Whether you’re gearing up for game day, a competition, or a personal best, fueling your body the right way can be the difference between performing at your peak or falling short. In the next ten minutes, we’ll unpack why nutrition is a game-changer, what to eat before, during, and after the game, and how to create a nutrition plan tailored to your goals. Let’s get started! Welcome back to The Unbroken Athlete. 00:02 So this podcast is your ultimate resource for overcoming the challenges every athlete faces. 00:07 Whether you're recovering from an injury, managing performance pressure, or striving to stay motivated through setbacks, this podcast is here to guide you. 00:15 I'm your co-host, Catherine Logan, here with my Unbroken Athlete co-founder, Emily Perrin. 00:20 Today we are diving into a topic that's absolutely crucial for peak performance, as well as recovery from injury... 00:26 nutrition. 00:27 So, Whether whether you're gearing up for your big day of competition or just trying to be your personal best, fueling your body is the difference like maker as far as like you know, meeting all your performance goals or just falling short. 00:41 So over the next like 10 minutes or so, we just want to unpack like why nutrition is a game changer. 00:46 You know what should you be eating before, during, after games, like how you can take a really simple approach to making a nutrition plan so you can get towards your goals so. 00:58 Emily, I know you're excited. 01:02 So let's kick it off just like big picture. 01:05 You know, why do you think nutrition matters so much for athletes? 01:10 Yeah, nutrition matters because we're living, functioning human beings, right? 01:14 So like your body is essentially a high performance vessel and to run efficiently, to function efficiently. 01:21 It needs fuel, right? 01:22 So proper nutrition, getting what you need, what your body needs, it enhances everything, right? 01:28 Your endurance, your strength, your focus, your ability to um recover as well. 01:36 So we have to start thinking about food as more than just like calories, right? 01:41 So it's a mix of your macronutrients, your carbs, your protein, fat. 01:47 um with your micronutrients, so your vitamins, your minerals. 01:51 And all of these impact your muscle functioning, right? 01:56 So that's how quickly you recover, how you perform, all of the above, regardless of what activity or sport you're doing. 02:02 So let's take just like an on-field athlete. 02:06 So like think lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, doesn't matter. 02:10 So think just like in terms of carbohydrates. 02:14 If you're out there running around, right? 02:16 Running field to field and, or I should say goal to goal, right? 02:19 On 100 to 120 yard field and you don't have adequate carbohydrates to actually fuel your body, you're gonna hit a wall, right? 02:27 You're going to be depleted. 02:28 So how does that actually help you as an athlete? 02:32 How does it help you enhance your performance? 02:34 It doesn't. 02:35 So again, across whatever sport you're playing, if you're on a court, if you're in the pool, if you're just,out hiking, right? 02:42 Same thing. 02:44 A properly fueled body helps you avoid all that, right? 02:48 It helps you not just function well, but also take your performance to the next level. 02:54 So let's talk about this like proper fueling. 02:57 Like I think there's so much out there on social media these days. 03:00 Like what does that actually look like, Catherine? 03:03 Yeah. 03:04 And I thinkYou can keep it very simple. 03:07 Obviously, if you're a high-level pro athlete, you can you know have your own nutritionist and they can be designing it all for you. 03:14 But you know I think the average person isn't afforded that luxury and just try and figure out, Okay, how can I feel my body? 03:20 um When I think about this, I always think back to all the team physician game coverage stuff I've done, and every time you walk into a locker room, there's a candy table. 03:32 Yeah, pregame buffet, you knowBut anyway, so if we just talk about like pregame first, so as you were talking about like carbs, so our goal here is to like really top off your like like glycogen stores. 03:48 So that's the energy that your muscles are gonna draw from like during this activity that you're about to pursue. 03:53 So ideally you have that pregame meal like three to four hours before your game, and that meal should really focus on complex carbs,A moderate amount of protein and some low fat, 'cause if you have a lot of fat right before the game, you're gonna have really like hard time with digestion. 04:08 You're gonna have a stomach ache that's gonna slow you down. 04:10 So an easy example is like, you know, the classic like brown rice, steamed vegetable, grilled chicken, nothing exciting, you know, like very plain. 