Nutrition:

1. In order for an athlete to play, or train at his or her peak performance level, it is important to have a proper diet to insure that the athlete's energy levels are at his or her highest.

   Dr. Barry Sears has come up with a diet called the Zone Diet. The Zone is when all your hormones are working in a fashion to put you in a peak state. Food can control your hormonal responses to get you into the Zone. The benefits of being in the Zone include:

2. 1. You are able to think better because you are maintaining a constant Blood Sugar Level (BSL)

   2. You are able to perform better (or train harder) because you increase the oxygen transfer to muscle cells while in the Zone

3. Anyone who is serious about training, must be serious about their diet. Food can control your hormonal responses to get you in the Zone therefore you can recover faster, and therefore you are able to train harder. Diet and training, the two go hand in hand.

    

4. Protein
6. Protein is needed to repair and maintain the body's critical systems. Muscles, the immune system and enzymes are all composed of protein.
8. During the digestion of food, proteins are broken down into their basic structural unit: amino acids, which are released into the bloodstream. There are 20 amino acids used to form different protein combinations for growth and body functions. All 20 amino acids are needed to support metabolic processes necessary for life.
10. 8 essential amino acids must be supplied to the body through the intake of food. 12 non-essential amino acids can be manyfactured by the body Complete proteins contain all 8 essential amino acids. Protein from animal sources (ie: tuna, chicken, beef, ham, turkey) are complete proteins. Most plant proteins are usually short of 1 or more of the 8 amino acids and therefore are not complete. Soy Protein however is an exception to this rule. (Make the Play, by Husker Power Football)
11. 
    Protein also stimulates the release of the hormone glucagon.

14. Carbohydrates

    One interesting thing that Dr. Sears points out in his book is the fact that grains did not exist till about 10000 years ago. It is therefore quite reasonable to say that most people have not genetically adapted to eating high-density forms of carbohydrates such as grains starches, breads or pastas.

    Insulin is a hormone that is secreted when you either eat too many carbohydrates, or you eat too many calories at a meal. Excess insulin will make you hungry, mentally foggy, and it will decrease physical performance. The reason why you become mentally foggy is because there is low blood flow to your brain.

    Another negative effect that insulin has is the fact that it inhibits the release of Human Growth Hormone (HGH). HGH is released 15 to thirty minutes after an anarobic workout (weight train) and during sleeping. This is an important hormone in order for your body to grow. Since high levels of insulin does not let HGH be released, it is in your best interest to avoid eating foods high in carbohydrates (ex: pizza) prior to sleeping.

    As previously stated, alot of carbohydrates results in the release of insulin, and excessive insulin results in you becoming sluggish (due to the low BSL and therefore the low blood flow to the brain). To picture what Dr. Sears is trying ot get accross, just think about how hard it is to concentrate three hours after a large pasta meal.

    Prior to the advent of agriculture 10000years ago, people survived by eating low fat protein (meat) and fruits and veggies. This was the classic hunter-gatherer diet. Most of the carbohydrates in this diet came from fruits and vegetables. This is ideally how people should be eating nowadays, with the additions of grains, starches, pastas and breads taken in moderation.

    You might be wondering what the difference is between the amount of carbohydrates you get from grains and pastas versus the amount you get from with fruits and vegetables. Well the difference is quite large. Fruits and vegetables are not carbohydrate dense (about 1 cup of pasta has the same amount of carbos as 6 cups of cooked broccoli and both amounts have the same amount of insulin promoting carbohydrates) The benefits of fruits and vegetables does not end there though! Fruits and vegetables are high in fibre, vitamins and minerals, while pastas and grains are not. To see the difference just look at this table to compare the numbers:

Comparison of Fibre, Vitamin, and Mineral Content
of Different Carbohydrates Containing One Block of
Insulin-Promoting Carbohydrate

Another important factor to consider when eating carbohydrates, is the glycemic index. The higher the glycemic index of a carbohydrate, the faster it enters the bloodstream as sugar. All carbohydrates (simple or complex) have to be broken down into simple sugars (glucose) before being absorbed by the body and entering the bloodstream. The faster glucose enters the blood, the more insulin your body makes. Carbohydrates with a high glycemic index will have a greater effect on insulin secretion compared to carbohydrates with a lower glycemic index. You would think that simple carbohydrates would enter the bloodstream faster than complex carbohydrates (this is what I was taught in High School Biology) however this is not true. Why? Simple sugars such as table sugar, are made up of glucose and fructose. Glucose is rapidly absorbed and enters the bloodstream quickly. This is due to the fact that glucose is already in the sugar form that your body can use. Fructose on the other hand has to be converted into glucose in the liver before it enters the bloodstream in the useable form of glucose. This is a very slow process.

