Nutrition:

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Contents

Page

 

Introduction …………………………………………………………………… 4

 

Chapter 1: What Is Sports Nutrition? …………………………… 7

 

Chapter 2: Hydration’s Key …………………………………………… 11

 

Chapter 3: Fuelling Your Body ……………………………………… 16

 

Chapter 4: Role of Carbohydrates ……………………………… 21

 

Chapter 5: The Need For Protein ………………………………… 25

 

Chapter 6: The Story With Fats …………………………………… 30

 

Chapter 7: Meal Planning For Your Game …………………… 34

 

Chapter 8: Food That Works Well ………………………………… 37

 

Chapter 9: Foods That Will Hurt …………………………………… 40

 

Chapter 10: Supplements ……………………………………………… 42

 

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………… 44

NOTE: In this e-book, we will refer to your “game”, your “race”, your “sport”,your “competition”, etc We have tried to keep the information in this e-book as broad as possible, so that the same principles will apply, whether you have a “game” or not, i.e. If your “game” is gym workouts, you can still use the principles

herein.

 

Introduction

Sports nutrition is nothing short of essential. All the athletes you see on the television, competing in the Olympics and breaking world records have a nutrition plan in place that allows them to succeed.

If you are to succeed at your sport, you too need to ensure that your nutrition is the top of the line.

 

Ask yourself these questions:

 

· Do you know when to eat before your game?

 

· Do you know what foods are going to help to ultimately win the game if eaten before you compete?

 

· Do you truly know how much hydration your body needs to power its way through?

· Did you know that with proper nutrition, the right plan and consistency, your body can do better, perform harder and be more likely to be successful?

Dedication & Consistency Count

When it comes to sports nutrition, your attitude should be not one of “already knowing it all”, but one of willingness to learn. In fact, you should be hungry for knowledge. Learn about what is out there to help enhance your body’s performance. Learn about what you should be doing now so that your time on the floor is perfectly optimised. And, learn how to properly take care of yourself to avoid the risk of injury.

When it comes to these things, dedication and consistency essential. You will learn in this book that it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be successful at sports nutrition, and that there are no short cuts worth taking.

Knowledge is the first key to success. You will learn how sports nutrition affects virtually every aspect of your game and also how you can better enhance your game by the fuel you put in your body.

You should dedicate time to work through these steps and suggestions to enhance your overall performance. As we mentioned, it takes dedication and consistency - don’t expect to eat the right meal and get results right away!

You need to provide your body with the fuel it needs to perform. Yet, most sports players do not pay enough attention to their goals in sports nutrition. Many make the mistake of believing that if they just work out harder that they can still do what needs to be done, but it’s actually easier to give yourself that extra edge through proper nutrition

Work Smart by Learning First

As an athlete, you need to look at all aspects of your game - it’s is up to you to ensure that your body has all the fuel and power behind it to allow you to succeed quickly and effectively.

To get yourself started, read through this ebook and learn what you are missing. Then, move to using these elements in your everyday life, by adding them in as you go. You should expect it to be hard work, but when you implement these changes you will see results.

It is recommended that you spend some time talking with your doctor to ensure that your health is at an optimal level before playing any sport or changing your diet drastically. Additionally, if you are facing any physical challenges or taking medications, ensure that it is safe for you to follow these recommendations.

Success can and does happen when you look at all areas of your game including sports nutrition.

 

Chapter 1: What Is Sports Nutrition?

Today is the day that you begin to enhance your game. As an athlete, you already know that you need to work hard at ensuring that your skills on the court, field or track are the best they can be; to ensure you’re doing everything to the best of your abilities.

You may spend hours perfecting your game; you may work to build your muscle; to enhance how well you can throw that ball; to get that ball in the net.

Or, you may spend countless hours pushing your body to just get past that race line by a fraction of a second better.

 

All of these things are essential parts to being a successful athlete, but that’s only part of the puzzle.

 

Off The Court Work Outs

 

Besides planning your next routine, your next set of reps and your next game, let’s focus on your nutrition.

Think about it: What your body eats is what makes it move; what you put into your body is the fuel it will use to do the things that you want it to do.

As an athlete, you need to focus your time on sports nutrition as much as you focus it on your workout - the two go hand in hand, and one enhances the other.
You should take the time to learn about what your body needs, how it reacts to the foods you put into it and how well it will perform based on the fuels you provide it.

Aspects of Sports Nutrition

 

There are several aspects that you need to consider when it comes to sports nutrition. This is the overview of what we will cover here.

