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 first try - not much can top the feeling of accomplishment when I finally send.

by Neely Quinn

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 specifically 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 inflammation, and relieving anxiety. Oh yeah, and climbing harder. Food and You As a climber, your goals are to be physically strong and maintain unwavering confidence 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 influenced by what you eat and when you eat it. With all of the conflicting research and opinions out there, improving your diet in order to enhance your sending prowess can 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 84

send your project. There arent even obvious conventions about what will precipitate you flailing all over it if there were, wed all have figured it out and be climbing 5.14 by now. The information you are about to receive is advice your mother probably gave you when you were 2 years old because it is that simple to understand; and yet, most of the country does not abide. So, sit back and prepare yourself for some eye-opening, 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, your 8a.nu scorecard is: You should always eat a good breakfast. For those of you breakfast skippers who I just lost, please hear me out. What Do You Eat for Breakfast? How many of you eat some sort of baked good or cereal or other combination of sugar and (insert grain here) for breakfast? Do you drink coffee in the morning because your breakfast just doesnt do the job of keeping you awake until lunch, or for that matter 10am? How many of you, along with around 40% of the rest of the U.S., dont eat breakfast at all? The number one reason we have so many stressed out, tired, overweight people in this country is because were not eating a good breakfast. That is a bold statement, and I just made itconfidently.

Photo by Ali Geiser

Eat Better. . . Climb Better

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 fiber 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 fill 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 need about 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 filled 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, fish, 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 figure 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.
Neelys Handy Build-You r-Own Breakfast Table Proteins Veggies + Some Fiber Sources plate Fruit - plate plate Eggs All vegetables Whole grain toast/bagel Bacon Beans Sausage Whole grain oats Beans Sprouted grains Hummus Nut butters (peanut, almond, etc.) Soy (tofu, tempeh, edamame) Cottage cheese Smoked salmon Yogurt Brown or wild rice Whole grains amaranth, quinoa, etc. Corn bread Sweet potato/squash Fats (dont skip em!) Avocado Nuts Seeds Non-hydrogenated oils (coconut, olive, sunflower, flax, etc.) Butter Coconut milk Nut butters (peanut, almond, etc.) Yogurt Cottage Cheese Cheese

time. That sugar comes mostly from all of the carbohydrates (vegetables, fruit, bread, etc.) you consume, and it fuels your daily metabolic and athletic activities. What you want is just the right amount of sugar in your blood at all times to keep your energy and mood stable (we all know what happens to our moods when we get too hungry). The next player is something youve all heard of as climbers - adrenaline. Its the stuff that courses through your body (or, at least my body) when youre pumped out of your skull, about to take a giant whip and youre 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 even see the jug in front of your face, your legs start to tremble, your heart starts audibly beating, and you may have the sudden urge to puke all over your belayer, and maybe for good reason. In other words, you feel fear.

All fruits (in moderation)

The Players If you do opt not to eat breakfast or to eat a carbohydrateintensive 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 86

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 skills to catch any fish or the guts to steal any bison liver from some 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 cant deal with breakfast). Instead of intense fear, this adrenaline surge manifests as anxiety, which can become chronic anxiety if youre constantly sending this stressful message to your body.

Photo by Aly Nicklas

Falling Off Your Warm-Ups Cut to 11am on Saturday morning in Rifle 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, fiber 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 finally 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 fiber 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 first 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 you skip a meal, get ravenously hungry, or eat a sugary meal. The violent swaying only subsides when you start your day with protein, fat and fiber 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 a stimulant because it stimulates your adrenals to spit out adrenaline. Wouldnt you rather use your 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 pituitary 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 climbing 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. The pituitary is a man with two wives, the adrenals and the thyroid. When the adrenals ask too much from her man, he gets really tired well call it impotent. What do you think happens to little miss thyroid then? She doesnt get what a girl needs. The lack of love between the thyroid and the pituitary plays a large part in why so many of us are: constantly tired and depressed, not able to lose weight, cold all the time, and have poor digestion and sleep habits. Thyroid dysfunction also contributes to: frequent headaches, muscle cramps, water retention, slow wound healing and frequent colds. Read through all of those symptoms again and note how many of them you can assign to yourself, or your significant 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 functioning thyroid will affect you when youre older and youve spent years assailing your body with adrenaline every day with your sugary foods and caffeine-laced drinks. Think about how they may be affecting you right now: 1. Theres not one person who can climb their best when theyre constipated all the time oh yeah, thats another sign of thyroid dysfunction. 2. Chronic fatigue, even if it is low-level, is not going to get you up your first 5.14. 3. No climber who is chronically depressed and anxious is going to be able to confidently lead climb at their limit weve all witnessed 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 if you were at your optimal weight. 5. How many of you would like to have better circulation in your numb fingers on a cold day outside? Yet another symptom of thyroid dysfunction. 6. And finally, water retention in joints can lead to pain and inflammation and just because your ankles arent swollen like a pregnant womans, it doesnt mean youre not retaining water, girls. So, whats the first thing I tell people who have thyroid dysfunction? Eat a good breakfast. And to all of you mutants out there climbing V15 fueled by sugar packets, caffeine and sugar water how hard do you think you could climb if you ate 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 her what she ate for breakfast. 87

Photo by Ali Geiser