7/29/2019 Climbers Breakfast
1/3
84
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
7/29/2019 Climbers Breakfast
2/3
86
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
7/29/2019 Climbers Breakfast
3/3
87
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
Top Related