Episode 324: Nutrition and Hydration for Daily Performance - Q&A with Scott Tindal of Fuelin
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Scott Tindal of Fuelin- Co-Founder & Chief Nutrition Officer
Welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast! This week, we're continuing with part two of our Q&A session with Scott Tindal, the co-founder of Fuelin. Fuelin is a personalized sports nutrition coaching program and app for triathletes, and they are our partner and go-to resource for everything related to nutrition, race fueling, and hydration. Scott is a fantastic resource in the world of professional sports and nutrition. As part of Fuelin, he is now helping time-starved amateurs of all levels improve their performance, health, and ultimately the results they achieve - not just in sport, but also in life.
Last week, our questions were focused on race fueling and hydration, specifically for endurance athletes. This week, we are shifting our focus and putting sports-specific nutrition and hydration aside. Instead, we will be asking Scott a series of questions centered on overall life performance. Matt and Scott delve into improving cognitive function and longevity, and how to manage and improve your energy throughout the day to help you show up at your very best in any area of life.
Matt and Scott's discussion covers a wide range of topics, including the importance of breakfast for daily performance, avoiding energy slumps after lunch, proper distribution of macros throughout the day, and essential supplements. Whether you're an athlete preparing for races and training or simply seeking to optimize your nutrition for daily life, this episode provides valuable insights and tips to help you achieve your goals.
Click here for more information on Fuelin and how to better manage your race-day nutrition.
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - 03:22 - Welcome and Episode Introduction
03:30 - 44:39 - The Meat & Potatoes - Episode 324: Nutrition and Hydration for Daily Performance - Q&A with Scott Tindal of Fuelin
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Full Transcript
Matt Dixon 00:00
I'm Matt Dixon and welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere integrate sports into their lives.
Matt Dixon 00:25
Hey folks, today's topic is all about nutrition. We've got a Q&A session with Fuelling’s co-founder Scott Tindal. And yes, nutrition is one of the key foundational elements for you to drive to a platform of health and high performance. But how do you know how to focus on the right elements? Well, of course, you take a look inside. By leveraging Inside Tracker and assessing your biometrics, and then combining them with the peer-reviewed research, recommendations, and action plan from the team of scientists at Inside Tracker, you get to filter your focus on the stuff that's going to be beneficial for you. And so just go to insidetracker.com/purplepatch, use the code purplepatchpro20, and you can put some intention behind your habits to super fuel and ignite your platform of health and readiness to perform. I hope that helps. Today's a cracker. Enjoy the show.
Matt Dixon 01:26
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast as ever, your host, Matt Dixon, and folks, part two today. If you missed last week's show, head back because we had a fantastic Q&A session with the co-founder of Fuelin, our nutrition partners. His name is Scott Tindal. He's a wonderful resource in the world of professional sports and nutrition, and now, as a part of Fuelin, he is helping time-starved amateurs and amateurs of all levels improve their performance, health, and ultimately the results they get, not just in sport but also in life. And last week, we did a cracking show that was a bunch of questions around race fueling and hydration, so it was one for endurance athletes. Today, we're going to shift our focus a little bit. We're going to put sports-specific stuff to the side, and instead, today we've got a series of questions that we're getting ready to ask Scott that are all about life performance. So cognitive function, longevity, managing and improving your energy throughout the day, and showing up your very best in any arena in life. It's everything under the banner, or, as I'm calling it, life performance. And we've got some cracking questions. I even asked Scott how you're supposed to navigate those business dinners where there's kind of that societal pressure to maybe have a couple of glasses of wine. He's got some great perspective. He's a wonderful resource, and it's a lot of fun. You're going to enjoy the show today. We're not doing Coach's Corner. We are going straight into the meat and potatoes, and we can drive the wagons to put Scott on the hot seat. If you want to find out more about Fuelin, it's very simple: head to fuelin.com/purplepatch, which has all the information. You can reach out to the team directly. A host of Purple Patch athletes leverage their services, and you can too. Alrighty, without further ado, I give you the meat and potatoes.
Matt Dixon 03:30
All right, folks, meat, and potatoes, and once again, I welcome back my good mate, founder, and co-founder of Fuelin Scott Tindal. Welcome back once again.
Scott Tindal 03:40
Good day, Matty. Thanks for having me again.
