I Answered the Most Important Questions Athletes Are Asking

Welcome back to the Next Level Athletes Podcast. This is going to be the first ever Q&A podcast that we've done. We get thousands of messages every single day from you guys asking questions about what should I be eating before games, when should I be eating it, hey, I'm 150 pounds, how much protein do I need? And it's really hard for us to get to all of them, so we're hoping that this is going to help you guys out. We put out an Instagram story, had a bunch of replies, and we're going to cover a lot of questions today, so buckle in and let's do this. Okay, question number 1 is, is sugar bad for me? It's kind of a loaded question, but my short response is no, sugar is not bad for you. Now, there is different levels to sugar. There's sugar in Twinkies and Ho Hos, and then there's sugar in apples. Okay, sugar is also known as carbohydrates. There are great forms of carbohydrates, and then there's not so great forms of carbohydrates. If I were you, 80% of your sugars should come from natural sources— whole grains, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, anything like that. The other 20% can come from the more processed sugars that you're thinking about, so the cakes and the cookies and sometimes even the soda. It's not going to kill you, it's not going to hurt you, um, it just needs to be consumed in moderation. And ideally, especially if you're an athlete, um, around the times where your body needs it most, so right after a workout, when your body is depleted of its energy sources, eating a candy bar right after then could be the best time to actually eat that candy bar because your body's just gonna suck it up into its energy stores. Hopefully that makes sense to you guys. Question number 2, are protein bars a good source of protein? Short answer is yes. It depends on the protein bar as well. Um, I saw this video on Instagram the other day of a college athlete saying like he ate 5 or 6 protein bars a day. That's when I'd come in and say, hey dude, like You don't need that much a day. I'm always going to say prioritize real protein, prioritize animal meat, prioritize eggs and all the natural sources of protein before you ever grab a protein bar. 5 or 6 a day, I mean, for one, they have— a lot of protein bars have like artificial sweeteners, which isn't necessarily bad, but they can hurt a lot of athletes' guts. Number 2 is whey protein. It can cause digestive issues as well. So if you're having 5 to 6 a day, Probably not gonna be very good for your gut or for your performance. So yes, protein bars are okay. Eating one a day, that's great, especially if it tastes good, right? So it's a fun little treat, but I would say get most of your protein sources from real animal meat, from eggs, from dairy, from great sources. And then if you wanna grab a whey protein bar or, you know, have a protein shake every once in a while, that's great too. Another thing when it comes to protein bars and getting them from— getting your protein from bars and powders and supplements and stuff versus real food. Real food has a lot of little micronutrients in it that is amazing for your body, especially as an athlete. You are taxing your body to— you're pushing it to like to the edge every single day. And not only do you need the carbs, the fats, and the protein for it to repair itself and for it to feel its optimal best, you need those little micronutrients which the vitamins and minerals. And so meat has a lot of great micronutrients, as iron, as vitamin B. It has all of these amazing micronutrients that your bodies need as athletes. So don't skimp out on that. You definitely don't want to replace all of your protein with protein bars. Question number 3: What should you eat during a game? Carbs. Carbs. Sugar carbs. I'm not saying you have to be eating a candy bar in the middle of a game, although Depending on the game, some kids do really well with Skittles or gummy bears, and so that's fine. If it's between fruit snacks and Skittles, I don't see them being much different. Just because it has the word fruit in it doesn't mean it's gonna be always super healthy. Fruit snacks are pure sugar, so is Skittles. So, so it's the same thing. But if you're going for a more natural source, which I would recommend, um, applesauce, fruit leather, dried mangoes, any of those are going to be fantastic carbohydrate sources during a game in the middle of halftime. And I know it might be a little like taboo or weird to, to like bring a snack to eat at halftime, but just like tell your coach like, don't worry, you're gonna thank me because of how I'm gonna play in that fourth quarter for you. Okay. So, and if you really don't wanna eat something, then that's when you can look into having a sports drink as well. Like a BodyArmor is a good source. I think it, um, it's a little bit cleaner than Gatorade or Powerade, but if you only have Gatorade or Powerade, make sure you don't get the zero sugar kind. Make sure you're having the one with sugar in it. Cuz again, those sugars are the carbohydrates and the