A healthy diet will help you train harder, perform better, recover faster, reduce your chances of illness and gain a competitive edge. Here are some tips to help you plan a healthy training diet:
Before training
Fuel up: Eat a meal 2–3 hours before training (carb & protein & fat – low GI)
Hydrate properly: drink 200 - 300ml 2h before swimming
Suitable pre-training meals:
- Jacket potato with cheese, tuna or baked beans plus veg Pasta with tomato-based sauce or pesto; cheese, tuna or chicken; plus veg
- Rice with chicken, fish or beans plus veg
- One pot dish with pulses, veg, lean meat or fish PLUS potatoes or pasta
- Sandwich/ toast with tuna, cheese, chicken or peanut butter
If you don’t have time for a meal (eg early morning training), have a snack 30 min before training with 200 – 300 ml water. You should NEVER train on empty!
Pre-training snacks:
- Toast (wholegrain) with honey or jam
- A banana (or other fresh fruit)
- A handful of dried fruit (e.g. raisins, apricots)
- A cereal bar
- Porridge or wholegrain breakfast cereal with milk
During training:
- Prevent dehydration: drink plenty
- Refuel (if training hard for > 1 hour): carbs
- drink around 300 - 500 ml per hour
- drink little and often, ideally every 15 – 20 minutes If training for 1 hour: water or sugar free squash
For more information and easy healthy recipes: Sports Nutrition for Young Athletes by Anita Bean, available from www.amazon.co.uk Or book shops. www.anitabean.co.uk
For training sessions lasting longer than 1 hour, swimmers may find that consuming additional fuel (in the form of a drink or as food), helps maintain their performance and delays fatigue.
Suitable drinks include:
- Squash (diluted at least 1 to 6) - regular or 'high juice' squash Diluted fruit juice (diluted at least 1 to 1)
- Water - plus a snack (see below)
Mid-training snacks:
- A banana
- A cereal or granola bar
- A handful (40 - 50g) of raisins or other dried fruit
These foods should be accompanied by a drink of water!
Avoid the following (they are too concentrated in sugars and lack useful nutrients):
- Sweets
- Jelly cubes or jelly sweets
- 'Energy' tablets or glucose tablets Energy drinks
After training:
Re-hydrate: drink straight away (water or diluted juice) Refuel: carb & protein snack within 30 min- 500 ml milk
- One banana plus a handful of nuts
- 2 pots (2 x 150g) of fruit yoghurt
- One cereal bar plus 1 pot of fruit yoghurt Wholemeal sandwich or toast with peanut butter or cheese
For more information and easy healthy recipes: Sports Nutrition for Young Athletes by Anita Bean, available from www.amazon.co.uk Or book shops. www.anitabean.co.uk
©Anita Bean BSc RNutr.