The role of nutrition and sport

Nutrition has always played an important role in my everyday life, I’m acutely aware that what I eat affects my energy levels, mood and my overall ability. Though I’ve always focused on whole foods and eating as well as I can, ‘what I eat in a day’ has never been hugely scientific (I have a few staple meals that I enjoy and don’t mind eating the same food most days). But as I get ready to solo sail around the world later this year, I’ve had to focus more and more on what I’m putting into my body in order to understand better how I can push the limits of human performance for a sustained period during the Vendee Globe. 

I’m often asked what kind of diet I follow so I thought I’d share some of my favourite recipes and a few tips that I’ve been using to improve performance. 

It’s all in the mind

With an extreme sport like solo sailing, one of the biggest battles of preparing and racing is the huge strain it puts on not your body, but your mind. 

My body is obviously going to need to be strong to make the manoeuvres and carry out simple onboard tasks, but I think it’s often underestimated just how much the mental aspect plays a part in overall performance. So for me, nutrition is not just about fuelling my body but fuelling my mind. 

Both in endurance running and when sailing I have always turned to ‘real’ food for my energy and recovery. I don’t use energy gels or recovery drinks because I think we can find everything we need in our everyday food as long as we’re eating the right thing in the right quantities. When out on a training run I will take a banana or a small bag of nuts to eat along the way – when I did the Three Peaks Yacht Race (double handed) our support crew would be waiting with little avocado and peanut butter sandwiches and cups of tea at our fuelling stations.  I am not alone in this way of eating – Jasmin Paris who recently shot into the news for winning an ultra-running race overall (men and women) cites eating sandwiches along the way.

I know the sweet artificial sugary things that we all crave can provide a short-term hit, but long-term it doesn’t help with my mental state. That’s why I don’t take any sweets or chocolate with me when I’m sailing. I’m trying to keep this steady rhythm. When you are exhausted and sleep deprived, it’s important to keep help keep your brain as focussed as possible. You can’t expect to be 100% efficient, it would just not be possible over three months of racing an IMOCA alone, I aim for a solid and steady 90% efficiency and focus. Eating at regular intervals is critical to achieving this sate,  and the spikes and crashes, from sugar consumption can throw me completely off balance.

Even on the land I try to take this approach. Having consistent blood sugar levels and eating properly helps me deal with my workload and stressful situations. 

Building protein

 In any sport, protein is critical to building muscle and sustaining performance. So increasing the balance of protein in my diet is something I’ve been focusing on over the past few months.  When I go offshore I usually lose a lot of weight, so I’m working with Resilient Nutrition to do a baseline study report into my weight and body makeup. They’re helping me build muscle before the race and together we will be designing the right race diet to keep my performance levels consistent, and negate and loss of weight that I might expect when I’m at sea. 

I don’t eat meat or dairy, and that defines quite a lot of my diet – especially when it comes to bulking out my protein intake. 

There’s definitely a bit more science to what I’m eating now. I eat within a 12-hour window and aim for 28g of protein with every meal. That’s a big ask if you don’t eat meat, but I’ve been using Resilient Nutrition’s Long Range Fuel for snacks and lunchtime meal substitutes while I am on the water. They’re nut butter based, high protein and delicious. I’m sure I’m going to look like a tub of nut butter soon…

What I eat

 There is no typical ‘what I eat in a day’ when I’m preparing for a race, but there are some tried and tested recipes that I turn to time and time again. 

Breakfast

 Usually eggs with spinach, so I can get my protein levels up. Always finished off with Sriracha sauce.

Lunch and Dinner

 I find lunch is the most difficult meal of the day; because I don’t eat bread it can make finding something on-the-go quite tricky – this is where Long Range Fuel has been a great help. If I’m at home I’ll cook a big meal and then eat that a few times a week and have it for dinners. I love my slow cooker so it will usually involve taking the contents of the bottom drawer of the fridge and throwing it in that! It normally turns into a chickpea stew, fish curry or a lentil chilli. 

Snacks

 As I’m trying to build muscle I might have a protein shake, but usually it’s a handful of nuts, fruit, apples, bananas or those squished up fruit and nut bars. 

Nutrition tips

 As I’ve been focusing more and more on nutrition and how it can support my performance, I thought I’d share a few things that have been working for me. 

Preparation

 In a lot of fitness and nutrition books there is this emphasis on batch cooking. And it really annoys me. Only Instagram stars have the time to spend a whole day preparing for the rest of the week - most of us don’t have the capacity to do that much planning. And who wants to know exactly what meal they’re eating every week?! That said, I have found preparation to be so important to making sure you stay on track and get the nutrients you need. So using something like a slow cooker and doubling up meals can be a good idea, or just having some healthy go-to snacks at the bottom of your bag so you have something to eat if you’re in a situation where you can’t find something. 

Water

 Getting enough water is so important for staying alert and fighting off fatigue, so I always try to drink as much of it as I can. That can be tough when you’re sailing and wearing lots of gear or feeling cold, but staying hydrated is so incredibly important for everyday life, let alone when you’re doing an endurance sport.

Just eat something

 I eat the way I do because I know it makes me feel better, but if it’s a choice between eating something I shouldn’t and not eating, then I’ll always eat something. You might not always be able to stick to the diet you’ve set out for yourself or have something as healthy as you’d like, but I think it’s way better to eat something than to not eat at all.