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• Listen to your body – if it sendsout an alarm (fatigue, irritability,grumbling stomach, lethargy, forgetfulness…),feed it right away!It’s warning you and by the timeyou actually get these signals, yourbody is already going into hibernationmode.• Graze over the course of a dayrather than simply eating 3 meals.Try eating 4 or 5 smaller balancedmeals instead.• When you feed your body,always give it a combination ofprotein, fat and carbs. Fat providesyour body with a long termenergy source because it breaksit down slowly. Only providing itwith carbs will cause your bloodsugar levels to jump because of theinstant energy it can provide. Butwithout something to balance thatout, it will drop just as quickly andyou’ll be back in hoarding modeagain.• Always have a snack composedof protein, fat and carbs ready forafter your workout. And eat it immediatelywhen you finish yourworkout.• Eat during any workouts longerthan an hour. Feed yourself smallportions of a high protein energybar (I eat ¼ of an energy bar everyhalf hour or so).• Have high protein/ lower sugarenergy bars available in your car,in your bag and at work so that ifyou are caught with no food andyour body starts yelling at you,you can feed it something balancedright away rather than going for ahigh carb or high fat snack.• Work with a sports nutritionistto dial in the ideal balance of proteinsto fats to carbs for your ownfitness and performance goals.While it may initially seem counter-intuitiveto eat more to improveboth body composition and performance,it makes more sense whenwe look at it from our body’s perspective.Because my body truststhat I will give it what it wants andhow it wants it, my metabolismhas increased significantly and mybody now chooses to burn storedfat sooner. As a result, I have becomeleaner and my performancehas increased dramatically, withouthaving made any changes tomy actual workouts. And becausemy body is now burning its fuelmore efficiently, it means that I canstill go indulge in a donut, burger,fries or micro brew every once ina while and keep performing at ahigher level!Adventure World Magazine May 2009 36Photos by Tim Holmstrom/Sidelight Images