The Meal Plan
By: Nancy Clark, Photo By: Peter Spurrier
Athletes frequently ask me what they should eat before and during extended exercise. While they are familiar with carbs, protein, and fat, they often don’t know how to translate them into appropriate food choices. This is why I’m offering specific food suggestions to fit a variety of sports scenarios. Be sure to experiment with new pre- and during-exercise foods to learn which ones settle the best in your stomach, refrain from “talking back,” and enhance your performance.
The pre-event dinner
1. Pasta with tomato sauce, meatballs, green beans, French bread, low-fat or skim milk, and frozen yogurt with strawberries.
2. Turkey with potato, stuffing, low-fat gravy, winter squash, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and apple crisp with reduced-fat ice cream.
The pregame breakfast
(one to two hours before activity)
Try any of the following: Wheaties (or another dry cereal) with low-fat milk and banana; oatmeal with applesauce and brown sugar; cream of wheat with raisins; bagel or English muffin with peanut butter; poached eggs with two slices of toast; or yogurt and granola.
The liquid lunch
Those who have trouble digesting solid food before or during exercise should try a fruit smoothie (milk, yogurt, or juice blended with frozen berries and banana chunks), Carnation Instant Breakfast, Boost, Ensure, low-fat chocolate milk, vanilla pudding, or pureed peaches.
The pregame breakfast
(four hours before activity)
1. French toast with cinnamon sugar, berries, and breakfast ham.
2. Pancakes with maple syrup, scrambled eggs, and a fruit cup.
3. Veggie omelet with non-greasy hash brown potatoes and toast.
4. Breakfast burrito (scrambled eggs, low-fat cheese, and salsa wrapped in a flour tortilla) plus fruit cup and orange juice.
The early pre-game dinner
(three hours before activity)
1. Cheese ravioli, tomato sauce, peas, fruit salad, and a sugar cookie.
2. Grilled chicken (small portion) with baked potato and low-fat sour cream, steamed carrots, bread, blueberry cobbler, and low-fat milk or a milk alternative.
3. Turkey sub with lettuce, tomato, low-fat mayonnaise, baked potato chips, vanilla yogurt, and an oatmeal-raisin cookie.
4. Wonton soup, stir-fried chicken with veggies, steamed rice, lo mein noodles, pineapple chunks, and a fortune cookie.
Pre-exercise fixes
The following choices lack nutritional value but are easy to digest, provide quick energy, and when eaten five minutes before exercise, are unlikely to create rebound hypoglycemia: Pop-Tarts, Nabisco Sugar Wafers, Rice Krispie Treats, toast with jelly, marshmallows, gum drops, jelly beans, licorice, York Peppermint Patties, Jell-O, sports drinks, fruit juice, sweetened iced tea, or de-fizzed cola.
Pre-exercise high-sodium snacks
For athletes who sweat heavily, consuming a salty food before exercise helps the body retain water and delays the onset of dehydration. Try pretzels, a salt bagel, baked chips, ramen noodles, chicken noodle soup, or canned chicken, beef, or vegetable broth.
Fuel during extended exercise
(two to four hours before activity)
Gummi bears, Starburst Fruit Chews, jelly beans, licorice, butterscotch candies, peppermint patties, or Tootsie Rolls. Engineered options include Gu, Carb-Boom!, Clif Shot, Clif Shot Bloks, Gu Chomps, Honey Stinger, Hammer Gel, Jelly Belly Sports Beans, or PowerBar Energy Blasts.
Fuel during extended exercise
(four or more hours before activity)
Any of the above snacks that you might consume during two to four hours of exercise, plus more substantial fare. This includes peanut butter and jelly on bread, bagel, or flour tortilla (wrapped “burrito style” to keep the jelly from oozing out); gorp (raisins, peanuts, and M&Ms); trail mix; ham and cheese in a pita pocket; beef jerky (for sodium); noodle soup; sweetened condensed milk; or chocolate bars.
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