Athlete Nutrition: What To Eat Before Practice?

Food and fitness can be a confusing topic!

What do you eat when for maximum performance?

The internet is full of conflicting info!

I made this podcast to help you get clear on how to navigate this whole athlete nutrition thing.

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August 8th at 5 pm MST (or snag the recording)

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Transcript

051 Athlete Nutrition: What to Eat Before Practice

What's up my friend Krissy Krash here, welcome to another episode of The Krissy Krash Podcast. 

Have you ever felt like you have no idea what to eat before practice? Whether it's roller derby, practice, soccer practice, maybe you go to a climbing gym, maybe you run after work who knows. But one of the number one questions I hear is that people struggle with "what the F am I supposed to eat before I do a big ass workout?"

You're worried that if you eat too much, you're gonna feel super full and gross, and then you don't eat enough you're starving and feel like you're gonna pass out halfway through a three-hour practice, or maybe you're eating something and whatever it is you ate it's just not giving you what you need to really be in that WHOA-like beast mode on the track. 

So, I wanted to create a simple podcast because I wanted to give you a couple of fuel ideas that are gonna make you feel really good, all practice long, as well as a couple of ideas of really just what to avoid.

First, pre-practice nutrition starts way before practice. There are the things that you're going to eat right before you work out, but the reality is if you're coming into that evening into that practice, already feeling like shit, there's no amount of broccoli that you can eat that's gonna undo it.

The first piece of this if you're thinking about fueling as an athlete, is to make sure that you're eating consistently throughout the day. I find personally that eating one big, massive meal in the middle of the day tends to leave me feeling pretty exhausted and draggy. So, I like to eat throughout the day, focusing primarily on vegetables, getting some lean proteins, a few complex carbs in there, and for the love of God, drink water, drink water all day.

When you wake up in the morning, slam like 16 to 20 ounces of water. Personally, I put electrolytes in my water in the morning because I find that when you're drinking electrolytes, it helps your body hold onto the water that you are drinking so that you can use it and your body can be happy. 

Pre-practice food starts with your entire day eating consistently throughout the day, eating actual, real, yes, real food. Like the kinds with one ingredient, words like beans or rice or asparagus or kale or chicken or soybean or barley. These are all wonderful things that you could eat throughout the day.

Let's talk about pre-practice right before practice. A great option before practice thinking maybe an hour or two hours before practice, depending on how long you need to digest is to pick a protein whether it's an animal or a vegetable source, you want something that's gonna allow you to stay full throughout practice.

If think you just need a shitload of carbs, like “I need carbs for energy”, you're gonna be hungry. And so, getting some protein in there, pre-practice is going to allow you to stay full throughout your practice. 

Now you wanna pair this up with a veggie, some kind of green, delicious things that are going to give you lots of micronutrients, but also just help you feel full. As for me personally, I eat quite a bit of veggies throughout my day because I find that veggies with fiber, are a way to like bulk up meals so that I can feel full. And then the primary thing that you are looking for when it comes to getting ready for practices, is you wanna have a complex carbohydrate.

The reason you want a complex carbohydrate is that complex carbohydrates are like your slow burn. Right? I want you to think about it. Like it's the wick on your candle that's like soaking in the wax, right? It's gonna slow burn, whereas a simple carb, something that's super sugary, like jellybeans or a soda or whatever are like gasoline. Like you light the match and poof, it's gone. 

So, pre-practice, you want a complex carbohydrate because you want a slow burn, something that's gonna keep you from being hungry. These are your beans, your rice stuff like that, paired up with a veggie, paired up with a protein. Okay. This is a perfect pre-practice meal.

Now, during practice, you want to start thinking about something that's a little bit faster. If you have a practice that runs long like maybe you are preparing for a tournament or something, and you guys have like a four- or five-hour practice. The reality is 150 calories, 200 calories of beans and rice are not gonna get you through that practice. 