Matt Dixon 03:42
I very much enjoyed last week. If you missed last week, listeners, it's a do-not-miss, particularly if you're an endurance athlete. We went through some questions, some quick-fire rapid questions, and we ended up getting pretty deep into everything around or under the umbrella of race fueling and hydration. And so if you're interested in that, I recommend you go back and listen to last week's show. This week, we're going to cut that off. We're not going to talk about race, fueling, or hydration. We're going to talk about fuel for life. We're going to talk about daily performance. I don't know if you have a cute banner or title for that, but let's call it a daily performance. It's also a huge topic, by the way, for athletes, and I think it's often the forgotten part, but of course, it's critical. So this is for people showing up better in life, and we've got a great list of questions from our purple patch athletes as well as our listeners to this show that has been trickling in over the last six to eight weeks. So we thought, Well, we've got to get the man on himself, and we've got to ask. So if your seatbelt is locked and loaded, are you ready to go, captain?
Scott Tindal 04:50
Yeah, let's do it.
Matt Dixon 04:51
All right, I'm just going to fire them off. Okay, we've got, uh, six or seven of these questions that we're going to go through, and we'll -- you and I can both be, uh, wordy, but let's see if we can be succinct and to the point, and this one's, this was a great one. I love starting with crackers, and it's one of my favorites because it's a really common question that I get, and that's why I tend to get an energy slump right after lunch. So there's a person, not specifically an athlete, who knows who this is, but I'm not going to tell them. But are there any nutrition or hydration suggestions to try and fix that big energy slump that makes it hard to work and be productive when I'm in the state?
Scott Tindal 05:32
Yeah, it's an interesting question. Probably first and foremost, nothing to do with nutrition or hydration is to get up and get active, like, just do some air squats, get the blood pumping, and do some push-ups. I have a good friend who started, like, a little push-up competition in their office. Whenever anyone got a little bit tired, they'd drop down and give 10. And it's amazing what that does when you're just sitting in front of your screen and you've eaten a meal, and especially if that meal's been a bit carb-heavy, then you can get that bit of a slump because you'll get a rise in blood sugars. You'll get your insulin kicked in. That will drop that down. That's natural. That's going to happen; that's expected. And then, when you're sitting down, you're probably going to feel a bit of lethargy. So get up, go for a walk, grab some stairs, go to the bubbler, fill up your water bottle, and come back to your desk. You might find that instantly you're feeling a little bit better. So I'd probably go with that first and foremost. Now that could be the only thing I would say: maybe that energy slump relates to not having breakfast, especially if that carbohydrate meal was very big for that first meal of the day, having not had breakfast, and I know there. I think there is a question coming up that I glanced over that relates to breakfast, so it might be a good segue into that.
Matt Dixon 06:54
It will Yeah, I just want to regurgitate—pardon the pun there—but, because you spot like that, get the body moving. I think that's great. I agree with that. And I like, by the way, having lunch and then going for a walk. It's really good. It's important for hydration, like getting some fluids in there and getting the body moving. And then I just want to ask one little follow-up question because can you just explain one more time to people who don't understand the insulin response and what it is as a response to rising blood glucose? You talked about maybe eating a heavy carb. So imagine someone eating a big sandwich. What happens there in pretty simple terms, or at least as succinctly as you can? It's worth it. I think listeners understand what's going on a little bit.
Scott Tindal 07:44
Yeah. I mean, you're eating carbohydrates; carbohydrates broken down into their simplest form is glucose, which can cause some increases in blood sugars. As people want to think about it, your little pancreas will squeeze out some insulin, which will then result in blood sugars coming down again, simplifying it, and pushing those blood sugars, you know, back into the muscle, into the liver. And that is a normal response. And I think this is the problem with things like these continuous glucose monitors: people might eat a sandwich and see that level go up, that little line, and think, holy hell, that's not good. I'm pre-diabetic or something. It's like, no, no. Going up and coming down is a normal response. That's fantastic. Don't panic. That's what happens when you eat carbohydrates. It's a normal response. If it stays elevated for two hours or more after you eat that meal, Okay, maybe you do have an issue now, but if it comes down within those two hours after eating, that is a normal response, so please don't panic if you are wearing a CGM. CGMS was created for pre-diabetic or diabetic people, not necessarily athletes or people who have a healthy body weight and are in good health.
