Peak Nutrition. Maria Hines
can all be positively affected by lifting and moving regularly. Just as important, these measures are dramatically affected by diet (more on this later in this section). Doing small bouts of movement throughout the day plus your workout sessions can significantly increase your mobility and strength as well as your overall metabolism. Body fat will decrease if you lift regularly, and your bone density will improve.
RECIPES TO REDUCE INFLAMMATION
Most of our recipes in part V of the book support an anti-inflammatory diet. Favorites are:
•Wild Salmon Jerky
•Bacon Spinach Frittata Bites
•Creamy Carrot Ginger Soup
•Curry Chicken Salad
•Grilled Spatchcock Chicken with Ratatouille
Anaerobic and aerobic work. Make sure to add both anaerobic and aerobic work, such as running: sprinting is anaerobic and slow endurance is aerobic. Doing both will help maintain VO2 max and improve mitochondrial health and function. Anaerobic work could be as easy as 15 seconds of high-intensity work followed by 45 seconds of rest (repeat 8 to 10 times). Aerobic work could be a brisk walk, hike, or slow run for 30 minutes. But it all depends on what your body is currently used to. You want to do enough to maintain or improve on what you have right now, so that may mean doing more than these baseline recommendations. Once you lose your anaerobic fitness and strength, it’s tough to get it back. It’s much easier to maintain it.
Decrease stress. Increase your longevity by decreasing your stress. Life stressors and poor food choices increase oxidative stress (a buildup of free radicals) in the body and raise cortisol levels (cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that assists the body in responding to stress, such as infections and exercise, and helps regulate blood sugar). This increase has a snowball effect at the hormonal level, resulting in inflammation. Try to take some time out of your day to reflect on how you are feeling, meditate, and do some mobility exercises. Eating a well-balanced diet with a lot of herbs and spices and doing breathing exercises can increase the antioxidant activity in the body, which basically eats up all the free radicals. These methods also help to downregulate the sympathetic nervous system (the body’s fight-or-flight response), leaving us calmer and less stressed.
THE AGING BRAIN
Don’t forget about the brain! Diet and exercise can absolutely help the aging brain, the control center of the body. Here’s how: Decrease inflammation and oxidative stress by decreasing inflammatory foods (these include sugar, processed foods, and any food intolerances) and increasing anti-inflammatory foods (such as omega-3 fatty acids, grass-fed meat, and colorful fruits and veggies). Keep blood glucose levels steady by eating slow-digesting, high-fiber carbs. Often, higher glucose levels increase inflammation in the brain, making thinking difficult. As a side note, some researchers now consider Alzheimer’s to be “type 3” diabetes—basically insulin resistance in the brain—which means it may be preventable.
Move! Move every day. Keep learning new movements and new tasks, and never stop. Novel learning keeps the brain young. Age 30 is also when brain function starts to decline—research has shown that at this age you stop learning new things. You like what you like and avoid what you don’t like. You avoid wanting to look stupid, so you don’t try new things. Try this challenge: Do something new for two weeks and see how you feel—you may surprise yourself! See the Resources section for some fresh ideas on mobility and different movement patterns.
Another important factor for optimal brain health as you age is to make sure that one-third of your daily consumption of unsaturated, monounsaturated, and saturated fats is from whole-food sources. Try to avoid industrial seed oils, such as corn, soybean, safflower, sunflower, and vegetable oil. These have more polyunsaturated fats and are partially hydrogenated, making them trans fats that increase LDL (bad) cholesterol and decrease HDL (good) cholesterol. Increase your consumption of omega-3s (EPA/DHA). This will help to balance out those fatty acids. Consume foods that protect the brain and body from injury and inflammation and that promote memory, learning, and mood. These include:
•Dark chocolate and cocoa
•Green tea
•Colorful berries
•Leafy green vegetables and other colorful fruits and veggies
•Garlic, onions, and other herbs and spices
•Minimal amounts of red wine
PEAK PROFILE
ALLY MABRY
I hardly ever leave for a long training ride without salted cashews, pitted dates, and some kind of chewy, sugary snack (lately, it’s dark chocolate–covered candied ginger). The cashews provide salt, fat, protein, and carbs. Dates are sweet calories while still being real food. The ginger is like an energy chew, but better because it’s got a little spice and a more palatable texture.
Because I travel fast, I have to get creative with my food options. One of the most important skills of an endurance bikepacker is turning the limited selection of a convenience store into a delicious, nutritious meal. First I identify the high-protein, high-calorie options—peanut butter or packaged fish. Tortillas make a great vessel for these, plus they pack well on a bike. I’ll also usually buy a sleeve of cookies or doughnut holes and if the store has fresh produce, I go for avocados and oranges too.
I’ve trained myself to eat any time I have a fleeting thought of food while I’m riding. A lot of folks wait until they’re really hungry because they don’t want to take time or effort to eat on the bike. I’ve learned that I perform better if I’m eating before I get to the grumpy hunger stage. My worst eating habit . . . I eat a lot of junk food while I’m riding.
We’re marketed a lot of performance nutrition that’s supposed to be formulated specifically for our sports. I went through a phase where I was buying protein bars and energy gel packets because I thought it was going to make me perform better. You can only choke down so many Clif Bars and sport waffles on a 150-mile ride before you never want to eat another bar or waffle again.
One giant apple fritter, please!
I have a cat named Moonpie, and he is the best! Bicycle; I’ve been car-free for two years. Down. Do you know how cold it gets in Montana?! I’m from Alabama and I’m still learning.
Ally Mabry is a 28-year-old adventure cyclist based in Missoula, Montana. She was the first female to finish the Arkansas High Country Race, as