· Hydration: Your body needs fluids first and foremost, and it needs the right type of fluids at the right time. This may be tricky at first, but ultimately, without fluids, your body is completely limited in what it can and will do for you. We cover this in Chapter 2.

· Carbohydrates: No, we are not talking about any type of diet. Carbohydrates are an essential building block for your body’s workout, and you need to know when to eat them, what they will do for you, and how much to consume. You will find that information in Chapter 4.

· Proteins: Protein is the building block of our body’s muscle. Without the right types of proteins in your body, your body can not successfully build the muscle groups you would like to build. You need to learn what you need, when you need to consume it, and the foods which will provide it - see Chapter 5.

· Fats: Are they good or bad? Your body does need fat, no matter what those diets tell you, but you need to know what fat is good and what is bad, and your body needs to have it delivered at the right time for it to be useful.

Doesn’t One Diet Work?

 

Why isn’t there just one diet out there that is the answer to everyone’s sports nutrition?

 

If you need certain amounts of foods, specific foods and at the same time, wouldn’t everyone be able to follow the same plan along the way?

The answer to this is no. Each and every one of us has a very different body make up. In that, we need various amounts and specific planning in our food consumption.
Another contributing factor to this is our age. Let’s face it, our needs change as we age and our bodies need us to provide them with foods to compensate for those needs.

When you are young and fit your body needs different nutrition than it does as you age.

Additionally, your race matters too. Different cultures require different types of foods, minerals and vitamins - remember, our bodies developed over time in various ways.

Therefore what you need is not the same as what someone around the globe (or right next door!) would need.

 

Your body’s size is another factor - the larger you are, the more calories your body needs to feed your body’s cells.

Furthermore, what you plan to do with your body will affect your nutrition needs. Will you physically exert your entire body or will you simply exert just your arms? Is your goal weight loss or weight gain? These areas will all have an impact on your nutrition plan.

It All Sounds Confusing

 

There is no doubt that sports nutrition is a complex area, but we will try to break it down and determine what it is that your body truly needs.

When you take the time necessary to balance out all of these factors through a solid sports nutrition plan, you will ultimately be able to succeed and reach your fitness goals.

Your Goals:

 

Your goals will follow these needs specifically:

 

1. Learn when you need to feed your body to succeed.

 

2. Learn what amounts your body will need to be successful.

 

3. Develop a plan to help you to succeed at sticking with your goals.

4. Work the plan and find success. Makes it sound easier, right? Throughout the next chapters, things will get easier, we promise! Soon, you will be well on your way to a successful sports nutrition plan that will provide you body with excellent fuel to give you that winning edge.

Chapter 2: Hydration Is Key

It may sound obvious, but it’s often forgotten:- keeping your body hydrated is an essential part of sports nutrition. Your body needs fuel in the form of fluids - this is an essential part of your well being and life in general.

If you do not have enough water in your body at any given time, your body will ultimately suffer, and your game will suffer.

 

Why Water Matters

 

OK, without taking you back to science class, here’s the serious job that water has in your life and in your body.

· It moves the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients through your body, keeps blood moving which in turn carries the fuel that your cells need for energy.

· Water helps to move out the waste products from your cells, which allows them to keep performing at an optimal level.

· Your body uses fluids to regulate temperature, thereby protecting your overall health and well-being.
You can’t live without it, so when it comes to sports nutrition, it is nothing short of essential. Here’s some more of how it helps:

When your body burns energy, it produces heat, which in turn races through your body.

 

Think of your body as a car:- if the engine gets too hot, it cannot perform as it should. As a way to keep your “engine” cool, water is a necessity.

Additionally, your body needs to have these fluids to allow you to carry all the nutrients throughout your body. Since you are working on developing muscles, enhancing your physical characteristics, your body needs water to transport those nutrients where they need to go.

Water helps your body to grow, but also helps you to repair cells as you work hard at achieving your fitness goals.

 

The Importance:

 

If you lose 2% of your body’s fluid, your overall performance will considerably drop.

 

If you lose 5% of your body’s fluid, you can find yourself facing heat exhaustion, which is not good. Now, you are barely moving.

 

If you lose 10% of your body’s fluid, you are at risk of heat stroke and even death through dehydration. In other words, game over!

 

How Much Is Enough?

 

Thirst is the first sign of dehydration.

 

If you get to the point of being thirsty, you have already lost at least one percent of your body’s fluids and are already putting your body at risk.

