Looking to improve your diet? When it comes to eating well, there are few people better to turn to than professional footballers. Footballers stick to a strict diet to ensure that they get the nutrients needed to perform to a high level. So if you are an active person then there is a lot that you could learn from their diets.
Eating well: When you first wake up
Good nutrition starts from the moment that you wake up if you are a professional footballer. Most will have something that will immediately boost their metabolism, such as a probiotic drink, a glass of lemon water and a small amount of dark chocolate. This can be a great way to start the day and should help you to feel energized quickly.
Breakfast
They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and this is certainly true for footballers. This is because it is the meal that they eat before they start a day of activity. So they need to make sure that they have enough fuel in the engine. Footballers will usually eat breakfast half an hour after the above and it will consist of carbohydrates that will slowly release energy over time. Brown toast is a popular choice as well as porridge with honey.
Eating well: Snacks & hydration
In addition to the main meals of the day, footballers will frequently have snacks that can give them extra energy during the day (or at half-time). If you want to be like Virgil Van Dijk then you need to ditch crisps and sweets and snack on healthy things like fresh vegetables, bananas and nuts. Of course, hydration is key when exercising daily, so footballers will stick to water to stay hydrated.
Eating well: Lunch & dinner
Balance is key when it comes to lunch so that they can get all the nutrients that they need for training as well as recovery. A typical lunch will consist of grilled chicken for protein, brown rice for carbs and broccoli for vitamins and minerals.
For dinner, footballers will want food that will help them to recover from a day’s training. Typically, there are fewer carbs with this meal as these are best avoided close to bedtime. A typical meal will consist of fish, which is good for bone and heart health and plenty of veg. For dessert, low-fat yogurt and fruit is a popular and healthy yet delicious choice.
Footballers can be a great source of inspiration for nutritional advice as they must take their diet very seriously and treat their bodies like high-performance vehicles. It is important to maintain a healthy and balanced diet whether you are a footballer or not and knowledge is key for this.
Top Photo by Eduardo Roda Lopes on Unsplash
