How to Maintain Health During the Holidays: An Athlete’s Guide

Posted by Megan Fischer-Colbrie from blog.bridgeathletic.com

At this time every year, athletes add another important aspect to their lives that can impact their training and performance: celebrating the holidays. With more time dedicated to seeing friends and family, this can be a healthful and restorative period for athletes—a chance to mentally recharge. The holidays, however, bring several temptations that when left unchecked can lead to negative effects on training that outweigh the positive energy during this month. Let’s look into how people tend to overindulge and what strategies you can exercise to maintain fitness through the month. Respect your hard work and discipline during the rest of the year by following these tips!

Indulge in Moderation.

One lavish meal won’t dig you into a hole but a season of calorie dense meals will, so try to exercise greater vigilance throughout the month. It is unlikely that the one to two pounds the average American gains during the holidays (and doesn’t lose, according to a The New England Journal of Medicine study) comes from a specific meal you had. The hidden calories are in all the little treats throughout the season. Included in that category are peppermint mochas, the candy bowl that sits on the table for the month of December, the endless supply of holiday cookies, and many more parties that involve festive drinks.

Focus on the holidays by spending time with family instead of focusing on the food. Enjoy a generous meal once or twice this season, and in between recognize all the seasonal treats that you don’t need to incorporate into your diet on a regular basis, as these are the calories that add up with the blink of an eye.

Pay attention to your drinks.

Approach seasonal beverages like pumpkin spice lattes and hot chocolate as dessert, reserved for special occasions.

One medium sized peppermint mocha will run you 330 calories and 60 grams of carbohydrates — the same amount of carbs as there are in 4 brownies! This can affect how you feel in training due to the high volume of sugar you may be drinking that you normally do not choose.

At holiday parties, skip the heavy cocktails and opt for red wine or clear liquor with club soda and a splash of lime, if you prefer and if you are of age. Drinks at night tend to leave you feeling tired the next morning. Alcohol can lead to faster time to falling asleep, but the trade off is far worse for the second half of night, according to director of the London Sleep Center Irshaad Ebrahim, lead author of a recent study. Alcohol decreases the time your body spends in REM sleep. Rapid Eye Movement sleep is the deep sleep during which dreaming and learning occurs and memories are stored. Less time in REM sleep can lead to restlessness, grogginess during the day, and an increase in appetite.

On that note, get plenty of sleep.

Pick carefully which holiday events you feel obliged to attend because multiple late nights can be disruptive for your training. If you are returning to school or work in January, your goal is to hit the ground running on the next phase of training and to be mentally re-invigorated to work hard.

Engage in new, but safe activities.

Share experiences with your family that create more memories than the typical gatherings around food. Go for family hikes, walks, or try ice-skating. For all athletes, I recommend saving the skiing and snowboarding for retirement and picking sledding or lower-risk activities in the snow. You have the rest of your life for recreational activities and do not want to risk injury. If you like to bake, try giving away most of the cookies as gifts to friends.

Healthy Holiday Alternatives:

After dutifully listening to this set of tips, here are a few simple substitutes to make your holiday meals healthier.

When baking, try switching out half of your all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour (you’ll lose the spike in blood sugar and get a boost in fiber, vitamin B-6, folic acid, and potassium)
When possible, use olive oil instead of butter. Sautee items in a pan or roast meat, poultry or vegetables in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil.
Use coconut milk, yogurt, or even soft tofu in place of heavy cream for making soups or dips during the holidays. Coconut milk works well as a replacement in desserts while tofu can be used in savory dips and provide a little boost in protein.
Try switching out half of the butter in a baking recipe for applesauce or another fruit puree. The puree will not change the flavor and will keep your baked items moist. Use prune puree for darker baked goods like chocolate cake or pear puree for lighter baked items such as muffins.

Most importantly, enjoy the holidays! Allow time with your family and friends help restore your mental health as you build momentum for the coming training cycle in the New Year. Wishing you a Happy Holiday Season from Bridge!

References:

A Prospective Study of Holiday Weight Gain. JACK A. YANOVSKI, M.D., PH.D., SUSAN Z. YANOVSKI, M.D., KARA N. SOVIK, B.S., TUC T. NGUYEN, M.S.,
PATRICK M. O’NEIL, PH.D., AND NANCY G. SEBRING, M.ED., R.D
http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM200003233421206
http://www.starbucks.com/menu/catalog/nutrition?drink=all#view_control=nutrition&drink=espresso
http://www.drugs.com/cg/basic-carbohydrate-counting.html

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/08/sleeping-it-off-how-alcohol-affects-sleep-quality/
Taste of Home. "Secrets and Tips for Baking Light." (Oct. 2, 2012) http://www.tasteofhome.com/Healthy/Recipe-Makeovers/Baking-Techniques/Secrets-and-Tips-for-Baking-Light
Ebrahim, I. O., Shapiro, C. M., Williams, A. J. and Fenwick, P. B. (2013), Alcohol and Sleep I: Effects on Normal Sleep. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 37: 539`–549. doi: 10.1111/acer.12006

Topics: Nutrition

Why You Need to Eat it Whole

By Anita Nall Richesson, Olympian & Nutritionist

As a general rule of thumb, eating foods in their whole, most natural state (rather than mashed, pureed, juiced, popped etc.) generally lessens the impact on blood sugar and contains more nourishment for the body. For example, choose a baked potato over chips and fries, choose an apple over applesauce, and always choose the whole vegetable or the whole fruit rather than juicing it, so that you get all the beneficial fiber (which, don’t forget, cancels out some of the sugars) and the other nutrients stored in the skins and pulp.

An excellent illustration can be found in an orange. When you drink orange juice, you get the vitamin C but not the beneficial fiber and phytonutrients that come from the pulp. Even if you buy orange juice with pulp, you’re still not getting any of the fibrous white membrane, which is where the phytonutrients (plant nutrients that fight disease) hide.

Nutrition science research is finding, increasingly, that it is not one substance or another that gives plant foods their disease-fighting power, but the interaction of these vitamins, antioxidants, and other plant chemicals. So, by eating foods the way Mother Nature presents them, you won’t miss out on any hidden health benefits. As for sports, your energy will come from whole, natural foods as well. Bagged and boxed foods won’t give you the performance edge you are looking for.

BIOGRAPHY

Setting the swimming world ablaze at the young age of fifteen with 2 world records in one day propelled Anita into the fast lane of success. After swimming for the cycle (gold, silver, and bronze) in the 1992 Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona, many health challenges hampered her attempts at returning to an Olympic level. Challenged by a series of “mystery illnesses” that lasted a decade after the Olympics, Anita rediscovered health through food. Traditional medicine’s failed healing attempts drove her towards a personal quest for wellness and a passionate understanding of the healing power of food. Her profound experiences with illness, healing and professional athletics have given her a unique perspective she shares with clients.

After completing her undergraduate degree in Communications and Spanish from Arizona State University she pursued holistic nutrition education at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe, Arizona. Anita is a Certified Holistic Nutrition Specialist, Certified Life Coach and accomplished motivational speaker. Anita is also an elite member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Anita coaches clients on how to become the CWO (Chief Wellness Officer) of their own lives through her company Feed Me Anita. She completed 3 NFL seasons as Nutrition Consultant for the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL Football Team. She works with various elite professional athletes including UFC fighters, boxers & world-class swimmers as well as major corporations around the country. She recently began another business called More Than Medals. It is an empowerment program for teenage female athletes that centers around motivation, nutrition & increased self-esteem. www.morethanmedals.us

Read the following articles to learn more about Anita:

How Anita helped guide the NFL team the Jacksonville Jaguars.

How Anita caught Dana Vollmer’s food allergies and helped her get on the right nutritional track to succeed at the Olympics.

Do You Have An Elite Nutrition Mindset?

By: Anita Nall Richesson, 1992 Olympic Gold, Silver & Bronze, Nutrition & Wellness Expert

https://swimswam.com/elite-nutrition-mindset/

What makes an athlete elite? I haven’t met an athlete yet that doesn’t want to be at the top of their game, the tip of the spear, the best of the best. So, how do you get there? There are many components to success in sport. We are all familiar with attributes like hard work, determination, commitment, dedication and focus. But what else could help take your performance to another level? The elite athlete is always seeking new ways to perfect and grow in sport and improve his/her performance.

