The Thai Diet

Sunset view over the Andaman sea from my new favorite restaurant

In his excellent book, Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance, Matt Fitzgerald outlines virtually everything the serious endurance athlete could care to know about optimizing body composition. Though I'll post a thorough review of the book later, it should suffice to say that I certainly recommend it if one needs to seriously address this issue in their training and racing.

Though the book has many benefits, one of them is assisting the reader in developing a proper diet strategy based off knowledge gleamed from diet journaling. Fitzgerald adds a quote to the effect of, "A measured quantity is a managed quantity," and while I'm not measuring my food on a scale a la Armstrong, I am addressing the fueling of my body with great focus.

In doing so, I have determined that, though I was eating very healthy foods, I was also eating more of these foods than was metabolically necessary. I was quite literally having too much of a good thing.

Enter the Thai diet.

For the 6 month period before I begin medical school in early September, my wife and I will be doing volunteer work in Khao Lak, Thailand. We are working with Step Ahead, a Christian organization that works towards local community development by assisting women and children at risk, teaching English and German, and many other special projects (such as developing sustainable agriculture in a nearby impoverished village, a project that I'm excited to be working on now). Should the urge strike you, you can read about our adventures on our trip's blog at yrockmovement.blogspot.com. 

Part of being in Thailand means I have the good fortune of having unprecedented access to Thai food. It's actually cheaper here to eat out than it is to make your own meal, as only 30 baht per dish makes each dining experience $1 USD. The portions, however, are certainly Thai-sized, and with meals just rolling around three times a day, I am probably eating in the neighborhood of 60% of the volume of my American diet. Combined with daily runs timed at sunrise and sunset, I have an excellent chance of making my way to my optimal race weight and a significant improvement in performance.

I'll measure my outcome by my performance in a penultimate running event, either the Phuket Marathon, half-marathon, or 10km on June 13th, in addition to measuring my body composition (lean mass and body fat % relative to my desired body weight). I'm excited to track this transition on these pages and look forward to faster running splits once I return to the States.

I can't say that I'm too excited to return, however, cause even though we spend quite a bit of time working, we have very easy access to paradise (and, as it turns out, vacant beach resort chairs near the beach). Please note the European-tourist in the background. It's like Kona in October over here- all of the Europeans are in Speedo-style swimsuits and none of them appear to have ever heard of skin cancer. I guess I'll add sunscreen advocacy among tourists to Step Ahead's agenda.