Fueling for long ride/run without blowing diet

try maybe Perpeteum or Sustained Energy?

Maybe dilute out one of your shakes and take a little every 15?

Electrolytes - have you tried Heed?   It is gluten-free, and vegan friendly.  I swear by it, because I've tried Gatorade (gives me extremely bad migraines post-rides due to the sugar crap), and other "sports drinks".   That should help you a lot.  It's 100 calories per serving, so that's pretty low in calories. 2 g of sugar (not fake sugar). 

If you can digest pretzels well, I would take that too since it has salt in it, and good amount of calories to kind of keep you a little full. 

You won't really blow your diet because of the high calorie loss during the spinning. 

Good luck!  It doesn't hurt to email your Nutritionist the nutrition information that is provided on the Hammer site, and see what she says.

Good luck! 

I'd ask your nutritionist. Could you send her an email or call her office for a quick question.

I typically eat low glycemic other than fueling for my workouts when you need carbs to fuel your body for workouts.

If you are exercising eating a gel or high glycemic food won't spike your insulin and blood sugar as your body is using it for fuel.

Yes you can eat regular food like bananas, fig newtons, things like that.

You could take electrolyte tablets or drink something like Nuuns that you add to a full water bottle that has electrolytes in it and only 10 calories.

Nuts/trail mix for the spin a thon - might be harder on the run, but i've cut used a small ziploc to carry snacks like this for long runs water bottle belt has small "pouch" for storage

Especially for a spin, this shouldn't be that complicated... make something that you would normally eat before getting on the bike. Stop 5 minutes each hour and eat... there's absolutely nothing wrong with that and you will still get all the benefit of a 4hr. spin (which btw. is crazy long to stay on a spin bike! I certainly would crack mentally before I made it to the 4hr. mark).

Make sure your nutritionist takes into account the training you do and modified the diet accordingly.

As for the 1/2M, I would make sure you have some portable for of energy with you (I use gel's for racing and a nutella sandwich cut in 1/4's and wrapped in foil for training). This is a very common mistake people make... no eating anything for a longer run/ride.

My mom (a lifelong recreational biker) and I have similar food intolerance issues involving dairy and many forms of sugar.  Mom swears by a mix of almonds and Chex party mix for long bike rides.  For the spinathon, I would go with dried fruit and nuts, banana and orange slices, or the party mix.....Also, you could run Cliff Mojo bars (Peanut Butter Pretzel) by your nutritionist. They are dairy free, fairly low GI, and not too sweet-tasting--one of the few commercial products I can actually get down without gagging as I'm also hyper-sensitive to sugary tastes. For your HM, I would suggest trying the same foods on long runs and seeing what works best. I personally don't eat when I run but this is very individual--I'm lightweight and running about 7-min pace so probably need less fuel than a larger runner or someone who's out there longer.

As for beverages, nuun has some artificial sweetener that doesn't seem to affect my gut the way Gatorade and other drinks do. Some of the flavors (Citrus, Orange Ginger) taste less sweet than others. Or you can just drink diluted fruit juice, maybe with a pinch of salt if you're not eating salty snacks. Adding a little salt to fresh fruit or juice is popular here in SE Asia and probably helps local people keep their electrolytes balanced. Hope this is useful info--it has been extensively "field-tested"!

Edited by Hot Runner 2011-02-07 7:05 AM

Hot runner, that is especially helpful, thank you, and thanks to everyone for their suggestions.  I realized yesterday that Lara bars are gluten free, mostly nuts and fruit, and though they aren't exactly low sugar I don't think they will spike me too much.  I will go to the Ironman store and check out Heed and Nuun, too.  I will also try calling the nutritionist and seeing if she will give me some info over the phone.

I was going to point out Lara Bars too.  They are free of everything apparently.  Got to wonder what they make them out OF with nothing in them...

I think if I was on such a complicated diet I'd lose a lot of weight. As in TOO much of it.

I'm sure glad I can eat anything palatable. How can you find any energy left to exercise on when you have to spend so much of it just tracking down food you are allowed to eat?

I'd think stuff like fresh fruit and veggies would be okay, but I am NOT up on the whole Glycemic Index thing...

-eric

Honestly, this is the biggest connundrum I've had with the diet so far.  The nutritionist gave me a sheet with categories of food that are more nuanced than the basic four food groups and a listing of many samples of what constitutes a serving of that category.  So I am to have daily 3 servings of concentrated protein, 1 serving of legumes, 1 serving of nuts/seeds, unlimited servings of "Category 1 Vegetables" (cruciferous stuff, basically), 1 serving of "Category 2 Vegetables" (basically, the more sugary orange veggies and potatoes), 1 gluten-free grain, 4 good fats/oils.  We also walked through what time of day to eat each thing, and have a general plan but it's flexible.  It's just choose one from column A, two from column B kind of thing, and I've figured out over the past 2 months some simple, easy ways to hit those categories.  It's not perfect, and I don't follow it perfectly.  It's forced me to cut out a lot of convenience foods and just eat more whole foods, basically.  The trick is to focus on what I can eat -- lots of veggies, brown rice and quinoa, lean meats.