Breakfast Really IS For Champions

Abigail Larson MS, CSCS

You’ve heard it before, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”.  But if you are like many athletes breakfast is a mere afterthought if even a thought at all.  But you are different than most people; you are an athlete and that makes breakfast not just important but essential for success in sport, work and/or school.  Skipping breakfast slows your body’s ability to burn calories (metabolism) and brain function, and you set yourself up to raid the school vending machine by midmorning. 

When your blood sugar crashes you’re not likely to make nutritionally wise choices and it’s easy to go for a quick “fix” that will send you crashing again later in the day.  This “crash” will cause your training and sports performance to suffer because you won’t have the energy necessary to keep up with your well-nourished teammates and competitors.  To train and compete optimally you must eat optimally from start to finish everyday.  Lots of research has shown that people who eat breakfast score better on tests, perform better at work, weigh less, and have less body fat than people who don’t normally consume breakfast. 

As a doctoral student in exercise physiology and nutrition and an Olympic cross-country skier, I know how hard it can be to make time for breakfast. However, without good nutritional habits I never would have had the energy to train all the hours required to make the 2006 US Olympic Team. 

It’s easy to overlook breakfast when you are rushing from training to work/class, or trying to get a few extra minutes of sleep.  But this bad habit can have lots of negative consequences; you will probably make poorer food choices later in the day when you get overly hungry. Also, recovery from morning training sessions is much slower without good nutrition and hydration and you risk becoming glycogen depleted (low carbohydrate stores). All this leads to less energy for training later in the day.  From personal experience, I’ve found that with a little planning I can have a quick and nutritious breakfast that will kick-start my day and prepare me for my next workout.

What and how much you eat for breakfast are also important. Highly refined convenience foods such as Poptarts, sugared cereals, and Nutrigrain bars are not adequate or wholesome fuel for athletes!  Every morning you should treat your body to the fuel it needs to support all the hard training you have done and will be doing later in the day.  A healthy breakfast consists of a good balance among sources of carbohydrate, protein, and fat.  This includes fresh fruit, whole grains, and a serving of dairy, soy, or eggs.  Whole wheat bread, oatmeal, raisin bran, low-fat milk, yogurt, soy milk, and scrambled eggs can all be part of a healthy breakfast. A balance of these ingredients will ensure adequate intake of vitamins, minerals, and help you to feel full and energized throughout the morning. 

It’s best to eat at least 2 hours before practice or working out.  This is because after you eat, blood pools to the stomach to help you digest but when you exercise, your working muscles need that blood too.  To get the most out of your workouts you want to be able to supply your muscles with the blood and oxygen they need.  If you only have an hour before practice, grab something light, such as a banana, and eat your main meal within an hour of finishing your workout.  Your main breakfast meal after training should be adequate to replenish muscle carbohydrate stores and help to repair muscle tissue that may have been damaged.  Muscle protein breakdown often happens with resistance and intense training; this breakdown is decreased if you eat a combination of protein and carbohydrate after training. The exact amount of carbohydrate and protein needed depends on the amount of training you do and your body size.

Here are some examples of general breakfasts that provide about 400 calories:

CHOOSE 1 ITEM FROM EACH CATEGORY FOR A BALANCED BREAKFAST

In an ideal world we would all have time to sit down and eat a relaxed, wholesome breakfast, but many athletes don’t have time for this. Breakfast certainly can, but doesn’t have to be, a spinach omelet with whole-wheat toast, or oatmeal topped with fresh fruit and yogurt. It can also be as simple as a peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole grain bread with a cup of yogurt or even leftovers from last night’s dinner taken in a Tupperware and eaten in transit.  There is no need to limit your first meal of the day to traditional “breakfast” foods.  The point is to start your day with healthy foods so you can feel and perform at your best for the rest of the day.  Here’s another thought: try waking up 20 or 30 minutes earlier every morning to make time for breakfast.  You make time for training and you should make time to fuel your training too!  Often I make my breakfast and put it in my to-go bag before I go to bed. In the morning, I don’t even have to think about it, I just grab it and go.

