That's it! No more junk food! .. Now what do I eat?

Survey your diet. What's the biggest source of empty calories? Eliminate it completely. For me, empty calories tend to come mostly from soft drinks. I am basically unable to lose weight while I drink them. (It doesn't help that the stuff is free where I work.) I didn't write down the date, but I've been soft-drink-free for about three or four weeks now. It's a relatively easy change to make for me. When I want something cold to drink I grab a glass of water or a can of seltzer. That way I get the psychological effect of the cold drink in my hand without the calories. While you won't drop weight as quickly with small changes to your diet, you will probably be able to stick with those changes longer. Skip

What Jazz said. Eat less if you think you need to lose weight, more if you're losing it without even trying. Without in any way dismissing the benefits of healthy eating, I bet you'll see speed improvements faster from technique improvements or changing up your training methods. Do you have a coach?

Survey your diet. What's the biggest source of empty calories? Eliminate it completely. Good rule Also, include fresh fruits and vegetables at least 3x a day. Maintain adequate protein levels Avoid stuff that doesn't agree My favorite veg is mustard greens, seems to make me feel good.

Maybe all the diet ideas are good, but I am totally with QBrain on this one. You are really working your body to the max - even if you are only 18 years old, if you want a fast swim, you will taper off on your other activities prior to your big meet. Especially the weights. 18 workouts a week? Please!

Jazz and Qbrain are spot on. First: You train a lot. You need fuel! Junk food once a week does not equate to a poor meet performance, unless you eat it like 1 hour before you race. How "junk" are we talking here anyway? Fast food gets a bad wrap. A "Big Mac" is actually a reasonably well balanced meal with vegies, starch and protein. The junk part is too much fat and salt, but with 16 workouts per week I suspect you can handle the extra fat. Second: You train a lot. You need rest. Do like Q says and get some rest before your next meet(s). How is that better-splitting thing going? I'm really sure there is a lot of time to be gained there.

Food doesn't sound like your problem. Currently I train 16 times a week (6 times swimming, 5 times low weight lifting, and 5 times just messing around playing sports like basketball). However that might change quickly to 18 times a week if I decide to run about 5k every Saturday and Sunday That does. Before your next meet, cut out the weight lifting and messing around for a week or two. There is no magic diet.

I was just wondering any specific foods I should consume since I'm working out a lot. I think what most of the previos posters are trying to say is that there are not specific foods you should be eating. In my opinion, you would be best off taking the advice of those who are advocating a well-balanced diet with a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. I follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of the time, I eat a well-balanced diet of lean, healthy proteins like fish and chicken, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and non-fat dairy, such as yogurt. The other 20%? CHOCOLATE :bliss:. If you like fast food, then treat yourself to it once in awhile; just not before a meet. Of course, there are healthy fast food options, such as wraps and salads, but if you want a burger, save it for your post-meet celebration. According to webmd.com (a reputable medical website, according to Consumer Reports), these are the "superfoods" you should eat regularly in your diet: Beans Blueberries Broccoli Oats Oranges Pumpkin Salmon Soy Spinach Tea (green or black) Tomatoes Turkey Walnuts Yogurt So, if specific suggestions are what you are after, those are it! :agree:

You might want to check this out: U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums - View Single Post - Ande's Swimming Tips: Swimming Faster Faster Times for my swims (if you need them) can be found here: www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx 'looked at your times. I had never seen this USAS feature before, it's kinda cool. In any event, I don't see the "horrible" results. The last meet recorded you didn't even swim the 200 fr or 500 fr, or did you just neglect to record the times because you thought they were so horrible? In general it looks like your 500 time has been coming down steadily. I have some coments, but I am not a coach, just a guy who likes to swim and think about swimming. A good coach should be able to advise you on training. My comment is that I wonder if 6 swims per week is a little light for a HS swimmer, especially if you swim the 200 and 500. My recollection from the stone age is that we did 10. We did very little with weights though, mostly just pre-season weight sessions. Would you be better served by more swims and fewer weights/xtra? You state that your big meet is in May. You do have a few more weeks to really push hard before taper I would think. I urge you to seek good coaching on this. If you don't have a coach, (or even if you do) you can get good info from ande's SFF and from querying him.

Jazz and Qbrain are spot on. First: You train a lot. You need fuel! Junk food once a week does not equate to a poor meet performance, unless you eat it like 1 hour before you race. How "junk" are we talking here anyway? Fast food gets a bad wrap. A "Big Mac" is actually a reasonably well balanced meal with vegies, starch and protein. The junk part is too much fat and salt, but with 16 workouts per week I suspect you can handle the extra fat. Second: You train a lot. You need rest. Do like Q says and get some rest before your next meet(s). How is that better-splitting thing going? I'm really sure there is a lot of time to be gained there. Yes I do know that I train a lot XD and I do expect some big drops during my taper closer to may. Good to know that fast food has sort of a bad rep. I was just wondering any specific foods I should consume since I'm working out a lot. And splitting at my last meet was a disaster. I added in everything because I went out too slow and couldn't bring it home. I need more endurance :badday:

The last meet which I did not log yet because I don't know the exact time I went a 6:07 in my 500 and a 2:10 in my 200. Last time I swam those I went a 6:02 and a 2:09 and I didn't even feel it! Yesterday I was really going for it, hoping for something around 5:49 and 2:04 but it just didn't happen. Not horrible, off by 0.5s/100 in the 200 and 1s/100 in the 500. Use it as motivation to train smarter/harder, but don't freak out about it. It's not a crisis. ... I could add in one more swim in my schedule, but it's early early saturday morning in a 15 meter pool which just gives me no motivation what so ever :afraid:. I could double up on fridays though I might have to check that out. So maybe 7 swims max It's something to contemplate. One idea is to work on turns in that 15m pool, that's probably more useful than running 5k. Still, I'm just trying to throw ideas out there and encourage you to figure out what makes the most sense. Don't just because I said so, get some real expert advise. ...Jeeze I'm bad at math and I wanna be an engineer?? XDa worthy occupation. Are you off to university in the fall, or another year at HS?