Many of my athletes are confused about what to eat for breakfast when they start to move away from the traditional sugar laden, carb heavy breakfasts like oatmeal and boxed cereals. The following 3, are tried and true breakfasts that deliver nutrients as well as prefect proportions of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. My goal with offering these suggestions is to encourage eating real food before a race or hard training session so that you can get quality nutrition into your body before having to resort to sports nutrition for simple ease of use during a race. There are however lots of great options on the market now to keep it real even during a race. Look for those tips in an upcoming post. Also, for your convenience I’ve added links for purchasing information for the products I recommend. Just hover over the items in bold and click.
1- Chia Seed Pudding – Super quick and easy. You can make it the night before and keep it covered in the fridge.
1-2 tablespoons of organic chia seeds mixed with ½-1 cup of Real Coconut Milk, add 1 tablespoon of Great Lakes Gelatin or bulletproof collagen to bump up the protein content. Add berries, bananas, raw honey or maple syrup to taste. A pinch of real salt to include some minerals and electrolytes and you are good to go.
2- 2 over easy organic eggs cooked in coconut oil and ½ – 1 whole sweet potato with real grass fed butter or coconut oil. I usually bake the potato the night before, have half for dinner and the other half with breakfast warmed up in the pan I cooked the eggs in. This is a perfect example of eating good sources of protein and fat to stabilize the blood sugar after bed and then switch to the sports nutrition before any race as needed.
3- Naturally smoked wild caught salmon with avocado and chia seeds (wrapped in a nori roll) – This is definitely my favorite pre-race meal. I actually learned about the salmon from an ultra -runner who ate it before every long run event. Salmon is easy to digest and has tons of great protein and omega 3 fatty acids. Paired with ½ avocado and sprinkled with hemp hearts and real sea salt. It is the perfect pre-race meal.
I know many of you would never even think of any of these items as breakfast food because we are so conditioned to our typical American breakfast of cereal or Eggo waffles. But I can tell you from personal experience, eating low sugar food with higher nutrient content just makes you feel and perform better. Please test any of these out before you actually use them before a race. Never try anything new on race day, especially nutrition! Quantity is a factor. You need a lot less due to increased nutrient density.
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[…] problem. Why risk it? If you are looking for some suggestions on pre-race meals check out my blog Top 3 Tried and True Pre-Race Breakfasts. This is highly individualized so stick to what you have used in training for your race and adjust […]