Favorite Meals as an Athlete!

Photo by: Abby Plevin

 Being a student athlete you are required to eat a healthy and fuel your body with he nutrition it needs to perform at a high level. When you fail to fuel your body with the carbs, veggies, and protein your body needs it will negatively affect your performance. With that said in my other blog post I mention how it is important to balance what you eat living the life of a student athlete. This blog post is going to be dedicated to meals that are healthy that I enjoy. Hopefully this will spark some inspiration to other athletes to eat healthier but also eat food that you enjoy. 

Breakfast: 

A healthy breakfast consist of a meal that will fill your body for the rest of the day. It is important to eat your carbs in the morning along with fruit and or protein. Most days when I am not going to be burning many carbs I eat egg white with a side of fruit, honey, and granola. For me I enjoy having something sweet in the mornings which is why fruit is my go to. On days that I know my workouts are going to be long and hard I will eat a bowl of oatmeal. I will fill this bowl with many fruits, peanut butter, and honey. There are many healthy breakfast alternatives but the keys finding something that will satisfy you but also fill you up for your day. 

Lunch: 

I feel like lunch is the hardest meal for meal to make or figure out what I want to eat for the day. Most the time I have a huge breakfast and just a snack before my workouts. Although on days I have time to have a true lunch my favorite thing to have is a açaí bowl or thick smoothie. Having a smoothie you can also add in your protein powder and it will add flavor to the fruits you chose to use. On top of my smoothie I enjoy adding bananas and strawberries. I will even sprinkle some dark chocolate to satisfy my sweet tooth if I have one.

Dinner:

Dinner is my favorite meal of the day!! All of my dinner consist of some sort of protein then I figure out what I want to go along with that. My favorite protein to eat is chicken, prepared in many different ways. Along with my chicken I will have some sort of greens whether this means vegetables or a salad. Also after a hard day of working out it is good to get some carbs in to fuel your body correctly. Carbs can be potatoes, rice, bread....etc 

Snack: 

A few of my favorite snacks would be salami and hummus. Hummus is one of my favorite snacks and it is healthy for me to eat. I will dip many things into hummus such as crackers, meat, or carrots. Another healthy snack I eat frequently is apples and almond butter. Apples and almond butter makes me feel like I am eating candy or something that is bad for me when realistically it is not a unhealthy meal.

Deserts:

Yes.... I am a big desert girl if you have not noticed. I have came up with many different healthy desert options that I eat every single night. Currently my favorite desert is raspberries or bananas covered in dark chocolate and frozen. Another healthy option for desert is cool whip and any fruits that are your favorite.

Overall eating healthier is not that bad. There are many alternatives and healthy options that are food you may really really enjoy. Learning about my favorite foods to eat daily what would be your favorite healthy meals?