Athlo Blog

Smoothies are the simplest way to cram tons healthy foods into a great tasting drink. They take minutes to make so you can easily incorporate them into your daily nutrition routine. All you need is a blender.

This particular smoothie only requires four ingredients:

• 5-6 frozen strawberries
• 1 whole banana
• 8 oz of orange juice
• 3 oz of strawberry yogurt

Put all ingredients into the blender and blend for about 20 seconds. The strawberry banana smoothie is a great way to start your morning. You can experiment with other fruits and yogurts as well. I’ll post more of my favorite smoothie recipes in the future.

Nutrition Information:

Calories 395;  Fat 1.25g;  Carbohydrates 93g;  Sugar 70g;  Potassium 1380mg

Interesting Fact:

Frozen concentrate orange juice has double the calories of regular, 100% orange juice.

It’s no secret that runners need to consume more calories than non-runners. Physical exertion uses energy and that energy comes from calories in food. But, did you also know that runners need more protein than non-runners as well?

The USDA’s Daily Recommended Allowance of protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. 1 kilogram is 2.2 pounds and I weigh about 180 pounds so I should be consuming 65 grams of protein a day (180/2.2 * 0.8 = 65). However, a study by the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) states that runners need 1.4 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day. I consider myself a runner (check my Athlo calendar if you want to confirm!), which means I need 115 to 163 grams of protein a day. That seems like a lot of protein, probably more than I am currently getting.

The reason runners need more protein is because with every footstrike, a runner is carrying approximately 2 to 7 times their own body weight on that leg. Over the course of a long run muscles and tissues can break down. Protein is what keeps your body healthy under all that strain. Protein intake accelerates muscle growth and speeds recovery by helping rebuild muscle fibers. Because protein helps muscles heal faster, runners who consume the right amount are less likely to get injured.

My recommendation is to calculate your protein requirement based on the ISSN’s guidance of 1.4 to 2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day (you can average the two if you want to be more specific) and then start gauging how much protein you intake each day. Here is a list of the foods most people eat normally but with the amount of protein in each:  

Beef

• Hamburger patty, 4 oz – 28 grams protein
• Steak, 6 oz – 42 grams

Chicken

Make sure you space out your protein consumption throughout the day. Your body isn’t capable of handling your entire daily recommended amount in one meal. Also try to minimize the amount of fat you eat when you are having a high protein meal. Fat can interfere with the rate at which your body absobs protein.