When Your Athlete Is Skipping School Lunch

Ok, guys. I feel like today’s post is a big one, skipping school lunch. So many athletes that come to see me skip school lunch! So. Many.  Maybe they don’t skip every day but they probably skip at least a couple of days a week in the school week. If that is your athlete, then today’s post is for you and feel free to pass this along to your young athlete 🙂.

Today I’m going to discuss (1) why skipping lunch is counterproductive or even harmful to a young athlete’s health and performance, (2) some reasons your athlete may skip lunch (that I have seen most often in my practice), and, then, (3) how we can help our athletes fuel better when they are accustomed to skipping lunch. I hope you find this helpful as we enter a new school year!

Why Skipping School Lunch Is counterproductive or Harmful to a Young Athlete’s Health & Sport Performance:

In many ways kids and teens are resilient.  We know they tend to bounce back faster after illness or injury than adults.  However, nutrition, or I should really say, a lack of proper consistent nutrition, in my pediatric nutrition experience, is not something that their bodies are more resilient with.  Why is this?  It is because:

• Their young bodies may only be able to utilize a certain amount of a nutrient at once, a lesser amount than an adult body. An example would be protein. 40 grams of protein at a meal / snack is not going to be as beneficial for a 13 year old soccer player as it would be for a 27 year old professional soccer player or 45 year old non-athlete.  At that young age the body will use roughly 20 maybe 30 grams of consumed protein to build / maintain muscle. It may use additional protein for other needs of the body but not to build muscle. And the rest may be stored or broken down and gotten rid of by the body.

So, with this being said, why then is skipping the lunchtime meal and often going most of the school day without eating, counterproductive or harmful to a young athlete’s health & sport performance? It is counterproductive because…

1. This extremely long period of time without fueling the body can cause the body to use protein for fuel (ie, break down muscle) because carbohydrate stores have been depleted. This can hinder goals of improved strength and muscle gain.

2. This extremely long period of time without fueling the body puts the athlete at risk of dizziness, fatigue and fainting during practices due to his/her brain and muscles being depleted of energy (in an energy deficit). This can of course lead to possible injury and certainly decreased performance during games and competition. I always say, “If you want to play or perform your best then you have to show up to practice your best”.

3. This extremely long period of time without fueling the body specifically after a practice (for example: an intense morning practice followed by nothing to eat, maybe some goldfish or chips until school gets out that afternoon) can hinder improvements in strength, power or technique because the athlete has failed to consume any recovery fuel to support replenishment of energy (carb) stores, building/rebuilding of muscle (protein) and hydration of the body.

4. On a more health-related note, we all want balanced blood sugars. Getting that mid-day meal helps balance blood sugars. Low blood sugars can cause someone to feel lightheaded and dizzy, it can make it hard to concentrate and it can enhance feelings of anxiety.  So, not only does it help with performance, but eating consistently throughout the day can also be helpful in managing anxiety as well as supporting academic performance.

Most young athletes that I see are (a) trying to improve performance (b) working on recovering from an injury or (c) trying to build lean muscle.  Skipping lunch and going from 7:30 am (breakfast that the athlete is hopefully eating) to about 3:00pm (after school snack), that’s almost 8 hours, is hindering each of the above goals. While some athletes may at least grab a snack, I remind them that having a small bag of pretzles or chips is not sufficient. A missed meal is a missed chance to fuel the brain and the body for a later practice or to help recover the body after an earlier practice and eating a meal twice as big at the end of the day is not going to make up for it. 

4 Potential Reasons Your Athlete Is Skipping School Lunch:

1. They say they don’t have enough time. 

2. They don’t like the food served in the cafeteria.

3. They would rather study, finish an assignment or hang out with their friends during lunch.

4. They are struggling with disordered eating behaviors that limits their ability or desire to eat during lunch.

4 Ways to Fuel Through Lunch / the School Day:

1. They say they don’t have enough time. 

• Trying several hearty, sport-supporitng snacks throughout the day during lunch and between classes.