After competing at the highest level in sport and winning gold, silver and bronze in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in swimming, I spent nearly a decade of my life struggling with chronic health problems. I tried everything in order to regain my health and compete successfully at a high level, however, it wasn’t until I learned about the powerful role nutrition can play in our health that my healing began. Nutrition is a subtle, yet powerful, contributing factor to success. I only say subtle because it can be hard to measure its exact impact at times. If utilized properly, nutrition can be THE THING that takes your performance to another level. It can also hinder performance and lay the foundation for illness, low energy and slow recovery time. I’ve completely transformed my personal eating habits and facilitated that transformation in others. It is the elite athletes I work with who are looking for an edge and see that nutrition is one area in which to do this.

There are 3 keys to having an elite mindset with your nutrition plan. Adopting this mindset and having a new awareness about the impact food can have on your performance will reward you greatly.

1. “LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE”

Hippocrates, one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine, said it best. However, in the land of quick fix prescriptions, grab and go foods, and diet book best sellers it can be a hard motto to live by. Linking what you eat with how you feel is the first step in letting food be thy medicine. Once you become aware, you may soon realize that certain foods give you headaches, possibly increase your eczema and/or contribute to sinus congestion for example. After you take on the mindset of connecting what you eat with how you feel, you are ready for action.

Action: Stay on the perimeter of the grocery store. The most nutritious foods are located there. Foods like fruits, vegetables, proteins, nuts and seeds contribute to high energy, quicker recovery time and decreased illness as opposed to the boxed foods that fill the inside isles.

2. FOOD IS EITHER ENHANCING YOUR PERFORMANCE OR HINDERING IT.

Everything you put in your mouth impacts performance. Understanding this will give you the power to choose foods that contribute to your performance goals.

*PERFORMANCE ENHANCING* FOODS**	*PERFORMANCE HINDERING* FOODS**
Eggs, Ham, Green Vegetables	Sugary Breakfast foods like Pop Tarts, Pastries & Donuts
Raw nuts & seeds	Sugary, super salted nuts & seeds
Baked Potato	Potato Chips
Fruit Based Desserts w/ minimal sugar or honey as sweetener	Pies, Ice Cream, Candy
Oatmeal	Dry, sugary cereals
Grilled Chicken	Fried Chicken

3. FAILURE TO PREPARE IS PREPARING TO FAIL.

If you think about your meal WHEN you get hungry, you are already behind the

nutrition 8-ball. Research shows us that once we get hungry, our decision-making capacity to choose healthy nutritious food dramatically decreases. Set yourself up for success and create a general meal plan for your day and/or week. Here is a sample day (Times, schedules & food requirements vary, this is just 1 possible example)

TIME OF DAY	FOOD SUGGESTION
Pre- Morning Practice	Oatmeal w/ Fruit & Walnuts & 100% Maple Syrup (1 tsp)
Post- Morning Practice	1-2 Breakfast Sandwiches: Egg, Sausage & Spinach
Lunch	Quinoa w/ Grilled Chicken, Black Beans, Broccoli & Salsa
Snack	Banana or Apple w/ Almond Butter & Beef Jerky Slices (Be sure its doesn’t contain MSG)
Pre-Afternoon Practice	Coconut milk yogurt w/Chia seeds + 2-3 slices of turkey breast
Post-Practice	Recovery shake: Protein powder*+ Fruit + Almond or Coconut Milk
Dinner	Crockpot pulled pork over baked red potatoes & carrots

*The amount and kind of protein varies and is based on body weight and individual needs

Don’t wait until you have a health crisis like I did to adopt an elite mindset with food. Act now! Get your family, your teammates and your coaches on board!

Stay tuned for more articles on developing your elite mindset with food and other wellness strategies that can enhance your performance. I will continue to give you practical tips utilized by many of the elite athletes I work with in their quest to be #1!

BIOGRAPHY

Read the following articles to learn more about Anita:

How Anita helped guide the NFL team the Jacksonville Jaguars.

How Anita caught Dana Vollmer’s food allergies and helped her get on the right nutritional track to succeed at the Olympics.

The 2 Things You Need If You Want Better Nutrition Habits This Season

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy

It’s not enough that we get up super early, and regularly perform chlorinated and Herculean feats of training. There is also the battle in the kitchen. Here are the two things you need to stick to an awesome diet this season according to research.

Willpower.

That’s usually where the blame falls when we slip on our dietary choices…

If only I had more willpower, I wouldn’t have rubbed my face in that large, pepperoni pizza.
If I’d had more willpower I wouldn’t have gone back for seconds, thirds, and fourths.
If I had more willpower I probably wouldn’t have this Cheesey’s moustache right now.

And so on.

We blame willpower because a lack of it makes it feel like it’s out of our control, and therefore not our fault. (We can creatively rationalize just about anything given the opportunity!)

“If I reaaally wanted to eat better I would, but I’m not, so clearly I don’t reeaally want it, so I better go eat another six-pack of doughnuts to prove myself right. Nomnomnom.”

And while willpower does play a huge role in our actions, there are things we can be doing in order to make eating better less agonizing, and in turn, reap the benefits of those healthier food decisions. (Faster swimming, ahem.)

Over and over we have been told by our coaches the importance of eating well and getting lots of sleep, and typically reply with– “Yeah, yeah, I know!” and keep on truckin’, never getting the full performance benefits of mastering either.

For some swimmers, it’s not having the understanding of how well—or not well, as is almost always the case—they are actually eating. While for others, they feel as though their food choices have them under lock and key, and find that they are unable to break free from a history of bad dietary habits.

The 2 Things You Need If You Want Better Nutrition Habits This Season Save

“Snack time?”

A recent meta-analysis of weight loss and diet papers looked at research done over the span of a decade, encompassing 27 studies, to see what interventions worked best for sticking to good nutritional choices.

And the winners are:

1. We do better with supervision and accountability.

Seems obvious, right? Of course being supervised means we are going to adhere to something.

After all, you’re more likely to do the whole swim practice if coach is standing over you at the end of the lane line, just like you know that you are more likely to complete your homework if your teacher expects you to have it done.

This need for supervision doesn’t make you a lazy or terrible person–it’s human nature that when left to our own devices we will almost always take the easy or most convenient route. It’s not laziness, necessarily, we are simply built to be efficient with effort (I get the sense a couple of you will quote that to your teachers/parents/coaches over the next few days…).

Anyways, here are a few different ways that you can use this knowledge to help clean up your nutrition:

Talk to a dietitian.

Seriously, this is the best couple hundred of dollars you will ever spend in your life. For that kind of money you can get a custom-tailored diet plan that is specific to your age, sex, height/weight, and most importantly, your activity level in the water.

Talking to a dietitian will cut one of the biggest excuses from the equation—ignorance. With so much conflicting science and bad science telling you what is good and not good for you it can be paralyzing when it comes to trying to eat well.

A sports dietitian will give you a meal plan that is tailored to what you like to eat (important!) and also to how much you train (doubly important!).

Keep a food journal.

Maybe you already understand the benefits of logging your workouts, and so you do it, dutifully, each night at the end of another long day of training. And maybe you also keep a gratitude journal each night to stay optimistic and sleep better.

So why not go one step further and start writing out your food intake each day?

The power of doing so is astonishing:

It forces you to come to terms with what you are actually eating, removing the ability to shrug off bouts of poor eating as “not that bad.” Seeing it on paper shows you that it actually can be “that bad.”
A food journal will show you that eating isn’t always something that happens because of hunger. You’d be surprised how often you stuff your face because you are stressed, you are bored, or because of some other external cue that you hadn’t considered.

Don’t go completely in-depth if you don’t want to–over-reporting your food intake with detailed calorie counts and so on is counter-productive if it starts to feel like work.

Prep your meals.

While this doesn’t really fall under supervision or accountability, it does go a long way to battle the convenience factor that most of today’s poor food choices present us with.

