Your preffered source of carbs

Fruits and vegetables?

Morning - Oatmeal w/ sunflower seeds (raw), raisins, and/or other dried fruit.

During Workout - nothing and/or watered down gatorade powder (1/3-1/2 strength) -  Powergels.

After workout - Chocoloate milk (soy due to lactose intolerance) or whey protein/frozen berry smoothie.

During the day - Fruits and Veggies.

I tend to consume lots of bananas and peanut butter. Before races, I go for WW pasta, but I've been avoiding it during training.  

Why avoid pasta while training??


And i don't normally buy fruits or vegetables because they tend to be much more expensive (college student).  Corn tortillas and lean ground turkey are stupid cheap   Oh and i forgot, i do make my own salsa, but i don't think i eat enough to quantify as eating "fruits and veggies".


I also forgot to mention i eat oatmeal every morning.  But i'm getting pretty tired of that stuff...

Edited by funkyd04 2009-06-23 2:09 PM

Without citing sources, the idea of "carbo-loading" never really panned out.

Increasing glycogen is a small, incremental process - not something you can cram in a meal or a day.
(One hour after strenuous exercise being the exception.)

If you are in major caloric debt, a large pasta meal will give an amount of glycogen renewal (like any other "better" carb source).... then the excess triggers a sharp insulin spike and needs to be converted into something else--- like fat.

Even though I am not diabetic, both of my parents are...  so I am a little more in tune with my blood sugar than your average person.



If money is an issue, regular pasta is just fine.

However, consider thinking of it as a side dish of a balanced meal, not the main foundation.

For fruits and veggies, try to buy what is in season - farm stands or markets when possible.

I was broke when I lived in Cambridge, MA.

I could buys a weeks worth of seasonal stuff at Haymarket when compared to the cost of one meal of something out-of-season shipped from South America at your average supermarket.

I actually ate much healthier when I was broke.

Have you ever had quinoa (pronounced keen-wah)? It's kind of like rice. It's a complex carbohydrate with a complete protein (includes all 9 essential amino acids) - really a wonder food. Most people think it's a grain but it's really a seed that cooks up like a grain. You can use it just like rice in dishes like stirfrys, salads, soups or casseroles.

Hmm thats a really good tip.  THanks man. 

Too late to edit... post should have read, "Unless you are in a large calorie debt..."

Funky --- where do you live?

I ask because the best way to get cheap, healthy food is to look at where the poor immigrant communities in your town get their food.

For me in Cambridge, it was the Brazilian Immigrants.
I could get chicken at the local Brazilian butcher shop (and, yes, it takes a certain stomach to buy at a mom & pop immigrant butcher) for about 1/4 the price of the supermarket.

Here, the local asian and/or mexican markets sell some of the same things you can get at a commercial supermarket for ridiculous mark downs.

Instead of having a meal in mind, build a meal off of what is in season and on sale.

Bulk Brown rice, canned or bulk bean/lentils, and in-season veggies are both healthy and cheap.

I live in San Antonio, Texas.  There is a chain of mexican meat markets, called 'Culebra Meat Market'  that has meats for a little cheaper than the walmart or HEB.  Almost all of their meats marinate in some kind of juice.... it makes the red meats red, and the white meats whiter.  I think there is dye in it....

All their produce looks old.  I'm scared to buy it.

Not to hijack, but all meats in your grocery store have "dyes" and preservatives to make them look more appetizing. If they didn't, you'd be buying meat that looked like it was rotting. Because it is.

/sorry!

 

o.  Well the meat there looks.....  really red.... like highlighter red... i dunno man it doesn't look natural at all.

I second Quinoa. Stuff is great.

Quinoa is AWESOME!! I make mine tex-mex with black beans and spices! 

I get most of my carbs from fruits and vegetables. I rarely eat pasta/rice/etc.  I do have toast every morning - but otherwise bread isn't overly common for me either.

Bananas, fantastic recovery fruit, high carbs, great sodium and potassium, silly cheap, 8 bananas cost you less than $3.
Beans, my lunches for 5 days of the week cost $10 or less TOTAL!

1 can soy beans
1 can chick peas
1 can garbazo beans
1 green pepper
1 onion
1 tomato
1 can black olives sliced
Mix it all together add about 1/4 to 1/2 bottle sundried tomato dressing, mix well and dish up for five containers.  Sits great in the fridge all week, great protein, carbs, fibre and fats.
So cheap to make.
I also cut up one small chili pepper, and spread it among the five containers, they are about .49 cents or so.

Between my bean salad, bananas, bagels, tortillas, fruits and other veg, Peas so cheaps, so good for you, I barely use potatoes or rice or pasta.

white rice.

25lb bag at the asian supermarket for like $18 (it used to be $15)