• I remind athletes, “If you want to be a great athlete, play in college, get the scholarship, etc. you have to do the work and that includes EATING. Eating is just as important as practice, conditioning, cross-training and sleep!

2. They don’t like the food served in the cafeteria.

• If you are able, it’s time to start packing a lunch that the athlete gets to help plan. They can eat school lunch or they can eat a lunch from home, or, in some cases, they can have a bunch of larger snacks throughout the day in place of the one meal, but not eating is not an option. And there is nothing wrong with the classic BP&J!

3. They would rather study, finish an assignment or hang out with their friends during lunch.

• This would be a great reason to start packing a lunch. And pack foods that are easy and convenient to eat while studying, working on an assignment or hanging out with friends. Ideas include: cheese sticks, turkey slices, Greek yogurts, whole grain granola bars, grapes, apple slices, carrot sticks with hummus, homemade trailmix (with cereal, nuts, seeds, dried fruit), milk/chocolate milk, and popcorn.

4. They are struggling with disordered eating behaviors that limits their ability or desire to eat during lunch.

• I am not going to go too much into this topic today because it really is it’s own series of posts for another day. But if your athlete is struggling to eat lunch because of disordered eating thoughts, I highly encourage you to find a dietitian specializing in eating disorders and connect with a counselor that specializes in eating disorders quickly. This is a hard block and can take time to work through.

If your athlete is struggling with eating lunch at school, I hope this post has given you some points of discussion when chatting with your athlete as well as some ideas to break the barrier and start getting your athlete fueled through his/her school day.

Need help fueling your athlete this fall? You can follow me on Instagram at @taylormorrisonRD for more info and tips or you can reach out to me to schedule a call and see if working together would be a good idea!

Happy Fueling!

Taylor

When Your Athlete Has a Super Packed Schedule

Do you feel like you hardly see your athlete?  Like, you get in a quick groggy hello before they are out the door for early morning practice and then you get an exhausted “hi again” or “what’s for dinner?” after school? Maybe you don’t see your athlete until even later - like 8 or 9:30 pm because they have evening practices or had an evening game. Or maybe your athlete is in a sport like gymnastics, dance or figure skating where they could be at the gym/studio/rink for hours at a time with small school breaks in-between and in the evening.

Regardless which sort of schedule your athlete follows, with this time-consuming commitment to sport it can be really really difficult to get a good fueling strategy in place and meet the high nutrition demands of sport. I see this as a roadblock with so many of the athletes that I work with and so today I wanted to take a little time and give you 5 nutrition principles along with actionable strategies that your athletes can start putting into practice now to help them optimize their intake when they have a super packed schedule that makes it hard to fuel well….

5 Nutrition Principles for the Young Athlete

with a Packed Schedule

1. Snacks are their best friend.

• Have your athlete go with you to the store to pick out different snack-type items that he or she can have on-hand in a lunch bag throughout the day for easy fueling. These should be from a variety of food groups so that the athlete is getting a variety of nutrients and energy sources throughout the day.

• Some examples include: granola bars, whole grain crackers, string cheese, chocolate milks, yogurt, goldfish, nuts/seeds, deli turkey, carrot sticks, hummus, cottage cheese cups, dried fruit, fresh fruit.

• Need help strategizing how to mix and match? Grab a copy of my Sports Snack Survival Guide! DM me on Instagram or email me at taylor@taylored-nutrition.com to grab a copy!

2. Because they are snacking, they need to eat more often (than if they sat down for a larger more balanced meal)

• A young athlete should not go 4 + hours between snacks.  

• If the athlete is mostly getting fuel from snacks, he/she likely should be getting a snack about every 2 to 3 hours, depending on the content of the snack and the specifics (age, height, weight, sport played, etc.) of the athlete.

3. Fueling meals and snacks don’t have to be beautiful or look Instagram perfect to fuel the body well. - put away those perfectionistic ideals!

• I help my athletes put together a lot of fueling meals and snacks that they end up doing really well with and feeling really good about.  Many of them are surprised at how simple and basic the meals and snacks are! 

