Top 3 Tips for Athletes from Sport Dietitian Elizabeth
1. It isn’t all about training hours
Athletes often focus most of their energy on training harder, logging more hours in the gym, and doing extra training sessions. While training is key to improving performance, often this type of training comes at the expense of other aspects of health. Improving performance means improving all aspects of health. This includes sleep, recovery, hydration, nutrition and mental health. When so much energy is focused on training, often these other categories fall off and the expected improvements in performance don’t happen. If you find yourself failing to recover, feeling fatigued, or plateauing it might be time to focus more energy on factors outside of training.
3. Get back to the basics
If you are on social media or listen to most nutrition podcasts you are probably getting information about biohacking, eating clean, detoxing, and zoning in on specific micronutrients. While bringing more awareness to what we eat is great, these buzz words aren’t usually the answer to improving your performance through nutrition. Instead of buying into the next craze, take a step back and assess if you are doing the basics of nutrition. Are you eating breakfast consistently and not skipping meals? Do you include protein in all meals and snacks? Are you fueling before, during, and after long training sessions? If the answer was no to any of these questions let’s turn them all to yes before jumping on the biohacking band wagon! If you are looking for a podcast that supports these principles I suggest checking out the Inside Sports Nutrition Podcast with Bob Seebohar.
3. Don’t forget your fruits and veggies!
Leave it to the Registers Dietitian to bring up fruits and vegetables! Fruits and vegetables have so many benefits for both your basic and performance needs, it is important to not forget about them. The recommendation is for approximately 5 servings per day, with 1 serving being about the size of your fist. Meeting these recommendations will help with blood sugar control, feeling full, muscle repair and recovery, fiber intake, and so much more! This time of year it is easy to find a variety of seasonal options. Run out to your local market and get some today, your body will thank you!