Matt Dixon 09:02
Perfect. Great, great, great addition there. Thank you very much. Question two: You knew it was coming; it was great, and I was so glad my ears pricked up when you mentioned breakfast because the next question is exactly that: how important is breakfast for daily performance and energy? I'm not a big fan of breakfast and often wait until mid-morning or even lunch before I eat. This is an incredibly common question that I get, and in addition, I obviously observe a lot of media talking about the benefits of intermittent fasting and fasting and narrowing the eating window, people getting up and not having any calories until make it up four o'clock in the afternoon. So how important is breakfast for daily performance and energy?
Scott Tindal 09:54
Yeah, I mean, look again at the context, and there are caveats around all of this stuff. It's not black and white, as most people think. I would like to believe it. You know, there's the breakfast camp, and there's the no-breakfast camp, the fasting camp, as you say. I think first and foremost, fasting is a tool in the toolkit. If it allows you to consume fewer calories across the day and your goal is to lose body weight or body fat, then potentially, if you consume a lower amount of calories in that small window in the afternoon, before early evening, yes, that could be beneficial. Again. The caveat to that is that if that first meal of the day contains carbohydrates, then your response to those carbohydrates is going to be greater than that of someone who ate carbohydrates for breakfast in the morning. So if blood glucose control, being pre-diabetic, and things like that are potentially something that you're concerned about, then a breakfast meal would be something to recommend and do. The other part to consider is if you are doing training in the morning. Now I'm not talking about a walk or maybe even a 30-minute run. But if you're doing a decent amount of training, let's say 60 minutes or more, then I would not be recommending that you do that training and then, following a time-restricted or intermittent fasting protocol, do your training in the afternoon, when you've got some fuel in and around the body to help with prepping you and recovering; otherwise, you're doing all this training and you're potentially just breaking down. And yes, in the short term, you might feel better, but what is it doing over a long period, which ultimately is what you have to do anyway, to adapt and also get consistent weight loss? So there's sort of a list of a list of those points to think about. Yeah, that's probably where I'd leave it, to be honest.
Matt Dixon 11:47
Yeah, it's great. I mean, context is everything, and, you know, it's very, very different an approach to a pre-diabetic or diabetic type person as it relates to then trying to apply a similar principle to a training athlete. It just doesn't correlate at all.
Scott Tindal 12:06
And that's, Matty, that is such a good point, because what you're getting in the media is cherry-picking some information about a study. Now, what they often don't highlight is who the participants were in that study. They were probably middle-aged, pre-diabetic, obese, or overweight individuals with some health issues. And yes, going time-restricted or intermittent fasting may help that type of cohort. We're not talking about someone who is actively involved in a structured training session trying to do better at, say, a triathlon or a marathon or a swimming event or a cycling event; that's a very different perspective and needs to be considered by the athlete and the coach. When you're talking to the athlete about that, and you know if you're doing swimming or weights first thing in the morning and then not eating either before or after that, that, in my opinion, and I'm pretty sure, supported by the majority of the scientific community, means that you're probably doing yourself a disservice, and certainly, over several weeks, you're probably going to have some negative consequences as a result of that. So again, the context is so specific. When you do read any of these articles or even abstracts around literature that you might read in PubMed, go into the study and have a look at who the participants were. How many of them? What were their What were their characteristics? I think it is probably important. Does it relate to you as an individual? Because if they're all 65 and obese, and you're 30 years of age and not obese and training for an Ironman, maybe there's a little bit of difference there. And maybe what is being applied should be thought about.
Matt Dixon 13:58
I think it's a critical perspective there, and we don't want to go too far down this rabbit hole, but. But there are certainly performance experts out there on podcasts, etc. that are straying into having tendencies to do that, drawing from it and drawing conclusions to support their arguments. We will not name names, but unfortunately, that does happen quite a bit. There's potentially ignoring a wealth of research, pulling one in a study to help them make the point that they want to make. But we won't go down that rabbit hole. We're going to go on to the next thing. Okay, this is an interesting one. I think this is, and there may be more than one thing here, but this person's interesting and interested in maximizing their daily energy. So this is less of an athlete. This is another person that I know who asked me this question. So, what are the number one or two things that I can do to focus on my daily nutrition if I want to maximize daily energy? How should I go about this less athletically? This person's active, I'll give you that.