carbohydrates give you energy. Carbs equal energy when it comes to game time play. You always have to remember that. So now I'm gonna back up a little bit and explain why. So yes, you need carbs in the middle of the game, but here's why. Your muscles have something called glycogen storages in them. It's in your muscles and it's in your liver. Okay? These glycogen storages, I'm gonna call 'em little muscle energy tanks. Okay? Little energy tanks. These energy tanks need to be filled up with fuel. The way that they are filled with fuel, the fuel that is used in them is carbohydrates. So if you're not eating carbs before a strenuous game or during a strenuous game, and then all of a sudden you hit the wall or you, you slump off or your performance starts sucking, the reason why is because your energy stores are depleted. Your gas tank is basically on empty and you need carbohydrates. The minute you put some carbs into your body, I promise you, you are going to feel so much better because your body is Your body is needing the fuel. It's needing to gas up or fuel up. Just like you couldn't go very far on a gas tank that's empty. You can't do that with your body either. Next question. Should I fuel before practice? I've got a question for you. Whoever asked this question, should you breathe during practice? Yes. Yes to both answers. And I don't mean to like be mean about that, but like it is so important to eat before practice. A lot of people say like, I feel so sick eating before practice. I, I feel so sluggish and heavy. You're just probably not eating the right things and your body's just not used to it. Um, uh, an analogy I always like to use is like when you're starting in the gym lifting, you're gonna hate it. Like it's not very fun. You, you're freaking weak. You don't know how to do the form right. Like you, you don't know how to do the lifts. It's, it's just sucks. But time after time that you go, you get a little bit better, you get a little bit stronger, and then all of a sudden, instead of benching the bar, you can put 25s and then 45s on. Like you can get better and better as you go. Your body adapts. Your body is so smart. It's gonna do the same with food. So if, if you're trying, if you're like, I cannot eat anything before practice, here's my, my guidance to you. First thing you wanna do, start small. Second thing you wanna do is make sure it's carbohydrates. So if you have 90 minutes before, before practice, you probably want between 50 to 60 carbohydrates. The way you can get that is through a granola bar and then a few dried mango slices. You could also do a banana and a PB&J can be something so simple and so small, um, until you're able to kind of work your way up and have even more so that you can be fueled even more during practice. So I'd say yes, fuel before practice, start small, 50 to 60 carbohydrate grams of carbohydrates beforehand, and then you can also drink carbs during practice. And so that's where a sports drink can be really helpful as well, like we talked about during games too. Next question, what are the best snacks to eat during practice? Pretty much the same that we talked about during games, really. Um, you're working yourself in practice just like you would work yourself in a game. Your body is being pushed, you're super high intensity. Um, I mean, if you're, if you're in a walkthrough practice, you might not need a super amount of carbs, but if you have like an intense practice, let's take football season for instance, and you're going and going and like sweating bullets, just burning a ton of energy, full pads, you absolutely need to eat during practice. And you might be thinking like, well, I've never done that in the past, or I've I've never seen people do it. Okay, like, do you want to keep playing how you have in the past? You want to play better? And if you— if the answer is you want to play better, then start eating some— something before and something during practice. And like I said, just simple carbohydrates. And there's these little honey sticks or honey packets. Those are great options too if you don't love to like have something to chew on during practice, because I totally get that. Anything that you can slurp up, like, like I said, the applesauce GoGo squeezes, or even the honey packets or honey sticks, those are all great options. Okay, what do athletes need to know about creatine? You guys have probably heard me say this if you've been following me for a while. You've probably heard me say this a lot, but if you are not eating 3 meals a day and maybe 2 snacks a day, if you're not focused in on your micronutrients— so say that you're the person eating 5 to 6 protein bars a day— I would first say get dialed in on your nutrition. Every single meal needs to have a healthy source of carbs, so like rice or quinoa or potatoes, a healthy source of protein some type of meat, a healthy source of fat, whether you cook your meat in some fat, some avocado on the side. And then you want— technically fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates, but I always put them in their