Food and gymnastics - my two favourite things by Lara.
October 02, 2017
everactivgirl ambassador Lara is a gymnast and also loves swimming. She loves food and cooking and we asked her to tell us about how she makes sure she is fuelled up for training and to give us a couple of her favourite recipes.
I love food and I need to make sure I eat enough to fuel me through my gym sessions. My longest session can be up to 6 hours so if I don’t eat enough it can be hard work.
It’s tricky to make sure you eat well when you’re doing lots of sport so I thought I’d share what I eat on a typical day not just to give me energy but to help make sure my body has enough nutrients to repair my muscles and help me grow!
We try to make sure that I eat food that gives me slow energy release like wholemeal pasta, rice and bread. For breakfast I have porridge or scrambled eggs on toast, this means I can go through to lunch without going too hungry although I usually can’t resist a banana at break time! After school and before I go to gym I usually have a pasta salad, my mum uses brown pasta and pesto as a base and puts in loads of other ingredients to make it super tasty. This can be chopped chicken, chickpeas, slices of cucumber, olives, sweetcorn, tuna, ham, grilled halloumi cheese, smoked salmon or anything else that we can find in the fridge. My favourite ingredients are smoked salmon and olives.
When I’m at gym I take plenty of snacks and a big bottle of water to keep me hydrated. The snacks are usually things like a wholemeal sandwich, bananas, chopped up dried fruit, hard boiled eggs or chunks of cheese and crackers. As a special treat my mum makes flapjacks (see below for recipe!). I love these but once she’s made them they don’t stay around for long!
After gym I try to eat a meal that is high in protein to repair my muscles. Sometimes this can be as simple as beans on toast, tuna and cheese with a jacket potato or a cheese and tomato omelette. My favourite after gym meal is chicken curry with mango chutney in wraps! I try to have fresh fruit and yoghurt for pudding too to make sure I get enough vitamins, fibre and calcium for my bones. I love it when we have smoothies made with lots of different fruits and yoghurts. See below for my favourite.
Energy flapjacksIngredients250g porridge oats (rolled)
40g brown sugar
120g butter
80ml apple juice
140ml pouring honey
260g chopped dried fruits (use a mix of apricots, apple, raisins, dates, sultanas etc.)
65g seeds (again use a mix: pumpkin, sunflower, chia, sesame etc.)
50g chopped nuts (almonds or hazelnuts)
Method
Put the butter, honey, juice and sugar in a saucepan and heat it until it’s a bubbling liquid.
Chop up all the fruit, seeds and nuts and put into a bowl with the oats
Pour the liquid on to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Put the mixture into a 3cm deep baking tray, lined with baking paper and squash it down.
Put in the oven for 20 minutes on 170 degrees.
Cool and then cut the flapjacks to the size you need, they can be stored in a container in the fridge.
Lara’s favourite smoothie
10 Strawberries
1 Banana
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
Splash of orange juice
Squeeze of lime juice
Mix in a blender – yum!