Scott Tindal 15:15
Well, look, the number one thing to focus on for daily nutrition is consistency. I think what needs to be applied to this question is: is understanding daily energy important? Is this athlete or individual trying to lose body weight and body fat? Because if that is the case, then also mindset comes into play. Because if you are going to try and lose weight or lose body fat, you're going to have to be in a calorie deficit for some time—not necessarily a long period, but a period. And with that, there is probably going to be some diminished performance and maybe some lower energy. And so I think understanding that, accepting that, and embracing that to a degree is an important part of that focus. Now I know that's controversial because people were like, Oh, you're suggesting that people should just get comfortable being hungry. I'm not saying that, but I think you need to put it back to what you are trying to achieve and just accept that, like, you're not going to smash out PBs on threshold sessions that Matty gives you if you are in a calorie deficit; that's just going to be given. It's not saying that you can't do those threshold sessions. It's just accepting that maybe performance might be a little bit lower than if you were carved up to your eyeballs. And so, I think that is important to understand. So the mindset is probably number one, and then consistency around what you're doing to maximize, you know, your adherence and your energy around that nutrition, that's what I would be saying.
Matt Dixon 16:54
And is there anything else? This person is not looking for body composition changes. They're pretty stable. They're just hoping to stabilize energy during the day, so they're sitting at their desk. Is there anything that they can do that would help with that?
Scott Tindal 17:08
Yeah, well, I mean, then it comes back to whether they are potentially under-consuming total energy and total calories because they aren't concerned about body composition or losing weight, but they're not matching their energy requirements for the work that you're potentially prescribing to them. So then you want to look at that, are you under-doing the energy? And is that the reason why they're feeling a little bit of a lull and low energy? Come back to question number one: where, you know, do you get that mid-afternoon slump? Okay, how active are they in the afternoon, after eating? Do they go for a short walk? Do they do just a couple of push-ups or squats? Does that suddenly make them better? What's their caffeine consumption? And then sleep? How is their sleep, I think, always and again, is sleep nutrition? Nutrition certainly impacts sleep. Sleep impacts nutrition. How is their sleep, and is their sleep optimized to manage their day-to-day, sort of energy and output? And so it's multifaceted. I think that is probably the most important point about this. And to ask, you know, what is the one thing you can do? No, I don't; I don't believe there is one thing. I think you've got to look at the puzzle of an individual, and for that individual to sort of look at their puzzle and say, Well, okay, total energy we cover. So what is your nutrition? Are you taking in enough to sustain what you're trying to achieve? Is your sleep on point? Seven to nine hours. Okay, fine, a minimum of seven. But are you working hard and training hard? Maybe the minimum is eight or nine hours of sleep. And then the last thing is, how is your training? Is your training consistent? Is it full of lots of high-intensity training, or is there a good balance between low and high, are you able to get enough recovery between sessions with your sleep and with your nutrition? So that's probably where I sit with that. It's probably a convoluted answer, but...
Matt Dixon 19:12
I have to say, I'm quite glad that you answered it like that, which was almost a refusal to answer it. So far as giving me the one thing, because it's exactly this I was explaining to somebody today that might resonate with you, where we were talking about all of the sorts of components that go into building what I like to call a performance base layer. So, in other words, a platform of health and daily readiness to go and do whatever you want. Okay, showing up with good energy, ready to perform, and saying it is like a fabric woven together of all of these parts. In other words, if we just quickly identify them, like your movement, your strength training, your sleep, your hydration, your daily eating habits, and your fueling, all of these components. You can't just think about them as mutually exclusive. They all contribute together to create this robust fabric. And so you have to go on a journey of transformation, ultimately, that takes time to work out where, ultimately, pardon the pun, once again, getting your recipe right, in all of these areas. So I'm really glad that that sort of bubbled up for me, because you sort of started to bring in sleep, and how that interacts with nutrition is exactly right. This all comes together. So it's a great answer that we're going to move on so we can get through all of these. I have three questions to go; they're compelling stuff so far. So let's go. This is another interesting one. This one's, um, I think a little bit more of a simple answer. Does it matter how I distribute my macros, your macros being, for listeners, your proteins, your fats, and your carbohydrates? Does it matter how I distribute them throughout the day, as long as I'm getting what I need in total over a day?