When I come home after a brutal workout if there is nothing that is convenient it gets really easy to rope myself into an “Ah, whatever it’s only one meal” kind of moment where I dial up the local pizza place. (Rationalized with: “But I worked really, really hard today at practice and deserve this!”)

Prepping your meals ahead of time means that the right meal is the convenient choice. (This and two other nutrition strategies were discussed in this post as well.)

2. Build a support system that promotes your nutrition goals.

The environment you build around you plays a massive factor in how you perform both in the pool and in the kitchen.

Surround yourself with people who eat pizza and assorted colas all day long, and inevitably some of those sugar-coated devil crumbs are gonna find its way into your mouth-hole.

We like to think that “monkey see, monkey do” applies only to, you know, monkeys, but we are far more susceptible to the influence of others and our environment than we realize.

How to fix this:

Buddy system. Partner up with someone else who is working on developing cleaner eating habits. It’s a common struggle, and I doubt you’d have a hard time finding someone in your trust circle who is also keen on cleaning up their nutrition. This will also give you an added layer of accountability.
Talk to your team. Work with family/roommates/spouse/pets to help clean up the environment at home. Talk to the people in your life about your nutrition goals and getting them on board. Things are easier when you have people in your life rooting for your success, and the first step is telling them what your goals are in the kitchen.
Only “see” good food choices. Prime your home and fridge for success by making good choices the convenient choices. When it comes to food, we quite literally will eat what we see. Want to eat less Doritos? Throw out the bulk-sized bag from the cupboard. Want to eat more bananas? Leave them out on the counter so you have to walk past them to get to the fridge.

The Takeaway

Eating well, and learning to master the fork and plate go beyond just becoming a faster swimmer and a better athlete. It also gives you the foundation for being a healthier human long after you hang up the goggles and suit.

Here are some more resources to help you conquer your nutrition:

Nutrition for Swimmers: The Ultimate Guide to Better Eating and Faster Swimming. This is the home base of all of our nutrition-related articles, from dealing with muscle cramps to supplements.

5 Quick Nutrition Tips for Competitive Swimmers. Here is a quick list of tips from Dr. Doug Kalman, a two-time dietitian for the US Olympic swim team.

Do You Sweat When You Swim? Short answer–yes. Here is what you need to know about staying hydrated in the pool.

5 Surprising Reasons Young Swimmers Should Eat Breakfast

BY JILL CASTLE, MS, RDN

Is your swimmer a breakfast eater or a breakfast skipper? Research tells us that 8 to 12 percent of all school-aged kids skip breakfast, and by the time they enter the teen years, as many as 20 to 30 percent of them have completely given up the morning meal.

According to a 2008 study in Pediatrics, kids and teens that ate a daily breakfast had a lower body mass index (a measurement of weight status in relation to height) than those who occasionally ate breakfast or skipped it all together.

This dietitian wants the young swimmer to eat breakfast. Here are my reasons why:

Breakfast provides approximately 20-30% of the swimmer’s daily nutrient intake.

Eating a daily breakfast means young swimmers have a better shot at meeting their nutrient needs on a daily basis, and less pressure to eat and meet those nutrient needs later on in the day. For example, including fruits and veggies in the morning meal means swimmers don’t have to play catch-up at the mid-day meal or at dinner (which seems to be the case for many athletes).

Swimmers can also target key nutrients such as fiber, calcium and vitamin D quite easily by eating fruit, whole grain breads and cereals, or dairy and non-dairy substitutes such as milk, soymilk, yogurt, eggs, or fortified cereals, respectively.

Breakfast helps swimmers meet their high calorie needs.

Young swimmers generally require more calories than the non-swimmer due to the nature of swimming, a high calorie-burning sport. If the swimmer skips breakfast, he may miss out on some serious calories (a third of the day’s provision from meals) and need to make these up throughout the day. Remember, calories aren’t just for sport, they are for growth and development, as well. In looking for inconsistent calories throughout the day, the young swimmer who isn’t gaining weight or growing well is often missing a substantial breakfast.

Breakfast initiates the appetite cycle, which is key to being able to regulate eating.

The appetite cycle helps kids and teens (and adults) tune in to when to eat and when to stop eating. For example, the swimmer feels hunger, and the swimmer eats; the swimmer feels full or satisfied, and the swimmer stops eating. Setting this cycle in motion has a key benefit according to the research: it helps reduce overeating later in the day.

The biggest predictor of overeating is under eating. Ironically, some swimmers skip breakfast because they think it will help control their weight or prevent weight gain. However, studies show that skipping meals, particularly breakfast, is tied to overeating and unwanted weight gain.

Breakfast raises blood sugar after an overnight fast.

Sleeping for seven to nine hours a night (hint: that’s the desirable amount of sleep for growing kids and teens) means that the body has been fasting. Eating a breakfast raises blood sugar levels and sends energy to the brain and other cells within the body. It’s like priming the pump on an engine or turning on the ignition in a car. The brain and body receive an injection of energy, which means attention, focus and memory are heightened and the body is energized for motion.

Breakfast may calm the tummy.

While sleeping, stomach acids accumulate leading some kids and teens to wake up feeding nauseous or too sick to eat in the morning. But eating can help. Food in the tummy acts as a sponge, sopping up stomach acids and quelling that sick feeling.

If ever you doubt the importance of breakfast for the swimmer, remember this: breakfast adds nutrition, primes the brain and body for learning and activity, and sets regulated eating in motion—all good things for the growing swimmer!

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a registered dietitian, childhood nutritionist, and youth sports nutrition expert. She is the author of Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete. Learn more about Jill at www.JillCastle.com and check out her free list of 70 Awesome Pre-Workout Snacks for Kids.

How to Prevent Muscle Cramps While Swimming

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy of yourswimlog.com

Muscle cramps are a common condition experienced by competitive swimmers over the course of their swimming career. Here is what you need to know about preventing muscle cramps for swimmers.

They are the worst…

They jump up and bite you sometimes out of nowhere, leaving you helpless and gasping for air and your leg as you hang off of the side of the pool or the lane rope.

The ones in the toes and heel aren’t so bad, but a calf or hamstring cramp?

Sweet… chlorinated… molasses.

After gingerly stretching it out on the pool deck you slide back into the water and do the rest of your workout at half speed for fear of firing off another wave of paralyzing muscle contractions.

During my age group days, coach would always emphasize drinking lots of water (even though most swimmers don’t always understand the need to do so as they don’t notice how much they are sweating while in the water), while making sure that we ate lots of bananas in order to maintain potassium levels.

Gotta keep them electrolytes and nutrients up!

But with a handful of bananas under my belt already that day, and half a 4L of water already down, something always seemed to be missing in the explanation that it was just dehydration.

The reality is…

We don’t know for sure what it is that causes muscle cramps.

But we have a pretty good idea.

How to Prevent Muscle Cramps While Swimming

The Reasons Why Swimmers Cramp Up

The reality is that science hasn’t quite figured out the exact reasons for why muscle cramps occur. Although they are very common, not just with swimmers but across every other sport as well, they are poorly understood, and theories for why they happen are from anecdotal experience.

From a mountain of studies that have sought to figure out the root cause of muscle cramps, there are two theories that are discussed most frequently:

1. Dehydration

Coaches are always on their swimmers to drink more water. And for good reason—even just being dehydrated by a couple percentage points can lead to a swift drop in performance.

Muscle cramps are thought to happen because athletes, while performing peak intensity exercise, are losing more water than they ingesting, and thereby sensitizing nerves in your muscles.

Here is a nice sciencey definition of what happens next:

The resulting contracture of the interstitial space increases the mechanical pressure on select motor nerve endings and finally results in exercise-associated muscle cramping.

As a result, it’s thought that athletes and those who work in hot and humid conditions, and are prone to sweat lots and thereby lose a whole bunch of electrolytes, are more likely to incur cramping:

Researchers found that athletes who were playing and working out in warmer environmental conditions were more likely to cramp up, while another study found that athletes who sweat more cramped up more often.
A national level tennis player who was having trouble finishing matches due to cramps—he was also sweating 2.5L per hour— was able to successfully eliminate them by upping his daily sodium intake.