Not hungry in the early morning?  Try eating an hour or so after you get to school or work.  A yogurt smoothie, either made at home or bought from the grocery store, and a ½ sandwich can be kept in an insulated lunch bag and stored in your locker or backpack.  Most mornings I train very early but as soon as I get home I make a big smoothie with yogurt, soymilk, and fresh or frozen berries.  I drink half of it as I get ready for work and sip on the other half on my way to, or at, work.  I also always bring fresh fruit and a carbohydrate-rich sport bar with me for a midmorning snack. 

With regards to sport bars, there are a lot on the market today but not all are created equally.  Many of these bars are just expensive, vitamin-fortified candy bars that are made with many unwholesome ingredients, such as high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils.  Choose a sport bar without a candy coating (these are usually the sources of hydrogenated oils) and that has fiber and carbohydrate in addition to protein.  Good choices are Clifbars™, Luna bars™, Mojo bars™, Lara bars™, and Power Bar Harvest™ or Nut Natural™ bars.             

West Yellowstone Ski Festival
West Yellowstone, Montana
November 20-24, 2007
www.yellowstoneskifestival.com

Here’s an update on the latest Ski Festival developments:

Murray Banks to speak Friday night: We are excited to announce that Murray Banks will be back in West Yellowstone and will be our featured speaker on Friday night, November 23. Murray is a successful endurance athlete and long time motivational speaker. We are looking forward to his return to West Yellowstone!

Try It and Buy It Gear Demo: Make sure you stop by the Salomon tent to try your hand at the new heel-toe camber in the Salomon Equipe 10 Classic, and the Pilot Classic binding. Each of the representatives will have their latest equipment available to try - certainly one of your best chances to see the latest in equipment in action!

SuperTour Registration: A race schedule is currently online. We have been delayed in getting our online registration up and running but are working diligently on that right now and hope that it will be available soon. The Men's and Women's Sprint races will take place on Friday, November 23rd. The Men's 15K and Women’s 10K Classic races will take place on Saturday, November 24th.

Kid’s Clinics by the Montana Outdoor Science School: The folks at MOSS have put together another amazing lineup of children’s clinics during the Ski Festival. The clinics will be based out of the Days Inn and pre-registration is required! For more information, visit the Clinics page of www.yellowstoneskifestival.com (scroll to the bottom where you will find a link to the MOSS website).

Stone Grinding by Boulder Nordic Sport and Engineered Tuning: Boulder Nordic Sport (BNS) will again bring a full-service stone-grinding ski shop to the Yellowstone Ski Festival November 19-25.  Owners Nathan Schultz and Zach Caldwell  will travel to the event with two Tazzari stone grinding machines (skis that are stone ground generally absorb more wax and perform better) and staff to provide professional ski service at the season-opening event.

For over 25 years, West Yellowstone, Montana has played host to cross country skiers during the month of November. There is no better place to start your ski season! For more information, visit www.yellowstoneskifestival.com.

Start your ski season in West Yellowstone, Montana!

The best way to contact Jamie Greene is via email at info@yellowstoneskifestival.com. He work on Ski Festival for an hour or so almost every morning and will respond to your email as quickly as possible. If you need to talk about something, you can leave a message at (406) 646-7097 and someone will return your call as soon as possible. See you in November!
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Steamboat Springs Nordic Challenge – Race #1
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
December 9, 2007
www.steamboatxcski.org
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RAINBOW RESORT
Nordic POLE PEDAL PANT - Fall Triathlon
Saturday, November 17, 2007

2nd annual Nordic POLE PEDAL PANT fall triathlon race (Nordic rollerski double pole 1k, mt bike 10k, run 5k), Sat., Nov. 17, 2007 @10am.
For more information, contact Amy Xu: 612-991-4912, xu.amy@dorsey.com.
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Cross-Country Technique Fundamentals - CDROM
This CD lays the foundation for both Classic and Freestyle techniques on
which we can build a consistent technique program that will continue to
develop great cross-country skiers for years to come.