I want content for: Both Men Women. Facebook Twitter Youtube Pinterest. Open menu button. Open search bar button. Featured Articles. Healthy Eating Days-to-Lean Meal Plan With the right plan and the right discipline, you can get seriously shredded in just 28 days.

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Meaty Methods A large chunk of change on the grocery bill is protein. Menu Planning The last step: plan out your menu for the week; this will not only save you money, but also time in the food store.

Topics: Build Muscle Diet dieting Healthy food Healthy Foods Meals and snacks Nutrition plan Protein. Written by Courtney Anaya. Also by Courtney Anaya. Healthy Eating 7 Low-Calorie Snacks for Fitness Enthusiasts.

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Healthy Eating Deliciously Healthy Tips for Your Super Bowl Party Chef Dom Ruggiero shows you how to leave the junk food on the sidelines. So if you find yourself wondering what else you can eat, build your meals by including a food from each of these four key groups:.

Below are some examples of how to mix and match different combinations of carbs, proteins, vegetables and fats to increase your variety of balanced meals.

Note that portion size and ratios of each group will vary depending on body size, goals and activity level. Make extra serves of pasta, curries and casseroles and freeze for a convenient balanced meal to eat later, or to take as packed lunch the next day. Find these suggestions helpful? By submitting this form, you agree to NSWIS' Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

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The best professional athletes in the world know this, which is why they usually have their own personal chefs who are responsible for helping them achieve peak performance through what they eat and drink. That said, athletes often require more calories and macronutrients in order to maintain strength and energy to compete at a high level.

Therefore, the first component to optimize training and performance through nutrition is to ensure that athletes are consuming enough calories to offset energy expenditure. So, in order to balance food and activity , athletes should consume the proper amount of macronutrients — carbohydrates, proteins , and fats — in their diet.

However, athletes involved in moderate and high volume training need greater amounts of carbohydrates and proteins in their diet to meet macronutrient needs. Then depending upon the type of sport that athletes play, the amount of training that they do, and the amount of time that they spend training, athletes may need to eat more or less of certain foods.

For example, strength athletes tend to increase their protein intake, while endurance athletes usually increase the amount of carbohydrates that they eat. For athletes, the majority of dietary carbohydrates should come from complex carbohydrates with a low to moderate glycemic index.

That said, athletes should not exclude simple carbs from their diets since they provide quick bursts of energy. In terms of timing, athletes should have a complex carbohydrate-rich meal approximately an hour to two hours prior to training.

And since simple carbs are important for faster glycogen replenishment after overnight fasting and intensive exercise, athletes should consume simple carbs shortly after waking up and within two hours after training.

Protein plays an essential role in sports nutrition since it provides the body with the necessary amounts of amino acids to help build and repair muscles and tissues.

Research has indicated that athletes engaged in intense training need to ingest about two times the usual recommended daily allowance RDA of protein in their diet to maintain protein balance.

These types of athletes should ideally consume protein every 2½ to 3 hours in portions of 30 to 40 grams for six to eight meals per day. Casein vs Whey Protein. Ingesting protein drinks following exercise may also lead to greater training adaptations and protein synthesis.

The best post-workout protein source is whey protein. However, prior to sleep, casein protein drinks are recommended because casein is slowly digested. Therefore, it provides steady nutrition to your body while you sleep.

And for the record, building muscle on a budget most definitely can include supplements. At three cents per gram of protein, Six Star offers one of the best protein values in America.

However, to reap the benefits of fat, athletes should eat mainly healthy fats. In fact, intake of mainly healthy fats is very important for good physiological functioning of every organism.

So, make sure to consume unsaturated fats like olive oil and nuts over saturated and trans fats. Whatever you do, do not replace carbs in your diet with fats because this can slow you down due to your body having to work harder to burn fat for energy. Instead, try to drink water at least every 15 to 20 minutes during a game or a workout session since you lose fluid quickly when you sweat.

Also, avoid drinks that contain caffeine before a workout or a game since they can dehydrate you more and cause you to feel anxious or jittery. Then stick to it! Since your teammates can benefit from a healthy meal plan, as well, consider buying large portions to get the most bang for your buck and share the cost with your teammates.

The basic tenet of clean eating is to eat less processed, refined foods and more whole foods. Your meals should also be thoughtful, planned, and not rushed. Team USA wheelchair basketball player, paralympian, and true sport athlete.

Today, I want to talk to you about goal setting. And there are three things that I would like you to know. First, successful athletes set goals and a planned roadmap. Second, goals should be written down, assessed over time, and changed if necessary. And third, goals need to be challenging in order to be worthwhile.