But what about those times that were fully hydrated, in a cool swimming pool, and you still felt your hamstring seize up on you?

And if it were as simple as fluid replacement, it doesn’t explain that 69% of athletes in this study who took a carbohydrate-fluid that precisely matched sweat loss still experienced muscle cramps.

Well, there’s a theory for that too.

2. Muscle Fatigue

It wasn’t too long ago that I did a heavy session in the gym doing max weight for numerous sets of back squats. In my swim, which immediately followed the lifting, my legs were perpetually on the verge of cramping up.

Each push-off I could feel some twitchiness in my quads and hamstrings, and for the duration of my swim I took it easy on the walls. (It also meant not kicking and swimming with fins. Boo-urns.)

In other words, the muscles in my legs that I had been using in the gym kept firing and contracting.

Which leads us into the second theory–cramps happen because of straight-up muscle fatigue.

Numerous studies have shown cramping to happen towards the end of competition when the muscle is already shortened and tired.

Which, if you have experienced something similar to my squat example above, makes intuitive sense.

After all, you probably also notice that you cramp up more often at the beginning of the season, after a long layoff, or during particularly trying stretches of training when you are either not in great shape, or fatigued.

How to Prevent & Deal with Muscle Cramps

Because there is no generally agreed upon source of muscle cramps, there is no singular course of treatment and prevention.

Treatments such as cryotherapy, massage, pickle juice, sports drinks, and more all lack experimental research.

1. Stay hydrated.

Even though there is a lack of direct evidence of cramps to dehydration, there is—as mentioned previously—a drop in performance that happens when swimmers aren’t hydrated.

Don’t just wait until you get to practice to start crushing water. Swimmers who drink a liter of water 60 minutes or so prior to practice or competition can be assured that the fluids will be fully absorbed and available.

2. Add salt to your water jug.

If you are one of those super sweaty athletes (and I am one too, no judgement here), the National Athletic Trainer’s Association recommends you add 0.3 to 0.7g of salt to your water jug in order to help you avoid cramping up.

3. Stretch it out.

Gentle stretching on the affected area can help to soothe they soreness and immediate pain. Soreness can last for a few minutes or up to a few days. Light passive stretching makes it go away faster.

4. Dial up your intensity accordingly.

My mistake with my squat-swim combo was going heavy on my legs after having taken a little sabbatical from the gym. Do I regret that workout? Not necessarily—but knowing that it would ruin my swim afterwards would I have done it with the same intensity? Probably not.

Cramps tend to happen when we are pushing ourselves harder than normal, or when we are going too hard compared to our training experience. Which isn’t necessarily the worst thing for an elite athlete who is constantly trying to probe the reaches of their limits, but perhaps kind of pointless for someone who is simply going to the pool to get into better shape.

The Takeaway

There’s no total guarantee that if you drink lots of water and escalate your training at a reasonable pace that you will never experience a muscle cramp again.

However, if you do those two things you will cut down on them significantly, and at the very least, will reap the performance benefits that come with being a full hydrated swimmer.

As for me, I am back off to the squat rack to give that thing another go.

Do you Have an Elite Nutrition Mindset?

By: Anita Nall Richesson, 1992 Olympic Gold, Silver & Bronze, Nutrition & Wellness Expert

There are 3 keys to having an elite mindset with your nutrition plan. Adopting this mindset and having a new awareness about the impact food can have on your performance will reward you greatly.

1. “LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE”

2. FOOD IS EITHER ENHANCING YOUR PERFORMANCE OR HINDERING IT.

Everything you put in your mouth impacts performance. Understanding this will give you the power to choose foods that contribute to your performance goals.

*PERFORMANCE ENHANCING* FOODS**	*PERFORMANCE HINDERING* FOODS**
Eggs, Ham, Green Vegetables	Sugary Breakfast foods like Pop Tarts, Pastries & Donuts
Raw nuts & seeds	Sugary, super salted nuts & seeds
Baked Potato	Potato Chips
Fruit Based Desserts w/ minimal sugar or honey as sweetener	Pies, Ice Cream, Candy
Oatmeal	Dry, sugary cereals
Grilled Chicken	Fried Chicken

3. FAILURE TO PREPARE IS PREPARING TO FAIL.

If you think about your meal WHEN you get hungry, you are already behind the

TIME OF DAY	FOOD SUGGESTION
Pre- Morning Practice	Oatmeal w/ Fruit & Walnuts & 100% Maple Syrup (1 tsp)
Post- Morning Practice	1-2 Breakfast Sandwiches: Egg, Sausage & Spinach
Lunch	Quinoa w/ Grilled Chicken, Black Beans, Broccoli & Salsa
Snack	Banana or Apple w/ Almond Butter & Beef Jerky Slices (Be sure its doesn’t contain MSG)
Pre-Afternoon Practice	Coconut milk yogurt w/Chia seeds + 2-3 slices of turkey breast
Post-Practice	Recovery shake: Protein powder*+ Fruit + Almond or Coconut Milk
Dinner	Crockpot pulled pork over baked red potatoes & carrots

*The amount and kind of protein varies and is based on body weight and individual needs

Don’t wait until you have a health crisis like I did to adopt an elite mindset with food. Act now! Get your family, your teammates and your coaches on board!

BIOGRAPHY

Setting the swimming world ablaze at the young age of fifteen with 2 world records in one day propelled Anita into the fast lane of succes

s. After swimming for the cycle (gold, silver, and bronze) in the 1992 Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona, many health challenges hampered her attempts at returning to an Olympic level. Challenged by a series of “mystery illnesses” that lasted a decade after the Olympics, Anita rediscovered health through food. Traditional medicine’s failed healing attempts drove her towards a personal quest for wellness and a passionate understanding of the healing power of food. Her profound experiences with illness, healing and professional athletics have given her a unique perspective she shares with clients.After completing her undergraduate degree in Communications and Spanish from Arizona State University she pursued holistic nutrition education at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts in Tempe, Arizona. Anita is a Certified Holistic Nutrition Specialist, Certified Life Coach and accomplished motivational speaker. Anita is also an elite member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Read the following articles to learn more about Anita:

Eat Better & Swim Faster: 3 Strategies for Awesome Nutrition Habits

By Olivier Poirier-Leroy

Your swim coach has probably tried to drill it into you a dozen times over the years. The critical, over-riding importance of good nutrition.

Even without your coach trying to encourage you to make better life decisions when you have fork and knife in hand you know what you eat matters. After all, you need it for energy, for recovery, for hydration and to maintain body weight.

The effects of poor nutriton are no joke. It leaves you more suseptible to illness. Means you aren’t recovering between races and practices. And of course, it means that you are leaving a lot of potential on the table.

Here are three proven and powerful strategies that you can deploy to clean up your nutrition habits this season.

Let’s do this:

1. Prep & Plan your meals.

A powerful way to get a handle on your diet and nutrition is to pack and plan your meals ahead of time. Granted, the idea of barricading yourself in the kitchen for a couple hours and cooking up a ton of meals isn’t immediately appealing, but the benefits are undeniable.

Here are just a few of them:

Eat Better & Swim Faster: 3 Strategies for Awesome Nutrition Habits

Meal planning is cheaper. If you like eating better and saving money then meal planning is right up your chlorinated alley. Taking a slightly longer view on your meals means that you are usually buying in bulk, and eating prepped meals is a whole lot cheaper than eating out or dropping ten bucks on a “fresh” sub.

It gives you control of your diet. This is the biggest and best benefit of planning your meals. You are actively deciding what you are going to eat ahead of time and having the power to make the food choices in service of your goals, instead or reacting to your hunger and urges, which aren’t always trustworthy or thoughtful of what you want to achieve in the water.

Saves you time. Prepping a week’s worth of meals takes a couple hours, generally one and change once you get better at it. Which means that for lunch and dinner for the rest of the week you can pop open a healthy meal, nuke it for a minute, and you are off to the races. Bulk cooking comes in particularly handy later in the week as you are growing more and more fatigued from the accumulation of training and schoolwork.