own category— and then you want at least one fruit and one vegetable. If your plates don't look like that fairly often, I personally don't think you should be looking into creatine, just because like the amount of progress you're going to see by eating enough food and eating the right types of food far outweighs the benefits creatine will do for you, or it will have for you. That being said, creatine is freaking awesome. Creatine is so well studied. It is very effective, and it's very low risk. It's very safe. Um, a lot of people ask me like what age you should be having creatine around. Adolescence, it hasn't been studied a ton, so my personal opinion is wait till after puberty. Once you've hit puberty, it's probably a great time to start having creatine, make sure you're drinking fluids with it. But what you need to know about creatine is it's one of the supplements that actually work. Most of supplement companies, they're not regulated by the FDA, okay? So a lot of these supplements that people are trying to market and sell to you guys, if they seem too good to be true, they probably are. And but creatine, creatine does its job. Just a regular good old creatine monohydrate, 3 to 5 grams per day, um, it's going to help you gain more muscle, it's going to help you go harder and longer in the gym. Like if you're a sprinter, it'll help you maintain your top speed just a little bit more. It's, it's kind of like a little power boost in a video game. It's, it's really great, um, for the benefits it has, but you always got to make sure that you're squared away on your nutrition before you even look into the supplement world, because it's really not going to make that big of a difference if you're not doing your nutrition first. Okay, stepping off my soapbox of that one, let's go to the next question. How does sleep impact my performance? Okay, so sleep, I won't get too in the science with it today, but There's been studies done, um, I need to— I'd have to— I can link them here. I'd have to go back and find them, but they're pretty reputable studies, and they've seen that athletes who are getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night for a span of 14 days in a row have like a 50% higher chance of getting injured. 50% chance just by— because they can't go to bed on time. That's insane. And that's 7 hours, guys. 7 hours is not very much time. Like, sleep of champions, in my opinion, is 8 to 9 hours a night, sometimes even 10 if you're really working your body. Sleep is basically like— you would never forget to plug your phone in at night because it recharges it so you can use it the next day. Going to sleep is basically like plugging in your body at night. Like, your body needs a restorative period. It needs to rest. It needs to recover. There's, there's hormones that are released in your body when you're sleeping that allow your, your body to repair itself and to heal itself, especially if you're really like in the middle of a very intense season or lifting really hard, which all of you athletes are like, you never stop. So sleep needs to be prioritized. Um, a lot of times that's gonna have to be time management stuff cuz you guys are busy and you're gone from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and then you got homework. So a lot of it has to be like, manage your time wisely. And I know that kind of sucks as a teenager, but, but the ones who are managing their time wisely are the ones who are also succeeding. At the next level when they get to the college level as well. 'Cause it's, you're not gonna get any less busy there. It's gonna get even busier. So sleep's super important. Um, it'll reduce your risk for injury. It'll help you gain your muscle. It'll help you improve your training and your performance. Don't sleep on sleep. If you're having a hard time getting to sleep, here's some tips. Number one, and you're gonna hate this one, put your phone away at least 30 minutes to 60 minutes before bed. The blue light. From your phone basically just leaves your brain super active and it makes it hard to shut your brain down. The second one is turn off the overhead lights in the room. These all come from Andrew, Dr. Andrew Huberman. Um, he's awesome. He has a podcast as well, solely on sleep. So you could go look that up and hear all of these. Um, but he, he recommends like the overhead lights, turning them off and like turning on some lamps or some lights on the, on the floor. Some night lights can be a great option. The third thing is just allowing yourself to unwind for 30 minutes. So that could be an awesome time for you guys to get your stretching in. Um, probably a lot of you aren't rolling out and stretching maybe as much as you want to be, so that could be a great time to do that. Reading a book, maybe listening to some calming music just to get your brain in the state of like, okay, it's time for sleep. Making small routines like that can be really great. And then one more thing is studies have shown that like, um, eating some carbohydrates before bed can also help you. Have a deeper sleep at