Equestrian
As an equestrian, you know the importance
of your horse getting good nutrition. You realize the quality of the feed and forage is key in
determining how he looks, feels, and performs.
You probably invest in high-quality grain, hay,
and nutritional supplements to maximize your
horse’s health. If your non-equestrian friends
ever caught a glimpse of your feed bill, they
might shake their heads in disbelief. Not only
do you pay close attention to what your horse
eats, you're also careful about when he eats.
You feed him on a schedule, and you wouldn't
dream of asking him to skip a meal. You’d never
intentionally underfeed or overfeed your horse,
nor would you give him anything detrimental.
While you're working hard to
ensure that your horse eats a
perfectly balanced, nutritionally
complete, and irresistibly tasty
ration, is it possible you're fueling
your own body with foods full of
fat, sugar, and empty calories?
This isn't an uncommon occurrence. Many perfectly sensible,
highly intelligent women who
obsess about every single micronutrient that passes their horses'
lips think nothing of filling their
own bodies with burgers, fries,
and soft drinks. If you fall into this
category, it's time to rethink your
nutritional strategy.
Fueling the Female Athlete
The female body is a miracle in
motion. As the owner of such a
miraculous machine, you have
an opportunity to improve its
performance and increase its
longevity by supplying it with
wholesome, nutritious foods.
Nutrition dramatically impacts
not only your health but also
12
Passage Magazine
your ability to function, both intellectually and
physically. To a large extent, your diet dictates
the way you look and feel. The foods you eat
determine your weight, your moods, and your
energy levels. A substandard diet can leave
you irritable, zap your energy, and rob you of
strength and stamina. Even if you're not competing in equestrian events, the fact that you're
riding, handling, or caring for horses qualifies
you as an athlete, with specific nutritional
needs. Your diet can either enhance or impede
your motivation to ride and, ultimately, your
ability to ride effectively.
Fuel or Filler?
When you fully appreciate the importance of
good nutrition in all areas of your life, you realize that every bite matters. Because you can
consume only a finite number of calories each
day, it's essential to make those calories count.
This strategy may require you to analyze your
eating habits. Many women-ever conscious of
their weight--have trained themselves to evaluate foods only in caloric terms. Frequently, this
leads us to adopt a mentality in which we consider low-calorie foods to be good and highcalorie foods to be bad. In reality, many relatively high-calorie foods are extremely healthy,
making them well worth the caloric investment. The opposite also is true. Many low-calorie foods are hardly worth eating. While there’s
no harm in snacking on a serving of pretzels
or a handful of animal crackers, there’s also no
benefit. These foods may fill your stomach to
some degree, but they offer little more than