The Need To Eat…

We all learned from this Olympics that Michael Phelps eats a lot.  As the legend goes he eats about 12,000 calories a day.  That is quite a lot of food to ingest.  In fact you have  to try really hard to eat that much…  Adding maple syrup or Nutella to everything would certainly help.

Lately I’ve started to wonder about my own diet.  You see I think I eat a lot about 3500+ calories a day.  I try to consume small  meals spread out over the day.  Since I’ve started training again, I get  so hungry.  Hungry to the point where all I think about is food!  Eat my son you might be thinking but it’s hard to eat a lot of good food.  I’m talking fruits, veggies and whole grains.

For those that don’t know me, I routinely eat a loaf  of bread.  I do feel like I eat enough but apparently my body needs more.

So, what foods are high in calories but low in sugars/saturated fats..  Well let’s see what Phelps eats:

Breakfast:

Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise.

After his morning workout:

Two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch

A pound of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo on white bread .

After second workout:

1,000 calorie shake

Supper:

A pound of pasta and an entire pizza.

Night time snack:

1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

THATS GROTESQUE!  But also understandable when your swimming 8 hours a day.  He needs that much to survive. 

So looking at how Phelps did in the Olympics (pretty well) do you think fine tuning his diet would make him better?  I mean he’s ingesting some of the no nos such as white flour, cheese and condiments.  I’m sure he’s got a high matabolism, much like me, that eating lots isn’t going to make him pack on the pounds.  Although he also has about a foot and 40 pounds on me so I don’t need to eat quite that much.

I guess everything in moderation shouldn’t hurt right?  Maybe I’ll have  to be a little less strict around the dinner table.  I really need to start eating more if I’m going to make it through this block of training (for my survival!).

Anyone have some dishes they’d like for me to try? 

Thanks for reading, I think I’ll go have a 1,000 calorie energy drink (thats like 4 gadorades)!

Happy (eating) Trainin!

Cliff