You're going to want to consider eating something during practice. Now, this is where these, quick carbs can come in. This is where, you know, it sounds silly, but this is where a bag of gummy bears is actually not the worst-case scenario. Have a few gummy bears! You can also find a lot of, electrolyte gels, or you can also find, gummies that have carbohydrates in them. Something like an electrolyte drink, like a Gatorade, or I use this stuff called CR seven. Any of that kind of stuff is great during practice because you want that quick access to energy. Some great natural things to eat are dates and dried fruit. Any of that stuff is phenomenal for during practice.

Another thing that you can do is you can, do something like a protein bar. But the problem is, that if you're trying to have a protein bar as your pre-practice fuel, I want you to understand that protein is great for keeping you full. It's great for muscle recovery. It's great for evening out your blood sugar. It's great for a lot of things. It is not a really great fuel source. 

I want you to think about protein, like eating protein bars for energy is kind of like pouring, raw oil into your gas tank. Like it hasn't been refined yet. It hasn't been turned into quick-burn gasoline. It's just like goo, right? Your body's not gonna really use that to create energy. Mkay? So it's important that you're not like all just have this protein bar and go to practice because what's gonna happen is you're gonna be low energy. Your legs are gonna burn. And you're gonna feel like shit. 

It's really, really important that if you are in a rush, you need to go to practice, have a protein bar, but then also pair it up maybe with like a banana or some oats or something. That's going to get some extra carbohydrates in you because you need them during practice. Ideally, you really wanna make sure that you're getting those complex carbs in before, and simple carbs during practice as needed but really focusing on those whole foods. 

I want you to consider if you're someone who's like, “I don't have time to focus on whole foods!” It's just simply that you haven't found a system or structure or a way to really be able to pre-plan for your day pre-plan for your week, which as an athlete, you need to start planning out your life because what's gonna happen is you're gonna end up in some sort of anxiety-fueled burnout, because you're just reaching for whatever you can find at the gas station all day, every day, and eventually you're gonna get injured. 

It's important as an athlete that you create organization and fun fact, I have a program called Athlete Nutrition 101, where I teach you how to do exactly that I will teach you what to eat when to eat it, why to eat, how to put it together in 90 minutes or less on a Sunday, how to prep it for practice days, and how to organize it so you don't make your family crazy. All those things, because it's one thing to know what you need to eat, but the execution is where I think most people fail. 

I think it's realistic to say that y'all know you should eat some really healthy, delicious food before you go to practice. You don't do it because you didn't know, you don't do it because you haven't been organized. You don't do it because, oh my gosh, it's time to run out the door for practice and you haven't made anything. You don't do it because you didn't even prepare lunch or breakfast today let alone think about what you're gonna eat before practice. 

And so, the concept of organizing this stuff, and thinking ahead is such an important part of it. If this is something that you feel like you are struggling with, I invite you to join me either for Athlete Nutrition 101 on its own as a 10-day course, or you can join me for a Krash Course in Transformation where in 12 weeks in week one, we will go over Athlete Nutrition 101 and then we will work on your nutrition throughout the next 12 weeks, as well as your mindset, your mental fitness, custom workouts, really getting honestly your entire freaking life in order. 

So, whether you need help with Athlete Nutrition 101 on its own, whether you wanna join me for Krash Course Transformation for 12 weeks, I invite you to reach out to me, click the link in the show notes, send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook and just say, “Hey, I'm interested in Athlete Nutrition 101. I listen to the podcast” or, “Hey, I listen to the podcast, and I am interested in Krash Course in Transformation.” 

Because at the end of the day, you guys, you gotta be ready as an athlete. If you wanna get strong, if you wanna get fast, if you wanna stay healthy, if you wanna have less stress, if you wanna have a life that feels good and on purpose, the fundamentals of the entire thing are really just getting it all in order and knowing just sort of the systematic ways to put this stuff together so you're not second guessing yourself, so you're not running around like a crazy person, so you can really confidently move your day along.

With some of these simple things in place that are gonna free up your mental energy to be able to do even more kick-ass shit in your life. 

So always remember life is a contact sport. She who touches the most live wins. 

I look forward to touching your life through more podcasts,  through my Facebook, through my Instagram, or through Athlete Nutrition 101 or Krash Course in Transformation.

I love you guys. I'll see you later.