Main nutrition concern for contacting us: On-going tiredness. Running out of energy
Nat has been doing well with her swimming for many years now. She loves it and she’s good at it. She’s now finding that competing at a national level is way more demanding on her time and this school term has decided to drop some other extra-curricular stuff so she can concentrate on her swimming. She has set herself some great goals.
Eating wise, it’s all gone pear-shaped. Her initial assessment showed she was just not getting enough food in and around her training times. The quality of her food choices was really good but just not enough to meet her training and growing demands. Her 4-day food diary backed this up.
1. Early morning trainings don’t make life easy when you have to think about fuelling.
BEFORE: The old Nat would roll out of bed and straight to the pool sipping on some water.
NOW: The new Nat is happy to eat before she goes to bed to top up her energy stores for her early morning start the next morning, and she can now manage to make honey toast and a milky milo to eat and drink on the way to the pool.
2. Breakfast after training was a key-work on.
BEFORE: Most of her packed breakfast was eaten at first break.
NOW: Nat is eating ALL her protein and carbohydrate rich breakfast (that she now packs the night before) on the way to school or if it needs heating, she does this at school.
3. A late lunch and/or afternoon snacks are really important for the afternoon training sessions
BEFORE: The old Nat would eat lunch and then either eat nothing or just fruit before afternoon training.
NOW: Nat takes 3 portable snack foods that she can easily pack and is happy to eat. We devised a list of options that would be useful and tailored to her needs. The 3 foods rule (a carb food, a protein food, and a fruit or vegetable choice) worked well for her.
4. Before bed was not usually a time for eating. With a bit of explanation about fuelling before bed to make life easier in the morning Nat was all over it!
BEFORE: Maybe a dessert if the family were having something to eat but often it was just dinner. Homework. Bed.
NOW: Nat is happy to use this time of the night to have a small snack without feeling like she is over eating. We discussed using a small bowl or cup for yoghurt and frozen berries; or making a quick microwave custard with banana; or our favourite Chocolate Peanut Butter Porridge.
It’s true, Mum has been key to getting Nat better organised but did comment that Nat is contributing more to the food organisation. (A little more. Nice Nat!)
So, what happened?
NOW:
NEXT TIME: She’s a keen bean and is looking forward to catching-up in a few months’ time to check-in and keep fine-tuning things even more.
PS. Nat knows we are using her information. We did ask her first. Thanks Nat!
