Warning: this applies to athletes and yet to be athletes!

When to eat breakfast? You should ALWAYS have something to eat in the morning..NEVER skip breakfast if you want to be a super fit, high energy, emotionally stable, drug free energiser bunny. Sumo wrestlers skip breakfast and have a massive dinner, so if you want to be a sumo, please ignore this post!

This is a 2 part situation. The first part is if you train in the morning and the 2nd part is if you train in the afternoon.

1. So you train in the mornings? I always start the day with 1 litre of water EXCEPT if I have a running race first up and then I just have a cup of water and the rest straight after the race finishes. Having a litre of water sloshing in your belly at 6am whilst your HR is at 90% of max is not the best strategy. But if my race is at 9am, yeah, I will have my litre of water upon rising like normal. If Im going out for an easy training session, I have my litre before I hit the street. If its going to be a 20min smash session, I just have a cup and again, finish the litter when the session ends. That way we never get dehydrated or drink too much before a hard short session.

Food wise if its a real intense session like a sub 3hr marathon, you want to start with full glycogen tanks from the previous days eating rather than having a 2000cal breakfast and then an hour later be running at 85% of your max hr and wondering why we feel a bit sick.

For races/intense training under 1hr, If its first thing in the morning, I just have a date or an orange. If the race is in the evening, I leave 4-5 hours between my last meal and the race/intense training session.

Races over an hour-24hrs. I leave 3hrs before my last meal and the race and eat 60g of carbs (1g of carbs per kg of bodyweight) per hour of exercise plus 500mls of water per.hour. So if its a marathon, these usually start at sunrise so I eat a banana with my water and just have 2-4 dates per hour. I just have them already pitted and in my pocket. I have 6 in each pocket. Too easy. Running is different to cycling in that you can eat a bit more on a bike and not feel it like you do when you run. So Im aware of that and just nibble the dates mindfully.

If Im going out solo for an all day bike ride, I will just eat a big breakfast and jump on the bike and ride easy as long rides are usually done at a very easy pace.

Bottom line, the harder the exercise, the shorter its duration will be and the LONGER you need to wait before you last ate something. The harder the session, the less food you need to eat before it, as hard usually means very short aka a 10k race or some hardcore yoga.

The easier the exercise, the longer the duration will be and the SHORTER you need to wait before you last ate something. The longer the session, the more fruit you will need to eat before and during the session.

This is not just my opinion, this is practise followed by the top athletes in any given sport. Ask the carb phobic raw guru's when and what should I eat before training/races and they wouldnt have a clue! Why? Cos these poor peeps dont even have enough energy to be very fit emselves! Some might look fit but when you put them to the test, you can see that they are starved and not as fit as they looked. There eating habits just hinder em and create more fatigue than the average weekend warrior eating a SAD diet.

2. So you train in the afternoon? Then just wake up, down your litre of water and wait 10-20 minutes and start your breakfast or eat it on the bus etc. Blended dates are great to take with you on the bus, train, bike etc as you commute to work and get breakfast in. Too easy. I like to eat lunch at around noon and if I have an afternoon session/race then I like to eat after it. We should have eaten enough at lunch that we can wait 5/6 hours with out eating and just smash it at training and then have something sweet to eat straight after. If you had a big enough breakfast and lunch, you can just have a couple of bananas or dates and then your done for the day.

So my afternoon training usually starts at 6/7pm so I just have a 3000calorie breakfast or 1500+ breakfast and 1500+ lunch and go all day on that at work and then just smash out the evening session/race and have a quick bite and off to bed. So that way your never undercarbed, your not eating late and your recovery is like your on EPO!

But Harley, I dont smash out anything mate, this stuff only applies to athletes and Im far from that..Well my reply is that if you are a parent, run a business or use your brain/emotions in any way, then your chewing thru your glycogen stores mentally more than physically and still need to chow down like an athlete anyway! If you dont, you have ZERO chance of increasing your physcial activity cos you will be so undercarbed youll be like 99% of western society that say 'I just dont have time to maintain an active lifestyle longterm....'

We can smash down the fruit or just end up smashing into a gallon tub of icecream and feel smashed afterwards and be hating life.

Smash down your meals in a slow and grateful manner and then just go smash the day like a watermelon..