Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #90: Gill1918 Presents Sports Dietitian Maddie Riley “Holiday Performance Nutrition Simplified” Powered by Coach O

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#90: Gill1918 Presents Sports Dietitian Maddie Riley “Holiday Performance Nutrition Simplified” Powered by Coach O · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of it as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. This episode is part of the
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  Youth and Beginner Series, brought to you by Coach O.
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  In this series, we focus on topics relating to coaching
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  youth athletes, coaching beginner athletes of any age,
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  and supporting brand new coaches as they find their way.
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  With that in mind, let's grow. This is Maddie Riley, I'm a
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  sports dietitian and today I'm going to be talking to you about
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  holiday fueling. We'll be talking about 3
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  different ways that you can approach holiday fueling with
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  your athletes in order to set them up for success.
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  So that when they come back from Thanksgiving or Christmas break,
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  not only are they injury free, but they are also feeling
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  mentally prepared to take on a season and not burnt out from
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  trying to eat super, super healthy and trying to do things
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  that are extremely different from what their family is doing.
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  So there are three things that we'll talk about today #1 is a
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  performance. Plate number 2 is what can we do
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  on those days like Thanksgiving, like Christmas dinner, in order
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  to set ourselves up for success? And also, how can we make this
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  fun for our team and get everyone involved so that they
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  feel like this isn't a chore? Our number one thing is teach
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  them how to use the performance plate method.
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  Now, I have handouts for this on my website that give people lots
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  of different ideas of how to fill this out.
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  But you can easily find this with a quick Google.
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  So if you Google performance plate athlete, you're going to
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  come up with lots of different visuals.
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  The key here is that this performance plate can be used in
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  any situation. So if your athlete is going to
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  their aunt uncle's house and the foods there will feel not
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  familiar or they feel like they have less control over adding
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  some of those healthier foods that they would have access to
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  at home or in the dining hall, they can still use this
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  performance plate and set themselves up for success.
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  Now, the performance plate has four components.
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  It has carbohydrates on it, it has protein, it has color from
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  fruits or veggies, and it also has healthy fats.
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  The healthy fats are going to be off to the side because healthy
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  fat is often incorporated. If you think of cooking with
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  olive oil or butter or adding nuts and seeds on top of a
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  salad, we do want that healthy fat component to be there, but
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  it's not going to make up a large portion of our plate.
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  This performance plate is also great because it's going to vary
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  based on your athletes intensity of workouts.
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  And this is key because if your athletes are eating the exact
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  same thing in the exact same ratio the entire season or even
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  during the week, then they're missing out on setting
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  themselves up for a good workout and also recovering properly
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  afterwards. When you Google this performance
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  plate, you're going to come up with three different versions.
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  There's an easy day plate, a moderate day plate, and a hard
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  day plate. When my athletes are in season,
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  we only use the moderate day plate and the hard day plate.
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  And the reason for this is even if an athlete takes a day off
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  when they've had cumulative buildup of even 6 days.
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  So say your athlete works out six days a week and they take
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  one day off. During that one day off, we're
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  ultimately recovering from all the work that we've done during
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  the week, and we still need more carbohydrates and protein than
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  we would if we were someone who just does yoga every day or only
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  goes for light walks during this offseason period.
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  There is an easy day plate that we could incorporate, but I
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  would be hesitant to do so. And I would emphasize to your
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  athletes that this easy day plate can be very tricky when
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  we're in a situation where we don't have control over our
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  food. So for example, if you're at
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  home and you have all of these different things that you can
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  put together, then maybe you can make your plate half fruits and
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  veggies. So that one's going to be half
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  fruits and veggies, 1/4 protein and a quarter carbohydrates.
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  But if you go to your aunt and uncle's house and that's just
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  not an option or they aren't serving a lot of color in the
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  1st place, then making your plate half green beans is
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  definitely not going to benefit you.
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  So using that moderate day plate, in that hard day plate,
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  we can kind of separate out. OK, I have an easy run today no
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  matter what. So no matter if the color part
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  of my plate has to be a little bit pumpkin pie, I'm going to
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  make sure that I have these components.
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  And this is great because it also takes the mental pressure
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  off of this for your athletes when the foods are not familiar
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  to them. So in this circumstance, for
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  example, if we're making a moderate day plate, which is
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  about equal thirds of protein, carbs, herbs and fruits and
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  veggies. Again, if you Google it, you
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  will find so many examples of these.
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  We can have our protein component be Turkey, we can have
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  our carbohydrate component be mashed potatoes and a roll, and
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  we can have that color component be even, like I said, a little
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  bit of pumpkin pie and maybe we have some salad or green beans
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  and some cranberry sauce. And so emphasizing to them that
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  what fits out that component of the of the plate does not have
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  to be perfect because this is going to give your athletes
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  confidence. And we want our athletes to feel
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  as though they have confidence and not stress around holiday
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  fueling. This performance plate is also
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  great because it's going to help them to fuel during the season
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  as well. And so during this time when
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  they have a little bit more headspace, they're not super,
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  super focused on training a performance plate.
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  And kind of learning how to make that plate into those components
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  is only going to serve them when they get back to doing harder
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  workouts and when they're really focused during the peak of the
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  season. Now, the second thing that we
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  want to focus on is that actual big day so we can tell them,
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  hey, go make a performance plate.
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  This is going to be great for fueling your workouts.
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  This is going to be great for not injuring yourself.
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  But what I see a lot of athletes doing and even coaches and
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  parents and people in between is on that big day.