night. Um, most, most of my athletes are all eating a very carb-heavy dinner, so that shouldn't be a problem for you guys. All right, um, what's the best way to grow muscle as an athlete? Number one, you've got to be training, and you've got to be doing the right kind of training. What I mean by that, if you are not strength training, it'll be pretty much impossible to gain muscle. Okay, but as an athlete, you guys want to grow the right types of muscle. I kind of— this is very like simple terms to put it in— I call it explosive muscle versus empty muscle. All the bodybuilders out there, they're freaking jacked. Doesn't mean it will necessarily convert to them being able to go and, you know, up against a linebacker. The linebacker, he's also jacked, but he's got explosive muscle. He has power. He's trained his muscles to be like that, where the bodybuilders just care about having big muscles. You athletes need to care about, yeah, having decent size muscles, but also converting it into power and force. And so you have to get on a really good training program to do that. One that focus on, focuses on hypertrophy work, plyometrics, speed, all of those things so that you're gaining the right type of muscle. So number one is have the right training. Number two, You gotta eat the right foods, specifically protein. Um, a lot of people don't even know how much protein they need to be having. Here's what you could do: take your weight, convert it into kilograms. So your weight, say it's 160, divide that by 2.2, that gives you your weight in kilograms. And then you're going— you need, if you're trying to gain muscle, you're probably wanting to like multiply it by 1.7, even 1.8. So take that weight you have in kilograms and multiply it by 1.7 or 1.8, and that should tell you about the, um, amount of protein that you need every single day. It should be a little bit shy of 1 gram per pound of body weight. You probably don't need that much, especially as an athlete, because this is another myth. Protein's really important, but protein's not the only important thing. If you're eating enough protein but not eating enough food in general, you're never gonna be able to gain the weight. So make sure you're eating enough protein, but that you're also eating enough food for your activity level and that you're not burning more calories than you're consuming. Okay, number 3, I just talked about it, but sleep. It's gonna be really hard to gain muscle if you're not sleeping well and if you're not getting that restorative time for your body. So get your sleep in. I don't need to go over that again, you guys already heard that. Should female athletes also lift heavy weights and eat more? Absolutely, dude. Like, female athletes, it's, it's really hard, I should just say, to get bulky. It's possible to get bulky, um, but I hear a lot of athletes, especially females, say like I don't want to gain too much muscle. I don't want to get bulky. Man, there's a bunch of 22-year-old guys out there trying to get bulky and doing everything possible to get bulky, and it is very hard for them to bulk up. So I promise you, as a 17-year-old girl, it's going to be a little bit hard for you to get bulky. Not impossible. If you really wanted to make it happen, it could. However, lifting heavy weights with your trainer— make sure like you're not doing anything crazy or getting hurt or anything. Don't be afraid of the heavy weights. It's freaking bad, eh, to move around heavy weights, and it's going to help you perform really well if you're moving them in the right way. And then eating enough food— I promise you, you're going to look and feel better than you ever have before if you're eating the proper amounts of food that your body needs. 99% of my female athletes, when we— they start working with me, they're undereating. And not that— not because like they're meaning to, just because you guys are busy and it's hard to— hard hard to get it in. And so sometimes like your body, you go, go, go, and you maybe only eat 1 to 2 meals a day with like one small snack and, and it's just not enough. Okay? Like you're putting your body at risk for injury. You're not going to be seeing the results that you wanna be seeing. Food is magic when it comes to eating enough and seeing the performance that your body gives you when it has enough fuel in it. So, um, I hope I've convinced you guys to give it a shot and just start with like, eating 3 meals a day and then add 2 snacks in there. And then once you're there and you're like, wow, I feel like I can still eat more, you can add even more food to those meals. Your body will adapt. It's pretty freaking cool. What causes bloating and how can I fix it? It's kind of a loaded question. There's a lot of things that can cause bloating. Um, for one, if you are maybe not lactose intolerant but sensitive to lactose or milk that can definitely cause bloating. I've seen people be sensitive to, um, artificial sweeteners. So if you're eating a lot of things with like zero sugar, there's still artificial sweeteners in there, and that can sometimes cause bloating