What is the end result of all of this? Well, the rise of blood glucose level is retarded and since the sugar in fruits is mainly fructose, fruits have a low glycemic index and therefore they stimulate insulin production to a lesser degree than other carbohydrates such as grains or starches.

Here is a list of some foods along with their glycemic index:

Food	Glycemic Index
Sports Drinks	High glycemic index
Bannanas and Oranges	Moderate glycemic index
Bagels	High glycemic index
Cereal	Moderate to high glycemic index
Milk	Low glycemic index

Other factors that can affect the glycemic index of foods include fat, fibre, and how you cook a carbohydrate. Fat and soluble fibre (pectin in apples) act as a control rod by slowing the rate of entry of carbohydrates into the bloodstream. Note that insoluble fiber (cellulose and bran) have no effect on carbohydrate entry. The more you cook a carbohydrate, the more you break down its cell structure, allowing faster digestion. Therefore the more you cook a carbohydrate, the more the glycemic index is raised.

Dr. Sears' rule on carbohydrates is this: primarily eat carbohydrates that are both low-density (therefore providing maximum fiber, vitamins, and minerals) and low-glycemic (so the carbohydrates enter the blood at a slow and controlled rate). Unfavorable carbohydrates (ie: carbohydrates that are high density, and high glycemic) should be used in moderation.

For athletes you should just try to remember that pastas can be a hormonal nightmare. One Snickers bar has the same amount of carbohydrates than 2 ounces of pasta. Now consider this: most athletes would not eat 4 Snickers bars but they would eat 8 ounces of pasta! Then they wonder why they are falling asleep 3 hours after the meal

Since you want to be in peak mental and hormonal balance during a competition eating pasta or Snickers bars prior to your competition is not to your benefit.

 

Fat

First of all, fat has no effect on insulin, and on top of this it slows down the entry of carbohydrates into the bloodstream (like a control rod). The slower the rate that carbohydrates enter the bloodstream, the lower the insulin production. Some great sources of monounsaturated fat are olives and olive oil, avocado (guacamole), and nuts (macadamia, pistachio, cashew, and almond)

Carbohydrate and fat metabolsim occur simultaneously. As intensity of acativity increases, the demand for carbohydrate utilization goes up and fat demand goes down. Therefore fuel for high intensity exercise is supplied mainly from the breakdown of carbohydrates.

During low activity levels, fat contributes up to 70% of the total energy demands. Therefore during sleep, the energy demands for carbohydrates are lowest and fat is used at a higher ratio. (Make the Play, by Husker Power Football)

 

The Zone Diet

In order to stay in the Zone, Dr. Sears suggests having a ratio of 9 grams of carbohydrates (or 1 carbohydrate block), to 7 grams of protein (or 1 protein block), to 1.5 grams of fat (or 1 fat block) with each meal. For instance, if for breakfast you had 4 blocks of carbohydrates (ie: 36g of carbohydrates), 4 blocks of protein (ie: 28 g of protein), and 4 blocks of fat (ie: 6g of fat), then you would be starting your day "in the Zone". The following table will give you an idea of what a typical four-block Zone meal would look like.

Now that you are armed with some of the best nutritional information that is on the market, I would just like to talk about my personal experience with the Zone diet.

When I first read about the Zone diet, I immediately could relate to the ideas that Dr. Sears was trying to convey. For example, I recall in my first year university, everyday I would come home at about two or three o clock and I would make myself a huge bowl of pasta and I could never understand why after getting over 8 hours of sleep every night, why I had to nap everyday after I ate the pasta, or why I had trouble keeping my eyes open when I was trying to study. Yet in his book, Dr. Sears explained that it was the increased secretion of insulin in my body that caused my BSL to drop and that is what made me so tired. Nowadays, I get less then 8 hours of sleep per night, however if I eat properly and stay in the Zone, I will have a good deal of energy throughout the rest of the day.

Another fact I found interesting about the Zone diet was that it went against alot of the information I learned in high school biology. For instance, in biology, we learned that before an athletic competition, you want to stay away from simple sugars because they will cause your BSL to rise dramatically but then plumet below normal levels resulting in you becoming tired. We were told that complex carbohydrates were the way to go. To me this seemed logical at the time however the problem was that the glycemic index of the carbohydrates was not being taken into account. As previously mentioned, simple sugars have a lower glycemic index than complex carbohydrates and therefore will not have a dramatic effect on your insulin and in result on your BSL.

Just so you know, I do not count the amounts of carbohydrates, protein of fat that I eat with each meal. I simply make sure that at each meal I am having some carbohydrates, protein and fat.