 

You need to drink more than enough to quench your thirst (don’t stop when you are no longer thirsty either)

It is essential that you are always keeping those fluids moving in your body, pumping energy to your cells so that you can perform. How much water is enough? Let your body tell you, but don’t restrict it keep up the water intake, especially throughout any workouts.

If you are a conditioned athlete, well on your way to success, your body will need more water than someone less experienced. This is because:

 

· Your body is burning fuel faster and more heat is produced quicker.

 

· Your energy is depleting faster, so fluid needs to get there faster.

 

· Your body will be sweating more, resulting in more fluid loss, and consequently more of a need for replenishment.

 

Tips for Fluids

 

Here are some basic things that you need to keep in mind when it comes to water.

· Drink water in smaller amounts, more often, helping to provide a constant level of fluid. If you attempt to drink water too quickly, you get that heavy feeling in your stomach, which you want to avoid.

Remember, small, more often.

· Six to eight ounces every 15 to 20 minutes during your game or during your workout is ideal. If you feel you need more, then increase this amount slightly until you feel comfortable about it.

· Don’t go for ice water. You need water that is at the right temperature, i.e. cool water, about 40 to 50 degrees.

 

This will help to get rid of the heat in your body but will not sit heavily in your stomach.

 

· Cool water is absorbed quickly by the body, putting it right to work for you.

· Weigh yourself before and after your workout or competition. Drink eight ounces of water for every pound you have lost for optimum results in your workout. Make it a habit!

· Don’t dehydrate yourself for weight loss benefits. While you will drop a few pounds by restricting what you drink, your overall performance will significantly be reduced if you do this.

· Skip the caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic and will increase the amount that you have to urinate. Therefore, you are not hydrating yourself, but having the opposite effect. Drinks like this include any type of sports drink that has caffeine as well as things like fizzy drinks, teas, coffee and also some foods have high amounts of caf feine.

· To tell if you are dehydrated or drinking enough water. pay attention to your urine - if it’s dark or there’s only a small amount that’s a sign of dehydration.

Knowing What to Drink

As you can see, we really have pushed the water here, but that’s because it’s is the best type of fluid for you to consume. There are also many various sports drinks on the market that claim they too can help you.

When considering whether or not you need to drink sports drinks, consider the following:

 

Water: Most of the times you will only need water - your body does not need fuel from the fluid you drink.

You should drink water during a standard workout or game, and should only require sports drinks if your physical activity is more than 90 minutes at a time.

Sports Drinks: If your body will have to go for a longer period of time, or you have to compete quite often (several games in just a short amount of time) then you need to consider sports drinks.

When drinking sports drinks, ensure that you find those that contain carbohydrates and electrolytes, as your body will need these in these stressful situations.

The sports drink you choose should have less than eight percent in total solids which includes both carbohydrates as well as electrolytes.

If you go with something that has more, it is not easily absorbed into your body, delaying any benefit it may have. Dilute sports drinks by 50% if they contain over this amount.
Avoid fructose sports drinks. Look at the label, and if you see it has fructose as the only source of carbohydrates, then you will want to avoid it. It will take your body longer to absorb and will delay results even further.

Juices

You can use juices at the same time that you would use the sports drinks, only during long, hard sessions of endurance. However, you will want to dilute them with equal amounts of fruit juice and water.

This is because standard fruit juices have a high concentration of carbohydrates, too much for your body to easily absorb.

 

You should consider fruit juices such as orange juice to refuel on.

When you use these tips to help you keep your body fuelled, you will find yourself completely ready to perform at a high level. It is necessary to ensure you provide optimum levels of hydration as it applies to sports nutrition.

Chapter 3: Fuelling Your Body

Food: Your body needs it to help it to do virtually every single thing that it has to do. From breathing to walking to playing your game, your body depends on food for fuel.

While water is essential to life, food is essential to performance. Without the right amounts, types and timing for the food you eat, your body will not be able to reach its highest level of performance no matter what you plan to do.

No workout will work for your body more effectively than the fuel that you give it. It has a direct relation to your performance and therefore is one of the building blocks in successful sports nutrition.

The Balanced Win

As an athlete, you have individual needs, but there is no doubt that if you want to win at physical activity, you need your body to have a balanced diet.

The combination of foods will provide your body with all the essential building blocks that it needs. This includes vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Each of these elements plays their own role, each one crucial to your success.