Scott Tindal 21:05
It's a great question, and probably something we've talked about more recently, because there's been some interesting studies coming out, especially around protein. So I think, as a hierarchy, if we're talking about principles, yeah, total amounts, total calories, and total macronutrients are the most important things an athlete should be focusing on. Now, when it comes down to spreading them out, the old thinking, especially if we talk about protein, in particular, protein, was pulsing it out throughout the day because that maximizes muscle protein synthesis and the ability to gain lean tissue, or at least maintain it. More recently, there have been some cool studies where they overfed with large amounts of protein, say 100 grams of protein in a single meal, versus, say, 25, and I think even 40. And what it showed was that that very large bolus, or that large amount of protein, actually had very positive effects across the course of the day. And so what it now redefines is, if you want to eat a huge amount of protein early on in the day, you could do that. The caveat to this is that if you try and eat, you know, 100 grams of protein—that's probably what—500 grams of chicken breast in the morning, again, practically, not very likely. Are you going to do it all with a whey protein supplement or a milk protein supplement? I wouldn't recommend it because it's not sustainable. So the reality is that spreading them out across the day becomes just a practical element of you enjoying breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then having a few snacks in and around training, to maximize how you feel going into those sessions and how you feel afterward. So yes, the science now is leaning towards the idea that the idea that you could eat all your protein in one hit and probably benefit from it. However, from a practical standpoint, think about that. Think about just pulsing it out, because it's far more enjoyable to eat three meals a day, at least the main meals, and then have some snacks in between to curb little things like hunger and make you feel good that you're eating and not on a strict diet. That's how we'd be doing it. From a carbohydrate perspective, again, total carbs are super important, but if you've got a long session, you sure as hell want to eat something before it; you're probably going to eat something afterward to maximize recovery. And that's, again, how you should be thinking about your nutrition.
Matt Dixon 23:28
Fantastic. Here's a quasi-related question. We just talked about protein, and this is this interesting one again, and, I think a nice little layup for you, says, I'm trying to get my daily protein intake up, and that's because historically, I've been incredibly low, which is pretty common across people, just in broader life. So this isn't even really an athlete who's asking this. I have a hard time getting all the calories in this, by the way. So I have a hard time getting all the calories in all the protein. It's just hard—logistically hard—to eat it all. Is it a bad idea? Or is there any negative impact from consuming protein powder? If so, what's best?
Scott Tindal 24:13
The short answer is, no, you can use a protein supplement to complement your diet, and especially if you are struggling to get in total amounts of protein, then using a protein supplement is fine. Whether you use a whey protein supplement or a blended plant protein supplement, There's no issue with that. I guess. What I would focus on is food first, then using that supplement, or that complement, as we like to call it, to just top up. It shouldn't be, okay, breakfast, whey protein, lunch, whey protein, or protein powder, dinner, or protein powder. It becomes very stale. You're going to miss out on a lot of micronutrition while still hitting, you know, the macros and getting in your protein. You're not getting in the rest of your macronutrients with that supplement as well, because a protein supplement is just a protein supplement. Of course, there are blends out there as well, but what we would generally recommend at Fuelin is that you use a high-quality whey protein isolate, or, as I mentioned, a blended plant protein. You use a blended plant protein just to make sure that you get the full amino acid spectrum that you would get from a whey protein isolate. So that's generally how we go about it. I think one thing that I do like to encourage, though, is that if an athlete is struggling to hit their protein intake, you can fortify some foods with your protein supplement, which sort of means that, yes, you're still using a protein supplement, but you're also mixing it with whole foods. So I'll give you some examples, and it's usually a breakfast where people struggle. So you could get Greek yogurt, you could mix in half a scoop of whey protein isolate or plant protein, mix that in, and suddenly you've got an extra 15 or up to 20 grams of extra protein from that scoop. Same if you've got a cereal, say you're eating Weetabix or even Cheerios, or whatever you're choosing to eat, rice krispies, mix the milk with the protein supplement. Pour that over your cereal, and suddenly that protein is being ingested with the rest of your meal, and so you're fortifying that, you know, that breakfast meal, and that's a nice way of bumping up protein intake. Yes, you are using a protein supplement, but you're also consuming it with whole foods, and especially for heavier athletes, they find doing that sort of fortification using a quality protein supplement can be very beneficial in terms of hitting their total protein intakes. And I would use that tactic rather than buying a high-protein breakfast cereal. Because high-protein breakfast cereals don't have much protein in them, there's usually a very low threshold for something to be considered high-protein, so you're much better off fortifying it with a good-quality protein supplement.
