specically meat, fat, and sugar and that

nutritionists must not like those things themselves. On the

contrary, I am here to inform you that nutritionists do like to

eat delicious food and that, without stripping away all of lifes

culinary pleasures, we can help people whose goals involve

everything from losing 5 pounds to curing themselves of type 2

diabetes, resolving chronic inammation, and relieving anxiety.

Oh yeah, and climbing harder.

Food and You

As a climber, your goals are to be physically strong and maintain

unwavering condence on the wall.

With the possible exception of the mutants whose 5.15

ascents are fueled by Fruit Loops and Red Bull, those goals

are inescapably inuenced by what you eat and when you eat

it. With all of the conicting research and opinions out there,

improving your diet in order to enhance your sending prowesscan be confusing and frustrating. Luckily, as confusing as it all

may be, there is one guideline you can follow to help you feel

energetic, strong and clear-headedlike a successful person,

and climber, should.

Magic Bullets

What I am about to tell you has nothing to do with supplements

that will make you more powerful or super foods that will give

you more endurance. There are no magic bullets to make you

send your project. There arent even obvious conventions ab

what will precipitate you ailing all over it if there were,

wed all have gured it out and be climbing 5.14 by now. T

information you are about to receive is advice your mother

probably gave you when you were 2 years old because it is

simple to understand; and yet, most of the country does not

abide. So, sit back and prepare yourself for some eye-openi

jaw-dropping, mind-blowing... common sense (with a little

science to back it up).

The One Rule

The one most mundane, obvious, and absolutely imperative

truism that just might drastically change your life, and, more

importantly, your8a.nu scorecard is: You should always eat

good breakfast. For those of you breakfast skippers who I ju

lost, please hear me out.

What Do You Eat for Breakfast?

How many of you eat some sort of baked good or cereal or ocombination of sugar and (insert grain here) for breakfast? D

you drink coffee in the morning because your breakfast ju

doesnt do the job of keeping you awake until lunch, or for t

matter 10am? How many of you, along with around 40% o

the rest of the U.S., dont eat breakfast at all? The number o

reason we have so many stressed out, tired, overweight peop

this country is because were not eating a good breakfast. T

is a bold statement, and I just made itcondently.

Neely Quinn

Passionate, Nutritionist, Sport Climber

Climbing is my main form of exercise, my community, a medium

for success and great pride, and the reason I met my boyfriend. I love

projecting sport climbs that are way too hard for me on the rst try - not

much can top the feeling of accomplishment when I nally send.

Eat Better. . .

Climb Betterby Neely Quinn


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Breakfast of Champions?

So, what is a good breakfast? It is NOT: Capn Crunch with

skim milk; instant oatmeal with orange juice; a bagel with jelly;

or doughnuts and coffee. It is not even: real oatmeal with fruit;

fat free yogurt with a banana; or even that super duper high ber

cereal with low-fat milk. What these meals have in common is

that they are generally made up of carbohydrates and highly

processed carbohydrates at that. They contain an inordinate

amount of simple, processed sugars and they dont ll you up for

long. These things may taste good and be easy to prepare, but

they will sadly do you no good throughout your day - or your

life. I will admit that these inferior breakfasts may, however, be

better than not eating any breakfast at all maybe.

Breakfast of Champions

What does qualify as a good breakfast for most people is:

bacon (gasp!) and eggs with veggies and whole grain toast, or

real oatmeal with nuts and berries with some eggs on the side.

(Check out the chart for more breakfast options.) What were

aiming for at breakfast time is a meal that contains complex

carbohydrates that will be slowly and evenly utilized by your

body with the help of ample fat and protein. As a general rule,

you as a climber should be getting at least 30% of your body

weight in grams of protein per day, so a 150 lb man would needabout 45 grams of protein every day. For reference, a large egg

contains about 6.5 grams, one half cup of black beans has about

7.5 grams, and a slice of bacon provides 3 grams. Aim for one

half of your plate being lled with veggies and some fruit (at

their raw size), one quarter protein, and one quarter whole grain

with a healthy serving of fat in there somewhere (oil to cook

with, avocado, seeds and nuts, sh, etc.). The size of your plate

is dependent on the size of your body and the amount of exercise

you do. Use your judgment or go see a nutritionist to gure out

how much food you should eat in order to get you to or keep

you at your optimal weight. A good rule is to eat until your

fullness level is a 7 1 being very hungry and 10 being the

way you feel after Thanksgiving dinner.

