Making a Meal of Things...

A quick note: It has been suggested that my previous post was critical of our coaches, and I want to make it abundantly clear that this was not my intention at all, far from it. This blog will never criticise or put down any of my fellow boxers or the coaches, all of whom I respect massively. Whenever there is any criticism or ridicule on this site it will always be at my expense and mine alone... after all, I'm the muppet who is in way over his own head!

"I'm going to give you just one piece of advice", said my friend Adrian. "And that is, don't listen to anyone else's advice, except your Coach."

I was ready for a lot of things when I signed up for the White Collar Boxing. Ready for the piss-taking of incredulous mates and clients; ready for the dissuasion from concerned family and friends; even as ready as I could be for the physical strain of my new regime. What I wasn't ready for, however, was the sheer weight of advice I would receive, largely unsolicited, often contradictory.

That may come across as ungrateful, but I am not. The fact that people have taken an interest in what I am doing and how well I am doing it is, in itself, a huge support to me. It's just, I found myself very quickly confused about what would be best for me with so many options out there.

"Why are you cycling?" said Pete. "What good is that for you? You should be running! Boxers run! When did you ever see a boxer cycling?". The fact that the mutual friend of ours who had loaned me the bike was an ex-boxer who had represented Ireland at the Olympics was irrelevant. Pete knew best.

Actually, the training itself and the general exercise were never a huge issue (in my mind, at least) as I had taken Adrian's advice, shut out everyone else, and focused on what the Coach was teaching us. I do cycle, but I also run, and I try to recreate the circuit training we have been doing in the gym. I have experienced friends who want to train with me in extra sessions, but I waited to get established in the official training first so I could further apply that and build on it, rather than do anything that might contradict it. No, what training to do was never something I questioned. What to eat and drink, however... that was a whole different matter.

Two weeks before the training even started I committed myself to a change of diet. First thing to go was the booze (full disclosure: I occasionally have to taste alcohol at work for quality control or to try a potential new brand, but I have been very strict at limiting those to small tastes); then I started packing my own healthy dinners (in my line of work it's easy to get sucked into junk food for ease and speed); and I started using an app that helped me to balance my intake of calories, carbs, fat, protein, vitamins, etc., for a "healthier life". Of course, I soon discovered that when you are in training what you consume is not as simple as getting a balanced daily diet...

"You should eat a banana immediately before training"; "Well, I heard you should eat it AFTER training!"; "Protein shake, every morning"; "Raw eggs! Can't get enough of them!"; "No, just the whites, not the yolk"; "Build up on your carbs!"; "No, no... these days it's all about ditching the carbs and training the body to burn fats!"; "Ignore all those fancy sports drinks, just stick to H2O!";"This soluble powder I am giving you from a tub with no labelling is full of what you need!"

In this day and age we have so much knowledge at our fingertips, but unfortunately so much misinformation as well. Gone are the days when we consult an expert who has years of training in their field and accept what they say - these days we can just keep asking the general masses online until someone gives us the answer we wanted to hear all along. Which makes it very difficult when you are looking for info on something and are not already predisposed to a particular line of thinking.

We did take some time out in the second week of training for a quick talk with very broad guidelines of what foods to eat and when, but even amongst the coaches it seems like there are quite differing opinions. Despite this, every single one of them seems to make their version work for them... and so, I have cherry picked ideas from those people I feel I should be emulating more, based those ideas around the broad framework imparted to us during training, and used a bit of trial and error to make sure it works within the confines of my non-standard work day.

I think I am getting the hang of it, and am generally feeling nourished and satisfied - although all the crap in my fridge at home still looks very enticing at 4am after a long night at work!

Mmmmmm, bacon.....