It Sure (P)helps to be Michael!

Eat your way to a successful Olympic career!

Gotcha!

I wasn’t talking about you…or me! (Unfortunately!) I was talking about USA’s medal-winning, record-setting swimming sensation – Michael Phelps!

This is what his daily diet looks like:

Breakfast:

1. Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise.
2. Two cups of coffee.
3. One five-egg omelet.
4. One bowl of grits.
5. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar.
6. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch:

1. One pound of enriched pasta.
2. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread.
3. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.

Dinner:

1. One pound of pasta.
2. An entire pizza.
3. More energy drinks

I’m kidding right? You and I could survive on that for a week and yet look like whales compared to the lithe swimmer! "Eat, sleep and swim, that's all I can do," said the US swimmer, after winning his 11th Olympic gold. Believe it! It’s been reported here, here and hey, even here!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to eat whatever you want and still look like your body had been chiseled by a sculptor? If only…! But really, how does Phelps do it? Surely he couldn’t be some magical super hero?

Or could he….?

No! That was a joke!!!

Training five hours a day, six days a week is what Olympic swimmers are made of (and of course, the 12,000 calorie a day diet too!) Phelps needs to eat enough to ensure his body recovers from his intensive training regime. While 12,000 calories may seem a lot (even to those of us who love our food!), its normal for Phelps who has to make sure his body gets enough nutrition and carbohydrates. And while these beautiful tasty things we so fondly call “carbs” keep forcing us to buy a whole new wardrobe, they do wonders for Phelps and fuel his athletic performance.

If only carbs were as nice to us, we’d win eight gold medals too. But since I’m quite happy not swimming half my day away, I guess I’ll leave it to Michael to win the medals.

All this talk of food has made me crave for something sinful. I think I’m going to dig into that tub of chocolate ice-cream in the freezer now! Oh come on, don’t look at me that way – Phelps is probably eating his way through three chocolate-chip pancakes as we speak!

It sure(P)helps to be Michael eh?

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