4. Meals & snacks need carbs + a variety of these other foods.

• When it comes down to it, your athlete needs carbs from a variety of food groups to keep those energy stores up. These should be in each snack and meal.  Alongside it, depending on when the snack falls in relation to a practice or training session, there should also be some protein, some fiber and some fat. 

• Have your athlete pick different food sources of carbs, protein, fiber, and fat that they enjoy so that they get a variety of micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) throughout the day as well.

• And while the athlete may have to rely on lots of snacks some days, they should make sure one or two meals is still a part of their day. That could be a great breakfast to start the day or a great dinner with family or friends to end the day.

• Smoothies can be a great way to pack in food group variety and energy that is easy and quick.  I, personally, feel the same way about oatmeal & overnight oats!

5. Don’t forget the water bottle.

• Water is still super important to keep those energy levels up and optimize performance. We want the athlete to be drinking throughout the day.

• Remember, items like milk, sports drink, flavored water, teas, smoothies, fruits, veggies, and applesauce all contribute to an athlete’s hydration goal!
  

I hope today’s post has given you 5 strategies that your athletes can start working on today and take with them into the school year. As always, reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns regarding fueling your young athlete. I would love to chat!

Happy Fueling!

Taylor

Image credit - https://historyofsoccer.info/

Young Athletes: Not Just Little Adults

In today’s post I want to point out some of the differences between adult and child athletes. I’m pretty excited to write about this today because, if you know me or have worked with me, you know that I am super passionate about pediatric nutrition (nutrition for kids and teens) and love to educate on all things pediatric nutrition. I have loved it since the day I started my dietetic internship in Memphis to my first job at a children’s hospital to volunteering to write a kids’ nutrition and fitness curriculum for the Junior League to working with athletes today. I love navigating the extra level of complication that surrounds children and adolescents when it comes to nutrition. I love that you have to take more into consideration when treating and making recommendations for children and teens because the body and brain are still in such rapid phases of growth and development. I love understanding how the bodies of child and teen athletes are different from those of adults and, therefore, cannot be treated and guided as such.

Today I’m going to share with you four factors that I think are important to know that make the needs and recommendations of child and adolescent athletes different than those of adults. I hope you find this helpful as you continue to fuel your young athletes.

4 Ways Child & Adolescent athlete nutrition needs

Differ From Adult athlete needs:

1. Children are more efficient at using fat for energy. It is not until going through puberty that they become more efficient at using carbs like adults. 

• Putting into practice … Young athletes don’t need to do all of that carb-loading before big cross country meets or tournament days. Those pre-race carb-loading dinners are more for camaraderie than actual help with fueling. Keep enjoying the dinners if you love them (I loved these as a cross country runner in middle school & high school) but just know it’s more for fun than for optimizing fueling or giving a performance advantage. Of course, carbs are still a young athlete’s best friend, but the need for “loading” has not been proven to benefit this population of athletes. It does not mean you have to load up on fats either, but it does mean that foods with fat should certainly be present in their meals or snacks.

2. Children / teens do not cool their bodies like adults do. Children/teens predominantly cool their bodies via radiative and conductive cooling (dry heat dissipation) while adults rely on evaporative cooling (sweating). During training, young athletes’ bodies get more efficient at peripheral vasodilation while adults’ bodies alter their sweat rates. All of this means that kids and adolescents do not sweat as much as adults to cool themselves and, therefore, do not lose as many electrolytes as adults do with exercise.

   • Putting into practice … Keep this in mind before buying expensive electrolyte supplements or sports drinks for your athlete.

3. Children & adolescent athletes are going through growth spurts at different times and different seasons. It’s important not to alter food choices or restrict intake too much at the risk of stunting growth, delaying puberty or decreasing performance. What could seem like a harmless small reduction in calories or a shift in food choices to a young athlete could mean a period of unintentional underfueling that decreases performance, puts the athlete at risk of injury, or, if long-term, delays growth and development.

