By way of introduction, today I’m sharing the origin story of Raising Nourished Athletes. Let’s call it RNA for short. Not only a cute acronym, RNA also reflects my firm belief that to raise healthy, whole, well young athletes to reach their fullest potential in sport, then we’ve got to cook in the right stuff to their building blocks. In other words, nutrition HAS to be part of the plan.
Mark my words, as youth athletics continues to grow in competitiveness and intensity, as colleges recruit younger and younger athletes, the difference between the injury-riddled athlete and the thriving athlete will be their nutrition.
Food and beverage choices serving as fuel for your talented young student athlete will be the differentiator. We have to teach them how to take care of their bodies – these amazing bodies that are bubbling over with talent – they must be nourished!
Where do you go when one day, you look up, and have a 6’6″ 240-pound tight end outpacing your grocery shopping and running up a huge tab, to boot? How about when your distance swimmer burns 3000 calories in each practice? How do you find information on adequately nourishing your child? Or when your athlete has a weekend long tournament and your best options are fast food or chain restaurants with few nourishing options?
Come here, we’ll get through these challenges together. As a former athlete and mom of 3 little ones, I’m thinking about nourishing our next generation of great athletes, right from the start. It occurred to me that we spend so much time focused on sport-specific training – endurance, speed, strength, agility, even recovery has gained more attention in recent years (and rightfully so). A student athlete being well nourished can have a huge impact on body image and body confidence, not to mention energy for training and performance, recovery, and injury prevention.
Think of nutrition as the glue holding all this training, the blood, sweat, tears, and SO. MUCH. TIME – together.