Reduces stress. Knowing what you are going to eat ahead of time takes a lot of the panicked, last-minute indulging that a lot of athletes suffer from. (And people, really.) When you know what you need to eat you save yourself the stress and willpower-flexing that comes with trying to figure out what to make for dinner after a massive practice.

So what’s the next step?

Put together a plan for your, err, plan.

Sit down with a sports dietitian and have them put together some sample meals for you. (This was the best couple hundred of dollars I have ever spent in my life and cannot recommend it enough.) With that, put together a shopping list so that you don’t walk into the grocery store and “accidentally” wander into a bulk candy bin.

Yes, having a plan for your meals takes work, but if you are serious about wanting to kick your nutrition into high gear starting with a plan will dramatically boost your odds of sticking with it and seeing the results you want.

2. Clean up the environment.

Willpower, being that fickle little thing that it is, isn’t always around when we need it most. You know this. I know this.

And yet, we still like to tempt fate by placing ourselves into situations and places where we need to summon every last ounce of it to keep us from diving into a ball pit of cheeseburgers and M&M’s.

Like it or not, we are the products of our environment.

We, quite literally, eat what we see.

So what does this mean?

Clean out the fridge and the cupboard. Go through your kitchen and pantry and give the old heave-ho to the things that are holding you back in the nutrition department. Cocoa Puffs? See ya later. Doritos? Toodles.
Have emergency snack packs of healthy food. Like most, I imagine that you are a ruthless snacker. Snacking is just, well, awesome. Having healthy finger snacking foods around the house, in your swim bag, or in your backpack at school will give you an emergency food item that will help keep you from pumping that nearby vending machine full of quarters.
Put the healthy, need-to-eat stuff in plain sight. We’ve all heard the phrase, we are what we eat. But actually, we eat what we see. Somefascinating research has shown that our food choices are significantly colored by ease of access. Wanna eat more bananas? Put them on the counter so you have to walk past them. More fish oil? Put it on the center shelf in the fridge. Stop hiding the healthy food. It only guarantees that it will never get eaten.
Make the bad stuff really hard to eat. Okay, so you don’t have quite enough willpower to part ways with your Cheetos and Cocoa Puffs. The next best thing you can is make that convenient food really inconvenient. How, you ask? By placing those not-so-great snacks in the basement, or outside in your car, or buried in the backyard. You’ll be surprised how much of a difference that little extra effort can dissuade you from Oreo-stuffing your face.

3. Keep a food journal.

When it comes to changing behavior (in this case, our nutrition habits), the first step is the self-awareness to understand what we are doing, err, eating.

Self-monitoring has been shown to work across a kajillion different studies, withone study of 1,700 dieters losing twice as much weight as those who didn’t keep a food journal.

The reason that keeping a food journal is so powerful is pretty simple: it forces you to come to terms with what you are actually eating. No longer can you hide behind the powerful veil of denial and “oh, pretty sure it was just one slice” any longer.

Two things for making your food journal work:

You don’t need to go crazy on the details. Writing out exact calorie counts and all the macros can be a lot of work, so if you are just starting out, stick to the basics, but be accurate and don’t sugar coat how much or how little you are actually eating.
Accuracy is key. The temptation will always be there to gloss over your bad food choices while over-exaggerating the better ones. Use your food journal accurately and honestly otherwise it loses a huge amount of value.

Having a mildly detailed food diary (or journal, if “diary” isn’t manly enough for ya) is something you will need when you sit down with a dietitian, which I truly cannot recommend enough. It gives them the knowledge and ability to poke through the holes of your nutrition, and give you accurate, actionable advice based on what you like to eat.

How to Go Semi-Pro with a Food Journal

If you want to take your food journal to the next level, beside each meal it can super helpful to write down a quick couple words on why you just powered down that specific meal.

You’ll be surprised, chagrined, and curious to see that you don’t always eat when you are hungry (shocking, right?), and that some of the stuff you are cramming into your mouth-hole is out of boredom, ease of access (it’s sitting right there, so might as well eat it!), stress, or because you are actually hungry.

Having this little piece of intel into your eating habits is a powerful way of being able to undermine those urges when they happen again at a later date. It gives you leverage to talk yourself down when you have those moments of weakness:

Okay, I wanna eat that whole pizza, but I don’t need to because I know I am just stressed out with schoolwork, and I am actually not that hungry.”

The Takeaway

For a lot of us it can feel like a real battle when it comes to trying to conquer our eating habits. All too often it seems like we are subject to the whims of our urges, tastes, and last-minute episodes of “hangryness.”

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

With a little bit of planning, some humility in knowing just how powerful those urges are, and doing the legwork to break down our nutrition, we can not only master our cravings, but also reap of health and performance benefits along the way.

This article is part of our “nutrition for swimmers” series.

Here are other posts in this series:

Sports drinks aren’t ‘recharging’ your kids. They’re just pumping them full of sugar.

By Casey Seidenberg July 26 of the washingtonpost.com

As temperatures heat up and we sprint to the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, sports-drink marketing is at a fever pitch. Coca-Cola, owner of Powerade and Vitaminwater, is the longest continuous Olympics sponsor, and the company is clearly onto something. Kids across the globe aspire to be as fast, strong and skilled as Olympic athletes, so marketing Powerade as the drink of an Olympic winner is certainly a gold-medal strategy.

Commercial sports drinks were initially designed for athletes who, like the Olympians, train and sweat so vigorously and for such prolonged periods that they sufficiently deplete their bodies to require the rehydration and calorie replenishment these drinks provide. But here’s the thing: The elite athlete market is tiny, and our kids, even the most athletic ones, are not part of it.

Powerade and Gatorade wouldn’t be in big business if the only people who consumed their products were those who actually needed them. When these companies expand their markets to include all children who play sports, parents who believe the hype that their kids need to replace electrolytes and adults who think they are making a healthy choice by skipping the soda in favor of a “recharging” sports drink, the companies are suddenly pole-vaulting into money.

The sports-drink market was recently estimated at a whopping $6.81 billion. Kids and adults want something to drink besides water, and they want it to fulfill the righteous promises of rehydration and replenishment. This is why companies such as Honest Tea and Greater Than have entered the market with healthier sports drinks that are lower in sugar and free of artificial food colorings, and why Dr Pepper recently bought 11.7 percent of BodyArmor for $20 million.

Are these new drinks actually healthy? And will kids drink them? I did a blind tasting of six sports drinks (Honest Sport, Greater Than, Aspire, BodyArmor, Gatorade and Powerade) with my boys and their friends. Then I drilled into the nutrition facts and ingredients list for each product. Here’s what I found:

The taste test

To my dismay (but not to my surprise), the kids blindly chose Powerade and Gatorade as their favorites. After all, these varieties are the sweetest and the most chemically engineered to cause consumers to come back for more. Next, the kids unanimously voted for all three Honest Sport flavors, followed closely by Aspire. They said they might choose water over the flavor of Greater Than and probably wouldn’t drink BodyArmor.

The verdict: Water and fruit

Just because the big brands want us to drink their products and consumers are buying them, it does not mean the facts have changed:

The American Academy of Pediatrics concludes that “routine ingestion of carbohydrate-containing sports drinks by children and adolescents should be avoided or restricted . . . Water, not sports drinks, should be the principal source of hydration for children and adolescents.”
Kids and teens rarely, if ever, lose enough electrolytes during their athletic endeavors to require extra replenishment. Sodium is the most common electrolyte lost in sweat, yet most Americans get more than enough sodium from their diets.
Many sports drinks contain as much sugar and as many chemicals as soda.
Some sports-drink bottles contain 2 or 2½ servings, so the grams of sugar listed on the nutrition facts panel may need to be multiplied.
Kids do not lose vitamins when they sweat, so Vitaminwater and vitamin-enhanced drinks are unnecessary.

Water paired with a banana, orange or clementine is undeniably a better choice than any sports drink. These fruits are higher in potassium and many other minerals and vitamins than commercial drinks. The natural sugars in these fruits travel into the bloodstream at a steady rate, unlike a manufactured sports drink that causes blood sugar and insulin levels to skyrocket or that delivers a dose of an unhealthy artificial sweetener. No child benefits from 20-plus grams of added sugar and chemical flavorings after a one-hour game.

