Women Nutrition component of coaching

[my4buffaloes]

It does begin and end with the parents. I see parents at our gym buying the gymnast snacks from the snack machine, along with a sugary drink before and after practice. Many kids eat pure crap and are often begging for more junk after practice. I hear them ask where they are going out to eat after practice, walking in with McDonalds, etc. And really the parents are in control, for the most part, of the types of foods their kids eat. BUT parents think they don't have control so they let the kids make the rules.

 

[JBS]

It does begin and end with the parents. I see parents at our gym buying the gymnast snacks from the snack machine, along with a sugary drink before and after practice. Many kids eat pure crap and are often begging for more junk after practice. I hear them ask where they are going out to eat after practice, walking in with McDonalds, etc. And really the parents are in control, for the most part, of the types of foods their kids eat. BUT parents think they don't have control so they let the kids make the rules.

Just have to triple "like" this post. That's what I'm saying...parents need to help the coaches out and implement a nutrition education program for their gym. Super important...and it CAN be done the right way. Very hard for us coaches to do it though.

 

[sce]

So, blanket statements upset me, every kid is different.

Yes, this.

 

[JBS]

By the way...love this thread...helping me learn a lot as a coach of many and a parent of 3.

 

[sce]

...I was always starving.

I think this is a specific issue many of our kiss have. They are lean and burn a lot of calories. They need food to fill them up and fuel them. High calories are not necessarily the enemy, they just need to pack nutrients too.

 

[JBS]

I think this is a specific issue many of our kiss have. They are lean and burn a lot of calories. They need food to fill them up and fuel them. High calories are not necessarily the enemy, they just need to pack nutrients too.

Yes...I needed to eat often also...very often.

 

[my4buffaloes]

Also, the gym can model good behavior. I love seeing our coaches eating an orange on break and cringe when I see them buying a mountain dew from the vending machine. Speaking of vending machines - there are healthier alternatives than M&M's and cheetos. Limit how much junk your gym sells and that is a start.

 

[JessSyd]

I would take a very dim view of a coach giving my daughter dietary advice. She is underweight, struggles to get enough calories, and is under the care of a qualified dietician. The last thing she needs is conflicting or confusing advice coming from somebody whose opinion she highly respects but who is less qualified to provide this type of advice.

I do not mind a general message about making healthy choices and cannot see much harm in suggesting limiting the intake of refined sugars, but I think specific or in depth advice should be avoided.

I think coaches need to be very careful what they say to young gymnasts when they do not have access to all the facts. These girls have been told repeatedly to trust their coaches. They are almost conditioned to listen and obey with blind faith and to always dig deep and find 10% more. It could create problems and lead to disordered eating if they are getting even very general messages from their coaches about, say, fat intake, that they overinterpret leading to behaviours that are the opposite of what their young bodies actually need.

I agree that girls training very high hours may have needs that exceed their parents knowledge and may need specific advice. I just think this advice should be individualised and come from a trained professional.

 

[leotardmakermum]

We have been working with sports dieticians over many years to help my gymnast get all the nutrients she needs to train the number of hours she does, whilst also avoiding the foods she's allergic to and intolerant of. She's always been SO HUNGRY (me too, actually). I had always just assumed that this was because being allergic to dairy, she was missing out on the easy protein and fats that full fat dairy provides.

However, earlier this year after we saw the documentary, "That Sugar Film", I cut most of the added sugar from my diet. The only added sugar I generally have now is a very small amount that is put into our home-made muesli. So I'd be easily down to just 1 teaspoon or less of added sugar per day.

There have been *many* benefits to me doing this, but one MAJOR one is that I no longer feel hungry all the time. I have realised that I wasn't in fact hungry - I was craving sugar. In addition to feeling hungry all the time, I'd wake at 4 something am, because my body was needing sugar. Now, I wake between about 5:30 and 6am, which I consider to be much more reasonable.

I explained this change in me to my daughter, and said that I would like her to stop eating the soy yoghurt that she'd been having, and that I wasn't going to buy it anymore. While it gave her protein, it was also giving her a huge dumping of sugar (her main source of sugar). She readily agreed.

She admitted to me just the other day that she no longer feels hungry all the time.

