A few weeks ago on Good Friday we had a scare with Mikayla regarding her nutrition. It may seem trivial to you if you don’t have a competitive athlete but to me it was eye opening experience. I usually always get to the gym a few minutes early to see if I can get a sneak peak at routines and that day near the end of practice, Mikayla’s coach pulled me aside and said she basically ran out of fuel and her body just quit. She could not do a simple turn on the balance beam (her favorite event) let alone perform any skill. at. all. Mikayla was crying and complaining of muscle fatigue and stomach pains.
I felt helpless. I did not know what to do. How could this be? This child of mine eats all. the. time! What it boils down to is that she was not eating the right foods at the right times. She needs carbs and lots of them to fuel her body through her 4 hours of practice followed by protein to repair her muscles after practice. I was meeting the after practice requirements, as I bring the girls dinner each night but was lacking in guidance in the before and mid-practice snack department.
This whole experience was eye opening and gave me the swift kick to really start thinking about what goes into my athletes bodies. From that day on I have been researching and implementing proper nutrition to keep my athletes in top form, both during and after practice and meets.
photo credit
Come back tomorrow and learn what I feed my athletes each week. Making sure they have the proper nutrition to fuel them is a full time job. I will try to have links to a few recipes and post what my girls ate pre-State meet. Also, do not forget to check out the other 64 Crewmates 5 days, by clicking the link below.
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