Fuel the session, measure with your hand

Two keys in one: what the science says about eating for effort, and a way to measure portions without a scale.

In 2016 the American College of Sports Medicine and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics published a joint position on nutrition and athletic performance, and its core idea was periodization applied to the plate: match the fuel to the session. Carbohydrate before and during hard or long efforts, thirty to sixty grams an hour once you're past about ninety minutes, because the body's stores run down; protein after, to rebuild; and on easy days, less of both. Not one diet for all days. A diet that moves with the training, the way the training moves with the year.

The second key is from John Berardi, a nutrition coach who in 2005 built a method his clients could actually use. No scale, no app. Your hand. A palm of protein. A fist of vegetables. A cupped hand of carbohydrate. A thumb of fat. One to two of each per meal, depending on your size and your goals. The hand scales with the body, so a large man's palm is the right portion for a large man, and a small woman's for her. It's imprecise, and it's precise enough, and people keep doing it where they quit counting in a week.

Together they're a table key for anyone who moves. Most of the diet keys on this shelf are about what to eat in general. This one is about what to eat today, for what you're doing today, in portions you can see.

For the Meaning chamber: a hundred and forty-four days of walks and lifts have made you someone who trains. Someone who trains eats like it: fuel for the work, food for the rest.