Reaching peak performance takes skill and practice. Optimizing performance includes planning a balanced diet. As professional athletes perform in their sport, they bring with them a store of energy and skill attained from a combination of hours of practice and healthy eating shown to enhance performance.
The key to reach peak performance is to adopt an eating plan that will fuel your workouts. Seasons are long and intense. A good nutrition plan can maximize your speed, agility, and power and can keep you from feeling sluggish as the season wears on. The end of the season usually means tournaments or playoffs, so it’s important to stay physically strong and mentally sharp by eating wisely.
Follow these nutrition tips to be sure you’re getting enough calories, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals:
- Eat Breakfast. The level of glycogen in your blood can be substantially lower in the morning, so you need to refuel your body to replace the energy it used while you slept. Studies have shown athletes who eat breakfast every morning perform better than those who skip breakfast. Breakfast can be as simple as a piece of fruit, yogurt with fruit topped with granola, bagel or piece of toast with peanut butter, a granola bar or low fat cream cheese.
- Consume a balanced diet daily. A balanced diet can be achieved by consuming breakfast, lunch and dinner with snacks in between. A balanced lunch and dinner should be a high carbohydrate, moderate protein, and low fat meal. For example, baked chicken breast, rice pilaf, steamed broccoli, and a fruit yogurt or a ham/veggie sandwich on whole grain bread, fresh fruit salad, and a pudding cup.
- Stay hydrated all day long. Water is the key component of our body and makes up 60 to 65% of total body weight. Being dehydrated can lead to early fatigue. It can be prevented if you train yourself to drink before, during and after exercise and to drink before you feel thirsty. To stay hydrated follow these guidelines:
- 2-3 hours before practice or game drink ~16 - 24 oz of water
- 30 minutes before drink ~4 – 8 oz of water
- During practice/game drink 4 - 8 oz of water every 15-20 minutes.
- After game/practice, drink until urine is clear. If you are hydrated, your urine should look pale like lemonade and if you are dehydrated it will look dark like apple juice.
- Monitor electrolytes. Sports drinks can help to replace sodium lost in sweat. Sports drinks provide fluids, electrolytes and carbohydrates. It’s recommended to drink a sports beverage such as Gatorade during activity lasting longer than 60 minutes to replace electrolytes.
- Drink extra fluids in the heat. When training in the heat you need more fluids because your body may lose as much as 3 liters (3 quarts) of fluid per hour. It is recommended to drink 14 to 19 gm of a sport drink per 8 oz. before, during and after exercise. Adolescents are at greater risk for heat illness due to a lower sweating rate and a faster rise in core temperature when dehydrated.
- Maintain adequate nutrition and hydration in the cold. Be sure to eat an adequate amount of carbohydrates as they are the most important fuel for athletes active in cold weather. You need about the same amount of fluid in cold weather that you would need when the weather is mild. It is also important to drink warm beverages as they may increase blood flow making you feel good on a very cold day.
- Eat before you train. Drink a liquid meal that has both carbohydrate and protein or grab a fruit smoothie if you don’t want to eat solid food before a morning practice. If you train in the afternoon, take a carbohydrate rich snack to eat before practice. Good choices include cereal bars, bananas, 100% fruit juice boxes, fig or fruit cookie bars, fruit cups, and pudding cups. This meal should be consumed anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours before.
- Refuel after practice or games. A high carbohydrate beverage or an energy bar is an easy way to refuel your muscles. Your muscles are able to replace glycogen right after exercise. If you sweat a lot or are a “salty” sweater replace sodium by drinking a sports drink, including salty foods in your meals such as pickles, soup, tomato juice, pretzels, and adding salt to your foods.
- Rely on healthy snacks. Snacking is the key! Keep healthy snacks around during the day such as trail mix, granola bars, sports bars (Cliff, Balance, Gatorade bar, Power bar, Odwala bar), animal crackers, pretzels, cheese sticks, and peanut butter crackers.
With a healthy game plan, you won’t need to rely on unhealthy snacks to pull you through until the next mealtime. Our body is a high performance machine. We train to perform; therefore, we need to eat to train.
For more information on how to improve your nutrition habits to reach peak performance please contact:
Jen Evola, LMT, RD, LDN, CGFI
Jevola@athletico.com
