Nutrition Basics for Archers
Nutrition
Eating is more than just supplying energy for the body. It’s an important part of our social lives, shared among friends and family. But when people think of nutrition, people think automatically about restricting diets and other negative connotations.
Nutrition, however, should be in our minds at all times, regardless of where we happen to be eating. Good Nutrition is planned. Nutrition helps us understand what, when, and how much to eat.
What to Eat
Planning for healthy nutrition is easy and practical for daily life. Variety is key to well balanced nutrition so don’t eat the same items more than once a day and try eat different things on each day. Every food offers different flavors, textures, aromas and nutrition. To maintain proper nutrition, we need to vary these things. For instance, eating potatoes three times a day, everyday becomes boring to our taste buds and quickly boring to our bodies. Planning our meals around variety is a simple way to ensure we get the nutrients our bodies need.
When to Eat
The best plan is to eat three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) with a snack between each meal. Breakfast is the most important meal because after sleeping for 8 to 10 hours your body needs fuel. The snacks are also important to maintain fuel between meals to keep you going! But, What should lunch do for you?
How Much to Eat
Good nutrition is based on calories eaten versus calories expended. The more you do during the day, the more you need to eat. Of course, if you eat too much you store the extra fuel as fat. However, don’t obsess about calories but think of it as a guideline. Here is how to find out how many calories you need to eat everyday.
Portions are the measurement of one serving of a food and portion control is what controlling how much we eat is based on. The more calories you need to eat, the more portions you should eat. Good nutrition uses portion control to help you eat the calories you need and not much more. Don’t obsess about what makes up a portion, take a look here and find out.
Good Nutrition for Athletes
Without proper nutrition, athletes quickly suffer from fatigue and can fall ill. Eating a variety of foods throughout the day in moderate portions help athletes stay in control of their bodies and supply the fuel they need to be able to perform well. As always, archers need to focus on specific nutrition needs during training and especially during competition times.
You need protein every day.
You need to 5-6 servings of vegetables every day. But why eat veggies?
Do you need to drink somewhere between 1 liter to 3 liters every day? YES!
Now that you are drinking 1 – 3 liters of fluids a day, when do you need to drink the water?
You need vitamins and minerals every day so you are eating a varied diet. So why do you need a multi-vitamin?
We all are in love with snacking! We get hungry between meals and our body decides it needs to be FED NOW. What are we to do? Starve our bodies? Wait till the next meal? Or eat a good snack? Check out the article on Good Snacking.
Categories: Nutrition for Archers