   • Putting into practice … It’s important to encourage all meals and snacks and all forms of carbs, proteins and fats with our young athletes. I like to encourage athletes to listen to their body (unless they are already chronically underfueled but that is a separate post for another day). They may be extremely hungry one week or one month and need a little or a lot more food. Then the following week or month their appetite is lower. That’s ok! They’ve got to allow themselves to fuel through those growth spurts, giving the body what it needs, not only for the growth & development, but also for their sport and class load.

4. Supplement benefits may not apply.  What I mean here is that most supplements related to performance (not talking about vitamins & minerals here) that have been found to be effective are tested on adults, not children and teens. Even if the supplement is third party tested, that does not mean it is proven to be effective or recommended for use in kids and teens.

   • Putting into practice … Always keep this in mind when thinking about protein or other supplements for the young athlete.

Working as a pediatric sports dietitian merges the specialty of pediatrics and the specialty of sports. I know it can be confusing to sort through all of the nutrition information and product recommendations out there, which are mostly geared towards adult athletes. If your athlete needs help with their fueling strategy and you’re not sure where to start or where to go next, reach out to me! I would love to schedule a call and chat to see if working together would be a good next step.  

That’s all for today. Happy Fueling!

Taylor

10 Early Morning Fuel Ideas for the "Non Breakfast Eater" & Why It’s Important

“I just don’t eat breakfast”. “Eating upsets my stomach”. “I don’t like breakfast foods”.

These are just a few statements I get from the young athletes I work with after asking them about their morning pre-training fuel. For some athletes, depending on their sport and type of training session, skipping the morning meal may be just fine, but for many of the athletes who come to work with me, those in high intensity and endurance sports, skipping this chance for nutrition can really set the athlete back.

If you are a student athlete or the support team of a student athlete and this sounds familiar, I ask you to consider starting a new breakfast routine and, in doing do, consider these 3 things:

1. The pre-training meal does not have to be big

2. The pre-training meal does not have to be breakfast food

3. If you think you are performing fine as you are (with empty fuel stores), think of what you could do if your brain and muscles were well-stocked with fuel!

Size of the Pre-training Meal

I never recommend going from nothing to a full all-inclusive breakfast. For those just beginning to incorporate pre-training fuel, it’s important to start small no matter what and slowly increase portion or change type of fuel. It’s all about training the gut and, while it may seem impossible, it actually can be done! It’s something I work with athletes on all the time. Just don’t get overwhelmed and think this meal has to be big or 3 courses. It’s final composition is up to the athlete, what he/she tolerates, and what feels right. In fact, I often refer to this early morning pre-training meal it as “Breakfast 1”. The athlete should think about what he/she would have for breakfast and then pull out the carbohydrate portion to enjoy first. “Breakfast 1” can be as small or big as the athlete tolerates. “Breakfast 2” is the recovery fuel and follows after the training session is complete.

Composition of the Pre-training Meal

This pre-training meal does not have to be breakfast food but it does need to be a source of easily digested carbohydrates. Remember that carbohydrates are the best source of fuel for the brain and muscles. I always work with my athletes to determine what carbohydrate sources they will be able to tolerate as tolerance is key here.

Potential of the pre-training meal

Yes, I know many athletes that say “My practices are great and I never eat before practices”. However, I still challenge them to at least try a little something before they train. If it doesn’t work, then ok, but most of the time I hear them tell me that they have more energy, feel better during practice, don’t get so hungry during practice and don’t feel ravenous after. If you think you’re doing great now, imagine what you could do if you were actually running on fuel! If you’re an athlete reading this, I challenge you to take your off-season to try adding in an early morning pre-training meal. If you’re a parent, coach, AT or other member of the support team with early morning practices, I challenge you to challenge your athletes to find at least one food or meal that they can enjoy and tolerate pre-training.

Now that I’ve talked about the importance of including a little pre-training fuel, I want to transform that into food. What I’m sharing today are the simplest ideas. If the athlete tolerates these all well and feels he/she can start including more, then portions can be increased or small items can be added. But for now, we’ll stick with simple. If you want to work on improving your pre-training fuel or have an athlete that you think would benefit from this, I encourage you to work with a sports dietitian to create a plan and find what works for you or your athlete!