The Players

If you do opt not to eat breakfast or to eat a carbohydrate-

intensive breakfast, the epic story of what happens in your body

involves two key players - blood sugar and adrenaline. Blood

sugar is the level of sugar, or glucose, in your blood at any given

time. That sugar comes mostly from all of the carbohydrate

(vegetables, fruit, bread, etc.) you consume, and it fuels your

daily metabolic and athletic activities. What you want is jus

the right amount of sugar in your blood at all times to keep

your energy and mood stable (we all know what happens to

moods when we get too hungry). The next player is someth

youve all heard of as climbers - adrenaline. Its the stuff th

courses through your body (or, at least my body) when you

pumped out of your skull, about to take a giant whip and yo

not sure if your belayer is watching you or giving some guy

beta on a different route 30 feet away. You get sweaty and

light-headed, you get tunnel vision so badly that you cant e

see the jug in front of your face, your legs start to tremble, y

heart starts audibly beating, and you may have the sudden ur

to puke all over your belayer, and maybe for good reason. I

other words, you feel fear.

Your Cavewoman Brain

After you eat a very sugary meal or skip a meal, your bodys

evolutionary mind doesnt know that youre planning to eat

something substantial later. It thinks you didnt have the ski

to catch any sh or the guts to steal any bison liver from som

other unlucky cave guy. It doesnt know when youre going

to eat next and it considers this a stressful event. The result

is that you get a small surge of adrenaline from your adrenal

glands, and, to a lesser degree, your body experiences the

same uncomfortable symptoms of adrenaline you felt on the

climb you were about to pitch off of increased heart rate,

perspiration, tunnel vision, and a slight pukey-ness (just like

how you feel in the morning if youre one of those who can

deal with breakfast). Instead of intense fear, this adrenaline

surge manifests as anxiety, which can become chronic anxie

youre constantly sending this stressful message to your bod

Neelys Handy Build-Your-Own Breakfast Table

Proteins -

plate

Veggies + Some

Fruit - plate

Fiber Sources -

plate

Fats -

(dont skip em!)

Eggs All vegetables Whole graintoast/bagel

Avocado

Bacon Beans Nuts

Sausage Whole grain oats Seeds

Beans Sprouted grains Non-hydrogenated oils(coconut, olive,sunflower, flax, etc.)

Hummus Brown or wild rice Butter

Nut butters (peanut,almond, etc.)

All fruits(in moderation)

Whole grains amaranth, quinoa,etc.

Coconut milk

Soy (tofu, tempeh,

edamame)

Corn bread Nut butters (peanut,

almond, etc.)

Cottage cheese Sweet

potato/squash

Yogurt

Smoked salmon Cottage Cheese

Yogurt Cheese


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Falling Off Your Warm-Ups

Cut to 11am on Saturday morning in Rie after a breakfast

of instant oatmeal and coffee. Youre wondering why you

feel so weak that you almost fell off of your second warm-up.

When you eat super sugary foods without any good fat, ber

and protein (i.e. oil, veggies and eggs) to make the meal last

longer, your blood sugar plummets because you use up those

simple sugars so quickly (well get to the coffee soon). By the

time youre feeling weak and light-headed, your blood sugar is

already low you are hypoglycemic - and thats an unproductive

way to start off your climbing weekend.

Theres more. Imagine that once you nally get to lunch youre

starving, so you eat a big, doughy turkey sandwich, some

hummus and carrots and some cookies. Even though this meal

might have ample protein, fat and ber in it, youre not in the

clear. Your blood sugar is like a boat rocking back and forth in

response to a big wave the wave hits and the boat lurches to

one side. It doesnt stop there the next time you eat, it pitches

back the other way almost as forcefully as the rst time. The

swaying subsides when the force of the wave dissipates OR

big waves keep hitting the boat and it continues to rock wildly.

