By Doug Corbett (NASM, PES, FMS, CET)
Beginning this week we will be starting to feature blogs on nutrition from time to time by RPP coach Doug Corbett. Doug has been working at RPP since September of 2011 and has played a big role in speaking not only with athletes about their nutrition, but our adult clientele as well.
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From working with hundreds of athletes over the years, I can tell you that almost all of them have one thing in common when it comes to the way they eat. Mostly they eat garbage.
Breakfast is usually skipped or it is carb and sugar loaded such as cereal or a bagel with cream cheese. Lunch might be a sandwich with pretzels or cookies. And dinner is pasta, pizza, fast food, and maybe a few meals throughout the week that are perfect for an athlete. The problem is a few meals throughout the week are not good enough.
Let’s do some quick math. To keep things easy, let’s say there are only 3 times a day we eat and there are 365 days in a year. That is 1,095 meals a year. From the number 1,095, subtract every breakfast you or your child is either skipping or eating a meal void of protein, fat, and healthy carbohydrates. Now, do the same thing for lunch and dinner. Ideally, you shouldn’t have subtracted anything from the 1,095. Of course that’s a little unreasonable so any number less than 986 (10% of meals can be not perfect) is not taking your nutrition serious enough.
If you have high expectations for your child or if you are an athlete reading this and have high expectations for yourself, almost every meal every day needs to be perfect. You cannot expect to be the best unless you go above and beyond what everyone else is doing. I can tell you with certainty that most athletes are not taking their nutrition seriously. This is an unbelievable opportunity to get the edge on your competition.
The best athletes I have ever worked with have many things in common and one of them is they take their nutrition very, very serious. Anytime I make a suggestion as to what to eat or not eat they would not only implement it immediately, they would also ask me what else they were doing right or wrong.
If you’ve been a reader of RPP blogs, you know that the best way to become a better athlete is to become stronger and faster. If you have a chance, read our blog on Strength Conditioning Can Be the Deal Breaker for Young Athletes by clicking here.
The best way to accomplish these two goals is to follow a sound strength and conditioning program. The best way to accelerate the results of the program is to eat properly and eat a lot. If you are not gaining weight, you are not eating enough it’s that simple. Two athletes can follow the same exact off season workout. One of them will gain 15 lbs. and the other will gain 5 lbs. The deciding factor is nutrition.
In the next installment I will go over what exactly you should be eating, how much and how to implement this into your daily life.