Athletics is becoming increasingly competitive. More and more stress is being placed on how well you perform. To reach your highest potential, all of your body systems must be perfectly tuned. Nothing is more important to your well-being and ability to perform than good nutrition. Eating the right foods helps you maintain desirable body weight, stay physically fit, and establish optimum nerve-muscle reflexes. Without the right foods, even physical conditioning and expert coaching aren't enough to push you to your best. Good nutrition must be a key part of your training program if you are to succeed.
There is no one "miracle food" or supplement that can supply all of your nutritional needs. Certain foods supply mainly proteins, other foods contain vitamins and minerals, and so on. The key to balancing your diet is to combine different foods so that nutrient deficiencies in some foods are made up by nutrient surpluses in others. Eating a variety of foods is the secret.
The nutrients--the proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water--are teammates that work together to provide good nutrition. Just as each team member carries out different tasks during a game, each nutrient performs specific functions in your body. A lack of just one nutrient is a disadvantage to your body, just as losing a player to the penalty box is a disadvantage for a hockey team. Your body needs all these nutrients all of the time, so the foods you eat should supply them every day.
Just because you are not hungry does not necessarily mean that your body has all the nutrients it needs. You can fill up on foods that contain mostly carbohydrates and fats, but your body still has basic needs for proteins, minerals, and vitamins.
What you eat every day can have a big effect on how you perform. What you eat right before an event can be critical. Wrong choices can be disastrous. Right choices can give you that competitive edge. The Pre-Event Meal Planner will help you make wise food choices.
While the pre-event meal can supply your body with significant amounts of energy, don't expect it to supply all the energy you'll need for the event. You should eat the right kinds of food for several days before the event to charge up your muscles with glycogen. Glycogen is a key energy source your muscles use during most sports activities. Although the pregame meal won't cause large increases in muscle glycogen, it will:
Help avoid hunger during the event
Stablize blood-sugar levels and add some food energy to complement existing energy stores of muscle glycogen
Hydrate the body (supply water to the body's cells)
Provide a relatively empty stomach at game time
Prevent gastrointestinal upset or other adverse reactions to food
No one pre-event meal is right for every athlete or every event, but some food choices are much smarter than others. General guidelines for individual food selection and meal planning are on the following page. Make sure your pre-event meal plans follow these guidelines.
Keeping your energy levels up for peak performance isn't easy. It doesn't just happen. High energy levels are the result of good eating and exercise habits. If you don't pay attention to either of these factors, your performance can suffer. Keeping Energy Levels Up will help you plan a diet for a winning performance.
One of the least-recognized nutrition problems of the young athlete is simply not eating enough. Extracurricular activities may make life so busy that you simply don't take the time to eat. After-school practice sessions may be so exhausting that you feel too tired to eat. But you must take the time to eat the right foods. Don't let fourth-quarter fatigue caused by poor eating hurt your performance.
Another problem of the young athlete is not eating the right kinds of foods--particularly foods high in starch. Eating a balanced diet that has plenty of starch keeps muscle energy up. Many young athletes eat more foods high in protein instead, and that's a mistake. A normal diet contains enough protein to support the added muscle growth and development of a young athlete.
Athletics is becoming increasingly competitive. More and more stress is being placed on how well you perform. To reach your highest potential, all of your body systems must be perfectly tuned. Nothing is more important to your well-being and ability to perform than good nutrition. Eating the right foods helps you maintain desirable body weight, stay physically fit, and establish optimum nerve-muscle reflexes. Without the right foods, even physical conditioning and expert coaching aren't enough to push you to your best. Good nutrition must be a key part of your training program if you are to succeed. 
The nutrients--the proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water--are teammates that work together to provide good nutrition. Just as each team member carries out different tasks during a game, each nutrient performs specific functions in your body. A lack of just one nutrient is a disadvantage to your body, just as losing a player to the penalty box is a disadvantage for a hockey team. Your body needs all these nutrients all of the time, so the foods you eat should supply them every day. 
What you eat every day can have a big effect on how you perform. What you eat right before an event can be critical. Wrong choices can be disastrous. Right choices can give you that competitive edge. The Pre-Event Meal Planner will help you make wise food choices. 
Help avoid hunger during the event 
Keeping your energy levels up for peak performance isn't easy. It doesn't just happen. High energy levels are the result of good eating and exercise habits. If you don't pay attention to either of these factors, your performance can suffer. Keeping Energy Levels Up will help you plan a diet for a winning performance.