If sports drinks are a must

If I personally craved a sports drink, the latest Greater Than products would be my choice. I enjoy the coconut water flavor, and these products are the healthiest sports drinks I found on the market. Give one to your children to sample; just because my guinea pigs didn’t love the taste doesn’t mean yours won’t. They are sweetened with monk fruit, a natural sweetener extracted with water instead of the chemical process used to derive stevia and erythritol.

If a sports drink is a must for my kids and their friends, Honest Sport wins. Honest Tea’s products are certified organic, which means the company is required to comply with a list of approved ingredients and flavorings. Honest Sport is free of artificial sweeteners, but it is awfully high in sugar, which is why I would make it an occasional, rather than routine, treat.

Aspire is lower in sugar but includes the artificial sweeteners stevia leaf extract and erythritol. Neither of these sweeteners raises blood sugar or insulin levels, and very little is needed to manufacture a sweet taste. On the flip side, both of these sweeteners are chemically processed additives I’d prefer not to feed my children. Some individuals have digestive troubles with erythritol.

BodyArmor is just too high in sugar, with about 36 grams per bottle (comparable to a soda). In any case, my focus group of children did not go for the taste.

Because sports drinks are firmly entrenched in our modern culture, and because my kids get weary toting their reusable bottles of water, I am relieved to have healthier options to offer them. That is not to say my banana buying will slacken one bit.

Seidenberg is co-founder of Nourish Schools, a D.C.-based nutrition education company, and co-author of “The Super Food Cards,” a collection of healthful recipes and advice.

10 Protein-Based Breakfasts Your Swimmer Will Love

BY JILL CASTLE, MS, RDN of usaswimming.org

It can be challenging to get swimmers to eat breakfast, especially as they get older and busier. They say no. They run out the door. They have no time for a meal. They aren’t hungry.

The excuses go on and on.

However, all swimmers may benefit from a routine that includes eating a healthy breakfast.

The positive impact on growing children and teens have been touted for years and include: improved attention and focus in school, better academic scores, an ability to regulate eating, blood sugar control throughout the day, a healthy body weight, and for the athlete, the availability of energy and nutrients for exercise.

Researchers highlight protein as a powerful influence on blood sugar and weight control, particularly when it shows up in the earlier part of the day.

In fact, University of Missouri researchers suggest teens eat a high protein breakfast (containing around 30 grams of protein) to improve blood sugar control after eating, temper fat gain, and encourage a healthy body weight.

In young athletes, research further emphasizes the importance of evenly distributing protein throughout the day as a key to building, repairing, and maintaining muscle.

Making sure the swimmer gets a protein-based breakfast clearly helps in many areas.

Swimmers can get a variety of quality protein at breakfast by using foods such as milk, soymilk, Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, tofu, beef, poultry, fish, beans, lentils, soybeans, nuts and nut butters.

Try these 10 protein-based breakfast ideas. (They are simple and easy for the swimmer to make independently!):

Easy Egg Sandwich

Almost like a fast food option, this egg sandwich is ready in no time. Scramble the egg with a bit of water, place in a microwave-safe bowl and cook for one minute. Place the disc-shaped egg on an English muffin and add ham or Canadian bacon, and a slice of cheese. If you want to bump up the protein even more, double the egg, cheese or ham.

Breakfast Bento Box

Pack one or two large hard-boiled eggs, 1/4 cup almonds, 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese topped with 1/2 cup berries, and 4 to 6 whole-grain crackers in a bento box or other re-sealable container.

Apple Walnut Oatmeal

Cook 3/4 cups of dry oatmeal with 1 1/4 cup of skim milk. Top with 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts and 1 chopped apple. Sprinkle with cinnamon and drizzle with honey.

Nut & Berry Parfait

Layer 1 cup of vanilla or plain Greek yogurt, ½ cup raspberries and blueberries, and ¼ cup chopped pecans in a tall glass or Mason jar.

Peanut Butter Toast

Swipe two hearty, whole grain slices of toast with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter each. Serve with a 12-ounce glass of milk or non-dairy milk substitute.

Overnight Oatmeal (made with milk)

Mix ½ cup of oats with 1 cup of low fat milk or soymilk. Stir in 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, and top with 2 tablespoons of chopped peanuts and 1 small banana. Refrigerate overnight.

Cottage Cheese and Blueberry Bowl

In a bowl, place a cup of low-fat cottage cheese next to ½ cup of blueberries and ½ cup high-protein granola. Sprinkle with chia seeds or flax meal.

Egg, Ham & Cheese Bagel

Akin to the local bagel shop fare, toast a bagel and top it with an egg or two (scrambled or fried) and top with a slice of cheese. On-the-go tip: Wrap the bagel sandwich in tin foil immediately after assembly. The sandwich stays warm and the cheese melts nicely.

Breakfast Egg Wrap

In a flour or whole grain tortilla, layer scrambled eggs, cheese, and fresh spinach. Wrap in tin foil. Or, sauté onions, mushrooms and chopped green peppers or any other veggies on hand and add to the eggs; top with cheese and wrap.

Avocado Toast with an Egg

Toast a piece of crusty, whole grain bread. Smash ½ of an avocado on top of the toast. Fry an egg and lay it on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, or a mix of spices such as cumin, paprika and chili.

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a registered dietitian, childhood nutritionist, and youth sports nutrition expert. She is the author of Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete. Learn more about Jill atwww.JillCastle.com and check out her free list of 70 Awesome Pre-Workout Snacks for Kids.

5 Quick Nutrition Tips for Competitive Swimmers

by Olivier Poirier-Leroy or www.yourswimlog.com

The swimmer appetite is legendary.

It’s a byproduct of the hours and hours that we devote to swimming around the black line and for some swimmers, especially you distance folks, eating is largely a part-time job.

While eating lots of food is something we are known for (besides having the sought-after swimmers body, of course), that doesn’t mean that most of us eat as good as we can. We use those 8,000m swim workouts as an excuse to plow through a large pizza in one sitting after practice.

We know that nutrition plays a critical role in performance in the pool, just as important a factor as your sleeping habits. If you consider yourself as the finely tuned machine that you are then you know that putting low grade fuel into a high performance machine means you are short-changing your potential.

Douglas Kalman, PhD, RD, FACN, FISSN, has worked with summer and winter Olympic athletes and pro athletes in the MLB, NFL, NBA, and even combat athletes. More specific to you, the water-logged athlete, Dr. Kalman has worked two Olympics for and with swimmers (2008 & 2012) and is the sports nutritionist at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex with coach Bruno Darzi.

Below are 5 quick nutrition tips he has for competitive swimmers:

1. Eating well increases recovery.

“When looking to maximize your nutrition for performance, it is most important to think about how you can increase or enhance recovery from training,” says Dr. Kalman.

What separates fast swimmers from the “almosts” isn’t always talent or genetics; it’s how well prepared they are to train or race again. The elite know that time spent practices is where you heal and recovery in order to be ready to perform at a high level at your next workout.

“Recovery time is where your body heals and preps itself for the next event,” adds Dr. Kalman.

2. Eat like a champion to swim like one.

The swimming taper does some funny things to swimmers. Feeling light on their feet and fast in the water they think that they can treat their mouth like a dumpster.

But as Dr. Kalman notes, the couple days before the big race are when you need to be the most focused on eating well.

“What and how you eat in the 48 hours leading up to a event/competition is the most crucial for affecting performance,” he says.

3. Eat according to event type.

Your training and event type should dictate your nutrition. After all, you know that as a sprinter maybe sitting down with the distance swimmers at the buffet isn’t such a great idea.

“Your training volume dictates your carbohydrate need along with the type of event you are in (50m much different than 200m),” he notes.

4. You still need to drink lots of water.

It’s a common misconception that because we swim in a pool that we don’t need to hydrate. But we do.

Swimmers sweat, big-time. Which means that you should have a water bottle at the end of the lane waiting for you throughout your workouts.

“Hydration is often overlooked by swimmers both in their training and in competition,” sais Dr. Kalman. “This is because we often do not feel ourselves sweat when in the water.”

So how much water should we be drinking?

