FEATURE COLUMN – Many athletes don’t fully maximize the potential of food to reach peak performance. Personally, I’m a huge fan of having a “peak week,” in which an individual focuses on a menu plan that will help them reach their full physical, mental and emotional potential.
The good news is that this does not require huge investments of time and money or a strict regimen of instructions and commands. I have one simple philosophy in all that we do: Make it awesome! The meals should taste great, the plan should be simple and the time should be minimal. Making something awesome is also about the search, the journey, the extra effort and the satisfaction of reaching goals.
When training our bodies to cooperate with us regardless of the intensity of athletic trials, we are preparing to endure and often overlook the most important muscle for performance: The brain. It will inevitably create or destroy the languages your metabolic systems rely on to cooperate. The other usual suspects to promote fitness training are carbohydrates and “super foods,” most of which are purchased from a supermarket, not a trusted local grower. This is not good.
Listening to our bodies communicate is a crucial skill. We will encourage the dialog between your metabolism and your body’s abilities and thresholds, so the two are symbiotic and poised for “awesomeness.” I would like you to refer to instruction, recipes or inspirational materials from now on as “brain food” from the “brain cart.” Knowledge is the cart, your brain is the buyer and we are the supplier.
The Market Café, in combination with Heartland Farms, WholeFit,and various health care providers, have developed a program to help you reach peak performance through nutrition. For more information, contact Chef Greg at 435-862-4765 or [email protected].
Written by Chef Greg for St. George Health and Wellness magazine and St. George News.
Chef Greg Reith is the owner and executive chef of Market Café and the COO of Heartland Farms. Reith was born and raised in Los Angeles, and began his unique culinary training at age 19. Early in his career, he was assigned to train with master chefs in a classical fine dining atmosphere and in a rotation of some of the world’s most recognizable and accomplished restaurants.
He has opened several successful catering and restaurant consulting businesses, and works as a personal chef for a handful of clients. He owns tunnels designed to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs specifically for his restaurant and personal clients. His boldest and most innovative designs accommodate the broadest spectrum of food sensitivities ever attempted in fine dining.
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