Racing Weight Cookbook Review

Racing Weight Cookbook: Lean, Light Recipes for Athletes is the third book in the Racing Weight  Series, by Matt Fitzgerald and Georgie Fear.

When you think about preparing healthy meals, you might be like me and think, “Greeeeat. Cardboard and paste for dinner tonight.” When I think about my go to healthy meals that do taste good, it can be hard to get excited about them because we prepare them over, and over and over again.

I love to cook. I cook most the meals for my family (thank you Trader Joes) – but that’s just it so many of my meals are on the healthy side but also of the frozen-easy-to-prepare variety.

When I saw that Matt Fitzgerald (check out our interview with Matt, here) had a cookbook I was  on the phone with his publicist within minutes to get a review copy. Cookbook for athletes? Yes please!!

What is Racing Weight, you ask? According to Matt, racing weight is “defined as the combination of body weight and body fat percentage at which an athlete performs best.” The program is a set of six dietary, behavioral and exercise guidelines to help athletes reach their optimal body weight and body composition for racing.

Check out our interview with Matt, here.

Remember, don’t lose sight of the word, “racing.” This plan is designed for helping you reach your top performance.

The six principles include: Improve your diet quality. Manage your appetite. Balance your energy sources. Monitor yourself. Time your nutrition. Train for Racing Weight. Don’t worry, you don’t have to read 50 pages of guidelines – but you get the knowledge necessary to understand what your body needs and how to do it before lifting a spatula.

LET’S GET COOKING
I prepared two meals out of this cookbook from the “THE ATHLETE WHO DOESN’T COOK” category, because let’s face it, if you like or love to cook, you more than likely will be into this cookbook.

I prepared Rosemary Garlic Chicken and Portobello & Chicken Sausage Bowl. These recipes were super quick and easy to prepare.

The Rosemary Garlic Chicken was very tasty. This meal is not expensive and all of the ingredients are readily available in our kitchen. Perfect! And if you don’t have the ingredients, one purchase will last you really long time. You can add nearly any side dish with chicken – you can’t go wrong.

The Portobello & Chicken Sausage Bowl was a little more tricky. The recipes calls of 1 cup of water and 8 oz of tomato sauce – for two servings. I had a feeling we’d need more than what the recipe called for, and I was right. I added a second can of tomato sauce. We substituted chicken sausage for Trader Joe’s turkey meatballs. The sauce was bland so I added a ton of spices. I was really skeptical with the results and started to look in the freezer for a back-up plan. My wife convinced me to give it a go. I’m glad she did. It turned out to be a good meal. I enjoyed a new way to eat portobello mushrooms.

RACING WEIGHT RECIPES

Click here for Beef Stew with Sweet Potatoes recipe. (Scroll to bottom of page)

VERDICT
Buy this book. I like the racing weight program, tips on managing your appetite and how many carbs athletes should eat,  how to shop (love this section), what to do with leftovers and 100+ recipes.

Here a sampling of recipes: Chipotle Chicken Avocado Wrap, Tropical Mango Electrolyte Booster, Banana-Pecan Pancakes, Sole with Lemon Capers, Soba Noodles with Beef, Aspargus & Mushrooms and Wasabi Meatballs.

This book is designed for endurance athletes looking to get leaner and faster, but even if getting leaner or faster isn’t your goal, there are many aspects of this book you will enjoy.

Buy it here: Racing Weight Cookbook: Lean, Light Recipes for Athletes (The Racing Weight Series)

PRICE: $24.95
WEBSITE: MattFitzgerald.org &  Velopress.com

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Reviewed by Scotty Sandow.