and some gut issues. Um, there's been— with the bloating too, sometimes— and I don't want you guys to be scared of this— sometimes certain vegetables, for instance, for me, cauliflower, it causes a little bloating. Um, TMI, but it causes a little gas too. And it— some vegetables just don't sit well, as well as others. And so it's totally okay to like tweak it, maybe look back and say like, wow, I feel really bloated today, what did I eat? Oh, I ate cauliflower, weird. I'm gonna try it again tomorrow and see if the same thing happens. And if the same thing is happening the next day, then all of a sudden you know, okay, cauliflower doesn't really work for me, let's try broccoli next time. And you kind of just learn your body. So that would be probably my biggest piece of advice when it comes to figuring out bloating. Um, check your artificial sweeteners, make sure you're not sensitive to like gluten or lactose, and then just kind of be your own little detective when it comes to figuring it out. Also, I should say that like drinking adequate amounts of water, at least half of your weight in ounces a day, is what you want to be going for. So if you're like 160 pounds, you need like 80 ounces at least, and that can help with bloating a lot too. So that's a really good question. I have to eat 150 grams of protein a day. It's hard for me to get that much in. Any advice? I've paid attention a lot to how much protein I get, and I usually go between like 130 to 150 every single day. There's a time when I got pregnant with my, with my little boy where I couldn't eat more than 20 grams a day, and I kind of got out of the habit of it, and this last winter, I was struggling getting enough protein in. It was really hard for me. And I'm like, this used to be a piece of cake. Like, what, what's going on? My body just doesn't want this. I don't feel like protein. And then I was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna add kind of one small thing every day and build my way up to the 140 that I used to be. That's what I did. So I started, I'm like, okay, I might only be at 100 grams a day right now, but that's all I can really take. And then the next week I was like, okay, I'm gonna add a beef stick in. And then, oh, let me add maybe like a shake in, and then some Greek sugar in, and then all of a sudden I was at 140, no problem. So if you give yourself time to just build up to that amount, that's great. So some recommendations that I would have as far as protein sources— obviously meat is going to be super easy, like adding some cooked chicken, just even 2 ounces of cooked chicken, like not that much, is going to give you 10 extra grams of protein. That's a very easy way to bulk it up. Another option is using egg whites. Um, so say that you're making pancakes or something, I always like to sneak them in sneak extra protein in by using egg whites or something of that sort. Another option is like, it's okay to have a protein shake a day. And so I really like using Fairlife Choco Milk, and then it tastes like a milkshake, guys. You should try this. Fairlife Choco Milk, Clean Simple Eats protein— and no, they're not sponsoring this or anything, I just really like how it tastes— um, Clean Simple Eats protein, any flavor. I like the mint chocolate. Um, and then like you put some— you could put like some almond butter in there and maybe a banana, and then you You blend it up and with some ice and it's so freaking good and it's like 45 grams of protein. So there's a lot of different ways, creative ways. A lot of people on Instagram who have fun ways to get protein in. It, it, it shouldn't be too hard if you kind of just build your body up to it. What's the difference between training like an athlete versus training like a bodybuilder? We've kind of talked about this one already. An athlete trains for performance. A bodybuilder trains for the muscles. Neither is bad or anything, um, it just depends on what your goals are. If you're an athlete, if you're a basketball player, football player, volleyball player, soccer, whatever that might be, you need to be explosive. Yes, you need to be strong, but you also need to be fast. If you're not fast, then you probably won't get recruited to go anywhere. Um, you need to have power. So mass times force equals power. So if you can move heavy objects, and if you're super strong and have a decent amount of muscle, and then you can go do that quickly, that's going to give you power. And so when I had the opportunity to coach, um, at this, this facility called Hanson Athletics, when I was coaching under— his name is Coach Darren Hanson, he's super good at what he does— he was always coaching these kids to move the weight as fast as possible. So not necessarily like if you're moving a weight slow, it's not gonna help you, but you need to be able to move the weight fast. So for instance, if you're squatting down, you don't have to squat down fast cuz that could get you hurt, but you squat down and then you explode up. Same thing with the bench press. You come down a little slower and then you explode up. You