How can you set nutrition goals that will help you race your best?

by SwimSwam 0

January 05th, 2016 Lifestyle, Opinion, Training

Courtesy of AthleticFoodieTM, a sports performance company that helps athletes unlock their potential

Written by Cristina Caldwell

With the start of the New Year comes New Year’s resolutions. We like to think of resolutions as goals, and these goals will help you become a better swimmer. Goals give us an edge in 3 ways:

  1. Direction-they tell us where we are going and how we get there.
  2. Feedback-how is our progress?
  3. Support-they help us to keep going when we might give up.

Goals can be small or they can be large. We recommend having both. The smaller goals should be easier to attain while the larger goals might take the whole season (or longer) to achieve. The goals that we are talking about aren’t just any old goals, we’d like you to make them SMART goals.

Screen Shot 2016-01-04 at 5.02.13 PMS: Specific- the goal needs to be specific

M: Measureable- the goal should be measurable

A: Achievable- is the goal achievable?

R: Realistic- is the goal realistic for the near future?

T: Time Bound- there should be a timeline for the goal

Let’s look at a non-nutrition example and see if it’s SMART

  1. My goal is to make the Olympics

Is it SMART? I’d say it’s MAR. While it’s somewhat specific, it’s not very specific. And there is no time line. How about this instead:

  1. My goal is to achieve an Olympic Trials cut in the 200 free by 2019 and attend the 2020 Olympics. Now you’ve hit all the SMART steps.

Let’s look at a nutrition goal.

  1. Starting tomorrow, I’d like to bring a water bottle to every swim practice I attend.

Is it SMART? Yes it is!

Here are some other nutrition goals you might want to consider making:

  1. I’m going to eat breakfast every day. If I have morning swim, I’m going to have a snack 30-60min before. A handful of AthleticFoodieTM granola is a great pre-swim snack.
  2. I’m going to always bring a water bottle with me when I go to practice, and I’m going to drink 16oz per hour.
  3. I’m going to bring a protein and carbohydrate based snack in my bag for post practice so I can start refueling my muscles. AthleticFoodieTM Trail Mix is perfect here.

Take Away:

As you look to your swimming goals in 2016, remember to make nutrition goals as well, so your body has the proper fuel to perform at it’s best.

Please let us know what your nutrition goals are on our Facebook page and how we can help you achieve them. For more information, contact us at www.athleticfoodie.com. Stay tuned for our next newsletter where we’ll be discussing some specific options for nutrition pre-morning swim workouts (hint: a specific recipe that Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy Olympic Swimmer drinks before her practices).

Author Cristina Caldwell

Cristina Caldwell works with AthleticFoodieTM to create useful nutrition information for athletes and parents. Cristina is a former Div. 1 swimmer at Miami University, is a Certified Sports Nutritionist, and is the founder of Fueled and Focused. She works one on one with youth and adult athletes, and has a customized meal plan service designed to provide athletes with fueling guidelines for peak performance. To learn more about her services or to sign up for a customized meal plan, go to www.fueledandfocused.com.

About Garrett Weber-Gale, Founder of AthleticFoodieTM

Snack SwimSwam ShotIn 2005, Garrett was diagnosed with dangerously high blood pressure, and was almost forced to give up his Olympic dream. Luckily, a small dose of medication, and a total revamp in his diet saved his dream and put the Olympics back in sight. Garrett began to see the direct connection between what he put into his body, and what he could get out of it.

After his diagnosis with high blood pressure, Garrett made it his mission to learn how to make healthy food taste great. He’s traveled the world working in famous restaurant kitchens in Italy, France, Copenhagen, Spain, and New York City. Garrett has taken his knowledge and experience from all over the world, and shared it with others through speeches at the White House, to schools, sports teams, TEDx, universities, TV and radio appearance, cooking classes, authored articles and AthleticFoodie Events.

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