Another factor that I have encountered while studying nutrition is the fact that some athletes feel that the difference nutrition makes is minimal. For instance, I recall speaking with a teamate who thought that a good diet was a noble idea, however in the end he felt it would not make a big difference. This teamate went on to point out examples of professionals who had bad eating habits, such as Jerry Stackhouse who, before the 2000-2001 NBA All Star game was saying how he usually eats Ju-Jubes before each game, but since he did not have any, he was eating cookies instead. My teamate had a good point, some pro athletes don't have good eating habits and it does not seem to effect their play. The only thing that I can say in response to his argument is that during a clutch situtation in the dying seconds of a game I would rather be in the Zone as opposed to being mentally foggy. An example of this could be when Michael Jordan hit the winning shot against the Utah Jazz to win the NBA championship. In that situation, a few seconds left on the clock, with your team down by one, I would want every single advantage possible. That is what good nutrition can do for you. It can give you a slight edge over your opponents.

The preceding information was extracted from:
Sears, Dr. Barry, Mastering the Zone, HarperCollins Publishers Inc. New York, NY, 1997

Increasing Your Body's Energy

Despite all the information that has been presented to you here in Drillz.com, it is of no use to you if you don't have the energy needed to follow through on your goals and your commitment to doing the Drillz. If you are getting 8 hours of sleep per night and you find yourself to lothargic the next day then there is a problem. The following is information taken from Anthony Robbins' Unlimmited Power

The Power of Breath:

Your entire body is only as healthy as the cells that make it up. Your bloodstream determines the health of your cells. If your bloodstream is maintained then your cells will be healthy and you will be healthy, if your bloodstream is polluted, then your cells will be weak, and you will be weak.

So how do we control and maintain the circulatory system clean and nurtured and not polluted? The answer lies in your breath. Your breath can cleanse your circulatory system. It is the foundation of all life (cells) by giving your cells oxygen , and it also controls the flow of lymph fluid in your body.

Lymph fluid contains white blood cells that protect your entire body and helps cleanse the system. The lymph system is also know as the body's sewage system. Every cell in your body is surrounded by lymph. Blood is pumped from heart through the arteries to the capilaries. The blood carries the oxygen and nutrients to the capilaries where it is diffused into the lymph fluid . The cells have an affinity for what they need, so they take what they need for there health, and then excrete toxins into the lymph system.

Dead cells and other toxic materials must be removed from the lymph system, which is activated by deep breathing. Your body depends on the lynmph system to drain the toxic materials. In fact, If the lymph system shut down for 24hrs you would die!

The only way lymph can move around is through deep breathing and muscular movement.

Most health programs focus on eating however you must also be able to cleanse your body throu effective breathing. Deep breathing and exercise increases the cleasing process by 15 times the normal rate.

Another interesting fact is that lack of oxygen seems to play a major role in cells becoming cancerous.

The problem is that most people don't know how to breath!

1 out of 3 Americans get cancer, yet 1 in 7 athletes have cancer. Why? Simply because athletes are constantly firing off the lymph systems so the cells are getting more oxygen.

A great breathing exercise that you can do in order to activate your lymph system is to inhale for 1 count, hold for 4 counts(to oxygenate the cells), then exhale for 2 counts (because when u exhale you are eliminating toxins) Take ten of these breaths ten times a day.

For example, inhale through your nose for 7 seconds, hold for 28 seconds, exhale through your mouth for 14 seconds. Repeat this ten times.

If you do this three times a day for the next ten days, your energy level will go up because you will be cleansing your blood stream, which means more oxygen will get to your cells and the more oxygen they get the more healthier and stronger they will be and the more power you will have.

Give this exercise a try for the next ten days and judge the results for yourself.

The power of eating water rich foods:

Since 80% of your body is made up of water, seventy percent of your diet should be made up of water rich foods such as fruits vegetables and sprouts.

Every day cells in your body are dying and new cells are being created simultaneously. The waste from the old ones must be elimimnated. Water helps to carry off that waste . If not, the wastest will accumulate in your circulatory system and cause your cells to have less oxygen and this will litterally poison your cells.

The buildup of waste products in your body promotes disease so you must provide enough water in your diet to assist your body in diluting the wastes.

"the quality of life is determined by the quality of the life of our cells" So if your blood stream is filled with waste products, then your cells are unhealthy which in turn means you are unhealthy.

Ask yourself the following question: what percentage of my diet is made up of water rich foods?

To answer this question, write down all food and drinks you consumed in the past 24hrs. Circle all the things that are water rich: fruit , vegetable, fresh fruit juices, sprouts or water. Milk does not count! Now calculate what percentage of your diet is made up of water rich foods.

If only 15% of the foods you ate were water rich foods, then this is basically suiced because every day you are clogging your system more and more.

Just be certain that you have fruit or vegetables with every meal. Be sure to snack on fruits and vegetables too. Try to make sure your diet has 70% water content.

"For every disciplined effort you take in life, there is a multiple reward. Discipline yourself in this way and reward yourself in every way" (Tony Robbins)

The preceding information was extracted from:
Robbins, Anthony, Personal Power, "How to Increase Your Energy" Robbins Research International. Irwindale, CA, 1989

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