04:19 But like it's true, like and if you see people who do well and have like long sustained sort of either careers or are the people who are like. 04:28 weekend warriors who are like, they look so young and they're so, you know like that's what they're doing. 04:33 You know It's not like rocket science. 04:36 Or if you want something a little lighter or maybe you're like driving around and like, no, I can't like grill chicken right now. 04:42 Your other option is to be like, okay, let me have some oatmeal with a banana. 04:46 I'm gonna put a little like almond butter in it. 04:49 That's a great way to get some sustained energy. 04:51 It's not gonna weigh you down, it's gonna digest really quickly. 04:55 And then lastly, about an hour before the game, like a small little snack, like fruits you know is a great little thing. 05:03 You know If you want to have a little bit of a bar, that's totally fine as well. 05:07 You know It'll give you that little extra energy without like ruining your stomach. 05:11 But let's not forget about hydration. 05:13 So Emily, I'm going to kick it over to you for like, that's super overlooked as far as like why it's so important in nutrition. 05:20 So if you could speak a little bit about that. 05:22 Yeah. 05:22 And even just in my work, like, I don't do anything in the nutrition side, but like, I have so many athletes that are chronically dehydrated. 05:30 um So even just mild dehydration can lead to decreased performance. 05:34 And that's because water is so important. 05:36 It regulates your body, temperature, it helps with your joints, it helps transport nutrients to your muscles. 05:42 So, you know, starting your hydration process early, I mean, this should, think of your hydration process as an ongoing constant thing, you know, aiming for about kind of like 16 to 20 ounces of water, like two to three hours before your game. 05:57 and then another eight ounces about 20 minutes before. 06:02 And then during the game, as you're going, like sipping water regularly, this is where we don't want to like guzzle, right? 06:09 Take water bottle in the mouth and guzzle a ton of water. 06:13 You can even consider a sports drink. 06:16 So your Gatorade, your Powerades, I'm sure there's a lot more out there, but when I was an athlete, like in my day, you had two options for particularly like longer or intense events. 06:27 Yeah. 06:28 And I think, you know, speaking about like in game, like do you actually need, you know, do you need more fuel? 06:35 And you can imagine like if someone's doing, you know, if you're doing a marathon or in Colorado, we have a fair amount of. 06:43 endurance athletes. 06:45 So they're like those ultra marathon, 100 mile, you know, that's a whole another episode. 06:50 So I'm not going to like dive into that right now. 06:52 But if you're like under an hour for your event, like your traditional sort of like soccer, lacrosse, you know, sort of game, water alone is probably enough. 07:01 If it is really hot, you're really, really sweating. 07:04 That's when we really do think about like having those, you know, either some salt in them or some other, you know, sort ofdifferent, like you mentioned, Gatorade, Powerade, you know any of those sort of things, just to give you a little bit extra. 07:17 But the most important thing is you want something that's pretty quick digesting, again, not gonna disturb your stomach. 07:22 So on the field, like for coverage, oftentimes we'll either have a sports drink or those energy gels. 07:29 And if they really just need something a little bit more than that, like an orange, little light pretzels, those are the things to go for. 07:36 Don't, anything bigger than that, like trying to,put down a big peanut butter and jelly sandwich to go locker room at halftime, it's generally not what you're doing. 07:44 Um But you know you mentioned already like recovery, like nutrition is so important for recovery and I think you know sometimes people finish a game and they're starved and it's like, Okay, let me just hit that next drive through. 07:59 you know So it's just like the easy thing to do, but it's actually, that's like equally important to your pregame is your recovery, so Emily, speak a little bit about recovery nutrition. 08:10 Yeah. 08:10 And at the same time, I've also had a lot of athletes that like have no appetite after, especially like pending temperature. 08:16 So that kind of like golden window for recovery is within, like nutrition-wise, is like 30 to 60 minutes after your your game, your competition, whatever it is. 08:26 So it's during this time that your body is really primed to kind of replenish glycogen and muscle repair. 08:33 So trying to aim for a combination ofCarbs and protein, kind of like a three to one ratio. 08:42 So a great option, especially this is this is a big hit for my athletes that do struggle to have an appetite, is a smoothie. 08:50 So doing something like Greek yogurt, some berries, whether frozen or fresh, spinach, put some protein powder in there. 08:58 Chocolate milk is always generally a hit. 09:03 Most athletes
