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by Kristin McCowan

As the holiday season approaches I started thinking about how food impacts our daily lives. The holiday season brings celebration with plenty of opportunity to enjoy traditional holiday foods. My family is big on meat and starchy vegetables, as well as desserts and “Yes, I’ll have seconds.”

Being triathletes we have greater freedom with choices and portion size as our caloric need can be 50% or more than the average person. As a rookie triathlete I made the mistake that due to my physical activity level I believed I could eat whatever and larger portion sizes. While I didn’t gain weight, I didn’t lose any, and I had about 10 pounds to lose at that time.

I was basically training so I could eat almost without restriction. With experience, focused training and a desire to improve race day performance, I began to choose food more wisely. Being a nutritionist has advantages! I also began to consider my portion sizes and how many calories I would need to sustain my training.

While I continue to enjoy a wide variety of foods especially fresh fruits and vegetables, food has become more of a tool to enhance and support training.

There is a place for most foods in our diets, just some in greater quantities than others. So this holiday season consider your training, body weight goals and choose wisely and enjoy.

PS - those pesky 10 pounds finally came off.

Kristin McCowan, MS
Nutritionist
Kristin.mccowan@simmons.edu

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