Think of food as a team effort. You know that you are only as good as your team is, right? When you do not provide all of the right nutrients to your body, each part can not perform as an effective member of the

“team” and then the overall whole suffers.

How many times does the star athlete go down in a game and the team crumbles around them? Or, how many times does someone that is a smaller asset and the star can not longer hold the team up? The same is true for food.

The body needs each one of these pieces for the whole to work. Your goal is to learn what it needs and how it needs them to get the whole working well.

Over the course of the next few chapters, you will learn what part each element plays in the whole race. But, for now, we want to take you back to grade school where you learned what your body needs to sustain a good overall healthy lifestyle.

Foods: A Plan for Successful Diet Management

 

What you eat is just as important as how much you eat, so let’s break it all down for you.

 

Do you remember the food pyramid from school? That is the ideal basis to use for your basic sport nutrition education.

 

While we will tweak it later, this is the best way to determine how well your level of nutrition stacks up.

 

What You Need

Here’s the breakdown of what your body needs to perform. The more you demand from your body, the more it will need - we’ll go into more detail on what that will include later.

Dairy Group:

 

Your body needs dairy to provide calcium. Proteins, vitamin A, and riboflavin are also found in dairy, making it necessary for good nutrition.

 

You should consume at least 3 servings per day which is about 8 ounces of liquid or about one and a half ounces of solids.

You will find dairy in milk, yogurt, and cheese. You should limit the amount of fat that comes in from these items though. Low fat products increase the good while decreasing the bad.

Vegetable Group:

 

Vegetables are an ideal source of nutrients / vitamins and minerals

 

To balance what you eat, try to eat lots of different colours and look especially for more nutrient-rich dark coloured vegetables for greater benefit.

You should have five servings of vegetables per day where 1 serving is about half of a cup of raw or cooked vegetables, one cup of leafy vegetables or six ounces of juice.

Great choices in vegetables include tomatoes, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts for their high levels of vitamin C. For vitamin C, go with carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, greens, and spinach.

Darker colours, like dark greens, deep reds, oranges and yellows are ideal for a good overall nutritional value.

 

Meat Group:

Meat is a good source of protein, the very building block for muscles. Therefore you need to ensure that you get enough protein in your diet to allow you to build your strength. Meats also provide your body with iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and zinc.
You need to consume three servings of protein per day. This is about three ounces of cooked meats, two eggs, one cup of cooked beans or lentils, or four tablespoons of peanut butter.

Good sources of protein include lean amounts of beef, pork, lamb, poultry, dry peas and beans, peanut butter and eggs.

 

Grains Group:

Carbohydrates are a necessary building block for energy in the body and many will come from grains. These provide complex carbohydrates including starch and fibre, along with protein, the B vitamin group and iron.

You need to consume eleven servings of carbohydrates per day. One serving is equivalent to one slice of bread, three or four crackers, half of a cup of cereal, rice or pasta, or one ounce of breakfast cereal.

Good choices for sports nutrition include grains that are whole grain, which include cereals, bread, pasta, and rice.

 

Fruits:

Fruits are another source of many of your necessary minerals and vitamins. They have vitamin C which is powerful and can be found in your citrus foods.

Additionally, melons, strawberries and blueberries are all great sources. Apricots are great for Vitamin A.

You need to consume four servings per day in fruits which is one whole fruit item such as a banana or an apple, half of a grapefruit, six ounces of fruit juice, or a quarter of a cup of dried fruits.

Calories

When it comes to your fuel intake, you also need to keep in mind that the more that you do, the more fuel you will need to provide. If you want to go further in your vehicle, it needs more gas right? The same here is true.

We monitor how much we intake by calorie count. The average person will need to consume about 3000 calories per day. If you are intensely athletic, you should increase this to 5000 calories a day.
But, you must do this in the right manner. That is, you should increase it through eating a balance of all food groups that we have mentioned and it should be done with lean foods rather that fatty foods.

The amount of exercise, practice, competition and physical exertion that you need to put out will ultimately determine the amount of calories you need.

You do not want to eat too many or you will gain weight in fat, but you do want to provide enough for weight gain in muscle as well as for energy use.

Tips to Remember

1. Eat often, but eat less. Your body should not need to wait hours before its next meal, and you need to provide it with fuel on a consistent basis, so eat a small meal every few hours.

2. Snacks are ideal between big meals, but don’t go for empty calories or poor nutrition. Great choices for snacks are vegetables, fruits, salads, and nuts, which provide high levels of minerals and vitamins your body needs.

3. Get your energy from