‘Fasting until 2pm’: The pre-race diet mistake this pizza chef is making

Jake Smyth is a chef. The 44-year-old shares her day on a plate.

5am I wake early to get the doughs on at Mary’s Hot Pizza. I fast until mid-afternoon.

7.30am Filter coffee with cream. I know to purists this technically breaks my fast, but it tastes good.

Noon Vital Greens supplement powder and Sodii grapefruit-flavoured hydration salts.

2pm Slice of Mary’s Hot & Cold pizza pie, which we top with tomato sugo, nduja, stracciatella and chives.

5.30pm Rice crackers with tuna, cannellini beans and salad greens, with mayo because I’m not a psycho.

7.30pm Beef stroganoff with white rice and steamed broccoli with extra virgin olive oil. Did I mention I am running my first ultra-marathon tomorrow? This means I get to eat lots of carbs.

9.30pm Two squares of Lindt 85 per cent dark chocolate with a teaspoon of Mayver’s dark roasted peanut butter on each.

10pm Cup of herbal tea.

Top marks for … Recognising that the day before a major endurance event calls for a different approach. I’d normally be encouraging more fibre-rich whole plant foods, but pre-race the priority shifts to easily digested carbohydrate to top up glycogen stores while keeping gut residue lower – useful when gut symptoms are so common in athletes.

If you keep eating like this you’ll … Possibly reach the start line with less fuel on board than you think. Despite the pizza pie and rice, fasting until 2pm leaves surprisingly few opportunities to eat enough carbohydrate for such a long event, although portion sizes obviously make a big difference.

Why don’t you try … Putting the fasting routine aside for the day or two before an ultra-marathon and spreading familiar carbohydrate-rich foods across the day; toast, bananas, rice, pasta or crumpets, for example. Then, after the race, return to a higher-fibre, more plant-rich pattern for everyday gut and long-term health.

Jake Smyth is the co-founder of Mary’s venues across Sydney.

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