Nutrition 101: Cut back on the Girl Scout cookies

I've raced two half-ironmans, and in both I've had severe GI distress on the run, forcing me to grace the port-o-lets more often than I'd like.  To remedy this, I met with a sports nutritionist to chat about my plan for staying fueled on race day, and I learned some helpful information worth sharing.  My nutrition guru also wanted to evaluate my general diet to make sure I am getting everything I need and little of what I don't.  Let me just say that it's quite intimidating to record every calorie of food that you've consumed for a week and then share that with someone else.  More on that later.

First off, she asked me to list all the food and beverages that I consumed during my last half-iron in November:

On the bike:
- 2 bottles Gatorade
- 2 Clif bars
- 1 Power Bar
- lots o' water
On the run:
- Alternating Gatorade and water at the rest stops
- 3 Clif shot gels

Her first and overriding recommendation was to NIX THE PROTEIN (the Clif Bars and Power Bar) while on the bike.  She explained that processing protein while exercising was like sticking a spoon in the garbage disposal while it's running.  The body has a very difficult time processing protein, a somewhat less difficult time processing fat, and the easiest time processing carbs.  Therefore, exercise nutrition needs to consist primarily of, if not exclusively of, carbs.  She recommended that I try a product called CarboPro, which is apparently a flavorless powder full of, you guessed it, carbs.  Yum.  6+ hours on the bike, no solid food, just two bottles of CarboPro + water, plus an additional bottle of water every hour.  I'm willing to try it, but I have to admit that a Clif bar tastes damn good after 3 hours on the bike, and I don't think that my flavorless water will.  Boo.

Her next tip: salt.  Aside from the GI distress, I've also had the occasional leg cramping during my runs off the bike, sometimes crossing the finish with a Frankenstein look, unable to bend my knees.  I thought it was because I wasn't getting enough food in me.  She says I'm getting more than enough food but not getting enough salt.  I am a sweater - not the warm wool kind but the kind that disgusts you in the gym.  I create salt lakes around my spin bike and live in constant fear of drowning the gal next to me in Bikram yoga.  It's disgusting but also evidence that I'm losing a lot more salt than the average Jo-sephine.  Houston in May could be miserably hot and humid, so I'll be digesting a salt tablet each hour in the hopes of replenishing the salt mine that I'm sure to lose that day.

Now on to the fun part - an evaluation of the overall diet.  Generally speaking, she said I was doing well - getting the calories that I need *mostly* from good sources.  Do you really eat kale?  Yes!  I love it, thanks to a salad recipe my friend Amy introduced me to that you can find here.  And sunflower seed butter?  I admit, it's an acquired taste, but I love it on my oatmeal.  Okay, so what does this signify?  "One box SOs."  Hmm... (I'd hoped she'd just overlook that entry.)  Shout Outs.  What are Shout Outs?  Girl Scout cookies.  You ate a BOX of Girl Scout cookies . . . in one day?  They're the low fat kind.  And besides, I consider it my civic duty to support the Girl Scouts.  Maybe you should just write them a check.  Touche.