Fueling Your Fitness With Wild Alaskan Seafood

Photo by Liam Doran

Seafood as Supplements?

As an athlete myself, it is critical that I fuel my body with the best ingredients. Luckily, aside from my recovery and hydration shakes, I’ve never really had to take supplements for my active lifestyle.

I contribute much of that to my diet of Alaska seafood. Wild and natural is what I think of when I make food decisions. What’s going to give me the most energy and best recovery? Salmon is the backbone of my existence and fuel that sustains me in the mountains.

I catch it, sell it, and above all LOVE to eat A LOT of wild Alaskan seafood. So, I am proud to share this piece of my life with you and hope that it can benefit yours as well.

Refueling with Alaskan Seafood

Since taking up ski mountaineering, I’ve devoted myself to being fully present with this pursuit of being the best athlete I can be and with the people I feel privileged to share it with.

It’s been a whirlwind since getting off the boat one month ago.  Between business, training, and prepping for a big winter ahead, I’ve quite literally hit the ground running. After just 4 weeks of being off the boat, I feel myself regaining strength and feeling good again!

The tradeoff to making money while fishing is having to turn off intentional training time for 4 to 5 weeks. It’s challenging as a professional in a sport to turn off training for that long. I certainly tried my best to do what I could in these confined places, but every workout on the boat came at the cost of something else. There’s very little downtime on a fishing boat, and in the rare occasions there is, all you want to do is sleep.

Focus on Recovery and Nutrition

You have no control over your “schedule” or what the fish are going to do. The one thing I found most beneficial being on the boat was “forced recovery” as my coach calls it and an increase in my nutrition. I already consume a lot of fish, but when I am on the boat, it is as if I become one with fish. Let me explain.

My family are BIG fish eaters. Whatever we pull out of the ocean, we eat. This is also part of what helps us save on the pre-season Costco bill. Every season my mom will make the big Costco shopping trip to stock up for 3 to 4 months on the boat. $5,000 later, and we still are left with a red meat allowance of only 2x a week, if that. So inevitably, all of us have grown very used to consuming salmon and all things fish on a daily basis. It’s a part of me I can’t go for long without.

When I am on the boat confined to eating fish at least 2 meals a day, I notice that even though I might be losing “fitness” in once sense, I’m making gains in other ways.  My hair, my skin, my body and just overall health….feels so good. Nutrition matters, and the energy I need at sea to work long hours catching wild fish, is also sustained by eating wild fish.

Why Alaska Seafood is Fitness Food

There are so many benefits to fueling your body with Wild Alaskan Seafood. Here are a few reasons why I love it and love sharing it with fellow athletes:

• The highest quality protein that repairs and rebuilds muscles
• Lean protein that is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids to reduce inflammation and strengthen heart health
• Low in calories for weight management
• Easy and quick to prepare for the busy athlete
• Among the safest seafood: regularly tested by Alaska’s Department of Environmental Conservation for water quality, methylmercury, radiation and other possible contaminants. Alaska is consistently found to have among the lowest levels of contaminants of any fish and shellfish.

Let me know if you have any questions about how Alaskan seafood can support your nutrition as an athlete. I’d love to connect!