Whether you are an athlete, or you work out on your own or following group fitness classes online. It is vital to continue to fuel your body each day.
Due to the current situation with the stay at home guidelines, you are not able to participate as a team or with a group for workouts. If you are continuing to work out and exercise on your own, it is essential to continue to fuel your body properly. When I say fuel properly, this means to continue to eat meals and snacks throughout the day, and it also means not skipping meals, restricting, or limiting food choices because you feel like you might be working out less often. If you are working out less often than you were before staying at home, then you do not need to eliminate meals or snacks. You should work on choosing foods that provide a feeling of fullness as well as satisfaction- meaning choose foods with taste and that you feel good about eating. Feeling good about your food choice(s) does not mean that you made the “right” choice or the food you “should” choose. It means that you picked the foods that have flavor and adequately provide a feeling of fullness. When we choose foods, we enjoy and eat them until we are satisfied/comfortably full, then we are more likely to give ourselves adequate energy needed throughout the day.
Fueling will likely help you continue on with your day being productive in school, work, and exercise. In order to provide yourself with consistent energy, you should think about the food balance. It is essential to incorporate foods from various food groups- protein (plant or animal), whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and fats. When you make balanced choices, then you are more likely to feel satisfied with your meals and snacks. Consider eating meals (with at least 3-4 food groups) and snacks (with at least 2-3 food groups) throughout the day from the groups listed in this table.
Protein
|
Grains/Carbohydrates
|
Fruit
|
Vegetables
|
Yogurt
|
Whole
grain bread
|
Apple
|
Carrots
|
Milk
|
Pita
bread or a wrap
|
orange
|
avocado
|
Nuts
|
Rice
|
banana
|
cucumbers
|
Peanut
butter or another nut butter
|
pasta
|
peaches
|
broccoli
|
Chicken,
turkey, ham, cheese, tuna, hummus
|
crackers,
pretzels, graham crackers, whole grain cereal
|
Berries
(strawberries, blueberries or raspberries
|
Salad
(lettuce, carrots, tomatoes)
|
Sample snacks
- Apple with cheese or peanut butter
- Cucumber, carrots and/or pretzels and hummus
- Cereal with milk
- Graham crackers and peanut butter or almond butter
- Peanut butter, banana on 2 pieces of bread with a cup of milk
- Turkey, cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato on a wrap with an apple
