Listen to Your Gut (and Your Body): Rethinking the Rules of Fueling

Now, listen here, you lot. When you’ve been wrestling with your sourdough starter, you learn quick enough that there ain't one magic bullet for everything. You learn that a good starter needs a bit of everything—the right temperature, the right feed, and a bit of patience. It’s a living thing, much like a baker’s gut instinct.

Lately, I've been listening to some talk about diets and fueling, and it got me thinking about how we sometimes get so caught up in the 'right' way to do something—whether it’s feeding a wild yeast culture or planning a perfect loaf—that we forget to just *listen*.

I watched this bit from Mark Bell, and it made me pause. He’s talking about 'Wars on Carbs' and how sometimes, the rigid rules we set for ourselves—even if they sound solid on paper—don't match what our bodies actually need to get that beautiful, open crumb.

It’s a bit counter-intuitive, I'll give ya that. For years, the narrative has been loud and clear: cut the carbs, watch the fats, and you’ll be golden. But what he points out, and what I reckon a lot of us rogue bakers can relate to, is that the body is complex. You can’t just treat it like a simple recipe with one ingredient you gotta cut out.

When we talk about fermentation, we talk about balance. The wild yeast needs sugar, yes, but it also needs the right environment. If you starve it of one thing, it gets grumpy, and the bake suffers. It’s the same with us, I reckon. Trying to force a diet that doesn't suit your lifestyle or your current training load is just like trying to bake artisan bread in a fridge—it's gonna be flat and sad.

The key takeaway for us, the folks who spend our time mastering the sourdough process, is adaptability. We learn to read the dough—is it sluggish? Is it bubbly and lively? We adjust the hydration, we adjust the bulk time. We don't panic when the first bake doesn't look like the picture on the box.

This ain't about abandoning good habits, mind you. It’s about understanding the *why* behind the rules. Are we tracking our intake so we can fuel a long day of kneading? Are we using nutrient timing to make sure we have the energy for that late-night scoring session? It’s about optimizing, not restricting out of fear.

Don't let the latest diet trend scare you into abandoning what you know works for your baking rhythm. Use what you learn from these wider conversations—about fueling, about balance—and bring that thoughtful approach back to your kitchen. Whether you’re trying to nail that perfect crust or just trying to keep your levain happy, pay attention to the signals.

If you're serious about dialing in your process—whether that's your fitness or your baking—you need a solid guide. If you're ready to take your skills up a notch, I reckon you should check out the 30-Day Sourdough Challenge. It’s a proper way to test your technique and see what you’re really capable of.