With nutrition being such a huge part of triathlon - both training and on race day - I thought folks here might have some good ideas for me.
My high schooler daughter both swims for her high school team and dances ballet at our local university’s youth program. Between the two, she is probably logging around 20 hours a week of physical activity and struggles with being hungry all the time. We certainly have plenty of things she can eat in the house at any given time, but she often tires of eating the same things, or says she sometimes just feels “too tired to chew” some days, lol! Often she goes directly from swim practice to ballet and needs something quick and easy but filling/sustaining.
What are some of your favorite grab-and-go items or protein shakes/smoothies that are quick, healthy, and filling? Just looking for ideas to help bring some variety. Thanks everyone!
Just ice cream, or a milk shake can help, it has both calories and protein, and is very satisfying. A snickers bar is also a great cycling snack, when it’s not too hot. In fact there are many power or candy type bars that can provide calories and other nutrients. A little fat is not a bad thing either. Spaghetti dinners are the choice meal of many athletes, as they also provide good calories and protein. Red meat is not bad either, as it helps build the blood. If she thinks that she needs a supplement, then she is not eating enough.
Longer version:
Intra-workout fueling can make a big difference in total calorie intake ease, and improve her experience in sport. It’s easy to pack away several hundred calories in very high-value carbs in the form of sports drinks during activity. She’ll feel better, perform better, and be happier during sport.
Both of my daughters ran cross country and swam (concurrent seasons). We made sure they had breakfast (two if swim practice was before school) and snacks in their backpacks for mid morning and mid afternoon. They got dinner as soon as soon as they got home from practice in evenings then snacks later. They were encouraged to consume sports drinks during practice.
I’m not sure if there is a culture issue within dance or your swim team but keeping an eye on that is helpful too. Buzz from her teammates regarding calorie restriction is a fast moving stream to swim against as a parent. As much as we’ve shined the light on REDS …the issue was still prevalent even at the collegiate level for the child that ran through college.
Hi - high school swim coach here, proud to have several multi-sport athletes on our squad. Dr. Alex is 100% right, get sugar in during the workout - gatorade, skratch, home-made solution… it will go a long way.
I vividly remember being ‘tired of chewing’ in high school and college swimming, and that same sensation did finally reappear during the peak of Ironman training this year. Calorie dense foods helped (ice cream, pastas, candy), but I wish that when I was back in high school and college I had pursued calorie dense with variety, instead of just calorie dense junk. So instead of just a bowl of pasta salted with butter, changing up the sauce to keep things interesting, including protein (especially for girls), including dairy products (yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.), having a ready-to-go snack post workout (chocolate milk), and so on, would have made a big difference for me. Grab and go snacks can be more on the ‘small meal’ side, like sandwiches (room for variety)! I got tired of bars (lots of chewing and all kind of the same) really fast.
I actually have a parent on my team who is a registered dietician, and I try to bring her in each season to have a chat with the girls about fueling their bodies and the work, and the team has shared that she’s one of the favorite practice nights we have. Something to consider would be having a session as a family to make sure your daughter knows you’re on board with fueling and to give her some inspiration.
Not a nutritional expert here, by any means, but some years back I learned a lot myself, by studying the satiety index of the many sources of energy we have available. And surprised how some can keep you full for hours (say a handful of almonds or a hardboiled egg) while others will render you hungry again in much shorter time.
This article (just a random google search) is a good starting point IMO:
Not a nutritional expert here, by any means, but some years back I learned a lot myself, by studying the satiety index of the many sources of energy we have available. And surprised how some can keep you full for hours (say a handful of almonds or a hardboiled egg) while others will render you hungry again in much shorter time.
This article (just a random google search) is a good starting point IMO:
very true, however the focus of that article (along with most on nutrition) is limiting appetite/intake. many athletes need to completely reverse the logic - avoid satiety so that you can east more and meet your energy needs. to be a bit more balanced. you can leave the high satiety foods until the end of your meal eg have the protein last so that it doesn’t make you feel full and unable to eat the rest of the meal.
smoothies are good - really quick and easy to consume, can combine both energy and nutrition eg fruit, protein powder, coconut cream and some spinach or celery to get vege content which is mostly just the liquid content of the smoothie so doesn’t really add to the eating load
Forgive me if I sound facetious or insincere, but I would think swimming and dancing would be at opposite ends of the nutrition spectrum; at least in my experience
Swimmers need and are encouraged to eat a lot, but dancers are told/trained not to eat at all - or has that changed in recent years?
Also, if she’s “too tired to chew” how is that affecting other segments of her life, like schoolwork?
Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions! A few things we haven’t thought of, particularly getting calories in during activity, so we will definitely look at giving that a try.
Good observation about swimmer vs dancer nutrition. I don’t know if it has changed generally speaking. In our experience it thankfully hasn’t been a problem, owing largely to the culture of the program she is in.
Like any high achieving busy high schooler, fatigue from extra-curriculars occasionally does affect her schoolwork, but not so much that it concerns us. In fact we encourage her to know her limits and choose what’s important to her and sometimes that means schoolwork suffers a little (within reason) in favor of other things (like getting enough rest), Sometimes it’s the other things (like skipping a ballet class) that suffer in favor of the schoolwork.
Just ice cream, or a milk shake can help, it has both calories and protein, and is very satisfying. A snickers bar is also a great cycling snack, when it’s not too hot. In fact there are many power or candy type bars that can provide calories and other nutrients. A little fat is not a bad thing either. Spaghetti dinners are the choice meal of many athletes, as they also provide good calories and protein. Red meat is not bad either, as it helps build the blood. If she thinks that she needs a supplement, then she is not eating enough.
1 cup of cold oat milk
1 frozen banana, sliced
Big spoonful of peanut butter
1 packet of Carnation chocolate instant breakfast
It’s the best chocolate, banana, peanut butter smoothie I’ve ever had.
Payday candybars are great for calories but really take some chewing.
Chicken nuggets or strips that are easily microwaved should be in the freezer along with sauces in the fridge. Great easy protein snack.
bold = good advice, italics = bad, because transfats, and they will develop pudgey body image issues (especially if they take a break, it is hard to stop eating that junk). ice cream and shakes could be good if home made, but most are filled with junk soy oils.
Chicken nuggets or strips that are easily microwaved should be in the freezer along with sauces in the fridge. Great easy protein snack.
… italics = bad, because transfats, and they will develop pudgy body image issues (especially if they take a break, it is hard to stop eating that junk). ice cream and shakes could be good if home made, but most are filled with junk soy oils.
Also, anything that is “easily microwaved” from the freezer is probably loaded with sodium, and not in a good way
Forgive me if I sound facetious or insincere, but I would think swimming and dancing would be at opposite ends of the nutrition spectrum; at least in my experience
Swimmers need and are encouraged to eat a lot, but dancers are told/trained not to eat at all - or has that changed in recent years?
Also, if she’s “too tired to chew” how is that affecting other segments of her life, like schoolwork?
When I did ballet, I was forbidden to swim laps because it would make me bulky and that’s the wrong esthetic for ballet. We weren’t even allowed to participate in high school gym class.