Korea
UP CLOSE
FUELING THE
MACHINE By Scott Pruden
W
atching your favorite televised sport as you’re seated behind a beer and a plate full of Buffalo wings, it’s easy to forget that in addition to all the physical conditioning athletes undergo to maximize performance, their diets play a huge role in how well they kick, jump, run, throw and hit. Few athletes know that better than the triathlete, especially those who compete at the professional level, like Wilmington resident Jocelyn Wong. The triathlon in itself sounds like a menu of highly organized self-abuse: a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike race, wrapping up with a full marathon—26.2 miles. So far, the 29-year-old Wong has competed in 20. The mix of events and their sheer brutality makes eating right a key element of her overall performance, she says. “As an endurance triathlete, it’s important to weigh as little as possible for running without sacrificing muscle mass and power needed for cycling,” she says. “It’s a delicate balance, and I’m not a naturally thin girl. I love food and I love to eat.” As a result, she found herself seesawing when she would decamp from her Wilmington home base to train with her team overseas for two to three months at a time. “My weight just kept yo-yoing depending on whether I was in camp or not. I would lose a lot of weight very quickly whenever I was in training camp, kind of like playing catch-up with the skinnier girls, but my weight would creep back up whenever I went home.” She quickly realized that some changes were in order, but wanted to make sure she maintained her calorie intake to compensate for her daily five to six hours of training So other than a taste for overachievement, what does the diet of someone who undergoes such a physical challenge include? Whenever possible, it doesn’t include grains, dairy and added sugar, Wong says, describing her daily diet as a variation on the “Paleo diet” that strives to mimic what prehistoric humans consumed as part of their hunter/gatherer lifestyle. That means nothing processed—no store-bought salad dressings, commercially produced snacks or processed meats. Favorites like ice cream and Greek yogurt got the boot, because not only are they not “Paleo,” as the diet’s followers say, but they are considered inflammatory foods and interfere with performance during a race and recovery afterward.
“I eat a lot of meat, veggies, some fruits and nuts,” Wong says. “My main [carbohydrate] sources are potatoes and bananas.” There are limits, however. She maintains a deep affectio for bacon and eats it nearly every day. She’s a fan of Hello Panda Cookies—bite-sized biscuits she finds at the Seoul Oriental Grocery on Kirkwood Highway, and they definitely include sugar. She also makes an exception for race day, usually competing in the land-race portions of an Ironman competition with a Camelbak backpack canteen full of slightly diluted Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino spiked with electrolyte tablets. “I usually freeze it overnight and it’s thawed and ice-cold by the time I hit the marathon,” she says. “There’s dairy in it, so if I continue to be dairy-free I’ll probably end up making my own version of iced coffee to go in the Camelbak. One myth Wong had to overcome from years of “brainwashing” was that fat is bad. As a result, she has actually increased the amount of fat in her diet. “A lot of people suffer from fat-phobia since it gets such a bad rap, but it’s really processed carbs that make people fat,” she says. The benefits of the Paleo-style diet came to light recentl as Wong recovered from an accident during the biking portion of Ironman Korea on July 3. Her injuries, including a few cuts that required stitches and a bruised knee, have reduced her continued page 17
www. OutAndAboutNow
10_UpClose.indd 3
.com
15
9/23/2011 3:03:43 PM