Top 10 Nutrition tips for athletes - link to video and recap

The human body is an amazing machine. In our daily life, we only use a very small part of our true physical capabilities. 

But as athletes, unlike our daily life, our training is a big stressor on our body.

Understanding that training for an athletic event places such a high demand on the cardio, respiratory muscular, immune and other organ systems, it’s important to recognize that preparing your body for an athletic event is so much more than just checking off workouts.

I am sure I don't have to tell you this but your athletic success depends on proper nutrition. 

Last night, I had the opportunity to give a presentation at Run In on my Top 10 nutrition tips for athletes.  

Before getting into the talk, it is important that I tell you a little about myself and why I am so passionate about nutrition and sport nutrition. 

As a Board Certified Sport Dietitian with a MS in Exercise Physiology, I have dedicated much of my educational career to studying the human body and how food, or nutrition, affects physiology. I love learning about the science behind training and nutrition.

But, I am also an endurance triathlete. For the past 11 years, I have pushed my body to great physical and mental limits by completing 11 Ironman distance triathlons, including 4 Ironman World Championships and I have place overall female amateur at several half IM distance events. 

As a motivated, disciplined, competitive and goal-driven endurance triathlete, you can say that my activity routine is quite punishing and what I do with my body is very extreme. More important than any personal best, podium placement, overall win or World Championship qualification is my health. This hobby is a choice and seeing that you may also choose to do something similar with your body, it is important to remember that your ability to perform well with your body is dependent on good health.

I invite you to listen to my 1-hour presentation which discusses the following topics:

1. How to organize youd diet as an athlete
2. Incorporating whole grains into your diet
3. Daily hydration needs
4. Natural anti-inflammatory foods
5. Incorporating more vegetables into the diet
6. Easy to digest pre-workout snacks
7. How to master post-workout nutrition
8. Tips and tricks for dialing in sport nutrition and hydration during workouts 
9. How to make your own energy bar out of real food
10. Why it is important to create a healthy relationship with food and the body

I selected these ten topics because I felt they were important to discuss at this time of the year. There is a lot of misinformation and unsafe dietary advice regarding nutrition for athletes and unfortunately, many athletes get sick, injured or burnout because they lack the require energy and nutrients to adapt to training stress.

As a nutrition expert who is qualified to give nutrition advice to athletes, I feel it is important to stress that I encourage a mostly real food based diet with absolutely no off-limit foods, I believe in the use of sport nutrition products during training and never do I prescribe “magic bullets”, quick fixes, make claims for fad diets or encourage rigid and extreme styles of eating and fueling. 

When I work with athletes, health, well-being, longevity and enjoyment for sport are most important to me because I want you to keep your body in amazing health AND perform amazingly well with your body on race day, and for many more years to come. 

I hope that you find my tips practical, easy to implement and effective for your upcoming training and racing journey.

Any questions, don't hesitate to send me an email via the contact form on my website. 

Don't miss my next Facebook live chat - Top 10 nutrition tips for athletes

You are invited to attend my "Top 10 nutrition tips for athletes" presentation, on March 6th, 2017 from 7:00-8:00 pm EST. This is a FREE presentation for all fitness levels.

Are you bummed that you are not local and can't attend? Well, not to worry!

This is a Facebook live chat so yes, I will be live, you don't need to show up to the store and you can watch it from anywhere in the world!

This also means that you can ask me questions anytime during my presentation. No matter what you are doing, you can "join in" on this interactive nutrition presentation.

To access the live discussion, just refresh the Run In Facebook page at 7:00 pm and turn up your volume. I will be speaking and my friend Dane (manager of the store), will be alongside me to read off the questions from the comment section as they roll in.

For the presentation, I will be discussing: 

1. How to organize your diet as an athlete
2. Incorporating whole grains into your diet
3. Daily hydration needs
4. Natural anti-inflammatory foods
5. Incorporating more vegetables into the diet
6. Easy to digest pre-workout snacks
7. How to master post-workout nutrition
8. Tips and tricks for dialing-in during workout fueling and hydration (for triathletes and runners)
9. How to make your own energy bar out of real food
10. Why it's important to create a great relationship with food and the body

Be sure to LIKE and follow Run In on Facebook. 

"See" you on Monday evening! 

Upcoming speaking event: Which diet should you follow?

Are you wanting to lose 15+ lbs before your key race this season?

Are you looking to change your diet/fueling in order to maximize your short distance or long distance racing performance?

Do you struggle with your body image or relationship with food?

Do you struggle to maintain a healthy body composition while training for long distance events?

Do you experience GI issues, fatigue, headaches or low blood sugar symptoms while training/racing?

Are you confused as to how to eat and fuel to stay healthy as an athlete?

Are you overwhelmed with all of the diet, nutrition, fueling and eating advice you hear/read and want to understand what will work best for you as an athlete?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, I invite you to come to my FREE talk at Run In in Greenville, SC on Monday January 11th, 2016 at 6:15pm. 

If you are able to attend this talk, my goal is to help you better understand how to eat and fuel smarter as an athlete in order to maximize performance but also to do so in a way that will help keep your body in great health.

I will also discuss some of the common reasons as to why your dietary choices affect your training, gut, health and performance and how you can make dietary adjustments in order to move closer to your health, performance and weight goals. 

Talking Sport Nutrition at Run In

Where: Run In

When: December 8th

What time: 5:45-7:30

 It is within the daily diet AND what you eat before, during and after workouts that can help you gain the competitive edge. You can be the hardest working and most passionate athlete out there but if you don't eat right or constantly tell yourself that something needs to change but never change anything, you will never reach your full potential.

Taking pride in your fueling and eating strategy throughout the day can help boost performance, assist in recovery, prolong fatigue, keep the immune system healthy, help you maintain a healthy body composition and reduce risk for illness/disease and injury.

No matter what your fitness goal may be or your workout routine, your diet is more than calories in and calories out. You must learn how to eat for fuel.

If you are tired of making the same mistakes over and over with your fueling/eating strategy during training and racing or are looking for new tips to take your fitness to the next level, come join me on December 8th at Run In at 5:45pm. I will be discussing the following topics:

-Top foods that athletes should and should not eat before workouts/races to minimize GI distress (for triathletes and runners)
-How to fuel more efficiently on the bike to set your body up for a stronger run off the bike. (for triathletes)
-Learn the easiest way to fuel your body during running that will make it much easier to meet fluid, calorie and electrolyte needs. (for runners, triathletes and run fitness enthusiast)
-Recovery nutrition will no longer be your missing link. You will learn a few easy and simple ways to kick start the repairing and refueling process after every type of workout (for all athletes and fitness enthusiasts)
-See the top foods that every athlete should include in his/her diet. (for all athletes)
-Stop chasing a body image. This entire presentation is dedicated to the athlete who wants to learn how to eat for fuel and for health in order to achieve optimal performance with a healthy and strong body that can perform well in training and racing. (for all athletes and fitness enthusiasts)

What else can you look forward to at this event?
Athletes will learn, meet other triathletes/runners/fitness enthusiasts in the Greenville community, try a yummy snack from Veronica's Health Crunch and will get a 20% discount off ALL sport nutrition products

Thank you Veronica's Health Crunch for providing a yummy and healthy snack for my sport nutrition talk on Monday at Run In. 

It's only fair that if I'm talking about food my audience of athletes shouldn't be hungry!

In case you missed it, here's my delicious refueling yogurt parfait. Thanks Oakley Women for letting me share my nutrition tips for creating the perfect recovery meal.