Nutrition and Throwing (and a New Sponsor)

Nutrition is often a topic overlooked by throwers. Back in high school, when I was playing American football, I was too overlooked it. I held on to the belief that bigger was better and topped the scales around 300 pounds. After deciding to focus on the hammer and hearing legends like Harold Connolly and Wolfgang Schmidt essentially tell me I was too fat to throw the hammer far (Harold used kinder words but Wolfgang was fairly blunt), I started to pay attention to nutrition for the first time in my life. I even began learning about some of the collateral issues in the food industry after reading Fast Food Nation and hearing impassioned talks by Harold about trans fats. With a balanced diet and frequent cross-training, I dropped 60 pounds in one year and another 20 pounds the next year.

Once I began learning about nutrition, I also began to read more about sports specific nutrition. With the help of my sister’s clinic, I had my basal metabolic rate tested (rate at which you burn calories while resting). I burned over 4,000 calories a day just resting. Add in 4-5 hours of training and all my other activities and I realized that food plays a big role in my training. It’s quite easy to eat a lot of calories, but when I’m ingesting that much food, I also want to make sure it is healthy for me and meeting my performance needs. When most coaches and trainers talk about nutrition, they simply mean talking about supplement regimens rather than finding the nutrients in a natural well balanced diet.

I’ve worn the joke out, but I frequently say that there are three stages of hunger: hungry, very hungry, and ‘Clif Bar’ hungry (i.e. hungry enough to stomach a Clif Bar). This summer I was introduced to Honey Stinger‘s organic energy chews (and bars) and found a nutritious, natural, and great tasting snack. Subsequently, they’ve been kind enough to sponsor me. As I mentioned above, I burn a lot of calories each day and it’s great to find a healthy snack I can enjoy between meals or after a workout.