Matt Dixon 27:18
Super helpful. One more question, just on the side that I thought of, is there any negative? If you get the protein powders and you have the unflavored, then there's often chocolate and vanilla. Is there any harm in having chocolate or vanilla as the flavored ones?
Scott Tindal 27:36
Short answer: no. I think what I would check, though, is what the ingredients of the protein supplements you're taking are. So I tend to recommend a company called True Protein, which is an Australian company, because they use natural products that are minimally processed. And that's the reason I like it. It also tastes great, but they will use things like stevia instead of artificial sweeteners. Now, yes, you could argue, people will argue, that stevia still doesn't have some negative consequences, whatnot, but I would say, look, it's a natural sweetener. I would prefer to be taking that than, say, one of the artificial sweeteners. And again, I'm not saying that artificial sweeteners are necessarily bad for humans in the amounts that are often contained in these products. But long-term, you know, who knows? I'd rather go. Okay, well, I'm minimizing the risk. So look at the back of the ingredients. If it's got, you know, natural cocoa flavoring, or chocolate flavoring, or vanilla bean extract, then those products are generally going to be pretty safe, versus something that has a lot of artificial flavors and additives in it.
Matt Dixon 28:47
Terrific. Here's talking of additives; we're going to -- and I love, by the way, the compliment. I think that's a fantastic mindset. I hadn't heard that before. I'm going to ask about supplements here. Here's a question: Are there any generic supplements, and I think generic around broadly, I think they're asking here, that you think all folk, in parentheses, it's written all folks, should take to help with daily energy or performance, cognitive function? And so, I think this gentleman's asking for any supplements to help us just perform over the day. That is something that you think most people would benefit from?
Scott Tindal 29:25
Yeah, I'm always a little nervous about recommending generic supplements. The two that come to mind are creatine monohydrate and good-quality fish oil containing high levels of EPA and DHA. I think if you look at the studies around you, I mean if you talk about daily energy performance and/or cognitive function, I would say that's creatine monohydrate to a T. You know it. It certainly is probably the, well, the most researched, or one of the most researched, legal supplements to improve, uh, performance. More recently, there has been evidence on cognitive function—certainly lots of evidence around power and strength, uh, improvements in body composition. Now, is it going to directly give you a lot of energy? No, but has it been shown to improve exercise performance? Yes. About cognitive decline or cognitive function, there's emerging evidence that it's certainly been used in post-acute traumatic brain injury, post-concussive syndromes, and things like that. The potentially longer-term effects of high-dose supplementation include going beyond five grams a day, getting up to 10 grams, or even 20 grams a day, to help cross over that blood-brain barrier and get the creatine into the brain. So, look, creatine monohydrate would certainly be one. And then the fish oils were mentioned. These two supplements, I think, are just non-negotiables in my mind. They're just things you take every day. You take five grams of creatine, between five and 10 grams of creatine, depending on your potential body size and what your needs are. And then, in terms of your fish oils or your Omega-3s, you're taking those daily. And that's probably going to be somewhere in the realm of 2000 to three, maybe 4000 milligrams of EPA and DHA. The reason I say there's a range is because what I would do is get yourself tested. So there's a test called the Omega-3 index. You can simply, you know, go online. You can search for it. There's a company called OmegaQuant that does it. Do your test if it's below 8%, which is sort of done in a marker of between eight and 12%, which is seen as optimal. If it's below 8%, start supplementing with it. Usually, we recommend 3000 milligrams a day of EPA and DHA. Do that for eight to 12 weeks. Retest. Usually, it pops up pretty quick, and it's, and then after that, it's just a maintenance dose; you're consuming either a high dose or high-quality fish oil, or you're starting to lean into eating small oily fish, like your pickled herring, your mackerel, your sardines, salmon, and things like that.
