Fuel Your Body
For training!
Breakfast!
Start each day with breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for athletes. While you sleep, your body uses energy from the food you ate the day before to repair and build your bones, muscles and organs. In the morning, you need to eat because your energy supply is very low. After all, you have not eaten in 8 to 10 hours! You need to eat to have energy and nutrients for your day.
Set your alarm clock 15 minutes early so you have time to eat a good breakfast. Here are some great breakfast ideas:
- Eat cereal, fresh fruit, yogurt or bread products (buns, bagels, muffins, English muffins, croissants).
- Add peanut butter, cheese or meat to your toast or bagel for long-lasting energy.
- Scramble an egg in a mug, microwave it for a minute or so and put it on toast.
- Make a protein shake by mixing yogurt, banana, soft tofu, and maple syrup in a blender.
If you're in a hurry, take your breakfast with you. Just remember, any breakfast is better than no breakfast. Grab a slice of leftover pizza or some chicken pot pie!
Snacks!
Snacks are important to give you energy between meals and around training times. Try to choose snacks that are nutritious and have a lot of fibre. Here are some great snack ideas:
- Start a 'Club Fuel Tank'
This is a great fund-raising project for a sports club. Set up a box filled with high-energy, nutritious snacks like fresh fruit, power bars, cereal bars, and vegetable bars, sesame snaps, whole grain crackers and cheese, and small bags of dried fruit, nuts and seeds. For a small price, athletes can buy a quick snack and support your club. - The Weekend Snack Blitz.
- Spend an hour with your family baking treats to freeze and take to training sessions during the week.
- Make things like muffins, oatmeal cookies or homemade granola bars and trail mix.
- Bag up single servings of your favorite dried fruits and nuts (ask your training facility if nuts are allowed).
- Cut up cheese and raw vegetables to take with you as a snack with dip.
- Prepare a "party mixture", or buy whole grain crackers and individually packed peanut or other nut butters to pack up snack-sized servings that you can take with you during the week.
For travelling
It's hard to find your favourite snacks when you are travelling to competitions. Carry your own 'snack-pack' with...
- A full water bottle and juice boxes.
- Fresh fruit and fruit yogurt.
- High carbohydrate snacks like dried fruit, cereal bars, whole grain crackers, granola bars, popcorn, dry cereals, bagels, oatmeal cookies and rice crispy squares, nuts and seeds.
For competition!
You should eat three to four hours before your event. If you are competing early in the morning, eat a small meal at least two hours before your event. Here are some great meal ideas:
- Eat carbohydrates at your meal before competing because they are easy to digest.
- Include protein foods in your pre-competition meal to help keep your muscles strong!
- Save the fried foods for your meal after the competition to help restore your energy.
- Drink plenty of water.
- Don't drink coffee, tea or colas because they have caffeine in them. You get dehydrated from caffeine.
You may not be very hungry the day of a competition because of the excitement (or nervousness). This means you might be hungrier than normal for the next couple of days. That's great - eat up! Your body needs to replace the energy you used while you were competing.