Your blood sugars big wave is you eating a sugary breakfast or

skipping it altogether. The big waves continue every time youskip a meal, get ravenously hungry, or eat a sugary meal. The

violent swaying only subsides when you start your day with

protein, fat and ber and repeat every 3 to 5 hours. Every single

day. I dont know about you, but Id rather be on a boat in calm

water than be capsized by a storm every day...

The Coffee Shark

Coffee. Youll have to excuse the prolonged analogy, but

imagine that coffee is a really pissed off great white shark

hitting the side of your boat. Every cup of coffee is the shark

administering a blow to the boat. Coffee, and in particular the

caffeine in the coffee, is called astimulantbecause it stimulates

your adrenals to spit out adrenaline. Wouldnt you rather useyour adrenaline for something important like being scared out of

your mind on a rock wall than for dragging your ass through the

morning? We have FOOD for that.

The Glandular Love Triangle

Demanding so much adrenaline and other hormones of the

adrenal glands in these ways puts a lot of stress on the adrenals

themselves, but the rest of the body can also be affected. In

particular, the thyroid gland can become dysfunctional in

response to all of this sugar and meal skipping. The thyroid is

responsible for trivial functions like controlling body weight

temperature and metabolism. Part of its job is to make sure

we have enough energy to get through our day, and if we

dont, the pituitary gland sends a message to it telling it to

get off its ass and make us more. Unfortunately, the pituitar

is also responsible for sending the same kind of rallying

messages to the adrenals. If the adrenals are overworked by

our blood sugar and coffee issues, not to mention our climbi

addiction, the pituitary gets really tired and can start to lag in

its communication to the thyroid. So, in other words, its a

love triangle between the thyroid, pituitary and adrenals. Th

pituitary is a man with two wives, the adrenals and the thyro

When the adrenals ask too much from her man, he gets reall

tired well call it impotent. What do you think happens to

miss thyroid then? She doesnt get what a girl needs. The l

of love between the thyroid and the pituitary plays a large pa

why so many of us are: constantly tired and depressed, not a

to lose weight, cold all the time, and have poor digestion and

sleep habits. Thyroid dysfunction also contributes to: freque

headaches, muscle cramps, water retention, slow wound hea

and frequent colds. Read through all of those symptoms aga

and note how many of them you can assign to yourself, or y

signicant other, or even the person sitting next to you.

But Im Young and Indestructible... Right?

Not really. Think about how the symptoms of a low functio

thyroid will affect you when youre older and youve spent y

assailing your body with adrenaline every day with your sug

foods and caffeine-laced drinks. Think about how they may

affecting you right now:

1. Theres not one person who can climb their best when the

constipated all the time oh yeah, thats another sign of thyr

dysfunction.

2. Chronic fatigue, even if it is low-level, is not going to get

up your rst 5.14.

3.No climber who is chronically depressed and anxious is g

to be able to condently lead climb at their limit weve allwitnessed that.

4. Even if its only 10 pounds that you are struggling to lose,

those 10 pounds can make your project feel way harder than

you were at your optimal weight.

5. How many of you would like to have better circulation in

your numb ngers on a cold day outside? Yet another symp

of thyroid dysfunction.

6. And nally, water retention in joints can lead to pain and

inammation and just because your ankles arent swollen

a pregnant womans, it doesnt mean youre not retaining wa

girls.

So, whats the rst thing I tell people who have thyroid

dysfunction? Eat a good breakfast. And to all of you mutan

out there climbing V15 fueled by sugar packets, caffeine and

sugar water how hard do you think you could climb if you

a good breakfast?

Neely Quinn is a nutrition therapist with Food As Medicine

Holistic Health Counseling in Boulder, CO

www.foodasmedicinecounseling.com. If you see her, ask he

what she ate for breakfast.

PhotobyAliGeiser

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Climbers Breakfast