Tips for restoring nutrition after paddling

Paddling can be a rewarding, yet tiring, experience. It's a whole-body exercise that uses various energy systems but, like any exercise, it may leave you sore. Recovery is necessary to effectively gain back that strength for your next outing. Here are some tips to help ensure your body gets the nutrition it needs to properly recover from paddling.

• Your body needs carbohydrates to replenish energy, protein to rebuild achy muscles and vitamins and minerals -- particularly antioxidants -- to flush out the lactic acid.
• You have a window of about 30 to 45 minutes following exercise when your body is like a sponge, absorbing the maximum amount of nutrients it can.
• A good way to replenish stores following exercise is to eat a small, lean, nutritious meal within your recovery window and indulge yourself with a nutritious main meal approximately two hours later.

• Your body has two main energy systems, aerobic and anaerobic.
• Generally speaking, when you're gently paddling along, you're using the more efficient aerobic system.
• When you find yourself out of breath, you've switched to using the anaerobic system. This system uses more energy, especially glycogen, which is your muscles' sugar store.
• Anaerobic exercise also breaks down more muscle tissue and produces more toxic by-products.
• This means that your post-paddle nutrition will need to be more substantial if you've been giving it real effort.

Within 45 minutes of finishing your exercise, aim to eat around 20 to 30 g of good, lean protein. Consume closer to 30 g if you have been heavily anaerobic. Chicken, turkey, protein powders and egg whites are all good sources of lean protein. Fat should be avoided post-exercise, as it slows down digestion, thereby hindering recovery.

If you've been taking it easy, aim for 45 to 60 g of simple and complex carbohydrates. Increase the amount to 60 to 75 g if you feel you've been working hard. Further, try to eat foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals. Suggestions include:

• A wholemeal chicken salad sandwich, an orange and a banana -- 30g protein, 75g carbs
• Protein shake, cereal bar and an apple -- 20g to 30g protein, 55g carbs
• Pasta with three egg whites and a handful of grapes -- 20g protein, 45g carbs