As a freshmen at Edinboro University, I was a part of a team that made the national championship game. And at that time I recognized I was the low man on the totem pole, but I felt in my heart that I knew my dreams were so much bigger than winning a national title.

I wanted to make Team USA. I knew what achieving my lofty goal was not going to be easy and that I would need to work hard every day. So, as a reminder, I created a pyramid of goals that I kept right above my bed.

This pyramid reminded me of the accomplishments that I was working towards and visually represented my need to create a solid foundation underneath me before reaching the top. The middle row listed winning a national title and playing for a professional team.

And at the top row, the most challenging of them all, I listed becoming a gold medalist for Team USA. By understanding that there are smaller stepping stones to achieving my ultimate goal of being on Team USA, I was able to stay motivated and to stay focused on completing the smaller stepping stones fully before moving onto the next one.

Remember, create a clear goal roadmap, assess your goals often, and continue to challenge yourself. I hope that you never stopped dreaming big or reaching for the stars.

And I look forward to seeing where your roadmap takes you. First, healthy thoughts often lead to healthier bodies. And third, true beauty goes deeper than the skin. My coaches and I adapt to my training frequently, all with the goal of supporting my long-term success and health in the sport of javelin.

In the lead up to the Olympic trials, I was told in order to improve my performance on the field, I should try to become a leaner, skinnier version of myself.

So I changed my diet. And I believe becoming leaner than my body naturally wanted to be was what caused my ACL to tear. In the end, it cost me heavily going into the London games. You should do your research and experiment with your diet to find what makes you feel the best, rather than focusing on what you look like.

Today, if I feel like having a chocolate chip cookie, I have one, just not every day. I hydrate and allow myself time to recover. And I listen to and communicate with my body so that I can be the best version of myself. In the end, you are in control of how you see, treat, and respond to your body.

Be a true sport athlete. Love who you are in this moment and get excited for all the places your body will take you. Today, I want to talk to you about being a good sport.

First, real winners act the same toward their opponent, whether they win or lose. Second, follow the rules and be a gracious winner and respectful loser. And third, sportsmanship reveals your true character. I started competing in Modern Pentathlon eight years after my older sister and three-time Olympian, Margaux Isaksen, began competing.

I soon realized that people often compared the two of us. I know that it would have been easy to let our hyper competitive mindset affect our relationship, but instead we decided to support and cheer for each other, regardless of our own performance.

My experience of competing against and being compared to my older sister, taught me to focus on how to perform at my best, rather than putting wasted energy into wishing for others to fail. I believe that sportsmanship reveals true character. Remember, be a fierce competitor, find grace in all your victories and losses.

And I hope to see you out there. Maybe what you want is very simple, for everyone to just run in the right direction, score for their own team, to try and try again and again. Maybe you want your athletes to become all stars. You want them to earn trophies, medals, win titles.

You want them to reach the highest height their sport allows. But as every great coach discovers, developing a great athlete means nurturing, nurturing the even greater person within. Truth is, you have even more influence than you know. You can be both the coach who provides the skills needed to win the game and the coach who helps them learn and succeed beyond the sport, to become all stars wherever they land in the future, and to enjoy their lives more now, because the confidence and courage they find working with you will stay with them when they need it the most.

There are games to be won, lives to change. Coaches have the power to do both. What kind of coach do you want to be? At first glance, dietary supplements look the same.

Most vitamins, minerals, fish oil, and other supplements containing nutrients are probably just fine, but supplements are not evaluated or approved by FDA before they are sold. Although it is rare for vitamins or minerals to be contaminated with drugs, there has been at least one case of a vitamin containing an anabolic steroid.

At the other extreme are products that contain drugs, stimulants, anabolic steroids, or other hormones. Even though these are not technically dietary supplements, many of them are labeled as supplements.

For example, body-building products sometimes contain anabolic steroids or Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators, known as SARMs, or other hormones.

Some pre-workout or energy products contain illegal stimulants like DMAA, ephedra, or other amphetamine-like stimulants. Weight loss products might contain prescription drugs like sibutramine, or hormones, like human chorionic gonadotropin, also known as hCG. All natural or herbal sexual enhancement products might contain hormones or Viagra-like drugs.

After all, two products might look the same, but one might contain just amino acids and other legitimate ingredients, while the other also contains anabolic steroids. Because of this, FDA has issued a warning about certain categories of supplements: body building products, weight loss products, and sexual enhancement products.

Be extremely careful when considering a supplement in one of these categories. We strongly recommend that you avoid products in these categories. Even when FDA tests supplements and finds dangerous ingredients, companies sometimes refuse to recall them.

Sometimes, they simply repackage their product and continue selling it under a new name. You need to do your research and be an informed consumer.