wanna be explosive. You wanna train your muscles to be explosive. And so if you are not moving your muscles pretty fast in the gym at times, it's gonna be really hard to have them move pretty fast on the field, even if they're big. So that the biggest difference is bodybuilders are purely training to get big. Athletes are training for muscle mass and for power. All right, um, how do I time my meals around school and training? I should— let me go back one more. I have people asking me like, oh, can you write me a training program? I need one. I, I don't know, like, this is just a shameless plug right here. Like, I don't have I'm not with them anymore, but Hanson Athletics, specifically Coach Hanson, Darren Hanson, very good at what he does. He coaches remote. If you need to coach, go to him. I don't work in this side of things anymore with the training. I'm purely with the nutrition. And so it'd be really beneficial to go find someone like him or even him if you want to get a really good trainer who's remote and gives you an app and allows coaching around that too. Okay, worth the time. How do I time my meals around school and training? This can be tricky, I get it. Um, this, this is sometimes a big challenge for, for kids and for even adults at times who aren't even training, they just have work. When it comes to timing them, you just gotta plan ahead. So some few tips— I actually talked to my, my coaching cohort yesterday about this— two tips that we talked about. Number one is you can stock your snacks. And so what I I mean by that is think of a time, like if you need your afternoon snack before a game or before practice, what time are you going to usually be eating that? Where— what are you going to have with you when you usually are going to be eating that? Are you gonna have your backpack, your gym bag? You're gonna be at your gym locker around that time, or your school locker, maybe your car. And then buy, like, pick a couple carb-heavy snacks like we talked about earlier in this episode, and you can literally buy the whole box and put it in there. And so boom, like, you never have to think about it. Like, you know that, oh, in my gym locker I have a snack, I'm gonna eat that before practice. Boom, okay, taken care of. Another thing is prepping your breakfast ahead of time. And this is kind of lame to some people of like, I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna take the time. And then I say, okay, just be like any normal average Joe and don't get good results. It's kind of harsh, but kind of true too. You gotta prep ahead of time. And so for breakfast, like all these kids are saying, I just don't have time. I sleep in. I, I just wake up. I just can't grab my breakfast. I'm like, take 15 minutes on a Saturday and get a plastic cup with the lid on it. Throw some Greek yogurt in there, some berries in there, maybe a little protein powder and mix it up. And then a bunch of granola and maybe some honey and nuts. And you got your breakfast. Like do 5 of those and it's, if you don't have time to roll outta bed, grab that and eat that in the car on the way to school, then I'm sorry. Like I don't know how to help you. Okay. That's, that's one thing I would do. You could do the same thing with lunches, same thing with dinners. Just make it work. But I would start with like just 2 things that you wanna get better at. Um, and just plan ahead. If you leave it to chance, it's going to be nearly impossible to ever hit your goals. Next question is, what should my nutrition look like when I'm injured? There is a lot of BMR calculators online. Let me just give you a little rundown on what BMR means. Basal metabolic rate means the calories you burn when you're literally sitting there doing nothing. So if I sat here like this all day long, my body would still burn calories. My BMR is right around 1400. Maybe 1,500, which means my body sitting here all day long just on my butt staring at a blank wall is going to burn 1,400 calories. My heart takes calories to pump, my brain takes calories to function, my eyes take calories to blink. Like, and then on top of that, where whether you're walking around or doing PT, or if you're not injured and you're just practicing and training like normal On top of your BMR, you also burn calories at practices and, and just in general throughout the day. So when you are injured, number one, it depends on what injury. If you're injured and I ha— like are just sitting around all day, ACL tear, and you can't get around, you're probably gonna wanna be eating a little bit above your BMR because your, your body needs extra calories. I would say 500 calories, 400 to 500 calories above your BMR cuz your body needs extra calories to repair this injury that it's fighting against and trying to heal. Um, if you are kind of on the tail end of an injury and going to PT and stuff like that, I would say it's, it's hard to say, but I would say at least 600 to 1,000 calories above your BMR, um, is what you could shoot for. And then if you're gaining weight or if you're losing weight, then you just kind of play