Fiber is literally your BFF as and athlete. ‍

This is one of the most important tips I can give you: **include a high fiber food at each meal and snack.

High fiber foods include:

ALL FRUITS AND ALL VEGGIES! Fruits and veggies contain a combination of solute and insoluble fiber. Both have substantial health benefits when it comes to overall health and sports performance.

ALL GRAIN. Every grain you can think of has fiber. Most have a combination of soluble and insoluble fiber such as oats, brown rice, wild rice, farro, barley, quinoa, buckwheat, whole wheat pasta, chick pea pasts, popcorn, bulgar, millet, rye, corn, wheat and many more...

NUTS and SEEDS such as sesame seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, peanuts, cashews, pistachios, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and many more...

BEANS and LENTILS including black beans, pinto beans, green lentils, white lentils, split peas, chick peas, lima beans and many more...

‍Fiber is crucial in order to...

EAT FAT!!! 

Fat is an essential component of an athlete's diet. Consuming the right kind of fat,  in the right quantities, at the right times, is crucial for optimal health and success as an athlete. Healthy fats that support athlete's training include avocados, fatty fish (such as salmon), fish oil supplements, olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil and other monounsaturated oils, nuts and nut butters, flax seeds, chia seeds and other seeds.

The fear around fat is unsubstantiated. Good fat is GOOD! There are some sources of fat that cause inflammation and are not positive to performance gains. The focus is always on unsaturated sources of fat (primarily monounsaturated fast). Here are some ways to incorporate these foods in your diet as an athlete:

Whole grain bagel with smoked salmon

Berry Smoothie with flax and hemp seed mixture

Almond Butter and honey Sandwich 

Spring greens salad with olive oil based dressing 

Yogurt parfait with fruit and...

 EAT BREAKFAST!!

Is breakfast the most important meal fo the day?

No.

All meals all equally important. BUT...breakfast is the one meal that sets us up for success throughout the day by fueling our bodies and regulating our blood sugar. If you have practice in the afternoon or evening  it's crucial to begin the fueling process right away. If you have practice in the morning it's also crucial to fuel for that practice. Fueling for a morning practice, however, may look a little different in terms of how much you can eat or the types of foods you can eat.  

Don't like eating in the morning? It's likely that is due to the fact that you trained your body not to like it. Guess what? You can train it back! Start with something small or even just a few bites and start the process of training your GI system to take in food. Doing this will re-set your hunger cues!

Below are some examples of healthy balanced fueling breakfasts for athletes! Try the ones that sound good to...

Did you  know that as soon as your body is slightly dehydrated overall pace and endurance are drastically diminished. As an athlete I'm sure you bring a water bottle to practice and to a game... but do you stay hydrated throughout the day? Do you think about your hydration? Do yo think of it everyday?  Even on non-training days?

Staying hydrated on a daily basis (not just during training sessions, workouts and competitions) is crucial to your success as an athlete. Doing so will ensure that you have a strong practice, have ample energy during competitions and will increase your energy throughout the day-no matter what you are doing. Hydration is also paramount to optimal recovery. Your body needs adequate fluid to perform AND recover! This will ensure that you can hit each session just as hard day after day after day. 

How do you monitor and measure hydration? There are a few ways to do this:

1- Ask yourself if you're thirsty. This is a method used by many, although...

Tip#3

Nutrient-Rich Eating 

Eating a nutrient rich diet is all about optimizing the quality of the foods you eat. You can make a choice between eating a meal packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties, fiber, water, protein, fats and carbohydrates....or a food with very little of any of those. Athletes who choose to eat a diet filled with powerful and health enhancing nutrients will have the energy available to them to perform at their best.  

Making  the most of the foods you choose to eat will ensure that you will perform at your best and recover the most efficiently!  Whenever possible, choose foods, combinations of foods and meals that contain nutrients that will help fuel your body and/or help you recover from the high level of training that you are doing on a day to day basis.

For example, instead of grabbing a rice cake in the morning for breakfast, choose whole grain toast with avocado, arugula and flax seeds....

TIP#1

Food is Energy! 

As an athlete, you are asking a lot of your body. You ask it to produce a lot of energy every single day!

Food is literally converted into energy when we eat it through digestion and absorption. In fact food is measured in calories....which is a measurement of energy.

Eating food provides your body with energy to use. Eating a varied and balanced diet of food at regular intervals throughout each day ensures you have ample energy for your sport!  If you limit or restrict food, you are limiting the amount of energy that is produced and you simply will not be able to perform to your full potential. You may not be able to perform well at all.

Thinking of food as fuel is a mindset shift that will amplify your sports performance goals. Choosing food wisely will ensure that your body gets what it needs and therefore can perform exactly how you want it to! Setting your mindset straight when it comes to the first sports nutrition tip will change...

 The Good Guys

This is part 2 of a 3 part series all about sports supplements. If you missed part one you can catch it Here. This, however is the one you want to read, save, read again and consider what works best for you and your goals.

Remember that sports supplements are not needed. They can help- under the right circumstances and as an addition to a healthy balanced diet! A supplement is exactly that-a supplement (and I'll say it again for the people in the back) to a healthy balanced diet. 

What Should YOU Take?

Now that you are aware of what the supplement industry is all about (& sorry if that scared you at all), I promised you the good news so here it is.

Supplements can help your performance when added to a healthy balanced diet. There are some supplements that are heavily researched and proven to actually help your performance, but there are some caveats. You may not need a certain supplement. You may not respond to one well. So, when choosing...

Part One...

In this three part blog series you will learn so much about sports supplements and walk away knowing if they are something you should consider, or not.

If your algorithms on social media are like most athletes, you’re probably getting ads left and right about different supplements and products people are selling promising anything from increased performance to weight loss to muscle gain to super immunity– we’ve seen it all.

It's human to  want that easy fix, or “the magic pill”. Trust me I often see an amazing performance promise and think wow I'm in...and then I stop myself with the knowledge I have. These companies are GREAT at marketing to us! They know how desperate we are to be the best!  But as athletes, we know that nothing comes without hard work. So immediately we need to question these claims and products. Do you take the time to question such promises?

Let’s take a step back. What is a supplement?...