HEALTH & WELLNESS TIPS FOR THE SUMMER 5 Nutrition Tips for Athletes
1. Mind your greens. For athletes the focus is almost always on carbs and protein. One provides the fuel, and the other provides the restorative power to heal our muscles and keep us training at a high level. Protein and carbs are important, but so are the minerals and vitamins that facilitate their delivery and help to process them. Eat vegetables at every major meal, and try layering your vegetables. Have two or three different veggies at a time. 2. Crush some berries to boost recovery. Want an easy way to reduce soreness? Accelerate your recovery efforts between sessions in the gym by crushing some blueberries. Eat 1-2 cups of berries a day to take advantage of these benefits. 3. Use protein as the anchor for your meals. As an athlete you already know the importance of crushing a fair amount of protein in order to keep your muscles recovering and prepared for battle. The lists of benefits of getting your protein in are substantial and are a bedrock part of the high performance athlete’s diet. Adequate protein intake maintains muscle, improves recovery, might improve cognition and sleep. 4. Take advantage of sleep to increase recovery. Instead of using your sleepy time for solely catching up on your Z’s, you can help charge the recovery process overnight by consuming some pre-bed, slow digesting protein. These protein sources before bed will turn what is an otherwise catabolic 8 hours into productive recovery, repair and growth. If you want to take it to the next level, plan a meal in the middle of the night. 5. Prep your meals. High performance athletes understand that periodization and preparation is everything when it comes to training. This kind of planning and evaluation should extend to the way you are fueling yourself. Do this by having your meals ready before you stumble in the door after a day of crushing workouts. Planning and prepping your meals ahead of time insures that you are making better choices. After a long day of up to 6 hours in the pool and the gym the last thing you wanted to do was prepare a meal.
And so what happened? The convenience of the less healthy options almost always won out.
Sources: http://www.yourworkoutbook.com/nutrition-athletes/
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