As an athlete, sports nutrition plays a pivotal role into our daily performance. There are a couple of pitfalls we all fall into and I am going to help you with those. The next couple of paragraphs discuss the importance of quality and quantity of what you eat before competition.
First, think of your body as a sports car. When you're at the gas station, you have options of what level octane you put in the car, just the same as we have options as to how healthy we eat. You can eat junk food (low octane,) it’s cheap and “gets the job done;” you’re fed and no longer hungry BUT you’re not running at peak performance. Your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs. You need vitamins, carbs, and protein to run at those peak levels. Eating cleaner, healthier foods gets you everything your body needs and you feel better and lighter throughout the day.
Next, think about when airlines fuel up a jet to fly from one city to the another. A lot of thought, math, and science goes in to how MUCH fuel they are putting into the airplane. If they don’t put in enough, the plane isn’t going to make it where it needs to go. If they fill the tanks with too much, the plane is heavier, flying slower, and it takes more work to get the plane from point A to point B. In this case, you are the plane and need to consider how much you are eating before you get into the game. Not enough and you’re crashing before the final whistle; too much and you’re weighed down and running slow.
As a coach, I had a wrestler who I caught after weigh-ins eating two hot dogs from the concession stand. I immediately asked him “what the h*ll do you think you’re doing?” He responded, “don’t worry coach, I'll be fine.” Not only did he lose that match and later beat the same opponent easily a few weeks after, but that was his ONLY loss of the season. The price of his perfect season was 2 hot dogs. (Almost 20 years later, I hope he sees this and knows I’m talking about him; you know who you are ha)
Keep an eye out for future posts because I am going to provide you with healthy snack ideas to eat on game day, their benefits, the timing in which you should eat them before kick-off, and overall mentality coaching to help get you to the next level