around with it and add calories where needed or take away calories where it's needed. Um, ultimately just just lock in on the performance plates that I mentioned earlier, like eating 3 meals a day with a healthy source of carbs, healthy source of fats, healthy source of protein, and then a fruit and a vegetable. Um, and then a couple snacks a day. You shouldn't, you're not gonna go wrong at all. You'll use it. That's a great question. Whoever asked that question, I hope your injury goes well, or your injury recovery goes well. Injuries suck. How do I fuel for a tournament? A lot of you have probably heard of the 4-2-1-0-1 that we've talked about. It's a game day fueling strategy. You can also use it for practice. I'll just explain it really fast. If any of you haven't heard of it, I actually don't know if we've come out with a podcast of this yet, so we can do that soon and break it down in detail for you guys. But, but just a brief overview is 4 hours out. From your game time or your practice time, you wanna be having a full meal. Um, the, the performance plate that I just talked about. 2 hours out, you want to be having a carb-heavy snack. We talked about that earlier, very early into this, um, in this podcast. 1 hour out, you wanna be having a good source of electrolytes. So like Dr. Andy Galpin talks about before exercise, having about 500 milligrams of sodium before and then before your workout, and then 500 milligrams after. Um, I, I always have my athletes have about that, and then during It's going to depend on, you know, the activity you're doing. Is it indoors, outdoor? What's your sweat rate like, etc.? Going back, I got off on a tangent. 4 hours out, full meal. 2 hours out, carb-heavy snack. 1 hour out, electrolytes, um, specifically sodium in this case. So, you know, like a Liquid IV would be a great option with about 12 to 16 ounces of fluids. And then zero is during the game, during, um, the tournament. Zero is like every single hour you need roughly 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates. Now that's for like a one standalone game. If you have a tournament, most tournaments start early. Most of the time you're starting at like 7 or 8 AM. I'm never going to tell you to get up at 3 or 4 AM to practice or to start eating your full meal. I would just say to, um, number one, have a really good meal the night before. Make sure it's that performance plate, great source of carbs, lots of carbs, good fluids. And then you, when you wake up, say most of you should be up about 2 hours before your first game. Just even if it's an hour and a half before your first game, have that carb-heavy snack. And then in the 1-hour section when you're doing your electrolytes, I'd probably have an extra snack like a granola bar or something to kind of top you off. And then during the tournament, tournament day, I always tell my athletes to use the 1-to-1 rule, which is for every minute you have in between your game, you want to equal the amount of carbs you're going to consume. So if you have 30 minutes in between your basketball games at a tournament, and you want about 30 grams of carbs, which is literally like an apple— if you've got an hour, then you want about 60 grams of carbs. And then I say if you have more than an hour and a half is when you can start sprinkling in some protein there just to help your recovery and your muscles and stuff like that. That's when you can like add a beef stick in there with your carbohydrates. And then if it's 2 hours out, then just have like a sandwich, a full meal kind of thing. Hopefully that helps with your tournaments. That's a great way to get started. How do I know if I'm overtraining? There is something formally called the female athlete triad, but now it's called RED syndrome. It's when athletes are over— are not necessarily overtraining, but underfueling. It's really hard to overtrain unless you are A, not eating enough food, or B, not giving yourself adequate recovery, which food plays into that. Food helps with recovery. If you are constantly getting stress fractures, if you are constantly get— being sore or have super bad energy throughout the day and don't feel like you're ever rejuvenated, you're probably under-recovering and under-fueling, which then makes it so you're overtraining. If you increase your food intake and you make sure you're focusing on your sleep and your recovery, then you're going to feel a lot better. You're going to get better sleep. You're going to be able to have higher amounts of energy, and you'll be able to actually train harder than what you were able to do before. So a lot of you— I don't think a lot of you are overtraining. I think most of you are just under-recovering, and food plays a big part of that. Okay, so we're gonna do 3 more questions in this episode. This has been really fun. We're gonna have to do more of these. This is awesome, um, being able to to answer these questions. Um, okay, this one says, are macronutrients or micronutrients more important for athletes? Little lesson for you guys. Macronutrients— macro means big, which means