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  So when we have Thanksgiving dinner, we don't eat breakfast,
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  we don't eat lunch, maybe we have a few cheese and crackers
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  and then we show up for dinner and we are absolutely starving.
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  This is a huge mistake for athletes.
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  There's a term called within day energy availability, and that
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  term basically means if we have the same total calories
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  throughout the day between two different athletes, but one
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  athlete skips breakfast and lunch and eats a huge dinner,
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  and one athlete eats a breakfast, a lunch.
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  And then maybe they have a smaller plate or they don't go
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  back for seconds at that Thanksgiving dinner, but they
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  still enjoy all of those foods. The athlete that has spread
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  their energy intake throughout the day is going to have much
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  fewer or much lower markers of inflammation, which can
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  contribute to injuries over time.
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  We're also going to have higher or lower incidence of bone
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  breakdown and better muscle building.
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  All these things that are going to contribute to consistency
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  when it comes to training. And also we're going to be able
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  to control ourselves a lot better and make better decisions
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  on that. Thanks giving meal.
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  And if we're not starving, that breakfast should be a normal
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  breakfast. Whatever your athlete normally
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  eats, they should be eating on Thanksgiving lunch.
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  Maybe their other family members are not eating.
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  And so helping them to have skills of, hey, even if your
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  family members are not eating, they're not running 30 miles per
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  week. You're going to need that fuel
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  at lunch. And if that means making a
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  sandwich and feeling a little bit uncomfortable in that moment
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  or taking on some jokes from family members, remind them that
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  you're an athlete and you're trying to show up for a really
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  competitive season this spring and track.
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  And that starts now. Now that eating before big
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  meals, it also translates to afterwards.
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  So I also see a lot of athletes who will say, well, I ate this
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  huge Thanksgiving dinner, so I probably should skip breakfast
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  or not eat as much the following day.
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  And that's just not how our body works.
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  So our body is very good at taking on that extra energy and
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  knowing what to do with it. It's not very good at taking it
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  into the next day. And so when you show up for that
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  run the next day and you're under fueled because you waited
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  until the afternoon and you barely ate breakfast and lunch,
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  that workout is not going to go very well.
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  So A, we're not getting the performance benefits from that
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  workout, but B, you also have put yourself at a higher risk
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  for injury. And so also reminding your
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  athletes that just because you had one big meal does not mean
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  that the next day should look any different from how it
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  normally does. Finally, we want to make this
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  fun for our athletes. And so if our athletes are
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  really struggling with wanting to make sure that we're really
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  setting ourselves up for a, you know, a killer track season or a
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  killer indoor season and they're feeling really nervous about
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  this time, it can be fun to have team challenges.
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  And these team challenges might be like you're at home, so maybe
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  you try everyone tries a new recipe and sends a picture to
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  your your team group chat. Or maybe you have a chef
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  challenge and they have to come up with some new meal that
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  incorporates Brussels sprouts or something that they normally
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  wouldn't have. Or maybe you have a snack
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  challenge and you make a healthy sweet or a healthy snack that
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  they can have. All of these are great ways to
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  make sure that your athletes are having fun.
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  Because what can happen is your athlete focuses so, so much on
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  eating perfectly and eating super, super healthy during this
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  time that when they come back in January from winter break, they
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  just feel exhausted. If you think about this like
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  holding a book up, if we are restricting and trying to be
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  perfect and really holding up that book, that's going to get
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  tiring and eventually we're going to have to let it drop.
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  And we do not want that to be right in the middle of our
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  season. And so especially during this
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  time when training volumes are usually lower, let's make sure
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  our athletes are having fun and enjoying themselves and not
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  putting themselves in a place where they're going to be wiped
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  out. I hope this has given you some
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  good tips both for your athletes and for yourself.
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  If you would like a little bit more information on the
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  performance plates, they are in my parent and athlete handout on
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  my website. And that gives you a nice
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  breakdown of what can go on those different portions of the
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  plate, what they look like, which again, you can just Google
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  a performance plate, it will come up.
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  And also some of the nuances there.
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  So for example, some things fit into multiple categories like
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  beans, Beans are protein. Beans also have a good source of
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  carbohydrates. So how to help your athletes to
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  deal with that? And also grocery, grocery tips
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  for parents. And so if you have parents who
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  are feeling a little bit nervous, their athlete maybe had
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  a really good cross country season and they want to do as
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  much as they can to help their athlete to be healthier, but
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  that's just not something that they've done in the past.
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  There is a really good parent handout in there that's going to
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  explain to them the needs of their athlete and how those are
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  different from their needs, as well as give them lots of
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  grocery tips to help to make that performance plate happen
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  when they do have control over that.
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  So great handouts there. If your athlete needs a little
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  bit more support during this time and you maybe have an
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  athlete that's super, super type A and is just struggling when
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  they're not at school and don't have that consistent routine,
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  feel free to send them my way. I do take one-on-one consults
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  and we can have some good support and some good
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  accountability during this time. And I see a lot of athletes who
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  will use that and then they go into the track season and they
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  have all of these new skills that they've gained.
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  Instead of getting to track season and realizing maybe we
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  should have used this two months to build some of those skills
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  and some of those habits. If you have any questions,
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  you're also welcome to reach out by e-mail.
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  You can reach me at maddierileymaddierileynutrition@outlook.com.
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  And my website is also Maddie Riley, nutrition.com.
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  Thanks for listening. Happy holidays.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Thanks for joining us for this
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