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Pre-game meal ideas -

Your body needs energy and fuel to burn. The right diet will boost your energy levels and stamina, and lower the amount of time it takes to recover after a game or tough workout.

The wrong diet will make you feel weak, heavy and absolutely drained. On gameday, your body needs energy that it can easily burn and convert into energy. That means you need complex carbohydrates , which use glycogen to fuel explosive and high-intensity movements like sprinting.

Complex carbohydrates also delay fatigue by helping your body regulate energy release over a full game. For stamina, your body also needs access to slower-burning fuel.

That means you should be eating healthy natural fats for your body to use as energy over longer periods of time, like a 60 or 90 minute soccer game. But for athletes, the 24 hours before a game are especially crucial.

Anything you eat during this time will directly impact the way you feel, and the way you play. Avoid processed foods, get lots of carbs and of course hydrate like crazy.

Dinner the night before a game is the most important meal during these 24 hours. This meal should be full of carbohydrates and lean protein, and should be easy to digest. One great idea are these amazing salmon and veggie rice bowls , which are easy to tweak and absolutely loaded up with vegetables.

A few other killer recipes that can boost recovery and optimize muscle gains can be found here , courtesy of FourFourTwo magazine. I can testify to the tastiness of the first recipe pesto pasta with chicken, asparagus and peas , and am keen to try the rest soon! You want to find that perfect balance where you eat enough to be full of energy, but not so much that you feel heavy or bloated.

Generally speaking, though, you want to eat your last meal hours before a game. Look for fast-burning carbohydrates, and avoid the fats and fibers that make you feel sluggish because they take so long to digest. For a game earlier in the day, your pregame meal could be a simple avocado toast , served with an egg scramble with lots of veggies!

Stephanie has a Master's Degree in Nutrition and is a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Skip to content.

Table of Contents. Tested and tried foods. Never try a new food before a race or competition. On those days, rely on tried and true foods and timing. Easily digested foods. As game time approaches, focus on easily digestible foods such as crackers, toast, bananas and yogurt.

Experiment to find the foods that work best for your body. Eat the right amount of food. Eating enough of the right food will help prevent hunger and low blood sugar during a game. Low blood sugar can cause fatigue. Eating too much food can cause stomach cramps, nausea or stomach distress.

High carbohydrate, moderate protein, and low fat. Carbohydrates digest faster than protein or fat. Eating some protein will help to stabilize blood sugar and prevent low blood sugar from affecting performance.

Avoid high fat, gas producing, and sugary foods. Join Date Sep Location. Posts 47, I usually do make your own sandwich bars with a salad and chips or other sides. We have some vegetarians and I pre-make about a dozen “fancy” grilled cheeses with ciabatta bread, pesto and fresh mozzarella.

I do them in the Foreman grill and try and serve them warm but they’re good even if you make them ahead. I do another with hummus, roasted red peppers and lettuce or baby spinach. Those get eaten but the cheese sandwich are the ones they love.

Eta- we handle our meals differently. You sign up to bring a meal just once during the season, on meet days we do them for swim team. Sometimes families go in together for 1 date based on how many swimmers we have. No one gets stuck coming up with multiple ideas or burden.

It works really well! Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains. bcafe View Profile View Forum Posts. Join Date Mar Posts 2, For Our last soccer meal granted it was JV only , I made build your own nachos. I had both chicken and ground beef, cheese sauce in the crockpot, beans, Mexican rice, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, and jalapeños.

Blue corn chips were the base. It was easy to set up in my kitchen and they ate it all, in fact I had to scramble for extra chips. We had cupcakes for dessert. mmsmom View Profile View Forum Posts.

Join Date Sep Posts 2, I have been through many iterations of this in public and private school. The 1 option is to see if the school cafeteria can provide meals- this will be the most economically friendly option and many public schools can accommodate.

Otherwise, my kids teams have collected set amounts for the season and do a combination of chains and local options. When I was in high school a long, long time ago, there were a few local restaurants that would provide pre game meals for soccer and football. I know they were paid for but they worked with school on timing and discounts.

Kestrel View Profile View Forum Posts. Join Date Jun Posts 2, How about pancakes? Then, you could do a topping bar -different syrups, plus nutella, peanut butter, jam, berries, whip cream?

Waffles would work, too, but pancakes are easier to do in bulk. MSWR View Profile View Forum Posts. Join Date Jun Posts 7, Following for ideas, I'll have to contribute to one meal this season also.

Although we only do about meals, not every game. The other games they get snacks from the snack tote we all contributed to. So far we've had two meals. One they had pulled pork sandwiches and the other meal was pizza.

Pre-gam, researcher Pre-hame soccer coach. Devotee of The Beautiful Game. Pre-game meal ideas learner and community-building advocate. But Prr-game often than not, it comes down to ieas nutrition. Your body needs energy and fuel to burn. The right diet will boost your energy levels and stamina, and lower the amount of time it takes to recover after a game or tough workout. The wrong diet will make you feel weak, heavy and absolutely drained. Sign up for our Pre-ame newsletter to receive updates on how jdeas can Pre-game meal ideas support our mission, invitations to community events, Cancer prevention for minority populations latest news and education from our idwas and Weight loss journey much more. Skip to main content Toggle navigation ×. Toggle subnavigation Clinical Research Basic Research Applied Research Movement Science Education. Toggle subnavigation Crayon Club 1 The W. Schedule Appointment. A poor pre-game meal can leave the athlete tired, dehydrated or with stomach pains and cramping during the event. An athlete after a well-planned pre-game meal is energized, focused and sharp.

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SIMPLE Food Schedule for Athletes! (WHAT TO EAT AND WHEN TO EAT IT)