Matt Dixon 32:16
Fantastic. I have a question. I have a tactical question. Now from someone who's a busy executive, and it is the perils of the work dinner here. This is a great one. I think he's asking a little bit more tactical questions. He says interesting performance, longevity, and, of course, my sport, but I face the challenge where a part of my role is business dinners and entertaining. And you can paint the picture—big steak houses, lots of good wine—and I often feel pulled into drinking wine. Is there anything that you can provide me with as practical advice to manage both the quality of the food at these restaurants and also try to avoid either overconsumption or minimizing the impacts of my consumption? Goodness, you can't, and you don't have a magic wand, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Scott Tindal 33:11
Yeah, it's such a tricky one, and it's something that a lot of my friends pose the question to me about: how do you manage it and look? Avoidance is always easier than resistance, yet probably in this case, it's not possible, and you're thrown into the lion's den. So I think look ahead. So what I would do is look at the menu ahead of time, so that when I go in there and you go, I know what I'm ordering. I don't need to look at the menu. You can pretend to look at the menu if you want but don't be distracted by it because you're probably going to see a lot of things on there that you know you shouldn't order, but in the heat of the moment, you might check your menu beforehand. Work out, are you going to have entree, main, or are you going to have main and dessert? You don't have to have a three-course meal. That's probably again, and the second tip is just either go entree or entree, main, main dessert. And I would probably lean towards Entre Main. And then maybe, you know, having a look if you had to have something later, maybe a sorbet or something like that, something very small, a single scoop, and do damage limitation. In terms of alcohol, I think it's much more common these days to not drink, and I don't feel the pressure is there so much. It's probably internal pressure as much as anything that you feel you need to drink to socialize, but in saying that, there are plenty of great non-alcoholic beers available, and again, you could check with the restaurant in advance to have that poured into a glass so it looks like a beer. So it's, it's, you're not walking around with a non-alcoholic beer can. You're just walking around with a beer. No one needs to know if it is that. You could get a. Glass or a tall glass, and fill it with ice, lemonade, or soda water with a squeeze of lime in it and a slice of lime; it looks like a vodka soda or a tequila soda. That could be that. If you are going to drink alcohol, where would I lean? I would lean toward a clean spirit. So something like a vodka soda with fresh lime, although it's extremely boring, you don't tend to have a good time on it. So I'd probably say tequila and lime. Tequila lime topped with fresh soda is a little bit more fun, and you can probably just sip on that very casually throughout the evening. I think interspersed with water in between and fizzy water. I would use fizzy water rather than plain water, and again, put a slice of lemon or lime into it. It just tends to make you feel like you're drinking something a little bit more substantial.
Matt Dixon 35:52
Fantastic. Here are a couple more questions. Scott, is this some real gold coming here? Um, here's, uh, here's one around longevity, the subject to zero here, longevity, quality of life, says, I'm focused on disease prevention. I've got a family history of multiple diseases. I also want to improve my quality of life. And so, with that in mind, I hear a lot of your education revolves around helping athletes get faster. Do you have any practical, quick nutrition tips to help me, over the long term, build up a platform for health? This is a huge subject as a standalone, but are there any ABCs to help this person?
Scott Tindal 36:31
Yeah, I think, look, there is. It's a huge question about longevity and a hot topic. I wrote an article on a new concept, which was around strength span, the other day, which we put on our Fuelin website. But the concept of strength span, I think, was an interesting one. It was talking about, like, the current focus is so much on, okay, as you get older, you need to be strong. And so there's this focus on the older population now doing weight training. But is that too late? I guess that's the question. Have you sort of missed the boat? You probably haven't missed the boat, but you're probably not going to maximize what was potentially available in those later years if you'd missed doing strength work in your younger years, especially through your youth and then through middle age. So I think the number one tip for me related to longevity is to stay strong, so don't be afraid of lifting weights. And even if you're doing endurance exercise, and I hear this a lot, I don't want to lift weights because it's going to interfere with my training or it's going to make me bulky. The reality is that it's not. It's probably going to interfere in the short term, like when you feel a bit sore and don't crush all your sessions, but over time, that strength training is going to make you a better athlete. It's going to make you stronger, it's going to make you more powerful, and it's going to reduce the risk of injury. So that is first and foremost. And in doing so, you're creating lean muscle tissue. You're also creating mobility by lifting through range, and all of those things are going to put you in a better place as you get older. So I think it's taking off—not necessarily taking off the endurance hat, but just, I do hear from some age group as more so than professional athletes, like, Oh, I don't want to lift weights because I don't want to do this. And it's like, Think about the long-term picture. Here. You're doing endurance training, most likely to have enjoyment and to also be healthy. Well, lifting weights and getting stronger is part of that health journey. And so I can't emphasize that enough, and so I know it's not a nutrition tip, and the nutrition tip about that is to keep your protein high. We know that if you eat somewhere between two and three grams per kilo of protein while performing athletic endeavors, you are going to be in a better position to either maintain lean muscle mass, gain lean muscle mass, or reduce body fat. That's going to put you in a better position. There are some interesting studies related to health outcomes and higher protein intake as well. So I can get those references for you later, Matty. But I would say high protein intake and lifting weights—they're probably two great tips in terms of just thinking longevity in a broad stroke.
