Nutrition Blog - April

We are VERY excited to be partnering with All Star Nutrition, Mankato, to share some great tips to keep your athletes in shape for the upcoming travel baseball season! Read on for some tips from Gabe Johnson, the General Manager of the store!

When we talk about nutrition here, we’re focusing on general habits that play key roles in supporting performance. The first topic I wanted to touch on was the simple question of “What does eating healthy actually mean for athletes?” This can be interpreted in countless ways. Generally, eating healthy for athletes means prioritizing home-cooked meals when possible and limiting fast food and fried foods.  Now I understand you are all constantly on the road for travel and long days on the field with the potential to have multiple games a day.  This doesn’t really help us to cook a 12oz steak with green beans and potatoes which means that eating out will inevitably happen.  What we want to do is keep it as minimal as possible, but when eating out happens, we want to choose the right options which we will talk about in the coming months.  

Eating healthy means getting in sufficient calories to allow the body to have and consume energy.  It is generally best to make it a priority for athletes to eat at least 3 meals per day that all consist of protein, carbohydrates, and a fruit or a vegetable.  It also means that a sufficient intake of water is being drunk on a daily basis!  For everyone but especially for athletes, we want to make it a priority to get at least half of your body weight (lbs) in ounces (oz) of water every single day.  Taking care of body hydration and muscle mass hydration is a very important factor of being the best athlete you can be.  We don’t have to be overly afraid of sodium or potassium at this point in time.  Those nutrients and electrolytes help the body hold and retain the water you consume.  Drink your water throughout the day instead of chugging a bunch all at once, or else you will become a frequent flier to the bathroom for about 4 hours of the day!  

Utilize easy meals for travel, mostly meaning cold meals that we can keep in coolers throughout the day.  If we do deli meat sandwiches, great!  If using deli meats, choosing less processed options when available can be a helpful choice for both flavor and overall quality.  Chicken salad, tuna salad, pasta salads with meats, greek yogurt bowls, protein packed salads, and sushi bowls are all great options to keep on hand when you are outside all day!  

As a reminder, this is all general nutrition knowledge and not individualized advice.  I am beyond appreciative to have the opportunity to work with you all this year, if you ever have any questions please never hesitate to come into our store where we have a FREE inbody380 scan that can show you how much muscle is on your frame, body fat %, calories burned at rest, and so much more!  Have a fantastic rest of your week!