“Set your minimal fluid intake at 3/4 gallon for females and 1 gallon for males daily,” suggests Dr. Kalman.

5. Don’t neglect your protein.

While swimmers tend to be known as very capable of destroying vast amounts of carbs, don’t forget that you need protein to keep muscle recovery going strong.

“Protein based foods are your friends as part of recovery nutrition,” says Dr. Kalman.

“Aim for each meal and snack to contain some protein. Main meals should contain 20 to 40 grams protein per serving to optimize muscular adaptations.”

A special thank you to Dr. Kalman for stopping by to share his knowledge. You can also find him online as co-editor of the Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition.

How To Recover Fast After a Hard Workout

By Sanuj Srivastava of aboutswim.com

Swimming may be a low-impact sport that works all of your major muscle groups. With such high muscular demands, you may think that swimmers would spend considerably longer recovering than other athletes.Let’s see some vital key points to recover fast:-

Hydration

Swimmers might not notice fluid losses through sweat, however maintaining adequate hydration is simply as necessary for swimmers as for any other sport. Symptoms of dehydration include a quicker heart rate, fatigue, dark-colored urine, headaches and dizziness. to remain hydrated, swimmers should drink water the night before and morning of competitions and practices. They also should drink a cup of water about every hour during competitions, with greater amounts needed in high-intensity swimming. Water is the most popular hydration drink, however after every second cup of water, swimmers should drink an electrolyte-containing solution for best hydration if swimming for long periods of time. Avoiding caffeinated drinks and being conscious of hydration needs helps swimmers recover from each workouts and competition.
ALSO READ:–Right Amount Of Protein Will Boost Your Performance

Always Warm Down After Workout

Swimming at a high speed like throughout a race, will cause the byproducts of energy production to make up within the muscles, delaying recovery. one of the most ways that swimmers avoid this buildup has a structured cool down period. this point is additionally known as active recovery since it’s a low-speed exercise that promotes recovery. sometimes completed in a warm down pool, swimmers can swim anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. If the pool isn’t available, swimmers could stretch, jog lightly, perform arm rotations and different activities that use identical muscle groups as those used during the swim. These exercises increase circulation and remove energy production byproducts quicker than passive recovery.

Sleep More

Being disciplined concerning your bedtime will create a large impact on your training. rather than going through the motions in morning practices, you can wake up feeling more restored from the previous day’s workout and prepared to hit the ground running. head to bed one hour earlier than you usually do. See how you’re feeling. Sleep may be a key time for the body to undergo protein synthesis so catch some additional shut-eye and let your body develop muscle tissue while you’re at it.
Read This:-How to Stay Hydrated During Swimming Workout

Always Warm Down After Workout

Take the time to swim some easy, quality laps at the end of every single workout. The relaxed, gentle movement of these laps will provide your body an opportunity to process and break down the stress chemicals it produced throughout the harder parts of your workout. to grasp why this is often necessary, let’s look at what happens if you skip your warm-down (not that you would ever do that, of course).

Recovery Food Helps You To Recover Fast

Foods that are rich in carbohydrates are an excellent supply of energy. By feeding alittle quantity of carbs before you hit the pool, you’ll enjoy a slow release of energy while you swim, helping you to stay going for longer. just make sure you leave lots of time to eat (up to an hour, ideally) before you jump in the pool, to avoid feeling distended. For more:-CLICK HERE
Must Read:- How to Boost Your Performance within month

Hello everyone ! myself Sanuj Srivastava, I'm a National swimmer and Computer Olympiad winner. I'm working on writing articles for competitive swimming. If you have some problem in swimming that needs some creative injection then that’s where I come in!
My aim is to bring across your message and identity in the most creative way.

5 Key Nutrition tips for Competitive Swimmers Diet Plan

By Sanuj Srivastava of aboutswim.com

If you’re a competitive swimmer or you just start competitive swimming you will already be aware of the importance your diet plan on your performance in the pool. Everyday lots of newbie swimmers try to find some common things like What and when should I be eating after a swim to maximize recovery?, Is protein or carbohydrate more important for recovery?, How much should a swimmer eat?, Which food Olympian swimmers used?, and more… like- Olympic swimmers diet plan, Best Competitive Swimmers Diet Plan, swimmers diet during competition, diet for swimmers to build muscle.

Diet plan for Pre-Workout

If you’re reaching to go swimming or coaching later within the day attempt to eat an exercise-friendly meal 2 and 3 hours before you go. this implies keeping your macromolecule and macro molecule levels high on roughly a 60:40 magnitude relation and not pigging out on sluggish unsaturated fats. Here are some good examples:

chart for Competitive Swimmers Diet Plan

Baked potatoes with beans, sweet corn or chili, not an excessive amount of cheese, and bear in mind to eat the skin, it’s the healthiest bit!.
Beans on toast they’ll be the signature of a student’s staple diet however low-sugar baked beans are literally really expert for you.
Pasta meals or baked – once more go light-weight on the cheese, contribute lots of vegetables.
Tuna is additionally an excellent energy supply.
luggage of macromolecule within the beans and food grain toast has your advanced carbohydrates. And if beans aren’t your factor, eggs can do the same job.
Chilli con Carne – beans, lean mince, and rice all ought to set you up dead for exercise in an exceedingly few hour. Fatty, greasy mince, polished rice and salty hotcake chips won’t.

Great snacking foods and chart:

tips for Competitive Swimmers Diet Plan

fruits and green vegetables
Energy foods and energy drinks, macromolecule shakes
yogurt and grain foods

Water is everything for Competitive Swimmers Diet Plan

Water is most important for a good Competitive Swimmers Diet Plan. Swimmers should drink a minimum of a cup of fluid with every meal and snack throughout the day. Swimmers sweat in the pool, that causes fluid loss. Swimmers got to drink a pair of cups of fluid before apply. Swimmers ought to drink five to ten oz. of fluid each fifteen to twenty minutes throughout apply. Swimmers will consume a sports drink once active quite one hour to assist replace macromolecule loss. Swimmers ought to weigh themselves before and once apply to see the load lost from fluids. they have to drink three cups for each pound lost.

3 Myths concerning sugar

1-Sugar substitutes are measure cytotoxic. No, they’re not. Sugar substitutes also referred to as artificial sweeteners, non-nutritive sweeteners or low-calorie sweeteners are measure vetted quite dietary supplements. The Academy of Nutrition and life science position paper on sweeteners says All non-nutritive sweeteners approved to be used within the USA are measure determined to be safe.

2-Sugar substitutes don’t seem to be safe. Non-nutritive sweeteners are measure regulated as an artificial additive, and intrinsically, the office needs submission on probable intake, additive effects from all users, and pharmacology studies to document safety. once reviewing all knowledge, the office establishes a suitable daily intake for every sweetener. Nobody suggests drinking that abundant soda, whether or not diet or sugar-sweetened. The ADI is that the quantity you’ll consume over a period with no health problem has an effect on, then a 100-fold ratio is a side. police work use knowledge shows that even for the heaviest users of sweeteners, seldom is even 2 hundredth of the ADI consumed. The International Food info Council estimates that one would want to consume concerning eight liters of diet soda daily to induce even near the ADI. all agreeing sugar substitutes are safe to consume among the amount set by the Food and Drug Administration.

3-Sugar cause weight gain. Each animal and human studies and all over that sugar substitutes don’t increase your calorie intake or weight. The balance of proof indicates that mistreatment low-calorie sweeteners in place of sugar results in lower calorie intake and weight. Drinking a diet soda with a death by chocolate afters is perhaps not planning to facilitate anyone reduce or management their blood glucose.

More articles for Competitive Swimmers Diet Plan:-

Hello everyone ! myself Sanuj Srivastava, I'm a National swimmer and Computer Olympiad winner. I'm working on writing articles for competitive swimming. If you have some problem in swimming that needs some creative injection then that’s where I come in! My aim is to bring across your message and identity in the most creative way.