Matt Dixon 39:37
Fantastic. You've arrived at your last question, Scott; this one is around caffeine, and it's a great one. It's great to finish this off and say, What's your advice around caffeine for daily energy and performance? I love my coffee. I have a couple of cups in the morning, but I also tend to lean into energy drinks in the afternoon. Help me understand: Is this bad for me? Am I doing anything wrong? Is too much caffeine too much?
Scott Tindal 40:08
The short answer is that coffee's fine energy drinks in the afternoon are not so good. You have to remember that energy drinks are probably a combination of high-dose caffeine with a bunch of other additives, including refined sugar. Now, sugar's not necessarily the issue here. It's probably more the combination of sugar and high-dose caffeine, probably around 200 milligrams, that you're consuming late in the day, remembering that caffeine has a half-life of somewhere between four and six hours. If you have that at three o'clock in the afternoon, you've still got 100 milligrams in your system at nine o'clock at night. Now that is going to have a huge impact on your sleep, sleep duration, sleep onset, and sleep quality. You had a bad night's sleep. What happens the next day? You feel like shit again. So, what do you do? You have a few cups of coffee in the morning. Try and boost yourself up. You get to the afternoon, and you feel like crap. Tell you what? I'm going to have an energy drink to spike myself, and it just keeps rolling. So you've got to try and break that habit rather than having that energy drink in the afternoon. Get up and go for a walk. Do some push-ups, do some air squats, drink some water, and do whatever it is you need to do, but don't drink that energy drink. That pressure, or that sleep pressure, is a buildup of what we call adenosine. So these are the chemicals that float around the brain. Now, when you have caffeine, it blocks adenosine from attaching, and that's what effectively stops you from feeling sleepy. You can get past that sleep pressure. If you just get up, walk around again, drink some water, do all these things, and go and talk to some friends, Leaning into that energy drink is a short-term fix that's going to probably have more negative connotations. So that's where I would just sit with that. There is nothing wrong with having a couple of cups of coffee in the morning. Go for it. Just try and stop by 12 o'clock or 1 p.m. at the latest, which is what I would be recommending.
Matt Dixon 42:11
It was exactly aligned. It's perfect. Well, Scott, it's been quite a journey. Thank you very much. There are two big episodes there. If you did miss last week's episode, It's a cracker, especially for you guys who are athletically inclined in your training for races. I think it's a must-miss. And then for everyone, including athletes, today's session was just fantastic. I appreciate you being here. It was a lot of fun, as always. And we'll try and add some stuff to the show notes with some of the research and the strengths that you talked about. So, thanks so much. And we will send all the links to Fuelin. Remember, folks, it is fuelin.com/purplepatch. If you want to get a hold of Scott and the rest of the team, it's fantastic as ever. And Scott, well, we're going to do this pretty soon again. So we'll see you in four to six weeks, and we'll take it from there.
Scott Tindal 43:02
Thanks, Matty, really enjoyable, and hopefully everyone got a lot out of this one.
Matt Dixon 43:08
Guys, thanks so much for joining, and thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing. Head to the Purple Patch channel on YouTube, and you will find it there, and you can subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you, if you will subscribe, to also share it with your friends, and it's really helpful if you leave a nice, positive review in the comments. Now, any questions that you have, feel free to add a comment, and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. As we commence this video podcast experience, if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com, or leave it in the comments of the show on the purple patch page, and we will get you dialed in. We'd love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset, as we like to call it, so feel free to share with your friends. But as I said, let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're trying hard to make it a special experience, and we want to welcome you into the Purple Patch community. With that, I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, and do whatever you do. Take care.
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