Early Morning Pre-Training Fuel Ideas for the “Non Breakfast Eater”

1. Sports drink

2. Dry cereal (ex: Cheerios, Chex, other low fiber, low protein & low fat cereals)

3. Plain Bagel or toast topped with jam or honey

4. Simple granola bar (ex: Quaker chewy, KIND Healthy Grain, NutriGrain, MadeGood)

5. Fruit bars (Fig Newton, Nature’s Bakery)

6. Diced fresh fruit

7. 1 small to medium banana

8. Snack size bag of pretzels (remember that breakfast does not have to mean breakfast food!)

9. Small fruit smoothie (made with fresh / frozen fruit, water, juice)

10. Remember to think about the night before. If you are not a big breakfast eater but have a difficult training session or long run the next morning, use dinner the night before to help get you ready. Include a mix of lean protein, quality carbohydrates and a little healthy fat. If dinner is really early and you go to bed late, add in an evening snack with quality carbohydrates like:

    • A bowl of cereal with milk,

    • Yogurt (Greek or regular)

    • Whole grain toast or waffle with peanut butter

    • Whole Grain granola bar with peanut butter or yogurt

    • Cheese & Crackers

      Including this evening snack and making dinner count will make you less dependent on your early morning fuel to carry you through your workout. You can instead think of your breakfast as “topping of the tank” or replenishing what may have been used while sleeping.

For more information and examples of early morning and late evening pre and post-exercise fuel give this previous blog post a read.

Hope this gets you started and makes you feel more energized and ready for those early morning practices to come!

Happy Fueling!

Taylor

Nine Protein-Boosting Breakfasts for the Young Athlete

Breakfast seems to be the hardest meal of the day for adults, kids and teens alike. While, yes, some adults can get along just fine with a coffee-only breakfast, there are certain groups of people that really need this first meal of the day. If you have read my previous posts, you now know that the saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” is not just some silly phrase. This statement holds a lot of truth, especially for athletes and active individuals. For these groups breakfast really is necessary because athletes, particularly young athletes, cannot typically get all of the nutrition they need to support growth, development, regular functioning AND sport from just two meals a day! Our bodies can only utilize a certain amount of protein per meal or snack for muscle building and maintenance and other necessary body functions. We now know the rest of it gets excreted as seen with increased urea levels. So, if your high intensity or power athlete needs a higher amount of protein, it’s going to be pretty important that your athlete include breakfast as a chance to get some of that protein! Of course, the breakfast meal is also a chance to get quality carbs and healthy fats + micronutrients like calcium, zinc, iron and vitamin D, but today we’re talking about protein so I’m going to try and stay on track!

Today, I’m tying all of my previous posts together with these ten protein-boosting breakfasts for the young athlete. I hope it helps make your mornings easier and your athletes stronger.

And remember, it doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated to be effective!

Happy Fueling!

Taylor

NINE PROTEIN- BOOSTING BREAKFASTS FOR THE YOUNG ATHLETE

1.

Whole Grain English Muffin + 1 Tbsp PB + Mixed Berries

~ 12 grams of protein

2.

1/2 cup Cottage Cheese + Sliced Berries

~14 grams of protein

3.

Whole Grain Oatmeal + Peanut Butter

15 grams of protein

4.

Greek Yogurt + Egg + Mixed Fruit

~21 grams protein

5.

Greek Yogurt + Whole Grain Granola Bar

~20 grams protein

6.

Make-Ahead Egg Cups: Up & At ‘Em Eggs Cups

You can have 3 egg cups for about 15 grams of protein or have 2 + an 8 ounce glass of milk for about 18 grams!

Get Recipe!

7.

Egg Sandwiches

You can make these simple with one or two eggs & a slice of cheese on a whole grain English Muffin or, I love my 5-Ingredient Breakfast Sandwiches! About 18 grams of protein!

Get Recipe!

8.

SunButter Banana Overnight Oats

Get Recipe!

9.

Cherry Vanilla Overnight Oats

Get Recipe!