Becoming the Master of Your Own Kitchen

You are what you eat. You’ve heard that saying before, but do you really understand the truth behind this? Each day your body turns over 50-70 billion cells, the lining of your small intestine is renewed every week, your skin is replaced every 30 days and your red blood cells every 4 months. Where do you think your body is getting all these materials? FOOD! Acknowledging that the food we put into our body on a daily basis has an effect on what our body becomes in the future, puts in perspective how we should feed our body. We must be conscious of everything we put into our body if our main goal is to reach our full athletic potential. This includes being aware of every ingredient in the food we are consuming. Food bought and made by someone else has the potential to be detrimental to your athletic performance. The only true way of making sure the food we eat is benefiting our athletic performance is to cook the food yourself. I know cooking can seem like a daunting task. So many measurements and knobs on the oven how does anyone do it. If you want to ensure your success as an athlete you will make learning how to cook priority #1. The food you are putting into your body is just as important as your training regimen.

Step #1 is to ask a member of your family who is well versed in the art of cooking how to work the stove top, as this will be the main tool used to cook your food.

Step #2 is to live by the “5 S’s” for easy cooking. Soups, Salads, Sandwiches, Smoothies, and Stirfrys. The biggest thing is to experiment and see what you like. Here are some recipes I enjoy, and also provide high protein content.

Easy High Protein Examples for Each of the 5 S’s

Soup- Amy’s Lentil soup (with a side of toasted Ezekiel Bread with ½ avocado)

Salad– LARGE bowl of Mixed ORGANIC greens with 1 can beans or Wild Caught Salmon (or both) either mixed in or on the side (cooked with coconut oil on stovetop), tomatoes, cucumbers, raw nuts and seeds, optional fruit like berries or apples.

Options for dressing for salad: 1 avocado mixed in a bowl with pinch of sea salt, ¼ red onion, optional balsamic vinegar. Hummus (look for hummus without canola oil). olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Any dressings from Annie’s, Organicville, or Braggs.

Sandwich– The only bread that I give my stamp of approval to is Ezekiel Bread. It has the best ingredients of any bread on the market and you are getting 4 grams of quality protein in each slice. You can pretty much do any sandwich you like as long as you avoid deli meats, fried foods, and stick to organic free range meats and wild caught fish.

Smoothie– You can’t go wrong with healthy smoothies! They are by far the quickest, easiest and most efficient way to get high quality nutrients into your body. Smoothies should be a staple in your diet and can pretty much be fit in at any meal. I like them for breakfast, pre workouts, post workouts and even sometimes for dessert.