Nutrition has played an important part in keeping my daughter in the sport. Without making some large changes in her diet, she would have given it up many years ago, due to constant stomach aches. She now has a very good understanding of what fuels her well, what is a sometimes food, and what she should never have (because of the effect it has on her own body). She is well educated about what makes her body work well. Some of this came from gym education, but for her, most of it came from external sources such as sports nutritionists and doctors that we have consulted for her.

 

[l.c.o]

It does begin and end with the parents. I see parents at our gym buying the gymnast snacks from the snack machine...

Yes.

After posting earlier, I thought about it some. I insist on healthy eating. My kids have fruit with breakfast, and at least two fruits/vegs with each lunch and dinner.

After dinner, my kids can choose a snack if they've eaten their entire dinner and they're still hungry. If they ask for another snack afterwards, they must first eat something "healthy"... Fruit, vegetable, yogurt, etc, I'm not picky and they can choose. If they're still hungry, they can have their choice of snack... And repeat.

Not all parents care. I'm always surprised when the kids eat at a friends' house and I get reports that they ate pizza for dinner, popcorn, and candy, and that's all. Now, the occasional 'bad' day does happen, but I always feel like it's offset.

In regards to the vending machines, first, why ARE they stocked with junk?! And second, I'd hate to think that coach happens to notice my kid got a crappy snack on the odd day I let him/her and assumes their whole diet is bad, because it's not really the case. I totally get that sometimes it is, but I guess my point is it's hard to make assumptions either way. You can't assume they eat well because they had an apple at break, and you can't assume that they eat crappily because they got fruit snacks out of the vending machine. Maybe those fruit snacks were accounted for in the grand scheme of their diet. Then again, maybe mom and dad don't care and they just shut Timmy up and it's easier.

 

[l.c.o]

I have a son that is allergic to peanuts. I am allergic to tree nuts. There are many individual concerns...

My son knows that peanuts are a great fuel for the body...that's why many people eat them...he also knows that he could die if he eats them.

This is important.

I have several food allergies (why I got into nutrition/label-reading). Peanuts are the beginning for me. But this is just one reason why those blanket statements are potentially scary. What if the kid really doesn't understand his/her allergies, but wants to eat peanuts because coach said they're healthy and how bad could it really be? Mom is sooo lame.

As a person who ate peanut-butter for better than half of her childhood before developing her allergy, I probably would have loved any reason to try it just one more time in case maybe it was really ok.

Maybe I exaggerate some there, as I'd really hope it would be well-explained to the child, but you never know.

As an aside, our home is completely peanut-free due to the severity of my allergy. As I'm sure you well know, many tree nuts are also processed with peanut oils. Anyway, you may very well be aware, but there are a lot of certified web sites that sell nuts without cross-contamination with other varieties, which without, my kids would not be able to eat tree nuts... A major staple in their diets. Thought I'd mention on the off chance that you haven't researched.

 

[raenndrops]

Yes...the "Physics of Food!"

And I am the gymnast that took McDonald's cheeseburgers to the meets in my gym bag! These classes could have helped me learn a bit...but I would have still ate those cheeseburgers...I was always starving.

My YG does better on vault if she has a certain fast food breakfast item before competing

 

[raenndrops]

My normal order from McDonald's when I was around 14 or 15 was "a #1 (big mac & fries) super sized with a vanilla shake...a double quarter pounder with cheese...a filet-o-fish...and 2 cherry pies (which they don't have anymore).

I really needed to learn about food back then.

@Deleted member 18037 is totally right!

Oh my... i always felt bad for getting 2 cheeseburgers and a small fry and a small vanilla shake - of course, I couldn't even eat all of that in one sitting.

 

[sce]

Oh my... i always felt bad for getting 2 cheeseburgers and a small fry and a small vanilla shake - of course, I couldn't even eat all of that in one sitting.

I never eat at McDonalds anymore but this thread has made me really want a cheeseburger.

 

[Seeker]

I'm curious if this is just us, based on some of the posts here, so I will just ask. I can't think of any subject dealing with life, health, or their bodies that my kids wouldn't listen to me over other people in their lives. My kids even look to me after dr appts to confirm things the dr told them. Do most kids tune parents out on other things, or only if you're standing between them and the good (read bad, lol) snacks? When I had an issue with a coach telling the girls what to eat, I only heard about it because my DD came out of practice and immediately told me that coach x told the girls bad info about what is healthy for them- she obviously based this off what I told her previously.