Fueling for Performance: How proper timing of meals affects both sport and academic performance

Article was reposted from http://www.ncaa.org/health-and-safety/nutrition-and-performance/fueling-performance-how-proper-timing-meals-affects-both

Nutrition is critical for both academic and sports performance. A diet that is adequate in carbohydrate, protein, healthy fat, vitamins, minerals, and fluid is the foundation of day-to-day eating for overall health. As important as what to eat, though, is when a student-athlete eats. The right fuel at the right time influences how well they feel, learn, perform and recover.

Student-athletes need to fuel early and often in order to meet their daily energy needs. Studies show that students who eat breakfast before school have better concentration, attention spans and memory, three benefits that are significant for both sports and scholastic performance1. Consuming food and fluid at regular intervals throughout the day has also been shown to impact total health, body composition, appetite satisfaction and well-being.

The bottom line: When and how often the student-athlete eats impacts how nutrients will be used, their health, body composition, athletic performance and recovery.

Timing Foods and Fluids before Exercise

Fueling before exercise has been shown to improve performance over exercising in the fasted state2. Carbohydrate-rich foods and fluids help to increase or “top off” muscle glycogen stores, prevent hunger, and provide a mental boost for the athlete. It is recommended that athletes consume approximately 1 gram per kilogram of body weight (k/kg) of carbohydrate one hour before exercise, 2 g/kg two hours before, and so on3. As the time before exercise increases, the amount of carbohydrate will increase. Larger amounts of carbohydrate (3 to 4 g/kg) are appropriate when more time is available (three to four hours prior). The time required for foods to digest depends on the type and quantity of the food consumed. Eating a smaller amount of food and choosing foods lower in fat and fiber will help to reduce risk of gastrointestinal (GI) distress.

In addition to foods, timing the pre-exercise fluid is critical to prevent dehydration and allow adequate time for excretion of any excess fluid. At least four hours before exercise, individuals should aim to drink 5 to 7 mL/kg of water or a sports drink (or 2-3 mL/lb)2.

Timing Foods and Fluids during Exercise

Athletes who perform endurance or intermittent high-intensity exercise for more than an hour are at risk for glycogen depletion, hypoglycemia, and fatigue during exercise. Consuming 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate each hour during prolonged exercise will prevent the under-fueling trap2. This recommendation is based on the maximum rate of glucose absorption from the GI tract, which is estimated to be 1 g/minute or 60 g/hour2. Carbohydrate consumption should begin shortly after the start of exercise. Sports drinks that contain 6 to 8 percent carbohydrate are a popular and convenient choice among athletes during exercise as a quick source of fluid, carbohydrate, and electrolytes. Consumption of 6 to 12 ounces (180 to 360 mL) of sports drink with a 6 to 8 percent CHO every 15 to 30 minutes during exercise has been shown to extend exercise capacity of athletes that participate in intermittent exercise such as basketball, tennis, soccer and volleyball4. However, each athlete should refine these strategies according to his or her own sweat rate (see Eating During Exercise fact sheet for more ideas).

Timing Foods and Fluids after Exercise

The goal of recovery nutrition is to replace fluid, electrolytes, and glycogen that were lost during activity, make new muscle protein, red blood cells and other cellular components, and provide adequate carbohydrate, amino acids and minerals to promote proper immune function3. Both carbohydrate and insulin are needed to optimize glycogen stores—consuming carbohydrate-rich foods or fluids provides glucose, which stimulates the release of insulin from the pancreas.

The 45 minutes after exercise is considered the “window of opportunity” for recovery nutrition due to multiple factors, such as increased blood flow and insulin sensitivity, facilitating an increase in glucose uptake and glycogen restoration. To maximize the rate at which muscle glycogen is replaced, athletes should consume a carbohydrate-rich snack within this window. Athletes should aim to consume 1 to 1.2 g/kg/hour for the first four hours after glycogen depleting exercise2.

When glycogen restoration must happen quickly (such as for athletes who perform multiple, prolonged training bouts in the same day), a medium to high glycemic index meal is the best post-exercise choice. Examples include foods with quickly digested and absorbed carbohydrate and little fiber or fat (see Eating Frequency fact sheet for more ideas). For most athletes, muscle glycogen can be adequately restored through lower glycemic index carbohydrates that do not promote a significant spike in insulin4.

After exercise it is important to provide the body with the nutrition it needs to resynthesize tissues that were catabolized during exercise. The stimulation of muscle growth may be further enhanced by the inclusion of 15 to 25 grams of protein with carbohydrate and fluid in the post-exercise meal2.

Timing of Day-to-Day Nutrition

While the amount and timing of carbohydrate before, during, and after exercise plays an important role in sports performance, it must not be considered more important than the day-to-day diet. Total dietary intake over the course of days, weeks, and months must be adequate or else training and performance will be negatively affected. First and foremost, the body must meet its daily energy needs. Insufficient overall calories will limit storage of carbohydrate as muscle or liver glycogen. All athletes should make it a priority to eat regularly throughout the day.

A sports dietitian can help an athlete understand these guidelines by translating the science of meal timing into practical examples of what, when and how much food and fluid to consume at any given time.

Refer to the Eating Frequency for the Student-Athlete fact sheet for a practical application of meal timing.

Gajre NS, et al. Breakfast eating habit and its influences on attention-concentration, immediate memory and school achievement. Indian Pediatrics. 2008; 45:824-8.
Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group, Rosenbloom C, Coleman E. Sports Nutrition: A Practice Manual for Professionals, 5th edition. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: 2012.
Dunford M, Doyle A. Nutrition for Sport and Exercise, 2nd edition. Wadsworth Publishing: 2008.
Sawka MN, Burke LM, Eichner ER, Maughan RJ, Montain SJ, Stachenfeld NS. American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Extertional heat illness during training and competition. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007;39-556-72.

This article was written SCAN Registered Dietitians (RDs). For advice on customizing a nutrition plan, consult a RD who specializes in sports, particularly a Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD). Find a SCAN RD at www.scandpg.org.

Indulge in Moderation.

Pay attention to your drinks.

On that note, get plenty of sleep.

Engage in new, but safe activities.

Healthy Holiday Alternatives:

1. “LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE”

2. FOOD IS EITHER ENHANCING YOUR PERFORMANCE OR HINDERING IT.

3. FAILURE TO PREPARE IS PREPARING TO FAIL.

1. We do better with supervision and accountability.

2. Build a support system that promotes your nutrition goals.

The Takeaway

Breakfast provides approximately 20-30% of the swimmer’s daily nutrient intake.

Breakfast helps swimmers meet their high calorie needs.

Breakfast initiates the appetite cycle, which is key to being able to regulate eating.

Breakfast raises blood sugar after an overnight fast.

Breakfast may calm the tummy.

The Reasons Why Swimmers Cramp Up

1. Dehydration

2. Muscle Fatigue

How to Prevent & Deal with Muscle Cramps

1. Stay hydrated.

2. Add salt to your water jug.

3. Stretch it out.

4. Dial up your intensity accordingly.

The Takeaway

1. “LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE”

2. FOOD IS EITHER ENHANCING YOUR PERFORMANCE OR HINDERING IT.

3. FAILURE TO PREPARE IS PREPARING TO FAIL.

1. Prep & Plan your meals.

2. Clean up the environment.

3. Keep a food journal.

How to Go Semi-Pro with a Food Journal

The Takeaway

The taste test

The verdict: Water and fruit

If sports drinks are a must

Easy Egg Sandwich

Breakfast Bento Box

Apple Walnut Oatmeal

Nut & Berry Parfait

Peanut Butter Toast

Overnight Oatmeal (made with milk)

Cottage Cheese and Blueberry Bowl

Egg, Ham & Cheese Bagel

Breakfast Egg Wrap

Avocado Toast with an Egg

1. Eating well increases recovery.

2. Eat like a champion to swim like one.

3. Eat according to event type.

4. You still need to drink lots of water.

5. Don’t neglect your protein.

Always Warm Down After Workout

Sleep More

Always Warm Down After Workout

Recovery Food Helps You To Recover Fast

Great snacking foods and chart:

Water is everything for Competitive Swimmers Diet Plan

3 Myths concerning sugar

Timing Foods and Fluids before Exercise

Timing Foods and Fluids during Exercise

Timing Foods and Fluids after Exercise

Timing of Day-to-Day Nutrition

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