Ten Easy Steps to Teaching Your Indoor Cycling Class About Nutrition – Part 4: Hydration

Consider the following facts:

* Your speed on a bike decreases about 2% for each 1% of body weight lost through dehydration

* By the time you feel thirsty, you can already be at 2% body weight loss

* A 3% weight loss indicates dehydration has occurred

* Loss of fluid during exercise varies, but averages about 34 ounces per hour (3x that much in hot and humid conditions!)

* Hyponatremia, which is just as dangerous as dehydration, is a term used to describe “water intoxication” and can occur with excess water intake

* Acclimatized individuals who are used to training in hot climates or hot rooms can reduce fluid loss by up to 50%

Based on these facts, it would pretty important to make sure your indoor cycling class knows all about proper water intake.

After you’ve introduced the facts above, teach your class the proper formulas and rules for determining regular daily hydration and exercise hydration:
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Ten Easy Steps to Teaching Your Indoor Cycling Class About Nutrition – Part 3: Fat

As you read through this series, remember that the goal is to give you basics of a simple way to teach your indoor cycling class about nutrition – and it is not meant to be a complete primer or university equivalent of Nutrition 101! This means that you can feel free to put your own spin on the information if you want to add more for your class. For example, if you’re into more plant-based protein sources, tell your class about hemp and flax seeds, quinoa, nuts and rice protein. If you are more a paleo-type, introduce them to healthy beef jerky, lamb, or cold-water fish. You can also include discussions about omega-3 eggs, greek yogurt, whey protein and other dairy based sources.

Speaking of omega-3’s, this article is going to cover the essentials of fat!

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Ten Easy Steps to Teaching Your Indoor Cycling Class About Nutrition – Part 2: Protein

Now that you have a good idea of how to teach your indoor cycling class about the basics of carbohydrates and performance, let’s move into the next logical macronutrient: protein.

You’d be surprised at the number of people in your class who have only a very basic understand of protein, and often simply think that it is derived from meat and should be eaten with dinner.

Begin your discussion of protein with an explanation of what proteins actually are: vital components of every organ and action within the human body, without which we would simply cease to function. In the absence of proper nutritional building blocks for protein, the human body will cannibalize it’s own lean muscle mass and organs, and experience a weakened immune system, poor performance, and inadequate recovery and fitness response. Proteins are comprised of amino acids – many of which the body cannot make on it’s own unless complete proteins are present in the diet.

But it’s a myth that you need to get your complete protein from meat.

Read more…

How does diet soda make you fat?

How does a beverage that has zero calories make you fat?

My mother was addicted to diet sodas, she often drank more than a 6-pack a day of Tab (ugh, ever drink that? Abominable!) or Diet Pepsi when I was growing up. She was one of those women who lived their lives on a diet, and was never really very successful at it. I always wondered how she could consume so much “diet” soda and still be overweight  - after watching this video I now know. My mother passed away a few years ago of COPD and other poor-health issues, all of which were preventable. I established an early disgust for these diet sodas as well as for dieting. Just the smell of the chemicals alone in a diet coke turn me off. The only time I ever drink a regular soda is, funny enough, while on a very long bike ride when it’s very hot. Maybe two a year. Perhaps my body is craving the sugar.

How about you? Do you rationalize that the calorie-free “diet” beverage you’re drinking is “healthier” than a regular soda? At WSSC and other fitness conferences, it’s amazing how many people, women and men alike, have a diet soda in their hands.

This video is eye-opening from many standpoints of nutrition, not just the diet soda.

No diet soda for you? You prefer the real thing? Then watch this video…I think you’ll drop that habit quickly and make sure a coke never passes your or your children’s lips again!

Ahh, the fresh clean, clear taste of H2O is sooooooooo wonderful!

ICI Podcast #82 – Meet Ben Greenfield our newest ICI/PRO Team Member

Ben Greenfield is our newest ICI/PRO Team Contributor. Through his new RockStar Triathlete Academy, Ben has promised to help me with my training for the three Multi-Sport events I have committed to this summer.

Besides all of his education and experience as a competitive endurance athlete Ben is an Indoor Cycling Instructor just like us. He knows how to use a Spinning Indoor Cycling class to train for competitive endurance events and how to build a class that focuses on training (what I call Indoor Cycling 2.0). You can learn more about Ben here.

Listen to the Podcast below or subscribe for free using iTunes or Zune.
[audio:http://indoorcycleinstructor.com.s3.amazonaws.com/082_Ben_Greenfield.mp3]

Update: I’m joining Ben Greenfield’s Triathlon Rock Star Triathlete Academy as I train for my first Triathlon. John

FREE TACOS !!

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It worked for Subway so now Taco Bell has launched their “Drive-Thru Diet” complete with a spokesperson who supposedly lost 54 pounds eating at Taco Bell. What began with Subway Jared will be continued by Drive-Thru Christine.

As you know, the Drive-Thru Diet® menu is not a weight-loss program. It’s about making different choices. For me, I didn’t want to cut out my fast food so I started choosing Fresco items from the Drive-Thru Diet® menu and making other sensible choices. I reduced my daily calorie and fat intake by 500 calories to 1250 calories a day, and, after two years, I ended up losing 54 pounds! These results aren’t typical, but for me they were fantastic!

I’m guessing that 100% of the participants in your class are there for some form of weight management. You may want to recommend to your class that if they really want to reduce their weight they should consider; packing their own lunch with healthful food, eating it as multiple small meals and then take a walk (or better an Indoor Cycling class) over lunch. Here’s the link for the free taco.

ICIP Podcast #3 – What to eat?

Monday’s I’m up at 4:30 to teach my 5:45am cycling class. Many mornings the last thing I want to do is eat something, although I know I probably should. My club has a lot of smart people so I asked our nutritionist, Tyler Young, her thoughts on what all us early spinners should be eating before, during and after our Indoor cycling classes…

If you have additional questions, post a comment and I’ll have Tyler respond.

Listen to it here or click the iTunes button to the right to subscribe.

Listen to the show below

[audio:http://indoorcycleinstructor.com.s3.amazonaws.com/003_ICIP_What_To_Eat.mp3]

We are trying something a little different; the music plays in the background for the whole Podcast. Do you like it this way? Post a comment and let me know.