I noticed one of our high school athletes dragging tremendously this morning during our workout. An athlete that is usually very well prepared and from a family that I know has supplemented their athlete’s diet with various products in the name of performance enhancement.
Upon quizzing him of his workload yesterday (nothing out of the ordinary), he volunteered that he was feeling like he was going to see his breakfast again. Asking him what he ate, I will now offer these sports nutrition “tips”:
· No pre-game or pre-workout meal should EVER contain gravy. EVER.
· If your pre-game or pre-workout meal comes out of a freezer from a cardboard box and then requires a microwave oven (and contains gravy), you can do A LOT BETTER!
You would be able to dive in the dumpster outside of a supermarket and find some barely expired fruit and bread that would do a much better job of fueling athletic performance! Yes, you just read that.
The kicker to this entire unfortunate situation is that the athlete made that choice ON PURPOSE, with the intent “to get some protein” (pre-game meals shouldn’t be focused on protein), and his father was in agreement and shared the meal! The athlete also ate the other half of the meal that the father didn’t finish…lucky dad!
This brings a quote to mind that I am going to paraphrase and cannot remember who said it, but you’ll get the point:
“It’s not what you don’t know that hurts you the most…it may be what you think you know that simply isn’t true that hurts you the most.”