My dd believes me over anyone else. She's a tween, so maybe that will change someday, but I really can't see it changing much. I am well educated (about this particular topic especially) and we have always discussed things as if she is an equal partner in the food choices. I have tried hard to teach her the right things, not to pay attention to fads or crap you hear on T.V.

I have celiac and multiple food allergies and she is always starving (seriously, she needs at least 3,000 calories a day -- eating is a job for her), so this has skewed our discussions since she was young -- food has been a very discussed topic! She knows she can't eat junk food because she will wilt like a flower. Been there, done that, lesson learned. The girl needs balanced, home cooked meals and that is what she gets the majority of the time. She was so angry when her 3rd grade science class covered nutrition. She willingly got one wrong on her test because she felt that none of options for the answers were right. She wrote an essay answer to a multiple choice question at 8 yrs old because she believed what I taught her. I hope it gives her the idea/strength/notion to not believe everything she reads and to research things herself.

Our booster club did bring in a nutritionist which was somewhat helpful, I guess. It shows the girls that it is an important topic, but she told them Gatorade was fine to drink (I do not allow it) and 75% of the 'suggestions' for snacks were things that I would never feed my daughter (processed bars, etc) and she wouldn't eat. She told me after the meeting "protein bars taste like chemicals"! We do our own thing...it is based on experience and solid research and works for us.

 

[Gymbee06]

Why are there even these junk food vending machines in your gyms? We just would never put one in our gym over here

 

[B.Gold]

I explained this change in me to my daughter, and said that I would like her to stop eating the soy yoghurt that she'd been having, and that I wasn't going to buy it anymore. While it gave her protein, it was also giving her a huge dumping of sugar (her main source of sugar). She readily agreed.

My dd eats a large amounts of Yoplait yogurt. I have tried to switch her to a Greek yogurt, with less sugar, but she has dug her heels in. It's really her only source of sugar. She loves her yogurt, and has at least three a day, but it seems so processed. I don't want her to give up all the benefits of the yogurt, any suggestions for a palatable better choice?

 

[munchkin3]

Touchy subject......moderation, eat anything, as long as it is NOT processed, several smaller meals if possible....

My husband and work full time. But I manage to still make as much food from scratch as I can. If the kids want cookies occasionally, I make them.
If we have a birthday, I make the cake....the way my mom did.
I make soup from real chicken, (with no hormones)....
Eggs, milk, and produce.....yes, I try to go organic on some because of the pesticides and HORMONES in a lot of our food.....

I did not grow up in the U.S. It amazes me how much CRAP is in our food.....I travel abroad, eat twice as much, and loose weight.....My kids understand that the food industry in this country is super messed up. As a result I am trying to teach them to navigate it....
Kids in the U.S. are going into puberty earlier and earlier......eating less, and feeling larger. No wonder there are so many eating issues here.....
Any who......make it if you can......McDonald's and candy is NOT a treat....(fresh baked homemade bread is, or ice cream)
Fast food is an emergency or it is a last resort but you can still make a decent choice, like a baked potato and chocolate milk....
But I do take umbrage with the fact that the vending machine at the gym is filled with crap! Why? Why?!!?!

 

[munchkin3]

PS.....I don't want anyone telling my kids HOW to eat.....unless it's my grandma.

 

[chalkbowl]

Loving this thread as this subject has been brought up at our gym recently. Our parents usually get some guidance from coaches on what we suggest as far as snack is concerned as well as what we allow the athletes to bring to snack on during meets. Other than that I just mention that the girls should be eating healthy to keep their bodies healthy. We never talk about eating less or restricting calories, I don't feel that's necessary for most growing kids.

That being said, all calories are not created equal. If you eat 100 calories worth of cupcakes or 100 calories worth of carrots, those two foods are going to be processed in your body in completely different ways. An athlete who eats a few hundred calories of sugar before coming in to the gym is not going to have nearly the same energy as the athlete who eats a well balanced meal before coming in to the gym.

I'm currently in the process of trying to get our junk food machine out of the gym and a healthy vending machine put in, crossing my fingers!