To The Parents and Athletes That I Work With…

I’ve gone over the importance of nutrition with my clients/athletes many times over the years.  But this particular post is intended for the basketball players that I coach/train at Dougherty Valley High School.  After a recent conversation that I had with a few of the players I realize our, “the importance of nutrition,” conversations just aren’t sinking in.  Parents, I know each and every one of your kids clean up their room the very first time that you tell them to.   But for some reason they haven’t applied the nutrition information, even though we’ve talked about it a number of times… go figure!

For the record, the majority of our players need to add strength AND size.  So this blog post is geared to those goals, rather than the “fat loss” clients I train (although some of the principles will apply to anyone, regardless of their goals).

A recent conversation I had with a couple of the players after one of our weight training sessions;

Me: So, what did you have for breakfast this morning?

Player: Nothing

Me: What!!!???!!!  And what about you?

Different Player: Nothing.

Me: Are you kidding me!?!  What is the most important thing to getting bigger and stronger?

Them: Food.

Me: I’m not sure what to think.?.  You know the answer, which is a good thing, but that means you are consciously deciding not to eat the way you need to, to achieve your goals?

Player: Well, I was tired when I got up, and I didn’t have time and blah, blah, blah, blah, blee.

Me: Well, I have similar goals as most of you players – to gain size and strength.  Do you know what I typically have by 11 a.m. every day (which was about the time of our conversation)?  It looks something like this…

-7 a.m. – a bowl of oatmeal with berries + protein powder + almond butter (plus a fish oil capsule + 1000 I.U.s of vitamin-D)

-10 a.m. – a serving of sweet potatoes + grass-fed beef + veggies + an apple (or similar)

Right when I finish this lifting session, I’m going to go home and eat again.  Then, I do the same thing every few hours throughout the course of the day.  And here we are at 11 a.m. and you haven’t even had one bite to eat.  Add to that the fact that you just practiced for 2 hours running up and down the court.  Then we lifted after practice, and now here we are (a few of the guys stayed in the weight room after our lifting session to talk - and support me while I showed them how it’s done, with my lifting session) .  All of this while on an empty stomach?!!!!!!!?  I’d rather put a fire out with my face than to go through all of that without a single bite of food in my body!  And you wonder why you are having a hard time gaining weight?

Player: I know coach, I know.  I eat breakfast sometimes.  I’ll try to do it every morning for now on.  But what about during school?  How am I going to eat every few hours when I have class all day?

End conversation.

After reading the above conversation you can see it is pretty clear that these athlete’s nutrition is sub-par, to say the least.  I’ve found this to be true across the board with high school athletes (with rare exception).  But I can hear it already; “not my kid, he eats so much it is not even funny!”  Well, a couple big meals and a bunch of missed meals throughout the day is not even close to enough.  Especially when he is running up and down the court for a couple hours nearly every single day.  The players are always saying this to me; “geez Coach, you’re eating again?!  Every time I see you, you are eating something!”  Well yes, when you have a hard time gaining weight (and even maintaining weight), you have to go OUT OF YOUR WAY to get enough calories in.

Since the bar is currently so low, I’m not asking for perfect nutrition.  I’m just looking for baby-steps.  So here is what I want…

Carbohydrates List

Whole wheat pasta, rice, quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), whole grain bread, any potatoes (red potatoes, sweet potatoes etc), organic milk, almond milk, yogurt (preferably Greek Yogurt)

Protein List

Grass-Fed Beef, Chicken, Fish, Eggs, Turkey (not processed deli meat), Quality Protein Powder

Fats

Fats that come from the animals you eat, nuts (not just peanuts), fish oils, flax oil, extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil (great to cook with), natural peanut butter, almond butter

While the above is not an exhaustive list, it still gives you plenty of options.  I try to do most of my shopping at Whole Foods or Trader Joes (not as expensive as Whole Foods) so that the majority of my food is hormone free, organic etc.  If you are new to this whole “improve your nutrition thing,” just make sure your kids are consistently getting foods from the above list, and worry about the organic/free-range stuff later.

So, what I want you to do at each meal…

-pick one food the carbohydrate list and eat it at each meal

-pick a food from the protein list and eat it at each meal

-incorporate healthy fats whenever you can throughout the day.

-drink a “ton” of water

-include at LEAST 2-3 servings of fruit per day, and 2-3 serving of veggies per day

Follow this most of the time and allow yourself “cheat meals” from time to time.  You know, pizza and stuff like that.  This is acceptable, as long as it is not the staple.

We don’t need to make it any more complicated than this.  I’m hoping that the parents (after all, you’re the one that is going to be buying the food) and players will both read this post and work together to ensure better nutrition, which will go a long way to a healthier, more successful athlete/person.

The recipe for a stronger, more explosive athlete = hard work in the weight room + consuming a lot of high quality calories all day every day.  Let’s make sure we do NOT leave any ingredients out of this recipe!

*** Just make sure not to leave the bottle in your locker over the weekend.  The soccer/football client that I mentioned above did that only to return to school on Monday to a locker full of ants.  EVERYWHERE!