Proper Nutrition

That would mean no fruit. Yep, no fruit unless fermented

So, no fruit but alcohol is ok? lol if it's dry

I don't know what everyone else uses, but I swear by E3Live http://www.e3live.com/, which is what I use in place of vitamins. When I stick to it, I don't get sick, and I have noticeably more energy. Otherwise, you'll get a variety of answers (no fat, no carbs, no gluten, fat, carbs, gluten), so it's probably a trial and error thing until you find what works for you.

I used to rarely cook. Proper nutrition was an archilles heel for me. We ate out all the time. But we are on the eve of completing our kitchen remodel, and suddenly I have cooked every meal since 02/20/15 except two (husband's taco night and leftover night). I do think it has made a pronounced effect on the overall improvement in nutritional value (anything would, over fast food and quasi-fast food!) and eventually the budget as well. Rather than give specific meal plans, I have a "solution" to the dilemma of youngsters in the house - or essentially how to accommodate YOUR eating with competing family needs. Here is the rule we set up: NO ONE COMPLAINS TO THE COOK! A meal for the FAMILY means you may not like everything that is put on the table. As the main cook, I try to vary the meal each day so you may really like some things one day, and not like things on other days. If you don't cook, you don't get to complain. (This was in response to Day 2, 02/21 when the girls said they don't want steak, husband said he didn't want fish or chicken. I blew up and yelled NO ONE COMPLAINS! WE EAT EVERYTHING! YOU ONLY COMPLAIN IF IT'S SPOILED! Everyone got the point and have been all compliments since then.) This point was immediately accepted since we already employ it on FAMILY vacations. No one complains they have to sightsee instead of going to the beach. We will hit some of the things you want to do, but someone else wants to go look at pictures of naked women in a museum. Stop complaining. I use allreceipes.com. You can get the nutritional value with the recipe! My husband thinks if I made something up, it won't taste good. So I don't argue with him about it, and print out the recipe and put it prominently where he can see that I am following an independent 3rd party so therefore it must taste good. I try to plan out 1/2 the week at a time, and that helps in varying the diet plus hitting common sense nutrition requirements. I don't believe above this that I need a Michael Phelpsian diet to perform well as a masters athlete.

Yep, no fruit unless fermented So, no fruit but alcohol is ok? lol

It's very simple. Avoid any type of sugar and include raw vegetables with at least two of the meals (lettuce doesn't count as it provides little nutrition). If you can't maintain your weight, add more calories. if you need to lose weight, either burn more or eat less. If you are loosing muscle strength, either consume more protein or burn less fuel

It's very simple. Avoid any type of sugar That would mean no fruit.

I don't know what everyone else uses, but I swear by E3Live http://www.e3live.com/, which is what I use in place of vitamins. When I stick to it, I don't get sick, and I have noticeably more energy. Otherwise, you'll get a variety of answers (no fat, no carbs, no gluten, fat, carbs, gluten), so it's probably a trial and error thing until you find what works for you. How long does a bottle of that E3 stuff last you?

I don't know what everyone else uses, but I swear by E3Live http://www.e3live.com/, which is what I use in place of vitamins. When I stick to it, I don't get sick, and I have noticeably more energy. Otherwise, you'll get a variety of answers (no fat, no carbs, no gluten, fat, carbs, gluten), so it's probably a trial and error thing until you find what works for you. Thank you for your post. I appreciate your answer, but as I've mentioned in my initial post I don't believe in supplements and generally I am against them. I don't mean your approach is wrong or you're doing something wrong, however I do believe that manufacturers of such supplements are either overpraise their products' qualities or they might use components (sometimes without clearly specifying it) that are prohibited or going to be prohibited in competitive sports. For an example I saw thread throughout this forum dated 2002 where participants were discussing about use of the creatine to improve their performance, which was not prohibited (or may still not be, I am not quite sure) at that time. But when I googled about Creatine, I saw a research by Institute of Biochemistry at German Sports University in Koeln about Creatine's effect on one's performance, which at the end states that this substance gives certain advantage to its user. Here is the link: www.doping-info.de/.../00_cre01.PDF Based on above mentioned and According to Rules of Ethics of IOC: use of an expedient, which is potentially harmful to the health of an athlete (creatine is harmful) and/or capable of enhancing performance is considered as doping. Therefore as of this writing we cannot be 100% confident that even considered as harmless Multi-vitamines or other supplements that are advertised on the market do not contain potentially dangerous substance either for health or prohibition. So I genuinly believe that sticking on traditional food is the best choice, until FINA comes up publishing a list of supplements' manufacturers and provide certain guarantees, which I am sure 100% will never ever happen. So all in all lets get to post meal recipes suitable for active swimmers.