Athlete. Coach. Parent. Great resources for fueling your athletes for competition, practice or workouts.
Thanks for visiting SSPs Nutrition Product page. If you are a coach interested in ordering the FUEL book for your team or a group of people we strongly encourage you to order the hard copy. The hard copy is a 9 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ book that fits easily into any sports bag for easy referencing during any training, practice or competition.
The SSP Fuel Book provides the 5 Fuel components to improving performance, examples of how to Fuel for competitions and answers to common nutrition hurdles.
$16.99 - Hard Copy.
Advantages to the Hard Copy…
- Easy to travel with
- Great for reading and referencing while on the road
- Great to give teams
What is FUEL Timing
Fuel timing is the key to success when it comes to adjusting meals and snacks around intense training. Eating a breakfast, lunch and dinner with smaller meals in between is going to be the easiest way to maintain proper blood sugar levels, and keep binge eating to a minimum. Therefore, the amount of calories you consume during one sitting, versus spreading them over several hours can have a substantial impact on how your body absorbs, uses and delivers those nutrients and calories.
What is FUEL QualityIt is important to try and limit the amount of processed foods you consume and make an effort to eat whole foods. Not only are whole foods (fruits/veggies/lean meats) going to be much more rich in vitamins and minerals (nutrient dense) but they are also generally very nutritionally balanced. Calorie dense foods (soda, cookies, chips, candy, etc.) are high in calories but offer very little in nutritional value. See the difference below.
What is FUEL Caloric IntakeA calorie is the measurement of how much energy a food provides you after you eat it. That energy is used by your body to fuel physical activity, as well as all metabolic processes. This energy is necessary to maintain your heartbeat, grow hair, mend broken bones, repair muscle fibers – essentially all processes it takes to live.
What is FUEL Pre/During/PostOne of the most vital pieces of a sound nutrition plan includes pre and post workout
nutrition. If you have ever “hit the wall” during practice or competition, or felt like your
body couldn’t do what you needed it to during a workout, you may need to look at your nutrition prior to these events. Without the right nutrients before intense work, the body
is already working at a disadvantage.
Post workout nutrition is equally important to refuel exhausted and broken down muscles. Having adequate amounts of hydration, protein and fast digesting carbohydrates (sugar) immediately after is what the body needs to limit the muscle break down that has occurred from training. This is the one time that having a sugary beverage or food is acceptable as
it is most likely to be used as fuel to replenish what your body has lost during training.
Your body has a small window (15-30 minutes) immediately after training where research
has shown increased absorption of nutrients will help the body recover quicker and repair
the muscles that you have just broken down. Let’s use this time wisely!
This is a culmination of the other areas to help you put together an eating routine that will optimize your performance. If you adhere to the recommendations in how to structure your daily intake of food, many of the items listed below will fall into place.