When looking at supporting your hard work in your training and making sure your hard work pays off, we need to look to nutrition to ensure your body can perform when needed, recover quickly and insure no injuries occur. The most important thing to remember is always eat a nutrient dense, properly prepared meal every meal.
This makes sure your body is well balanced and can cope with the stress placed on it when you are training and performing. Another important point is hydration. The best hydration is through pure water. There is no place for energy drinks.
Aim to drink your body weight in kg divided by 33 daily. On average this is about 2Litres a day. While training sip water throughout. If training hard or exercising longer than hour, see recipe for energy drink below. The extra nutrition needed for this training and performance can be looked at by looking at Pre Exercise Meals, During Exercise Meals and Post Exercise Meals. The key information here is this way of eating is not only when you are performing. Your diet is a lifestyle and determines how your body copes with training and recovers.
Pre-Exercise Meals The pre-event meal is an important part of the athlete’s preparation. When it comes to any of these meals pre, during or post , food should be used to enhance and top up the extra calorie and glucose needs not load the body. ‣ Eat real food and avoid ‘drinking’ calories in the form of gels or sugary energy drinks.
‣ Pre-event carbohydrates should be consumed with protein, low in fat and fibre. ‣ Foods should be easy to digest foods and free of any food that can cause any upsets.
‣ A simple ideas are berries, gluten free toast with nut butter and salt See Recipe Link for a great protein ball recipe.
Eating during Exercise
During exercise lasting more than 60 minutes, an intake of a snack may be required, however water with salt and some healthy glucose will help hydrate and provide the extra energy needed to top up glucose levels and delay fatigue.
‣ A recipe for a homemade Energy Drink
Glass of water with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of pure maple syrup and a squeeze of lemon juice.
This is a far more effective way to keep you hydrated and provide you with the extra glucose needed and far cheaper and less harmful than the sugary sports drinks available.
Eating after Exercise Replacing lost glycogen and help the body recover is essential after a hard workout or event. For the average individual, a normal healthy diet is plenty to restore lost nutrients and aid in recovery. Whatever your needs the meal optimally needs to be done in the first hour after exercise. The most important thing here is to have moderate Glycemic meal with protein such as Avocado on gluten free wholegrain toast with a egg. ‣ A recipe for post work out smoothie
1 banana
tablespoon of nut butter
coconut yogurt
coconut water or plain water-soluble
a scoop of L-glutamine and a scoop of collagen or 100% whey protein
mix all ingredients in a blender and drink.
sprinkle with cocoa nibs