you need them in big amounts. Micro means small, which means you need them in smaller amounts. Macros are made up of fats, carbs, and protein. Macronutrients, AKA macros, equal fats, carbs, and protein. Those all have specific amount of calories that they add up to. Which give you your overall calories for the day. So when someone says, "I'm tracking calories," they're basically tracking fats, carbs, and protein without knowing it. When someone says they're tracking macros, they're tracking their calories but just more dialed in, which is going to give them better results because they're getting adequate amounts of protein and stuff. Um, micronutrients are your vitamins and your minerals, so, which is very important too. If I had to choose between the two I would say macronutrients all the way first. If I just had someone taking pills to get their micronutrients in and they weren't focusing on their macronutrients and weren't eating anything, they'd wither away. Like, you can't do that. But if you're focusing on your macronutrients and getting good sources of food, um, like the whole foods— meats, fruits, vegetables, potatoes, grains— you're naturally going to get most of the micronutrients you actually need. So if you're focusing on macronutrients, just getting good sources of carbs, fats, and protein in, and having those be whole foods, that's going to get you so much farther than just like being super anal over here with your micronutrients. Okay, last two questions combined. I mean, talk about myself a little bit. I get questions all the time with people asking like, okay, what sport did you play and how did you get into what you're doing? Um, so kind of question number one is I played basketball. I'm a basketball girl. I'm a hooper. It was so fun. I played at Colorado Mesa University. Um, it was a great time. I had— I'm very religious, and I decided to go serve a mission for my church, and I lived in Brazil for a time, which was so fun, so fun to live in a new culture and to, you know, meet new people and talk about God. I loved it. Um, when I came home, I started dating and, um, got married to my husband now, and he, he and I decided Well, I decided that I'd kind of hang up the jersey and not play anymore, which was really hard at the time because I didn't know that the last game, my last game would be my last game. And all of you probably can relate to that. Like, I poured so much time and so much effort into that sport. And I'm like, man, that sucks. It's kind of just like a page got ripped out of my book. So, and it just like, it never felt like I had closure, as funny as that might sound. Then my relationship with basketball was big. We spent a lot of time together. So I started going to school at another university. In Idaho, and I started studying exercise physiology, and I loved it. I love the body. I loved, um, performance-based stuff. It was just so cool to learn about. And I also loved nutrition. And so I studied exercise physiology and nutrition in college. And during that time, I was like, you know what, like, I'm pretty good at this stuff. I, I'm gonna just start, you know, a little weight loss coaching business. And so I started I was working with men and women and people would hire me and I'd put programs together for them. I'd help them with their macronutrients, like tracking their macros and started seeing cool results. I did that for a few years and it was fun. I liked it. But there was also kind of just like that longing to be back in the sports world. 'Cause like I said, I had just kind of been ripped myself away from it without having closure. And I remember telling my husband, I'm like, "Man, in another life I would've done this." And he is like, are you kidding me? Like, we're, we are in our very early 20s at the time. And I think 23. And he's like, you're 23, what are you talking about? And I'm like, yeah, you're right. And so long story short, started working at an athletic performance center. I was the head nutritionist there. Got some awesome results with all these kids. I started my Instagram and just have been educating myself and working with kids, getting awesome results, launched Next Level Athletes. And here I am. So it's been a long journey, but it was really cool because I feel like it came full circle with my basketball, my basketball moment, even though like I don't actually play, I kind of live vicariously through my athletes now and through all these athletes who are running for Notre Dame or Houston or going to UCLA, like all these incredible athletes. I, I, I just get so much joy working with them. So thanks for asking that question for whoever did. That was really fun to answer. So thank you for being here. On this podcast today. I appreciate you guys being here. I appreciate all your support. Please continue to ask questions. Let's, let's blow this. Let's blow the, the knowledge of nutrition and, um, especially sports nutrition and athletes and food is fuel. Let's blow it up. Let's, let's make it so you guys are seeing the results that you deserve. Thanks for being here. See ya.