Nutrituon ***ZEEK the GEEK ONLY***

Juan:

Johnny I am glad that you have seek help in improving your nutrition so you can experience a healthier lifestyle in the long term. As you probably already know, the proper nutrition can also help you in powering up your workouts and your performance during game time. You already know that skills and training are important to perform your best at gameday, however, nutrition also plays a very important role on how you perform in the pitch. I will give you a few tips on nutrition so you can start making little changes that will have a profound effect on your performance in the pitch, but also greatly improve your health and prevents any unnecessary nutrition related illnesses.

1. Eat a good breakfast – Ensure that you eat a good breakfast everyday especially with a meal containing carbs and foods with a good source of protein. When choosing carbs go with whole grains such as wheat bread and stay away from refined carbs as much as you can.

2. Don’t skip lunch – Many student conduct their training session in the afternoon so it is very important that you do not skip lunch. Your meal should contain protein (especially lean) and whole grain carbs.

3. Eat Carbs for Energy – Carbs are a great source of energy. However, ensure that you are smart when choosing your carbs and try to stay away refined carbs.

4. Hydrate – This might be a little redundant since you are an athlete and know the importance of water. Being dehydrated highly reduces your performance at your training session and on gameday. Ensure that you hydrate before and during your training sessions. It is also important that hydrate after your workouts so you can replenish the fluids that you lost through sweat.

5. Arrange your meals right – By eating the way I just mentioned earlier, you might find that you are not as hungry by the time the evening rolls around. Eating dinner as your largest meal might not the best idea since you might not be able to digest all the food by the time you go to sleep. 

References

Castle, J. (2015, Juan 3). 8 Gameday Nutrition Tips for Young Athletes. Retrieved from Eat Right: http://www.eatright.org/resource/fitness/sports-and-performance/tips-for-athletes/8-game-day-nutrition-tips-for-young-athletes

Robert:

Hi Johnny. I understand that you really want to focus on losing weight, better eating habits and get yourself ready to compete at a collegiate level.  There are several things that you can do in order to reach your goals. 

1. First, I know that you are aware you need to see a doctor. When starting a new exercise program or a diet you should always consult your doctor in order to make sure that you are physically able to do the program. You should also consider speaking with a registered dietician. While speaking with your doctor is a good idea, the RD is able to give you more specific food and diet related answers and help you create a meal plan.  the RD will be able to give you the proper caloric goal for each day and give you an idea of how much you need to burn in order to have safe weight loss.  2. Next, I am sure you are aware that losing weight it always 30% exercise and 70% diet. I suggest that you start a food diary and write down everything that you eat and try to be as specific as possible. Once you have a week's worth of food tracking it will give you an idea of what you can improve on. 3. Once you have your food diary, using a tracker website, like myplate or myfitness pal to input your diary so you can count the caloric intake and make sure you are reaching your RDA for all of the major food groups and essential vitamins and minerals.  It is a possibility you are either taking in too much food or not enough food each day.  4. I notice that you mention you eat a lot of processed foods and convenience foods. While it does make it easier to eat, they are also usually loaded with sodium and empty calories. This will hurt your weight loss goals. I do suggest that you work on a meal plan for each week. You can plan out your daily menu and cook ahead. I find it easy to cook a few days of meals at a time and place them in the fridge. I use these containers. I usually pick a protein such as chicken, brown rice and broccoli. These keep well in the fridge and re-heat well. I found that when I pre-planned my meals like this I saved money and I ate better. 5. I do understand that you have to eat more in order to have the energy to compete. But eating more does not mean that you have to eat more junk. You can add more to your diet without adding fat, sugar, sodium and cholesterol. I like adding a protein shake in the morning as a midmorning snack. This adds calories but you can add fruit, veggies, or peanut butter in order to reach your caloric goal without relying on junk.  I hope this helps, and feel free to stop by anytime if you have any more questions.